Court Opinion

ID: 9695361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:16:10.196174+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:11.094434
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Judge,
concurring.
As this Court stated in Baehr Bros. v. Commonwealth, 487 Pa. 233, 237, 409 A.2d 326, 328 (1979), “[t]he Realty Transfer Tax Act . .. imposes a tax on the recordation of any document which effects a transfer of an interest in land.” (Emphasis in original). Here, real estate was conveyed by *460deed to appellants Anthony and Victoria Sabatine, the deed was recorded, the realty transfer tax was paid to the Commonwealth, and the Sabatines assumed ownership of the property. Although I agree completely with the result reached by the majority, I am of the view that no amount of subsequent evidence that the conveyance was “void ab initio ” could change the fact that the transfer tax was properly payable at the time the deed was presented for recordation. Where, as here, a party who has properly paid a realty transfer tax at the time of recordation wishes later to recoup the amount paid, his recourse, if any, lies not against the Commonwealth but in his contractual rights.