What you sell for is not what you keep. Between the two sit a payoff, two commissions, a conveyance tax, and a property tax adjustment that most sellers guess backwards — because in Connecticut and Rhode Island the taxes are usually prepaid, and the money moves toward you rather than away.
The tax adjustment, and why almost everyone gets its direction wrong
Ask a seller what happens to property taxes at closing and most will tell you they expect to owe something. That instinct comes from states where taxes are billed in arrears. Connecticut is not one of them, and neither are most Rhode Island municipalities. Here, the bill that lands on July 1 pays for the year that is about to happen. Pay it and you have bought twelve months of somebody’s property taxes in advance — and if you sell in September, three of those months are the buyer’s.
So the money moves toward you. On a house with a $6,500 annual tax bill, closing in early October after paying the July instalment, the buyer owes you roughly $1,570 at the table. Close six days earlier, on the last day of a quarter in a town that bills quarterly, and the same seller is owed almost nothing. Nothing about the house changed. Only the date did.
Four things decide which way and how far that number moves, and this calculator asks about all four.
What period the bill covers. Connecticut runs a July–June fiscal year everywhere. Rhode Island does not run one system. Providence bills quarterly against a July–June fiscal year; Portsmouth’s bills cover the calendar year, assessed the prior December 31; South Kingstown likewise bills for the calendar year with instalments falling in August, November, February and May; New Shoreham’s quarters land on the fifteenth; Richmond’s first quarter is due in September. A calculator that assumes one Rhode Island answer will be wrong in a good number of towns, so this one asks rather than assumes.
How many instalments you have actually paid. The adjustment is the difference between what you have paid in and what your share of the year comes to. Fall behind, and the direction reverses.
Which grand list the bill was struck from. The bill in your hand reflects the prior October 1 in Connecticut, or the prior December 31 in Rhode Island. In a revaluation year the figure you are prorating on has little to do with what the buyer will pay next year, and neither of you should read it as a forecast.
Whether the rate for the coming year exists yet. Mill rates are adopted in late spring. Close in May or June and there is often no new rate to prorate against, so the contract falls back on the old one and, in most cases, nobody re-prorates afterwards. In a town moving three or four mills, that silence is worth real money to one side or the other.
What this tool does that a listing presentation usually doesn’t
It splits the two commissions. Since the practice changes of 2024 the listing fee and any compensation you agree to offer a buyer’s broker are separate negotiations with separate answers. A single blended percentage hides the one number you still have room to move.
It charges interest to the wire, not to the signing. Your payoff runs until the lender is actually funded, which is typically several days after you sign. On a $400,000 balance at 6.5% that is about $71 a day.
It knows about MERS. If your lender recorded through Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems — most residential lenders do — the Connecticut fee to record your release is a flat $160 rather than the $70 first-page rate. Two mortgages and a HELOC and the difference stops being trivia.
It counts the oil in your tank. A local line item, routinely forgotten, routinely worth several hundred dollars.
It flags Rhode Island’s nonresident withholding before it ambushes you. Sell Rhode Island property while living elsewhere and the buyer is required to withhold a percentage of your net proceeds — not your gain — and remit it to the Division of Taxation. On an appreciated coastal second home that single line can exceed every other closing cost put together. It is recoverable when you file, but it is gone from the table on closing day, and the election that reduces it has a deadline that falls before closing.
What it deliberately does not do
It does not compute your capital gains tax. It will tell you whether your gain looks likely to exceed the exclusion, because that is a question you can answer from four numbers and it changes how you should plan. What it will not do is print a tax figure, because the real one depends on your other income, your holding period, depreciation you may have taken, the net investment income tax, and state treatment — and a number that ignores those is worse than no number at all. If the flag comes up, that is the point at which to call a CPA rather than to trust a web page.
It does not prorate your homeowners insurance as a closing adjustment. Your policy is a contract between you and your carrier; you cancel it after closing and the carrier refunds the unearned premium directly to you. It is money you get back, but it does not come from the buyer and it does not belong on a closing statement.
It does not cover commercial or multi-family investment sales. Depreciation recapture, the flat non-residential conveyance rate in Connecticut, and entity-level questions all change the arithmetic. Those belong in our commercial underwriting tool, or in a conversation about a 1031 exchange if you are trading up rather than cashing out.
Where the numbers come from, and how fast they go stale
Conveyance tax — changed recently in both states. CT Department of Revenue Services and the RI Division of Taxation. Rhode Island’s upper-tier threshold is indexed to inflation and moves every January.
Connecticut mill rates — set each spring, effective July 1. CT Office of Policy and Management. Your own bill beats the statewide table.
Rhode Island tax rates — set annually. RI Division of Municipal Finance.
Billing schedules and tax-year basis — set by each municipality, not by either state, and they differ. Confirm with the tax collector for the town you are selling in. This is the input most likely to be wrong on any net sheet, including this one.
Recording fees — Connecticut’s statutory schedule under C.G.S. §7-34a rose to $70 for the first page on July 1, 2025, with a flat $160 where a MERS nominee is the grantor. Rhode Island’s discharge-of-mortgage fee is set statewide by R.I. Gen. Laws §34-13-7.
Nonresident withholding — RI Division of Taxation under R.I. Gen. Laws §44-30-71.3. Rates and the election procedure are worth confirming with your closing attorney before you list, not after.
Median selling prices — trailing 365 days, Seaport Market Pulse.
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Every figure produced by this tool is an estimate built from public data and the assumptions you entered. It is not a closing statement, a payoff quote, a title commitment, a tax determination, or legal or accounting advice, and no part of it creates a professional relationship or a representation of fact. Only your closing attorney can tell you what will actually appear on the settlement statement, and only your lender can tell you what your payoff will be on a given date. Seaport Real Estate Services and Seaport Advisory make no warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of anything shown here, and accept no liability for any decision made in reliance on it. Property tax proration depends on the tax-year basis, billing schedule and payment history of the specific municipality and parcel, all of which vary and none of which this tool can verify. Verify property tax with the town assessor and tax collector, payoff figures with your lender, conveyance tax and recording fees with a closing attorney, withholding obligations with the applicable state revenue department, and all tax treatment with a CPA. Estate sales. This is not estate planning, probate or fiduciary advice. A stepped-up basis must be supported by a written date-of-death appraisal from a licensed appraiser, which this tool does not provide and cannot substitute for; the figure you enter is your own estimate. Whether only half the basis steps up, whether a loss is deductible, whether the primary residence exclusion survives a death, whether an alternate valuation election was validly made, and how a gain is reported all depend on facts and documents this form does not collect. Probate fees, executor compensation, estate and inheritance taxes, creditor claims and administration costs are not closing costs, do not appear on the settlement statement, and are not deducted from the net proceeds shown. Any per-beneficiary figure is the proceeds of this sale divided by the number of shares you entered; it is not an inheritance, it assumes equal shares, and it is paid only after the estate’s obligations are satisfied. A fiduciary must have authority to sell before contracting. Federal withholding under FIRPTA and state nonresident withholding are shown as estimates only, and the elections that reduce them carry deadlines that fall before closing. Consult an estate attorney and a CPA. Connecticut mill rates are OPM FY 2025–2026 except where a panel states otherwise; Rhode Island rates are Division of Municipal Finance FY 2026 on the 2025 tax roll. Median selling prices reflect current Seaport Market Pulse data. Not tax, legal, insurance or investment advice.