Real estate transfer tax Saxony 2026 – rate, calculation & calculator

The tax rate in Saxony is 5.5 percent of the purchase price. Saxony raised the rate from the previous 3.5 percent on 1 January 2023. What counts is the purchase price recorded in the notarised contract – for plots with a building on them, the total price.

For typical Dresden purchase prices – an existing flat around 300,000 €, a single-family house between 500,000 and 650,000 € – the real estate transfer tax therefore quickly reaches the range of 16,500 to 35,750 €.

Enter your purchase price – the calculator works out the real estate transfer tax at the Saxon rate and shows, for comparison, what it would cost in other federal states.

Towards the tax office, buyer and seller are jointly and severally liable. In practice, however, the real estate transfer tax is almost always assigned to the buyer in the contract. For you as the seller it is therefore not a direct cost item.

Indirectly it is nevertheless relevant for the sale: together with notary, land register and possibly agent costs, the real estate transfer tax raises the buyer's total acquisition costs to around 9–11 percent above the purchase price. Banks generally do not co-finance these incidental costs. A price set too high can therefore cause prospective buyers to fail at the financing stage.

The process is set out by law:

1. After the notarisation, the notary reports the purchase contract to the tax office.
2. A few weeks later the tax office issues the real estate transfer tax assessment.
3. The tax is payable within one month of the notification of the assessment.
4. After payment, the tax office issues the clearance certificate.

This certificate is decisive: without it, the land registry will not carry out the transfer of ownership. The real estate transfer tax is thus effectively the last hurdle before the transfer of ownership.

Entirely tax-free are, among others:

• Sales between spouses or registered civil partners
• Sales between relatives in the direct line (e.g. parents to children)
• Acquisition on death (inheritance) and gifts – here inheritance or gift tax applies instead
• Transactions with an assessment base of up to 2,500 €

In addition, the assessment base can be lowered legally by itemising movable fittings – such as a fitted kitchen, awnings or a sauna – separately in the contract. This share is not subject to real estate transfer tax. The tax office accepts realistic current values; inflated fittings values (in practice up to around 15 percent of the purchase price without proof is common) are challenged.

As a seller you should know the real estate transfer tax, even though you do not pay it – because it determines your buyers' budget calculation. Anyone who sets their own asking price realistically ensures that prospective buyers can finance the total costs including all incidental costs. A well-founded property valuation is the basis for this. A complete overview of all incidental purchase and sale costs is given by the incidental costs calculator.