Almost every Riviera Maya property tax guide on Google repeats the same number: acquisition tax in Quintana Roo is 2 percent. In Playa del Carmen that stopped being true back in 2020, and since December 2025 the gap has doubled. It is now 4 percent, and on a two million peso purchase the difference between what the blog says and what the treasury charges is forty thousand pesos that show up on signing day.
This guide puts together what a buyer actually pays and what a seller actually pays in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cozumel: at closing, every year, and on the sale. It does not replace your notary or your accountant. It exists so you walk into that conversation knowing what to ask.
Each municipality sets its own acquisition tax
The error starts in how the tax is structured. The "acquisition tax by state" tables floating around the internet are structurally wrong for Quintana Roo, because each city council sets its own rate. Solidaridad, Benito Juárez, Tulum and Cozumel can charge differently in the same year, and they do. In this state the tax is called ISABI, Impuesto Sobre Adquisición de Bienes Inmuebles.
In the municipality of Solidaridad, home to Playa del Carmen, the rate was 2 percent through 2019, rose to 3 percent in 2020, and stands at 4 percent for transactions formalized on or after 10 December 2025, the publication date of Decree 167 in the state Official Gazette. That is the rate in force as of this guide's publication in July 2026.
The base is not what your contract says either. It is calculated on the highest of three values: the agreed price, the certified appraisal and the cadastral value. If you bought cheap but the cadastral value came in high, you pay on the cadastral value.
With our own numbers: a unit at BUZZ, the development we represent on Calle 28 in Playa del Carmen, lists from 2,000,000 pesos. At 4 percent, ISABI on that unit is 80,000 pesos. At the 2 percent the guides keep quoting it would be 40,000.
We are not going to publish rates for Tulum and Cozumel here: they are approved by city council, they move, and quoting them from memory is the mistake we are pointing at. Ask the notary office for the current rate in writing, dated, for the municipality where you will sign.
What else the buyer pays on signing day
Beyond ISABI, the closing package includes notary fees plus VAT on those fees, registration duties at the Public Property Registry, the appraisal, a lien free certificate and a property tax clearance certificate. If you are a foreign buyer within the 50 kilometer coastal strip defined by article 27 of the Constitution, add the Ministry of Foreign Affairs permit and the setup of the bank trust, plus its annual fee. We cover that in detail in the fideicomiso guide for foreign buyers.
To budget for it, ask the notary office for the estimated cost statement before you sign the purchase promise. It is an ordinary document, they issue it without fuss, and it is the only number that applies to your case. If the quote someone sent you shows 2 or 3 percent acquisition tax for Playa del Carmen, it came from an old template.
Property tax is cheap here, but the calendar moves real money
Annual property tax here tends to surprise buyers from the United States and Canada by how low it is. What almost nobody takes advantage of is the discount calendar, which changes from one municipality to the next.
In Playa del Carmen, the city announced on 2 January 2026 discounts of 25 percent for payment between 1 and 15 January, 15 percent from 16 to 31 January, and 10 percent through February. Separately, a 50 percent discount on advance payment for seniors, people with disabilities, retirees and pensioners holding an INAPAM card, valid through 30 June 2026 and limited to a single residential property.
In Cozumel, the city authorized for 2026 a 15 percent discount from 2 to 21 January, 10 percent from 22 January to 15 February and 5 percent from 16 to 28 February, with 50 percent all year for people with disabilities, pensioners and retirees. Both city governments also announced surcharge forgiveness on prior arrears in that same window.
If you own a unit in Playa and another in Cozumel, those are two different calendars. And the percentages are approved every year, so these are the 2026 numbers and next year's need to be confirmed.
There is a direct consequence for buyers. The property tax clearance certificate is required in order to close. A seller behind on property tax stalls the signing, and that gets resolved in the negotiation.
When you sell: federal income tax and a state tax almost nobody mentions
Selling triggers income tax on the gain, not on the price. The gain is the sale price minus the acquisition cost adjusted for inflation, minus improvements you can back with invoices, sales commissions and the notary costs from when you bought. The notary calculates and withholds.
Then comes the line item we most often find missing from a seller's math: Quintana Roo charges a 5 percent state schedular tax on the gain from real estate sales, established in the State Treasury Law. On transactions executed before a notary, the notary calculates it, withholds it and files it within ten days following the signing of the deed. The law contemplates that it is not charged on income from the sale of a primary residence, but the treatment is not automatically identical to the federal rule: ask your notary office for the legal basis and the calculation in writing before you sign.
Only some Mexican states levy it, Quintana Roo among them, which is why national income tax guides skip it. What you pay there can affect your federal income tax, and that is a number your accountant has to run.
The primary residence exemption is measured on the price, not on the gain
This is the point that causes the most confusion. Article 93, section XIX, subsection a) of the Income Tax Law exempts the gain on the sale of a primary residence when the consideration does not exceed 700,000 UDIS. With the UDI around 8.80 pesos in July 2026 per the Bank of Mexico, that ceiling sits near 6.1 million pesos. Banxico publishes the UDI value and it moves daily, so the number that matters is the one on your signing date.
The cap is measured on the consideration, meaning the sale price, not the gain. And going over it does not wipe out the exemption: the excess portion of the price is determined as a proportion, and that same proportion of the gain is what gets taxed.
The notary verifies three things. That you are an individual, not a company. That it genuinely is your home and you can prove it with documents in your name, your spouse's, or your parents' or children's, showing that address: voter ID, electricity or landline bills. And that you have not used this exemption in the three preceding years, something the notary checks directly with the SAT, Mexico's tax authority.
A unit you rented out by the night all year is not your primary residence, no matter whose name is on the deed. If your plan is short term rental, factor the tax side in from the start, along with what we cover in the Airbnb returns guide for Playa del Carmen.
If you live outside Mexico
A seller without Mexican tax residency cannot use the primary residence exemption. The foreign resident regime in Title V of the Income Tax Law opens two routes: a 25 percent withholding on the gross sale amount with no deductions, or 35 percent on the gain, the second one requiring a legal representative in Mexico and complete documentation. The notary runs both numbers and you normally take the lower one, but the second is only available if you have a Mexican tax ID and invoices backing your cost and improvements.
Then there is the other half, the one that costs the most when it is left for last: your own country will want its share too. The United States taxes the worldwide income of its citizens and residents, and the credit for taxes paid in Mexico only works if you documented things properly on this side.
Both calculations depend on your documentation and your tax position in your country of residence. Do not act on these percentages without running them with your accountant.
Invoices are the deduction that saves the most
Every peso of improvement you can back with an invoice in your name and with your tax ID lowers the gain, and lowering the gain lowers both the federal income tax and the state schedular tax. A 400,000 peso kitchen paid in cash with no invoice does not exist for tax purposes: the VAT you felt you saved when hiring gets paid back with interest when you sell.
What to keep from day one: the purchase deed, receipts for the acquisition tax and notary costs, renovation invoices, and the invoiced sales commission. The acquisition cost also gets adjusted by the national consumer price index (INPC), so an old, well documented purchase is worth more than it looks on paper.
Moments when the tax arrives sooner than you expect
ISABI reaches more transactions than most people assume: beyond a completed sale, it also taxes assignment of rights, adjudication, inheritance, payment in kind and contribution to a trust. If you bought pre construction and sell your contract before the deed is issued, that transaction has tax implications worth reviewing with the notary before you close the deal, not after. We cover it alongside the rest of the process in the Riviera Maya pre construction guide.
On deadlines: the Playa del Carmen city government states that the tax must be paid within fifteen business days following the transfer of title. In practice the notary files it, but the clock runs.
How we handle it
Before a client signs an offer we ask for three things: the notary's estimated cost statement with the current municipal rate in writing, the property tax status, and the status of maintenance dues. When the client is selling, we assemble the deduction file before setting the price, because the price gets negotiated once and invoices do not appear afterward.
We are a master broker in four cities and keep an office in Playacar Fase II, so we check the municipal rate and the property tax calendar city by city rather than from memory. If you want the real breakdown for a specific unit, including the ones in our available inventory, write to us and we will build it with you and the notary.
To be clear: we do not give tax advice. We give you the complete file, on time, so your notary and your accountant can give it properly.