Connecticut Conveyance Tax Math Trips Up Most Candidates

Connecticut has one of the most layered real estate tax structures in New England, and the PSI exam tests the math precisely.

The Department of Consumer Protection governs real estate licensing in Connecticut. PSI administers the exam: 30 state specific questions and 80 national questions, with a 70% minimum to pass. Connecticut's tiered conveyance tax math, its Common Interest Ownership Act cutoff date, and its written buyer agency contract requirements are the three topics that separate candidates who prepared for Connecticut specifically from those who relied on general materials.

Conveyance Tax Math

Connecticut's conveyance tax has two tiers and a separate controlling interest rate. The PSI exam will ask you to calculate the correct tax from a given sale price. Knowing that a transfer tax exists isn't sufficient. Let's look at what the law actually requires.

Transfer taxes involve different math in neighboring states. The New York exam tests mansion tax thresholds and state transfer tax rates, while the New Jersey exam covers its own realty transfer fee schedule. Neither calculation matches Connecticut's conveyance tax formula.

Connecticut imposes a real estate conveyance tax at 0.75% on the first $800,000 of residential dwelling sales with higher rates above that threshold, plus a separate 1.11% controlling interest transfer tax for entity transfers, students fail because they don't apply the tiered rate structure correctly.

Memorize the $800,000 threshold, the rate that applies below it, the rate that applies above it, and when the controlling interest transfer tax is triggered instead. The DCP exam will give you a transaction and ask for the correct tax. Getting the threshold wrong produces a wrong answer even if the math itself is correct. I don't want you guessing on this one. Know it cold.

Common Interest Ownership Act

CIOA has a hard cutoff date: 1983. The PSI exam uses that date to sort questions into two categories: pre-CIOA communities (which the Act doesn't govern) and post-1983 communities (which it does). Missing the cutoff means missing a class of questions entirely.

CIOA governs condominiums, cooperatives, and planned communities created after 1983, requiring each unit to be separately taxed, students miss questions because they don't know the Act's cutoff date, confuse the three community types, or misunderstand resale certificate requirements.

Know 1983 as CIOA's dividing line, know which three community types the Act covers, and know what a resale certificate must contain under Connecticut law. The DCP exam will present a community type and a transaction date and ask which rules apply. The answer always starts with whether the community was created before or after the Act's effective date.

Buyer Agency Contracts

Connecticut regulates buyer agency contracts at a level of specificity that surprises candidates, and the PSI exam tests the content requirements and timing rules that most candidates assume are optional or informal. This is the kind of detail the exam loves, and most prep courses skip.

Connecticut requires specific written buyer representation agreements that outline duties, compensation terms, and buyer obligations, students fail because they underestimate how strictly the state regulates the timing and content of these contracts.

Know what a Connecticut buyer agency contract must contain, when it must be signed relative to the first showing, and what compensation disclosures are required. The DCP exam asks situational questions where the timing or missing content element is the issue, not whether a written agreement exists at all. If you miss this question, it's not because the exam is unfair. It's because your prep materials were lazy.