What it means
Several costs can appear beside a securities trade: a broker may charge commission, an exchange may impose its own transaction charges, and a statement may show a regulatory fee, but similar placement on the statement does not make those amounts one uniform charge. Section 31 is a defined transaction-fee framework, and the SEC's fee advisory page explains that self-regulatory organisations pay the Commission twice annually based on aggregate dollar amounts of specified securities sales.
The legal payer and a customer receiving a passed-through charge are not necessarily the same person. The framework concerns covered transactions rather than every movement of investment money, so a brokerage deposit is not automatically a covered sale and the transaction should be classified before calculating.
The rate can change with the statutory budget process, and the Commission publishes advisories identifying the applicable rate and effective charge dates. An archived article is not permanent rate authority.
The SEC's February 27, 2026 advisory states a rate of twenty dollars and sixty cents per million dollars for covered sales on charge dates on or after April 4, 2026, and describes a zero rate through April 3 under the earlier period. Those are specifically dated terms, not a promise that every future sale uses the same rate.
The advisory says that rate remains in effect until sixty calendar days after legislation establishing the Commission's fiscal-year 2027 appropriation, so a new fiscal-year label by itself is not the whole transition rule, and the relevant current advisory and charge date should be checked for an actual transaction. Charge date is a defined term under the cited rules, so a manager should not substitute whichever date appears first on a trade confirmation, which matters near rate transitions.
The same advisory identifies a separate security-futures assessment measured per round-turn transaction, a unit that differs from the sale-value fee quoted per million dollars, and mixing a transaction count with a dollar-value rate produces the wrong calculation even if both numbers come from an official page. Issuer filing fees are another category, since the SEC's fee index separates Section 6(b) registration filing rates from Section 31 transaction rates, and an issuer selling registered securities and an investor selling a covered position should not automatically be assigned the same rate or fee calculation.
A broker's customer charge may also reflect its disclosed treatment, rounding and other separately identified costs, so reconcile the actual statement and firm disclosure instead of assuming the statutory calculation alone predicts every cent deducted from the account. Investigate differences rather than assume a wrong rate.
Small amounts matter in repeated activity, so an operations budget should separate transaction volume, sale value, commissions and regulatory charges. For a non-finance manager, preserve the official rate notice and distinguish it from the broker's fee schedule.
State which transaction class, unit and date a calculation assumes. This is a practical cost-control task, not evidence that paying a fee makes an investment suitable or approved.
In practice
Real-world examples.
Example
A fictional investor sells covered securities and sees several statement deductions. The review separates brokerage commission from the Section 31-related amount. Calling all deductions SEC fees would conceal the broker's own pricing.
Example
A finance team finds a fiscal-year 2027 registration-fee notice. It checks whether the notice concerns issuer filing fees or transaction fees before replacing a trading-cost assumption. Similar year labels do not establish identical fee regimes.
Example
A report combines covered sale values with security-futures round-turn counts. Operations splits the units and uses the applicable framework for each. One per-million-dollar rate cannot price both measures.
Formula
Calculation
Illustrative Section 31 calculation using the SEC's stated April 4, 2026 rate: covered sale value / 1,000,000 x $20.60. For assumed covered sales of $250,000, the amount is $5.15 before any applicable customer-charge treatment.
A second illustration with the same stated rate: covered sales of $4,000,000 give $4,000,000 / 1,000,000 x $20.60 = 4 x $20.60 = $82.40. Both amounts are small beside a typical commission, which is why the line is easy to overlook until activity is repeated many times.
The example requires the stated rate and covered scope. It does not price commissions, other assessments or an issuer's registration filing.Case study
Seen in the real world.
Fictional case study: Ash Investments copies an old zero-rate assumption into its transaction budget. The team also combines regulatory charges with broker commissions. Operations checks the dated SEC advisory and separates the cost categories.
It verifies transaction scope and the firm's actual passed-through treatment. The forecast now shows its rate assumption and fee units explicitly. It can be updated from the correct notice instead of treating one archived rate as permanent.
Watch out
Common mistakes.
- Using an outdated rate without the applicable charge date.
- Confusing transaction fees with issuer registration fees or brokerage commissions.
- Applying a per-million-dollar rate to a count-based assessment without checking units.
Questions
People also ask.
Is every trade deduction an SEC fee?
No. Commissions, exchange charges and other costs have separate bases.
Does a new fiscal year alone settle the rate?
No. Check the statutory transition and current official advisory.
Does paying the fee mean the investment is approved?
No. A transaction charge is not a suitability or quality assessment.
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