Three taxes on one closing, and who pays each.

The facts, in one place.

Six quotable sentences on the Illinois real estate transfer tax, 2026.

1. Illinois charges a transfer tax when a deed is recorded: 50 cents for every $500 of the price, or any part of $500, so $1 on each $1,000 (35 ILCS 200/31-10). Every county adds 25 cents per $500, another 50 cents per $1,000 (55 ILCS 5/5-1031).
2. Neither the state nor the county law says who pays. By custom the seller pays both, through stamps the county recorder sells, and a contract can shift them.
3. Only a home rule municipality can add its own transfer tax, and only after a referendum that states the rate and who pays (65 ILCS 5/8-3-19). 72 Illinois municipalities levy one, at rates from $0.50 to $10 per $1,000 and a few flat fees; 200 more Chicago-area towns are confirmed as charging none.
4. Chicago's is the largest in dollars: $3.75 per $500 from the buyer, the city portion, and $1.50 per $500 from the seller, the CTA portion. On a $500,000 home that is $3,750 from the buyer and $1,500 from the seller, on top of $750 of state and county tax.
5. The same $500,000 sale in Naperville costs the buyer $1,500 in village tax; in Oak Park the seller pays $4,000; in a village with no transfer tax the only cost is the $750 the seller pays the state and county.
6. The tax is figured on the price in the transfer declaration, the PTAX-203 or its online MyDec form, which a seller and a buyer both sign. Transfers for less than $100, deeds that secure or release a debt, tax deeds, and deeds to a lender in foreclosure are exempt (35 ILCS 200/31-45).

The municipal rates.

Every municipal transfer tax on the list, its rate, the party the ordinance makes liable, and the page it was read from. The state's $0.50 and the county's $0.25 per $500 apply everywhere.

Each town's name links to the page its row was read from: the ordinance itself where we read it, otherwise that town's entry in the Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund ordinance database, which confirmed its rows with the municipalities in March 2025. The last column is the date the row was checked. Rates change by referendum, so a closing should rest on the village's own page.

A further 200 towns charge nothing of their own. 122 come from the same database, some of which still require a stamp, an inspection, or a paid water bill before a deed is recorded. The other 78 are home rule towns read one by one against their own ordinances on September 19, 2026, because a home rule town can adopt the tax at any time. The calculator names each of them, with the date its zero was checked and a link to the page it was read from. Every other Illinois municipality is on the calculator's list from the Census Bureau's place file. A town without home rule on the Illinois Municipal League's list (as of May 21, 2026) shows zero, because only a home rule municipality may adopt the tax; the 13 home rule towns the ordinance database does not cover show the state and county tax only, with a note to check the city.

How the tax works.

The tax is on the privilege of transferring title, and it is figured on the value the parties state in the transfer declaration that accompanies the deed. The state takes 50 cents for each $500 of that value or any part of it, so a price one dollar over a $500 step pays the whole step. Every county takes 25 cents on the same base. Both are collected by the county recorder, who will not record the deed without the stamps, and neither law names a payer; the seller pays by long custom, and the contract can say otherwise.

A municipality can add a third layer only if it has home rule powers and its voters approved the tax, or any increase, in a referendum that stated the rate and who pays. That is why the map is a patchwork: 72 towns levy one, most at a few dollars per $1,000, some from the buyer and some from the seller, a few split, and Chicago with a portion on each side. Each town writes its own rounding rule and its own exemptions, and issues its own stamp, usually after the final water bill is paid.

Methodology.

1. Inputs. The price and the municipality the property sits in.
2. State and county. The price divided into $500 units, any part of a unit counting as a whole (35 ILCS 200/31-10; 55 ILCS 5/5-1031), times 50 cents and 25 cents. Assigned to the seller as the customary payer.
3. The municipality. The rate, the unit, the rounding of the price, any minimum, and the party liable as the ordinance database states them; Chicago's two portions each on $500 units of the price or any part of it; tiered towns at the rate of the bracket the whole price falls in. A town the database confirmed as charging none, or a town without home rule, is zero; a home rule town outside the database is shown as not covered rather than guessed. One exception is on record: River Forest levies a tax without current home rule, so "no home rule" means a town cannot adopt one now, not that none was ever adopted.
4. Validation. Chicago at $500,000, a price one dollar over a $500 step, Evanston at and above its first tier, Naperville's and Oak Park's rounding, a split town, Calumet City's second tier, Lake Forest's rounding of the tax, a minimum, a flat fee, and every row producing a tax on a $400,000 sale. A transcription error fails the build.
5. Not modeled. A mortgage the buyer assumes (left out of the base when the deed says so), the statutory exemptions, each town's own exemptions and refunds, the stamps, inspections, and administrative fees charged beside the tax, and any change a village adopted after the database's confirmation. Educational, not advice.

Sources.

1. 1. Illinois General Assembly, 35 ILCS 200/31-10 — Imposition of tax. The state rate: 50 cents for each $500 of value, or fraction of $500, stated in the transfer declaration; and that a mortgage the property stays subject to is left out of the base. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
2. 2. Illinois Department of Revenue, Tax rates: other taxes — Real Estate Transfer Tax. The Department's own statement of the state rate: $0.50 for each $500 of value or fraction thereof. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
3. 3. Illinois Department of Revenue, Real Estate Transfer Tax — definition, rate, and local taxes. That the county recorder collects the state tax through revenue stamps, that counties may impose 25 cents per $500, and that home rule municipalities may impose an additional transfer tax. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
4. 4. Illinois General Assembly, 35 ILCS 200/31-25 — Transfer declaration. That the declaration signed by a seller and a buyer states the value the tax is figured on, and that a deed is not recorded without it. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
5. 5. Illinois General Assembly, 35 ILCS 200/31-45 — Exemptions. The transfers exempt from the state tax, among them deeds where the actual consideration is less than $100, deeds that secure or release a debt, tax deeds, deeds of partition, and deeds to a lender in or in lieu of foreclosure. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
6. 6. Illinois General Assembly, 55 ILCS 5/5-1031 — County real estate transfer tax. That a county board may impose 25 cents for each $500 of value or fraction thereof, collected by the recorder before recording, with the same exemptions as the state tax. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
7. 7. Illinois General Assembly, 65 ILCS 5/8-3-19 — Home rule real estate transfer taxes. That only a home rule municipality may impose or increase a real estate transfer tax, and only after a public hearing and a referendum that names the rate and the party who pays. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
8. 8. City of Chicago, Department of Finance, Real Property Transfer Tax (7551). Chicago's rate: $3.75 per $500 of the transfer price or fraction thereof (the city portion, the buyer's), plus $1.50 per $500 (the CTA portion, the seller's) since April 1, 2008; the exemptions; and the CTA-portion refund for a buyer 65 or older paying $250,000 or less who lives in the home for a year (Municipal Code of Chicago 3-33). Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
9. 9. U.S. Census Bureau, TIGER/Line Shapefiles 2024 — Place, Illinois. The list of every incorporated Illinois municipality (city, village, town) the calculator knows, so any town resolves. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
10. 10. Illinois Municipal League, Home Rule Municipalities (as of May 21, 2026). Which 224 municipalities hold home rule; a town not on the list cannot adopt a transfer tax under 65 ILCS 5/8-3-19, so its municipal line is zero. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.
11. 11. Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund, Inc., Real Estate Transfer Ordinances — all municipalities. Every municipal row, taxed or confirmed as none: the rate, the unit, the rounding, any minimum, the party liable, and the ordinance cited, as confirmed with the municipalities in March 2025 and dated per row by the database's last update. Retrieved September 19, 2026; verified September 19, 2026.

Revision history.

The record's history.

September 19, 2026

First release: the state and county rates from the statutes, Chicago's two portions from the city, 72 municipal rates, payers, and rounding rules and 122 towns confirmed as charging none from the ATG ordinance database confirmed March 2025, 78 more home rule towns checked by hand against their own codes and tax pages, every Illinois municipality from the Census place file, and the Municipal League's home rule list, so a town that cannot adopt the tax shows zero.

Canonical address: https://consideratecapital.com/tools/illinois-real-estate-transfer-tax