What is a buy/sell tax (fee-on-transfer)?
A buy/sell tax, or fee-on-transfer, is a percentage skimmed by a token's own contract each time it is traded, redirecting funds to the team, liquidity, or rewards. High or asymmetric taxes can mimic a honeypot. Sally's scanner reports the exact buy and sell tax before you trade.
A fee-on-transfer token, often called a tax token, charges a percentage every time it changes hands. Instead of the full amount arriving, the contract diverts a slice on each buy and each sell. Teams use this to fund marketing, automatically add liquidity, or pay holder rewards — mechanics that can be legitimate but are also a favourite cover for abuse.
The danger is in the numbers and the asymmetry. A modest, symmetric tax is survivable; a very high sell tax, or one far larger than the buy tax, can mean you lose most of your money the moment you try to exit. Worse, many tax tokens let the owner change the rate after launch, so a fair-looking sell tax can be raised toward total confiscation — effectively a honeypot — once enough people are in.
Because the tax lives in the token's own code, a normal DEX quote will not show it; you only feel it at execution. Sally's scanner measures the real buy and sell tax by simulating trades against the live contract on Base and BNB Smart Chain, and flags when the owner can still change those rates, so you see the true cost of a round trip before you trade.
Buy/sell tax (fee-on-transfer) is part of how Sally works on Base and BNB Smart Chain. Put it into practice with the tool below.
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