Montana transfer tax: none, but a price form applies

Is there a state transfer tax?

No. Title 15 of the Montana Code Annotated (2025 edition) lists its chapters: tax administration, property appraisal and assessment, property tax levies, income taxes and many other specific taxes. None covers a tax on deeds or on the transfer of real estate. The Montana Department of Revenue also states that Montana has no general-use sales tax, so a home purchase carries no sales tax either.

The statute that does apply at transfer is the Realty Transfer Act (MCA 15-7-301 and following). Its stated purpose is “to obtain sales price data” so the state can check assessment levels (MCA 15-7-302). It collects information, not money.

What is the realty transfer certificate?

Before the county clerk and recorder accepts a deed, the parties or their agents must complete a certificate declaring the consideration paid or to be paid (MCA 15-7-305). The Department of Revenue prescribes the form. The clerk sends each certificate to the department.

Two points matter to a buyer or seller:

• It is not a tax. The Act sets no rate and no payment.
• The price is confidential. The certificate is not a public record and the clerk and the department must keep it confidential (MCA 15-7-308), although the department may use compiled sales data to value homes.

The statute lists transfers that need not disclose the price, including gifts, transfers on death in a decedent’s estate, transfers by court decree, sheriff’s sales and certain transfers between spouses or between parent and child for nominal consideration (MCA 15-7-307). Those transfers still use the certificate, only without the price.

Do counties or cities add a transfer tax?

The state sets none, and I found no local transfer tax in the sources I read for Yellowstone County and Billings. If you want to be sure for a specific address, ask the Yellowstone County Clerk and Recorder before closing.

What you do pay: recording fees

Recording is the cost that replaces a transfer tax. When a county records a document by a photographic or similar process, the usual way counties record documents, the clerk and recorder charges $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page (MCA 7-4-2632, 2025 edition). The deed and the lender’s security instrument are recorded separately, so each has its own page count.

Copies are cheap. Yellowstone County says a copy of a recorded document costs $0.50 for the first page and $0.25 for each additional page, and warns owners about out-of-state companies that invoice for copies of deeds at much higher prices.

Worked example

This is an example, not a quote. A home sells for $400,000 in Billings. The deed is 3 pages and the lender’s deed of trust is 15 pages (both page counts assumed).

In a state with a transfer tax of 0.5%, the same sale would add $2,000. In Montana the recording lines are the only government charges tied to the transfer itself. Who pays them is a matter for the purchase agreement; the sources I read do not assign them. For the other costs of a purchase, see closing costs in Montana and the guide on closing costs explained. For ownership costs afterward, see Montana property tax.