Transfer Tax

The norm in a resale transaction is that the seller pays the transfer taxes, except for the so-called Mansion Tax (the 1% surcharge on transactions over $1MM), which is usually paid by the buyer.

Of course, everything is negotiable. It's not unheard-of for the seller to pay the Mansion Tax.

agree with west81st. When a person sells the apartment the transfer taxes are there expense, if someone is telling you otherwise it is because they are trying to actually make more money on the sale of the apartment.

The only time when transfer taxes are charged to the buyer is when you buy a new apartment from a sponsor and even that is negotiable.

sponsors traditionally do not pay transfer taxes though... but as they said, everything is negotiable.

As a buyer of a non-sponsor condo, you should not expect to pay this tax.

As others have said - the general rule is that the seller pays the transfer tax. Sponsor's (those selling brand new condos) try to get buyers to pay this. When the econonomy is good, they are fairly successful in pushing this off on buyers. I've looked at at large number of new condos and well over half have indicated without me doing anything other than asking that they sometimes pay the transfer tax. It's all part of the package - how much off asking price, payment of transfer taxes, etc. Some sponsors will even pay the mansion tax. Again, it all depends on what you can negotiate and how despareate the sponsor is to sell the place.

Everything is negotiable.