Capital gains tax when you sell at Puerto Marina: the seller's side of a Dominican resale

Puerto Marina's 97 residences at Marina Cap Cana are due for delivery in 2029, so a first owner's sale is some years off. When it comes, three Dominican taxes meet in one transaction, and each lands on a different person: the tax on your gain, the 3% transfer tax your buyer pays, and the annual property tax, the IPI, which has to show as current or exempt before the title can move. This guide follows that sale from the seller's chair: the rate after the June 2026 reform, what the project's CONFOTUR status does and does not reach, the file the tax authority expects at closing, and what to do if a buyer never registers the transfer. It is general information, not tax advice; a Dominican tax adviser should confirm your own position before you list.

One sale, three taxes, three different payers

It is tempting to think of a resale as a single tax event. Under Dominican rules it is three, and keeping them apart is the first step to pricing a sale properly. The capital gains tax is yours as the seller and is measured on what you made. The transfer tax belongs to your buyer and is measured on the value of the property. The IPI, the yearly tax on real-estate holdings, is not a new bill at closing, but the registry will not move the title until the property shows as current on it or exempt from it.

Each one runs on its own clock. Your buyer has six months from the completed transfer act to pay the transfer tax, and specialist readings of the 2026 reform give the seller a six-month window for the tax on the gain as well, a date to confirm with an adviser. The IPI runs year by year against whoever the tax authority, the DGII, still has on record as the owner, which is why the section on the descargo further down matters more than it first appears.

The rate on your gain after Law 30-26

The way the gain is measured has not changed. Article 289 of the Tax Code, Law 11-92, starts from the sale price and deducts your acquisition cost after adjusting it for inflation under Article 327, and the adjusted cost rises with improvements properly added to the property's capital account. In a 2024 answer to one seller, the DGII described exactly that subtraction and asked for the operation to be presented to its local audit section so the gain could be checked. What changed in 2026 is the rate. Law 30-26 of 18 June 2026 added Article 296-1, which taxes an individual's gain on a property sale at 10% as a single, definitive payment kept outside the annual income-tax scale, and the DGII's implementation calendar lists it as effective immediately.

Two limits keep that 10% from being a figure to plan around without advice. It is written for individuals: a residence held by a company is taxed at the general corporate rate of 27%. And the DGII material read for this page does not say how the new rate reaches an individual who is not a Dominican tax resident, a status that generally turns on spending more than 182 days in the country in a fiscal year, not on holding a residence card. Specialist commentary adds that the detail of the base is left to a regulation not yet issued. So no worked figure appears here; ask an adviser to run your own numbers once that regulation is out, and again before you set an asking price.

What Puerto Marina's CONFOTUR status reaches, and what it does not

Puerto Marina's own materials describe the project as CONFOTUR-approved, under the tourism incentive law, Law 158-01. For the first buyers of a classified project, the benefits that reach an individual owner concern two taxes: an exemption from the 3% transfer tax on the purchase from the developer, and an exemption from the IPI. The law provides a fifteen-year exemption period for qualifying projects; how it applies to a particular residence and owner is a question for your attorney. Neither benefit is automatic, either: each has to be filed and recorded on the title.

None of the sources behind this page names a relief on a capital gain, so plan the sale as if the gain is taxed under the general rules above, and ask your attorney whether the project's classification resolution says anything more. Where CONFOTUR does reach the sale is the paperwork. The registry's checklist for a transfer by sale asks for a DGII certificate showing the property current on the IPI or exempt from it, so an exemption that was properly recorded when you bought becomes a clean line in your seller's file. And because the law limits the benefits to first buyers from the developer, the person who buys from you pays the transfer tax and does not take over your IPI exemption. Expect that to come up when a buyer prices your residence.

The DGII file at closing

A Dominican transfer passes through two offices in turn: the DGII's valuation unit, where the transfer tax is assessed and paid, and then the Registro de Títulos, which issues the new title. The DGII's own service sheet sets out what it expects, and several items fall on the seller even though the tax collected at that desk is the buyer's.

1. Both parties on the taxpayer register
   The DGII asks for buyer and seller to be registered in the RNC, its taxpayer register, with the registration active. A foreign owner who has never registered should start early.
2. The transfer request form
   Form FI-DVB-012, completed and signed, lodged with the notarised transfer act in the original plus two copies and a copy of the title.
3. How the money moved
   The act must carry the details of the means of payment used; the joint DGII and registry guide applies this to acts from 1 May 2025 above RD$1,000,000.
4. Identity of each party
   A foreign seller or buyer gives a passport, and the registry also asks a foreigner for the national identity document of the country of origin.
5. Property tax up to date
   The property must be current on the IPI, or recorded as exempt, and any earlier transfer left unpaid has to be settled first.
6. The buyer's receipt moves the title
   The registry files the transfer only with the original transfer-tax receipt, so it is the buyer's payment, not your signature, that completes the change of owner.

If the buyer never registers: the descargo

From the DGII's point of view a sale is not finished until the buyer has paid the transfer tax and the property has moved to the buyer's name in its records. Until then the IPI keeps being demanded from the person the property is registered to, which after a sale means you. The DGII's rule on this, now Norma General 03-2024 of 28 November 2024, exists because sellers kept reporting buyers who put off registering in order to delay paying the tax.

The remedy is a descargo: the seller asks the DGII to record the transfer in its own systems in the buyer's favour, without the seller paying the buyer's tax; a buyer can never request it. The request is made in person at a local office with a signed form, identity copies of both parties, a copy of the title and the original transfer act with the notary's signature certified. A seller who does not live in the Dominican Republic can act through a representative holding an apostilled power of attorney. The DGII answers within 10 business days, and silence does not count as approval. Once it is granted, the DGII places a note on the property for the buyer's unpaid tax and, after the six-month payment period, pursues the buyer for it with surcharges. You remain responsible for the property's taxes up to the year in which you asked. The request is refused while the property carries IPI debts or a recorded opposition, or while an earlier transfer is unpaid, so keep your own position clean right up to closing and this door stays open.

Selling from abroad: withholding, reporting and the questions to settle first

When the seller is not a Dominican tax resident, the DGII describes the tax on the gain as paid through a designated withholding agent, with a resident buyer withholding 100% of the tax the sale generates. That moves the conversation about the figure to before closing: the buyer's side carries the duty to hold the money back, so it will want the amount agreed. The gain is then reported on the annual return, form IR-1 for an individual and IR-2 for a company, and a seller who is not registered and has no other filing duty can ask the DGII to validate the calculation and issue a determination of the tax.

Three questions are worth having answered in writing well before you list. First, which rate reaches you as a non-resident individual after Law 30-26. Second, whether either new exemption could apply to you: one for reinvesting the proceeds of a habitual residence in another within six months, one for individuals over 65 selling a habitual residence. Both are framed around a habitual home, and whether a residence at Puerto Marina counts as yours is for an adviser to judge. Third, if you are thinking of selling before the 2029 delivery, how your position is treated while it is still a purchase contract rather than a registered title: the DGII's 2024 norm lists an assignment among the acts that transfer real-property rights, but it says nothing about a contract that has not yet produced a title. For a ruling on your own facts, the DGII accepts technical consultations on form FI-GLEGA-004 and states a response time of 22 business days.

Common questions

How much capital gains tax will I pay if I sell my Puerto Marina residence?

For an individual, Law 30-26 of 18 June 2026 sets 10% on the gain from a property sale, paid once as a final amount; a company pays the general rate of 27%. The gain is the sale price less your inflation-adjusted cost. Whether the 10% reaches a seller who is not a Dominican tax resident is not stated in the DGII material read for this page, so get that confirmed in writing.

Does Puerto Marina's CONFOTUR approval reduce the tax on my gain?

Plan as if it does not. The first-buyer benefits the sources name are exemptions from the 3% transfer tax and from the IPI, and none of them is a relief on a capital gain. Ask your attorney whether the project's classification resolution says anything more.

Who pays the transfer tax when I resell?

Your buyer. The 3% transfer tax on the property's value is the acquirer's obligation, due within six months of the completed transfer act, and the CONFOTUR exemption from it belongs only to first buyers from the developer.

What can I do if my buyer does not register the transfer?

Ask the DGII for a descargo under Norma General 03-2024. It records the transfer in the buyer's favour in the DGII's systems without you paying the buyer's tax, and the DGII answers within 10 business days. Until then the IPI is still demanded from you as the registered owner.

Can I deal with the DGII from outside the country?

For a descargo, yes: a seller who does not live in the Dominican Republic can act through a representative holding an apostilled power of attorney. For the rest of the sale file, ask your Dominican attorney which steps a representative can take on your behalf.