Good question – since it amounts to HUNDRED$ of DOLLARS per mortgage transaction and it’s rolled into Georgia’s General Budget, nobody knows.
What is it?
Each time a real estate property (house, land, condo, etc) is purchased (not refinanced) with a mortgage, the Buyer is charged a fee at closing and the mortgage is filed/recorded in the public county real estate records where it is located in Georgia.
The fee is calculated by multiplying $1.50 by each $500 (or equivalent) of mortgage amount. For example, in the mortgage amount is $100,200, then divide it by 500 and you get 200.4 – round up to 205 and multiply by $1.50 and you get $301.50 Intangibles Tax.
The total proceeds are distributed to several State and local tax jurisdictions within the counties where the money is collected.
The total collected by each jurisdiction depends on the county’s millage rate multiplied by the standard state rate of 0.25.
It is unknown as of this writing how much Intangibles Tax collected each year in Georgia, but the most recent amount I’ve seen is 2002 number where the State of Georgia collected about $1.75 million. I’m sure there has been at least that much collected each year over the years…but somehow those numbers are hard to find – lack of transparency based on such a small portion of everyone’s budget I guess.
How much intangible tax should Georgia collect?
Source: Intangible Recording Tax information by the State of Georgia.