A residential sale in New York City passes through 9 tax thresholds between $500,000 and $25 million, and every one of them applies its rate to the whole price rather than to the part above the line. At $10,000,000 that produces the sharpest edge in the system: a sale at $9,999,999 carries $432,500 of transfer tax and a sale one dollar higher carries $532,500. One dollar of price costs $100,000 of tax.
How this was computed
Five separate taxes apply to an expensive residential sale in New York City, levied by two different governments. The city rate is published by New York City’s Department of Finance. The state base tax and the mansion tax are published by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The supplemental rate schedule is in Form TP-584-NYC-I, at page seven of the instructions. All three were read on 9 August 2026 and the schedules are reproduced below rather than summarized, so the arithmetic can be checked against the source.
Not one of these is a top-slice tax, and that single structural fact produces everything odd in the numbers below. British income tax and American federal income tax both work in slices: a higher rate applies only to the part of the amount above the threshold. Every New York transfer tax here applies its rate to the entire consideration instead. Crossing a threshold therefore re-prices the whole sale rather than the part above the line.
The five taxes on a New York City sale
| Tax | Rate | Applies when | Who the statute says pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York State base tax | $2 per $500 of consideration | Consideration over $500 | Seller |
| New York City Real Property Transfer Tax | 1% or 1.425% | 1.425% above $500,000 | Seller |
| New York State additional base tax | $1.25 per $500 | Residential at $3 million or more | Seller |
| New York State mansion tax | 1% of the sale price | Residential at $1 million or more | Buyer |
| New York State supplemental tax | 0.25% to 2.9% | New York City residential at $2 million or more | Buyer |
The supplemental schedule, which is where the steps are
| Entire conveyance amount | Supplemental rate | Tax at the bottom of the band |
|---|---|---|
| $2,000,000 to $2,999,999 | 0.25% | $5,000 |
| $3,000,000 to $4,999,999 | 0.5% | $15,000 |
| $5,000,000 to $9,999,999 | 1.25% | $62,500 |
| $10,000,000 to $14,999,999 | 2.25% | $225,000 |
| $15,000,000 to $19,999,999 | 2.5% | $375,000 |
| $20,000,000 to $24,999,999 | 2.75% | $550,000 |
| $25,000,000 and above | 2.9% | $725,000 |
Every threshold, and what a dollar costs at it
| Threshold | Total tax just below | Total tax at or above | Cost of one more dollar | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $7,000 | $9,127 | $2,127 | 1.40% to 1.83% |
| $1,000,000 | $18,250 | $28,250 | $10,000 | 1.83% to 2.83% |
| $2,000,000 | $56,500 | $61,500 | $5,000 | 2.83% to 3.08% |
| $3,000,000 | $92,250 | $107,250 | $15,000 | 3.08% to 3.57% |
| $5,000,000 | $178,750 | $216,250 | $37,500 | 3.58% to 4.32% |
| $10,000,000 | $432,500 | $532,500 | $100,000 | 4.33% to 5.33% |
| $15,000,000 | $798,750 | $836,250 | $37,500 | 5.33% to 5.58% |
| $20,000,000 | $1,115,000 | $1,165,000 | $50,000 | 5.58% to 5.83% |
| $25,000,000 | $1,456,250 | $1,493,750 | $37,500 | 5.83% to 5.97% |
The $10,000,000 threshold is the expensive one
The supplemental rate goes from 1.25 percent to 2.25 percent at $10,000,000, and because it is charged on the whole price the bill moves from $432,500 to $532,500. A seller asking $10,000,000 and a seller asking $9,999,999 are, in the eyes of this tax system, a long way apart. Every published transaction at a round ten million dollars in New York City carries $100,000 of tax that a sale a dollar below would not.
The mansion tax produces the same effect lower down. At $1,000,000 the total goes from $18,250 to $28,250, so the first dollar over a million costs $10,000. A million dollars is not a mansion in New York City by any current measure: the top third of Manhattan’s housing stock was valued at $3,101,242 in June 2026, so a tax named for mansions now starts well below the middle of the expensive end of the borough.
What the total actually comes to, by price
| Sale price | Seller pays | Buyer pays | Total | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000,000 | $18,250 | $10,000 | $28,250 | 2.83% |
| $2,000,000 | $36,500 | $25,000 | $61,500 | 3.08% |
| $3,000,000 | $62,250 | $45,000 | $107,250 | 3.57% |
| $5,000,000 | $103,750 | $112,500 | $216,250 | 4.32% |
| $10,000,000 | $207,500 | $325,000 | $532,500 | 5.33% |
| $15,000,000 | $311,250 | $525,000 | $836,250 | 5.58% |
| $20,000,000 | $415,000 | $750,000 | $1,165,000 | 5.83% |
| $25,000,000 | $518,750 | $975,000 | $1,493,750 | 5.97% |
| $50,000,000 | $1,037,500 | $1,950,000 | $2,987,500 | 5.97% |
What this does not cover
It covers the transfer taxes on the deed and nothing else. Title insurance, recording fees, the New York City mortgage recording tax on a financed purchase and the annual property tax are all separate and none appears above. The figures also assume a residential sale of a house or an apartment; New York City taxes commercial transfers at 2.625 percent above $500,000 rather than 1.425 percent, and the state supplemental tax does not apply to them at all. A sale under a binding written contract entered into on or before 1 April 2019 is outside the 2019 taxes entirely.
The effective rate at the bottom of this table is 1.40 percent and at the top it is 5.97 percent, so the system is progressive in aggregate even though every individual rate inside it is flat. That is worth stating plainly, because a notch table can be read as though the tax were arbitrary. It is not arbitrary. It is progressive by cliff edge rather than by slice, and the cliff edges are the cost of building it that way.
This piece is part of our property reference, What an American House Costs: Zillow’s Own Index, by Metro, County and Tier, which sets out the method and collects every figure we have published on the subject. Also in it: Nine of the Ten Most Expensive Counties in America Are Resort Towns. Manhattan Is Ninth., No US Resort County in the National Top 20 Lost Value. Eleven Below It Did., The Top Third of US Housing Lagged the Bottom in 65% of Metros. In the Biggest 25, It Led., The Same $10 Million House Costs $532,500 to Transfer in New York and $70,000 in Florida..
Sources
The New York City Real Property Transfer Tax rate was read from the Department of Finance page at nyc.gov on 9 August 2026. The New York State base tax of two dollars per five hundred, the additional base tax of one dollar twenty-five per five hundred and the one percent mansion tax on residences at a million dollars or more were read the same day from tax.ny.gov. The supplemental rate schedule running from 0.25 percent to 2.9 percent was read from Form TP-584-NYC-I, revision 8/25, page seven.
Every figure in this article that is not one of those published rates is our own arithmetic on them, and the rounding follows the statutes: a tax stated per five hundred dollars of consideration counts fractional parts as whole units. This publication has no interest in any New York transaction and sells nothing connected to one. Nothing here is tax advice, and a real closing statement will differ from these figures wherever a contract reassigns who pays.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the mansion tax in New York?
One percent of the entire sale price on any New York residence at $1 million or more, published by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and read on 9 August 2026. Inside New York City a separate supplemental tax runs from 0.25 percent at $2 million to 2.9 percent at $25 million, also on the entire price. On a $10 million apartment those two together come to $325,000, which is what the buyer owes before the seller’s taxes are counted.
What is the total transfer tax on a $10 million apartment in New York City?
$532,500, or 5.33 percent of the price, computed from the published city and state rates on 9 August 2026. The statutes put $207,500 of that on the seller and $325,000 on the buyer. One dollar less on the price would reduce the total to $432,500.
Does New York City have a pied-a-terre tax?
No. A pied-a-terre tax has been proposed in Albany more than once and has never been enacted, and no such tax appears on the New York State transfer tax page or in Form TP-584-NYC-I as read on 9 August 2026. What does exist, and what is often confused with it, is the 2019 supplemental tax on New York City residential sales at $2 million or more, which applies regardless of whether the buyer lives there.
Why does one dollar of price cost so much tax at $10 million?
Because the supplemental rate is charged on the entire consideration rather than on the amount above the threshold. At $9,999,999 the rate is 1.25 percent of the whole price and at $10,000,000 it is 2.25 percent of the whole price, which moves the total bill from $432,500 to $532,500, a difference of $100,000. Every threshold in the New York system behaves this way, which is why the effective rate on a New York City sale climbs from 1.40 percent at $500,000 to 5.97 percent at $50 million without any single rate inside it being progressive. The same structure appears in British stamp duty on a 10 million pound house, where the two surcharges are also flat percentages of the whole price rather than top slices, and it is the reason both systems produce prices that transactions cluster below. All rates were read on 9 August 2026.