Does Kansas charge a real estate transfer tax?

No. Kansas is one of a handful of states with no real estate transfer tax, documentary stamp tax, or deed tax on the sale of property. A deed transferring Kansas real estate carries no percentage-based state or county transfer tax.

What about the old Kansas mortgage registration tax?

Kansas previously charged a mortgage registration tax of 0.26% of the loan amount, but it was fully phased out and eliminated as of January 1, 2019. Today there is no mortgage registration tax in Kansas.

So what do I actually pay to record a deed?

You pay a county register of deeds recording fee, which is a flat per-document plus per-page charge — typically around $21 for the first page and $17 for each additional page. The exact amounts are set by statute and are far smaller than a percentage transfer tax.

Are recording fees the same in every Kansas county?

The base recording fee schedule is set by state law and is consistent statewide, though a county may add small technology or archive surcharges. This calculator uses the standard statutory per-page schedule as an estimate.

Does the buyer or seller pay the recording fee?

It is negotiable and set out in the purchase agreement, but the buyer most commonly pays the deed recording fee in Kansas. Because the amount is small, it rarely becomes a point of contention at closing.

Kansas Real Estate Transfer Tax Calculator

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Transfer tax in Kansas: there isn’t one

If you are buying or selling a home in Kansas, here is good news: Kansas charges no real estate transfer tax, no documentary stamp tax, and no deed tax. Many states take a percentage of every sale price at closing; Kansas does not. The old mortgage registration tax was also eliminated on January 1, 2019. This calculator confirms the zero transfer tax and estimates the one real cost — the county deed recording fee.

How it works

transfer tax        = $0   (Kansas has no transfer tax)
mortgage reg. tax   = $0   (repealed 2019)
recording fee       = first-page fee + (additional pages x per-page fee)
                    ≈ $21 first page + $17 each extra page

The recording fee is a flat, statutory charge — it does not scale with the sale price. A $200,000 home and a $2,000,000 home pay the same recording fee for an identically sized deed.

Example and notes

You buy a $350,000 house and the deed is 3 pages. Kansas transfer tax is $0. The recording fee is roughly $21 for the first page plus $34 for the two extra pages — about $55 total. That is the entire government cost of transferring title, a fraction of what a percentage-based transfer tax would charge.

Recording fees are set by statute and are consistent statewide, though individual counties may add small surcharges. Confirm the exact fee with the county register of deeds where the property sits before closing.