3732

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 698

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
(as enacted by Chapter 512 of the Acts of the General
Assembly of 1981) read(s) as follows:

Article 81 - Revenue and Taxes

277.

(a) (1) [A] EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE PROVIDED IN THIS
SECTION, A tax is hereby imposed upon every instrument of
writing conveying title to real or personal property, or
creating liens or encumbrances upon real or personal
property, offered for record and recorded in this State with
the clerks of the circuit courts of the respective counties,
or the clerk of the Superior Court of Baltimore City, and on
instruments of writing described in subsections (s) and (t)
hereof filed with the State Department of Assessments and
Taxation, except for liens or encumbrances upon vehicles
which are filed and offered for record with the Motor
Vehicle Administration, except for liens or encumbrances
upon vessels which are filed and offered for record with the
Department of Natural Resources[, provided that conveyances
to the State or any agency thereof or any political
subdivision of the State shall not be subject to the tax or
charge imposed by this section].

(2) In this section the following word has the
meaning indicated.

(i) "Instruments of writing" includes
deeds, mortgages, chattel mortgages, bills of sale, leases,
deeds of trust, contracts and agreements, and filed
financing statements under the Uniform Commercial Code used
to publicize any of the types of a secured transaction
which, prior to enactment hereof, were subject to this tax.

(ii) The term "instruments of writing"
does not include:

1. Mortgages or deeds of trust for
refinancing, to the extent that the amount of the
refinancing is not more than the outstanding principal
amount of the existing mortgage at the time of refinancing,
by the original mortgagor, of property used as the original
mortgagor's principal residence if the mortgagor furnishes a
statement that he is the original mortgagor, that the
property is his principal residence, and specifying the
amount of unpaid principal on the existing mortgage that is
being financed, and the statement shall be in the mortgage
instrument offered for record as part of its recitals or as
part of the acknowledgment, or in a separate affidavit
accompanying the instrument signed under the penalties of
perjury by the mortgagor;