Who Pays Real Estate Transfer Tax When Selling a House in New Hampshire

Most sellers in New Hampshire get a closing statement and see a line item they weren’t expecting. Not the agent commission, not the title fees. The transfer tax. It’s sitting right there, quietly pulling a few thousand dollars off your net proceeds, and a lot of people have no idea it was coming. If you’re thinking about selling your house in New Hampshire in 2026, you need a clear picture of every dollar leaving the table, from transfer taxes to capital gains, caveat emptor rules to closing costs. At IPS Cash, we help homeowners understand these expenses upfront, so there are no surprises at closing.

Why Your Sale Price Sets Your Tax Bill

Every tax on this page comes off your sale price. The transfer tax is 0.75% of it. Your capital gain is the sale price minus what you put into the house. So what your property is worth in your corner of the state sets both numbers.

Prices are high right now. The New Hampshire Association of Realtors reported a record median of $580,000 for a single-family home in July 2026. At that price, the seller’s half of the transfer tax comes to $4,350. Back in May 2021, when the state median first crossed $400,000, that same line item would have been $3,000.

Where you sell still matters. Nashua and Manchester move faster and price higher than the North Country or the Connecticut River Valley. Portsmouth, Exeter, and Hampton pull Massachusetts buyers who pay a premium to stay near Boston. Laconia and Meredith run on second-home buyers, which makes the Lakes Region seasonal. Two similar houses, one on the Seacoast and one up north, can differ by several thousand dollars in transfer tax alone.

New Hampshire Real Estate Transfer Tax: What Sellers Owe

New Hampshire’s transfer tax is imposed on both the buyer and the seller at a rate of $0.75 per $100 of the sale price. Combined, that’s $1.50 per $100, or 1.5% of the total transaction. Each side pays its own $0.75. On a $500,000 sale, the total tax comes to $7,500, meaning half from the seller and half from the buyer, so you would owe $3,750 at closing.

New Hampshire carries one of the highest transfer tax rates in the country at 1.5%. That’s a notable line item in a market where the statewide median hit a record $580,000 in July 2026. Having no income tax on wages and no general sales tax, the state relies on the transfer tax as one of the ways revenue flows to it from real estate activity.

At closing, the tax gets paid through the title company or closing attorney. You won’t write a separate check. It comes off your proceeds automatically, same line as your mortgage payoff and commission. Most sellers see it for the first time on their closing disclosure and don’t realize it’s been the law for decades under RSA 78-B.

One negotiating note, and the distinction matters. RSA 78-B makes each side liable for its own $0.75 per $100, and a contract cannot move that liability. What a contract can do is shift who reimburses whom. Buyer and seller can agree that one side covers the other’s share, which shows up as a credit at closing rather than a change to the tax itself. That rarely happens in a seller’s market, but in a slower transaction or a cash sale, it’s worth knowing the option exists.

Who Pays Taxes When You Sell a House in New Hampshire

Beyond the transfer tax, you’re also potentially looking at federal capital gains tax, prorated property taxes for the portion of the year you owned the home, and any outstanding balances your town has on record.

New Hampshire has no state income tax on wages and no state-level capital gains tax. That’s genuinely good news for sellers. Your capital gains exposure is federal only. New Hampshire used to tax interest and dividend income under a separate system, but that tax was repealed effective January 1, 2025, so the state no longer taxes personal income of any kind.

Property taxes are prorated at closing, and New Hampshire’s tax year runs from April 1 through March 31 rather than January through December. Close in mid-September and you cover roughly five and a half months of that tax year, with the buyer picking up the rest. New Hampshire’s effective property tax rate averages around 1.8% of a home’s assessed value, which runs above the national average. On a $500,000 home, that works out to roughly $9,000 a year, so the prorated amount at closing can be a real number.

Agent commissions come off the seller’s proceeds, too. Most real estate broker arrangements in New Hampshire still reflect the traditional structure, though post-NAR settlement changes in 2024 shifted some of how buyer’s agent compensation gets handled. If you’re selling through an agent, get the commission structure in writing before you sign the listing agreement.

Selling directly to cash home buyers in New Hampshire eliminates the commission line entirely. For some sellers, that difference more than offsets any price gap between a retail listing and a direct sale.

New Hampshire Capital Gains Tax Rules for Home Sellers

The IRS gives homeowners a significant exclusion on profits from selling a primary residence. Single filers can exclude up to $250,000 in profit from federal capital gains tax. A married couple filing jointly gets double the exclusion (one of the better tax breaks in real estate). To qualify, you must have owned the home and lived in it as your primary residence for at least two of the five years before the sale.

Your taxable profit isn’t just the sale price minus your original purchase price. You can add permanent improvements, selling costs, and certain other expenses to your cost basis, which lowers the taxable gain. Keeping documentation of every roof, addition, or HVAC system you’ve ever put into the house pays off when you eventually sell (receipts from permits count too).

If your profit exceeds those thresholds, the federal capital gains tax rate depends on your total household income. Long-term gains, from properties held over a year, are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on your income bracket. High earners may also owe an additional 3.8% net investment income tax on top of that. For most middle-class New Hampshire sellers, the $250,000 single or $500,000 joint exclusion wipes out the full liability, which is what we see with most of the homeowners we work with.

Ways to Reduce or Avoid Capital Gains Tax on a New Hampshire Home Sale

Inherited properties get a stepped-up cost basis, meaning the IRS resets your basis to the home’s fair market value on the date of inheritance, not the original purchase price. That alone can eliminate most or all of a taxable gain on an inherited property (even on a home that appreciated for decades), regardless of how long you live there afterward.

For sellers who don’t meet the two-year residency requirement, partial exclusions are available if the sale was triggered by a job change, a health event, or other qualifying unforeseen circumstances as defined by IRS Publication 523. Your exclusion gets prorated based on how long you lived there.

A 1031 exchange is another tool, though it applies to investment properties rather than primary residences. If you’re selling a rental property or a second home in New Hampshire, rolling the proceeds into a like-kind property defers your capital gains tax. Rules are strict on timelines for identifying a replacement, so get a qualified intermediary involved early, not after you’ve already accepted an offer.

Timing the sale to a lower-income year can also reduce what you owe. If you’re retiring or transitioning jobs and expect your income to drop, selling in that lower-income year could push your gain into the 0% federal capital gains bracket. That’s not always practical, but it’s worth running the numbers with a tax professional before you list.

How the Caveat Emptor Disclosure Law Affects Home Sales in New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a caveat emptor state, which is Latin for “buyer beware.” There’s no general disclosure form here listing every known defect, the way most states require. Much of the duty to inspect and investigate sits with the buyer. Specific written disclosures are still required, though. Under RSA 477:4-d, you have to give the buyer written information about the private water supply, the sewage disposal system, and insulation. That statute now covers flood hazard zone status as well. RSA 477:4-a adds a signed notification covering radon, arsenic, lead paint, and PFAS. All of that sounds like good news for sellers, and in some ways it is, but it carries real risk if a buried defect surfaces after closing.

The Caveat Emptor Disclosure rule does not protect you from fraud or misrepresentation. If a buyer asks you directly whether the basement floods and you lie, you have legal exposure. The protection only applies when the buyer fails to ask. Silent non-disclosure of a known defect is different from an affirmative lie, but that line gets tested in court more often than sellers expect.

Sellers going the direct route should still be thoughtful here. Andre Sutton came to us with a house in Milford on a Thursday afternoon, splitting assets in a divorce and just wanting the whole thing handled cleanly. There were some old oil tank documents in the garage that he wasn’t sure about. We reviewed everything together before the purchase agreement was signed, documented what was there, and closed without any surprises on either side. The transparency made the sale faster, not slower, and that’s held true on almost every clean transaction we’ve handled.

If you’re looking for a company that buys homes in Nashua or nearby cities, selling directly can be a practical option. These buyers purchase houses as-is, so if your property has condition issues you’d rather not navigate through a traditional listing, a direct sale can resolve much of that complexity upfront.

Frequently Asked Questions

One detail most sellers never hear about is the transfer tax minimum. Where the price or consideration is $4,000 or less, New Hampshire charges a minimum of $20 from the buyer and $20 from the seller. That almost never touches a residential sale, though it does come up on certain transfers between family members.

Who Pays the NH Real Estate Transfer Tax?

Both the buyer and the seller pay it. Each side owes $0.75 per $100 of the sale price, for a combined rate of 1.5% of the total transaction. The default in most contracts splits it evenly, though the purchase and sale agreement can specify a different arrangement if both parties agree.

Do You Have to Pay Capital Gains Tax When Selling a House in New Hampshire?

At the state level, no. New Hampshire does not impose a capital gains tax on home sale profits. At the federal level, you may owe capital gains tax if your profit exceeds $250,000 as a single filer or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, assuming you’ve met the two-year primary residence requirement. Most homeowners who’ve lived in their house long enough fall under these thresholds and owe nothing federally either.

How Much Federal Capital Gains Tax Would I Owe on a $300,000 Gain?

It depends on your filing status and total taxable income for the year. A single seller with a $300,000 profit would exclude $250,000 under the IRS primary residence exclusion, leaving $50,000 potentially taxable. A married couple filing jointly would exclude the full $300,000 and owe nothing. The actual rate on any taxable amount is 0%, 15%, or 20%, depending on your income bracket, with a possible 3.8% net investment income tax layered on top for higher earners.

If you’re wondering who pays taxes when selling a house, the numbers are easier to plan around before closing than on the settlement statement. We buy houses across New Hampshire for cash. That means no agent commission and no repair list. Joe Theriault does not meet with sellers personally, but our team handles every step and answers questions as they come up. Contact us at IPS Cash or visit our Get Your Cash Offer page whenever you’re ready.