Total purchase costs: VAT, stamp tax, notary and registry
- Land and property for foreigners
- Who may hold land, and on what title
- not audited
Transaction costs collected by the dossier: VAT of 12% on the first sale (new build), on the higher of price and recorded value; stamp tax of 3% on second and subsequent sales (Decree 37-92); notary fees of ~1–2% of value, freely negotiated (a market figure); recording at the RGP of Q160 minimum plus Q1.50 per thousand on the excess over Q10,000 (AG 325-2005, item 2.1); a registry certificate of Q50 for up to 10 pages plus Q5 per page (item 2.8); and a lawyer for due diligence at Q3,000–Q8,000 or 0.5–1% (commercial guide, to be verified). Typical totals from the same guide, as an order of magnitude: ~4.5–6.5% of the price on a resale and ~13.5–15% on a new build. The detail on VAT and stamp tax is in dossier 03-impuestos.
The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.
Figures
- VAT, first sale (new build)
- 12% on the higher of price and registered value
- Stamp tax, second and subsequent sales
- 3%
- Notary fees
- ~1–2% of value
- Lawyer (due diligence)
- Q3,000–Q8,000 or 0.5–1%
- Typical total, resale
- ~4.5–6.5% of price
- Typical total, new build
- ~13.5–15% of price
Caveat
Sources
- CBR Guatemala, impuestos en la compra y venta de inmuebles (b)
- Minfin, Decreto 37-92, Ley del Impuesto de Timbres Fiscales (PDF)
- PwC Tax Summaries, Guatemala — other taxes
- MapaInmueble, cuánto cobra un notario en Guatemala (b)
- RE/MAX Legacy, costos e impuestos al comprar o vender propiedad (c)
- RGP, Acuerdo Gubernativo 325-2005 (PDF)
- Living in Guatemala, guía de compra (c)
Related records
This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.