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SB0986 • 2026

Taxes, Real Property

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 67-4-409, relative to transfers of realty.

Taxes
Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
Southerland
Last action
2025-02-12
Official status
Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate State and Local Government Committee
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide information on what happens to the remaining half of recordation taxes or how this change will impact local government budgets and services, so these points remain speculative.

Act to Return Half of Recordation Taxes to Counties

This act requires that half of the recordation taxes collected from real estate transactions be returned to the county where the property is located.

What This Bill Does

  • Changes Tennessee law so that fifty percent of recordation tax revenue must go back to the county where the real property transfer happens.
  • Applies this change starting July 1, 2025, for all future real estate transfers.

Who It Names or Affects

  • Counties in Tennessee that collect recordation taxes from property transfers.
  • People or companies buying or selling real estate in Tennessee.

Terms To Know

Recordation tax
A tax charged when a deed is recorded, which happens during the process of transferring ownership of real property.

Limits and Unknowns

  • The act does not specify what happens to the other half of the recordation taxes.
  • It's unclear how this change will affect local government budgets and services.

Bill History

  1. Date Tennessee General Assembly

  2. 2025-02-12 Tennessee General Assembly

    Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate State and Local Government Committee

  3. 2025-02-10 Tennessee General Assembly

    Introduced, Passed on First Consideration

  4. 2025-02-05 Tennessee General Assembly

    Filed for introduction

Official Summary Text

Abstract summarizes the bill.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
<BillNo> <Sponsor>

SENATE BILL 986
By Southerland

SB0986
001752
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Section
67-4-409, relative to transfers of realty.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 67-4-409(d), is amended by adding
the following new subdivision:
(4) Notwithstanding another law and except for commissions and fees retained
as otherwise provided in subdivisions (d)(2) and (3), and except for the credit of realty
transfer tax revenues to specific accounts or funds in accordance with subsections (g),
(i), (j), (l), and (m), the department shall remit back to each county, respectively, fifty
percent (50%) of the recordation taxes on the transfer of realty levied under subsection
(a) that are collected by county registers and remitted to the department, based on the
total amount of such taxes remitted to the department by county.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect July 1, 2025, and applies to transfers of real property
on or after such date, the public welfare requiring it.