The Dominican 1% Property Tax (IPI) in 2026: Exempt Amount, Deadlines and Fiscal Reform Changes

Every January, the Dominican tax authority publishes a single number that decides whether thousands of property owners will write two checks that year. For 2026, that number is RD$10,695,494.

The figure is the exemption threshold of the IPI, the 1% annual tax on real estate held by individuals. Its modern architecture dates to Law 253-12, the 2012 fiscal-efficiency reform. That law made two changes owners still trip over. First, the exemption applies to an individual’s aggregate real estate portfolio, not to each property separately. Two apartments worth RD$7 million each do not enjoy two exemptions; they form a RD$14 million portfolio, taxed at 1% on the excess. Second, the taxable event occurs on January 1 of each year, regardless of who owns the property in December. Buyers and sellers should price the installments, due March 11 and September 11, into any closing.

The threshold adjusts annually for inflation, which is why the amounts in older guidance (RD$5 million, later RD$6.5 million) no longer apply. Companies are a different story: they do not pay IPI but the 1% tax on total assets. Law 253-12 promised to cut that assets tax to 0.5% in 2015 and eliminate it by 2016 if collection targets were met. The targets were not met. The 1% assets tax remains in force today.

Law 253-12 also narrowed the tourism incentives of Law 158-01, confining them to qualified developers and cutting off third parties who merely invested alongside them. The pendulum later swung partway back: Law 195-13 extended key exemptions, including transfer tax and IPI, to the first purchasers of units in CONFOTUR-approved projects, which is why buying into an approved development can still mean fifteen years without property tax.

The landscape moved again in June 2026. Law 30-26 cut the capital gains rate on real estate transfers from 25% to 10%, created exemptions for the reinvested sale of a primary residence, and set the 2% mortgage-registration tax on a path to extinction, 1% in 2027, eliminated in 2028.

The practical takeaway: before buying or selling Dominican real estate, map the full tax exposure, IPI, transfer tax, capital gains and any CONFOTUR benefits, as one picture, not four separate questions. Our real estate tax lawyers in the Dominican Republic run that analysis before you sign, not after.

Do you need tax advisory services for investing in tourism real estate properties in Dominican Republic? Contact Us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maria Arthur Rodger is a Partner leading the Private Client, Successions and Tax areas at Arthur & Castillo Advisers and Consultants in the Dominican Republic. She specializes in private client, successions, tax, real estate valuation and advisory (Master in Tax and Finance Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. & Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona) with more than 20 years of experience. She is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Valuator, Business Bankruptcy Expert and English and Spanish Interpreter.

Email: marthur@aclaw.com

Disclaimer: This publication is not intended to provide advice or suggest a guaranteed outcome as individual situations will differ and the situation may have changed since publication. For specific advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.

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