Esteban A. Sánchez Caribbean Counsel · Punta Cana

caribbeancounseldr.com / real estate / confotur

You bought into a CONFOTUR project.

That doesn't mean you have the exemption.

What you bought was eligibility. The 15-year tax exemption is a filing someone has to make, with Hacienda, the DGII, and the Registro de Títulos. The developer isn't required to do it for you. If no one files, the benefit never reaches your title, and you find out when the tax bill arrives.

Check whether your exemption was ever filed →

The Foreign Buyer's Legal Guide to the Dominican Republic

A plain-English walk through buying property in the Dominican Republic, including the pre signature checklist. Yours to read before you commit to anything.

Nobody lied to you. Nobody told you either.

The seller said the project was CONFOTUR, and it was. You assumed that settled it. The seller assumed you'd handle the paperwork after closing. In the gap between those two assumptions, the exemption sits unfiled. Buyers often discover it only when the 1% annual property tax shows up, or when they go to sell and the buyer's lawyer asks for proof the benefit was registered. By then you've paid for years on a property that was supposed to be exempt.

The benefit · § 01

A real benefit, with a real process behind it.

CONFOTUR (Law 158-01) exempts qualifying tourism properties from the 3% transfer tax and the 1% annual property tax for 15 years. The numbers are large enough to matter on any purchase. But the law grants the benefit to the property's owner through application, not by default. Eligibility comes with the project. The exemption comes with the filing.

Law No. 158-01 · Tourism Incentive

Transfer tax 3% · exempt

Annual property tax (IPI) 1% · exempt

Duration 15 years

How it attaches By application — never automatic

What we do · § 02

We confirm it, file it, and follow it through to your title.

We verify

Whether the project actually holds CONFOTUR classification, and whether your unit qualifies under it.

We file

The formal application to the Ministerio de Hacienda, and the approvals required from the DGII and the Registro de Títulos.

We follow through

Each office, until the exemption is recorded against your title and you hold proof it exists. Not a promise that it will. Proof that it did.

Esteban A. Sánchez · Counsel

Who handles it · § 03

You talk to the lawyer. Every time.

I'm Esteban A. Sánchez, a Dominican attorney based in Punta Cana. The CONFOTUR process touches three government offices, and the difference between a benefit on paper and a benefit on your title is whether someone actually carried it through all three. I handle that personally.

Selected matters · § 04

What gets missed, and what it's worth.

Names redacted · outcomes factual

Filed after the fact Outcome

A buyer closed believing the exemption was automatic. It was never filed. We submitted the applications and recorded the benefit before the next annual tax cycle, protecting fifteen years of exemption that would otherwise have lapsed.

15 years protected

Caught before closing Outcome

During a purchase, we confirmed the unit's CONFOTUR status and built the filing into the transaction, so the exemption attached to the title at transfer instead of becoming the buyer's problem afterward.

Attached at transfer

Questions · § 05

Before you reach out.

The questions buyers ask about the CONFOTUR exemption. Plain answers.

01.

Is the CONFOTUR exemption automatic if I buy in an approved project?

No. The project's approval makes your unit eligible. The exemption itself requires a formal application to Hacienda and approval from the DGII and the Registro de Títulos before it attaches to your title.

02.

What does CONFOTUR actually exempt?

The 3% real estate transfer tax and the 1% annual property tax (IPI), for 15 years, on qualifying properties.

03.

The developer said it's handled. Is it?

Sometimes the developer files for the project. The benefit still has to be applied to each owner's title. Unless you've seen proof the exemption was recorded against your specific property, it's worth confirming. The cost of checking is small. The cost of assuming is fifteen years of tax.

04.

I already closed. Is it too late to file?

Often not. If the exemption was never filed, it can usually still be applied, but timing matters and each cycle you wait is a year of benefit you don't get back.

05.

How do I know if my exemption was ever registered?

We can check the status against the Registro de Títulos and the DGII and tell you exactly where it stands: filed, pending, or never submitted.

The exemption is worth fifteen years.

Confirming it takes one conversation.

If you bought in a CONFOTUR project, the only question that matters is whether the benefit reached your title or stopped at the brochure. We'll find out, and if it was never filed, we'll file it.

Check whether your exemption was ever filed →

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