Arkansas Real Estate Transfer Tax: Calculation, Exemptions, and Stamps

The Arkansas real estate transfer tax is $3.30 for every $1,000 of the actual sale price whenever real property changes hands for more than $100. On a $200,000 home, that comes to $660. The tax is paid by attaching documentary stamps to the deed before the county recorder will accept it, and Arkansas law puts the responsibility for that paperwork on the grantee (the buyer) or the grantee’s agent, though the parties can negotiate who ultimately absorbs the cost in the purchase contract.¹²

How to Calculate the Tax

Divide the sale price by $1,000, then multiply by $3.30. A $325,000 sale produces $325 × $3.30 = $1,072.50. If the consideration is $100 or less, no tax is due.¹

“Consideration” means the full actual price paid or to be paid for the property. It is not the county’s assessed value and not an appraisal figure.³ Understating the price on the affidavit to reduce the stamp amount is a false statement made under oath, not a rounding decision.

Transfers That Are Exempt

Arkansas Code 26-60-102 lists twelve categories of transfers that carry no tax. The ones that come up most often at a closing table:

Deeds to or from the United States, the State of Arkansas, or any of their agencies or political subdivisions.
Instruments given solely to secure a debt, such as a mortgage or deed of trust.
A deed that corrects or replaces a previously recorded instrument on which the full tax was already paid.
A deed from one spouse to the other in a divorce or separate-maintenance action, by agreement or by court order.
Deeds between corporations, partnerships, LLCs, or other entities (or between an entity and its owners) tied to formation, reorganization, merger, consolidation, or liquidation.
A beneficiary deed that transfers property at the owner’s death under Arkansas’s beneficiary-deed statute.
A deed for an FHA, VA, or USDA Rural Development-financed home when the sale price is $60,000 or less and the buyer certifies they have not owned a home in the past three years.
A deed conveying land sold for delinquent taxes.
An instrument conveying only a leasehold interest.
A timber deed granting the right to remove timber for no more than 24 months.
A deed issued through a judicial or nonjudicial proceeding to enforce a security interest, or a deed given to a secured party to avoid such a proceeding.

The full list is at Arkansas Code 26-60-102.⁴ One category people expect to find and don’t: gifts between family members. A parent deeding property to an adult child is not exempt. If the deed recites consideration above $100, the tax applies.

The Affidavit and Stamps at Recording

Every taxable transfer must be accompanied by a Real Property Transfer Tax Affidavit of Compliance. The affidavit lists the grantor and grantee names and addresses, the date on the deed, the county, the full consideration, and the value of the documentary stamps attached to the deed.⁵

Exempt transfers still need the affidavit unless the exemption is obvious from the face of the deed. If the recorder has any doubt, they must require the affidavit or a separate written certification that explains the exemption in full before recording the deed.² Vague exemption claims are the usual reason a deed gets held up at the counter.

The stamps go on the face of the deed, positioned so they remain fully visible when the recorder reproduces the document. Once the recorder confirms the affidavit is complete and the stamps match the stated consideration, they file-stamp the affidavit and note the book and page or instrument number.²

Penalties for Underpayment or False Statements

Knowingly and fraudulently recording a deed without proper tax payment carries a fine of $500 or one percent of the transaction amount, whichever is greater, on top of any other penalties available under law.⁶ On a $400,000 sale, the one-percent floor is $4,000.

The affidavit is signed under penalty of false swearing. Providing false information, failing to disclose the full consideration, or making a false certification pulls in Arkansas’s general tax-fraud penalties as well, which turns an understated sale price into criminal exposure rather than a tax dispute.⁶

Federal 1099-S Reporting Is Separate

The state transfer tax is one obligation; federal reporting on the sale is another. The closing agent must file IRS Form 1099-S reporting gross proceeds whenever the total consideration is $600 or more, covering sales of land, buildings, condominiums, and cooperative housing stock.⁷

A seller of a principal residence can avoid the 1099-S filing if the gain qualifies for the Section 121 exclusion ($250,000 for a single filer, $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly) and the seller signs a gain-exclusion certification. If the certification is not signed by January 31 of the year after the sale, the closing agent must issue the form anyway.⁷ Signing the certification at the closing table, when it applies, is the simplest way to keep the form from arriving in the mail months later.

1
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Miscellaneous Tax Descriptions
2
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-60-107 – Real Property Transfer Tax Affidavit of Compliance Form
3
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-60-101 – Definition
4
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-60-102 – Transfers to Which Chapter Not Applicable
5
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Real Property Transfer Tax Affidavit of Compliance Form
6
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-60-111 – Filing Deed in Violation
7
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-S (04/2025)