Every house sold in Pomona carries two separate transfer taxes, not one.

Los Angeles County collects its standard $1.10 per $1,000 of sale price, and the City of Pomona adds its own $2.20 per $1,000 on top of that — a rate that has not changed since voters had the chance to double it in 2012 and said no. On a $550,000 house, that combined $3.30 per $1,000 works out to $1,815 due at closing, a cost that catches a lot of Pomona sellers off guard because most California cities only collect the county’s share.

Table of Contents

Two Taxes, Not One

California’s default documentary transfer tax is set by Revenue and Taxation Code §11911 at $0.55 per $500 of value — the same thing as $1.10 per $1,000 — and every county in the state collects it on recorded deeds.

Charter cities are allowed to layer an additional municipal transfer tax on top, and roughly twenty California cities do. Pomona is one of them.

Its rate, confirmed in the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s own historical city transfer tax table, is $2.20 per $1,000 of consideration — exactly double the county’s rate, and the two are collected separately when the deed is recorded.

That means a Pomona seller is paying $3.30 for every $1,000 of sale price once both taxes are added together, or 0.33% of the sale price.

It is easy to miss this if you are comparing closing costs against a sale in an unincorporated part of the county, or in a Los Angeles County city that never adopted its own tax — those sellers pay only the $1.10 county rate, less than a third of what a Pomona sale costs in transfer tax alone.

What This Costs at Different Sale Prices

The math scales directly with price, so it is worth running the numbers before you set an expectation for net proceeds:

$450,000 sale: $495 county + $990 city = $1,485 combined
$600,000 sale: $660 county + $1,320 city = $1,980 combined
$750,000 sale: $825 county + $1,650 city = $2,475 combined
$900,000 sale: $990 county + $1,980 city = $2,970 combined

Title and escrow companies calculate this automatically on the closing statement, and it should appear as two distinct line items — one for the county, one for the city — rather than a single combined figure.

If your preliminary settlement statement only shows one transfer tax line for a Pomona property, ask your escrow officer to itemize it; the amount should still be correct, but sellers who understand the breakdown are better positioned to question anything that looks off.

The 2012 Vote That Would Have Doubled It

Pomona’s rate has stayed at $2.20 per $1,000 for more than a decade, but it came close to changing. In November 2012, the city put Measure W on the ballot, asking voters to double the municipal transfer tax from $1.10 per $500 (the same figure expressed differently — $2.20 per $1,000) to $2.20 per $500, which would have pushed the city’s share to $4.40 per $1,000 and the combined city-and-county total to $5.50 per $1,000, or 0.55% of sale price.

Pomona voters rejected it decisively — 74.81% voted no, with only 25.19% in favor, according to the certified results. That failed measure is useful context for any seller trying to confirm the current rate: $2.20 per $1,000 is still correct today specifically because Measure W did not pass.

If a future ballot measure revisits the rate, it would need the same two-thirds or simple-majority threshold (depending on how it is structured and earmarked) to take effect, and this article will no longer reflect the current number if that happens.

Who Owes It, and Who Actually Pays at the Table

California law places the legal liability for the documentary transfer tax on the person who signs or delivers the deed — ordinarily the seller. That is the statutory default for both the county tax and most city add-on taxes, including Pomona’s.

In practice, who actually writes the check at closing is a matter of local custom and the purchase contract, not law. In Los Angeles County generally, and in Pomona specifically, the seller customarily pays the full combined transfer tax in a typical listed sale.

A buyer and seller can negotiate a different split in the purchase agreement, but absent any such negotiation, expect the seller’s side of the closing statement to carry both the county and the city amount.

When you sell to us, we pay the standard closing costs, including the county and city transfer taxes, escrow and title.

That is the one firm claim we will make about who pays what in a sale to Cash Home Buyers CA — we are not going to tell you a seller “can” negotiate their way out of it in open-market deals, because in Pomona’s market that is not how it customarily works.

Exemptions That Can Reduce or Eliminate the Tax

Not every transfer of a Pomona property triggers the tax. Revenue and Taxation Code §§11921–11930 exempt several categories of transfers from the county-level tax, and cities that mirror the county exemption list — which Pomona does — generally apply the same exclusions to their own rate. Common exemptions include:

Deeds that simply secure a debt (deeds of trust), rather than convey ownership
Transfers between spouses, or pursuant to a dissolution judgment under the Family Code
Transfers into a revocable trust where the beneficial ownership does not change
Gifts where no consideration changes hands (though the donor should be prepared to document this)
Transfers to or from government agencies

If you believe your transfer qualifies for an exemption, the county recorder requires a signed Declaration of Documentary Transfer Tax at the time of recording, stating the exemption claimed and the code section relied on.

Escrow typically prepares this, but it is worth confirming with your escrow officer or a real estate attorney before recording — an improperly claimed exemption can be challenged by the county later, and the tax (plus penalties) would then be owed retroactively.

Each exemption category has its own documentation expectations. A trust transfer typically needs a copy of the trust instrument or at least the pages showing the trustee’s authority and the beneficiaries. A divorce-related transfer generally needs the dissolution judgment or marital settlement agreement referencing the property.

A gift claim should be backed by something showing no consideration was exchanged, since the county can and does ask for substantiation if a claimed exemption looks inconsistent with the facts on file — for example, a “gift” transfer recorded the same week as a large deposit into the grantor’s bank account.

None of this paperwork needs to be filed with the deed itself, but it should exist and be retrievable if the county’s auditor-controller ever asks for it.

Pomona Is Not Subject to Measure ULA

If you have read anything about Los Angeles’s “mansion tax,” it is worth clearing up a common point of confusion: Measure ULA is a City of Los Angeles ordinance, and it only applies to property located within the Los Angeles city limits on sales above $5.15 million (adjusted annually).

Pomona is its own incorporated city, entirely separate from the City of Los Angeles, and Measure ULA does not reach it at any price point.

A Pomona seller’s transfer tax exposure is capped at the $3.30 per $1,000 combined rate described above, regardless of sale price — there is no additional surtax that kicks in at a higher threshold the way there is inside Los Angeles city limits.

This distinction matters because the two cities are often lumped together in casual conversation about Los Angeles County real estate, and sellers sometimes assume county-wide rules that only apply within specific city boundaries.

How Pomona’s Rate Compares to Other Los Angeles County Cities

Pomona is one of roughly twenty California cities that layer a municipal documentary transfer tax on top of the county rate, and the amounts vary widely by city.

Within Los Angeles County alone, rates range from cities that charge nothing beyond the $1.10 per $1,000 county tax, up through Culver City’s Measure RE rate and Los Angeles’s own general transfer tax (separate from Measure ULA, and we have covered what Los Angeles sellers pay even without Measure ULA applying).

Pomona’s $2.20 per $1,000 sits in the middle of that range — meaningfully higher than a city with no add-on tax, but well below the highest rates charged elsewhere in the county.

If you own property in more than one Los Angeles County city, do not assume the transfer tax math is the same across all of them; each charter city sets its own rate independently, and some general-law cities charge none at all.

Does the Tax Apply to Foreclosure and Trustee’s Deeds?

Yes, with a different method of calculating the taxable amount. A standard documentary transfer tax is measured against the sale price stated on the deed.

A trustee’s deed recorded after a non-judicial foreclosure sale is still subject to the tax, but the taxable value is typically the amount of the unpaid debt secured by the foreclosed deed of trust, not a negotiated purchase price, since there usually was no arm’s-length negotiation.

If you are selling a Pomona property that is in pre-foreclosure and trying to close before a trustee’s sale happens, this is one more reason the transfer tax math looks different depending on which exit you take — a short sale or a direct sale to a buyer closes on the negotiated price, while letting the property go to trustee’s sale changes both who ends up with any remaining equity and how the tax is calculated on the eventual transfer.

Selling an Inherited Pomona House: One More Layer

If the Pomona property you are selling came to you through inheritance, the transfer tax discussed in this article applies to the eventual sale to a third-party buyer, not to the transfer from the estate to the heirs (that transfer is typically exempt as long as no consideration changes hands between the decedent’s estate and the beneficiary).

Once an heir or the estate sells the house to an outside buyer, the standard $3.30 per $1,000 combined rate applies the same way it would for any other seller.

We have covered the separate question of how stepped-up basis affects capital gains on an inherited California property, which is usually a bigger financial question for heirs than the transfer tax itself, since the stepped-up basis can eliminate most or all taxable gain on a prompt sale.

When a Cash Sale Does and Does Not Make Sense in Pomona

Transfer tax is a fixed cost that applies whether you list with an agent or sell directly — it is not something a cash sale avoids, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

Where a direct sale genuinely helps in Pomona is when the property needs repairs that would eat into proceeds anyway, when a quick close matters more than maximizing price, or when an out-of-state owner cannot manage showings and inspections.

If your Pomona house is in solid condition in a strong micro-market and you can wait 30 to 60 days, listing it traditionally will usually net you more even after agent commissions — the transfer tax is the same either way, so it should not be the deciding factor in how you sell.

What Happens If the Tax Isn’t Paid at Recording

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will not record a deed without either the correct documentary transfer tax payment or a properly completed exemption declaration attached.

This is not optional paperwork — it is a condition of recording, which means an unresolved transfer tax question can hold up your entire closing.

Escrow companies that work regularly in Pomona generally handle this correctly as a matter of course, but if you are working with an out-of-area title company unfamiliar with the city’s add-on rate, double-check that both the county and city amounts are included in the recording package before your closing date.

A deed rejected for recording because the city tax was omitted means a delayed close, not just a paperwork correction, since the transaction cannot officially transfer title until the corrected deed is accepted.

If the county later discovers that a deed was recorded with an underpaid or improperly exempted transfer tax, it has the authority to assess the shortfall plus penalties and interest against whoever was liable for the original payment.

This has happened in cases where a transfer was incorrectly claimed as a gift or an intra-family transfer when it did not actually meet the legal definition.

Given how far back a county can look, it is worth keeping your signed Declaration of Documentary Transfer Tax and any supporting documentation for an exemption claim for several years after closing, not just until the sale is finalized.

Where the Rate Has Stood Since Measure W

Pomona’s $2.20 per $1,000 city rate predates the 2012 Measure W vote — the measure was a proposed increase to an existing tax, not a proposal to create a new one.

Because voters rejected the increase rather than the tax itself, the pre-2012 rate simply continued unchanged, and it has not been revisited at the ballot since.

That stability is useful for sellers trying to plan a sale months in advance: unlike property tax rates, which the county reassesses with every ownership change, or state income tax brackets, which adjust annually for inflation, Pomona’s transfer tax rate does not move unless the city council places a new measure on the ballot and voters approve it.

Nothing currently pending at the city level suggests that is imminent, but any seller working from an older real estate guide or a secondhand estimate should still confirm the figure directly with the county recorder before relying on it for a real transaction, since local ordinances can change with little advance notice in the press.

What to Check Before You Set an Asking Price

Confirm the current combined rate is still $3.30 per $1,000 ($1.10 county + $2.20 city) before finalizing a net-proceeds estimate
Ask your escrow officer to itemize the county and city transfer tax separately on your settlement statement
Check whether your transfer qualifies for an exemption under R&TC §§11921–11930 before assuming the full tax applies
Factor the $3.30 per $1,000 cost into any comparison between listing and a direct cash sale — it applies to both

Pomona’s transfer tax rules are detailed and worth confirming directly with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk or a title company before you rely on any number for a real transaction.

If you want a straightforward look at what a direct sale of your Pomona house would net after closing costs, including both transfer taxes, Cash Home Buyers CA can put together a no-obligation cash offer and show the math side by side with a traditional listing.

You can also find our Google Business Profile, or call us directly at (424) 435-2326 with questions about a Pomona property.

Pomona’s Own Transfer Tax: What It Costs a Seller