The Riviera Maya property tax guides that come up first on Google repeat the same number: acquisition tax in Quintana Roo is 2 or 3 percent. Today it is 4 percent in Playa del Carmen, 4 in Tulum and 3 in Cozumel, and each rate lives in an article you can open and read.
On September 18, 2026 we read three of those pages in full. Ogarom publishes a state by state table of the acquisition tax, the ISABI, credits its figures to a mortgage calculator site and puts Tulum at around 3 percent. Cancún Prime covers the sale side well, gives 2 percent for acquisition and never cites an article or the 5 percent state tax. IBG Legal is the most rigorous and cites federal law article by article, yet leaves the municipal rates as a historical range of 2 to 3 percent, naming no municipal finance law.
The three agree: the federal layer is covered, and the state and municipal layers, where the first bill and the last one get paid, are empty. This guide puts the three together. It is not tax advice and does not replace your notary.
The three acquisition rates, with article and date
Each municipality has its own finance law, enacted by the State Congress, so the rate changes from one municipality to the next and state by state ISABI tables are structurally wrong for Quintana Roo. Three municipalities, three laws, three different articles.
| Municipality | Rate | Article | Law last reformed, per the state gazette (POE) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playa del Carmen | 4% | 23 QUINQUIES | POE December 10, 2025 |
| Tulum | 4% | 50 | POE December 9, 2024 |
| Cozumel | 3% | 28 | POE December 17, 2024 |
In Playa del Carmen, article 23 QUINQUIES carries the note "Reformado POE 10-12-2025". That decree, number 167, set the rate at 4 percent, also reformed item III of article 23 QUÁTER and the first paragraph of 23 DECIES, and changed the municipality's name from Solidaridad to Playa del Carmen. That is why the Congress file is still named Solidaridad.
Tulum has a trap of its own that explains the error in circulation. The State Congress publishes a Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Tulum consolidated through 2021 where the tax sits in article 46 Quínquies at 3 percent. That law is repealed: the second transitory article of the law in force expressly repeals the earlier one, issued by Decree 182 of November 30, 2012. Whoever opens the first file on the list walks away with 3 percent and publishes it.
With our own inventory, at prices as of September 18, 2026: a unit at BUZZ, the development we represent on Calle 28 in Playa del Carmen, is listed from 2,000,000 pesos, so at 4 percent the tax is 80,000 pesos and at the 2 percent those pages repeat it would be 40,000. THE STELLA in Cozumel starts at 12,400,000 pesos and pays 372,000 at 3 percent; on the mainland it would be 496,000. That whole difference shows up on signing day.
The base is not the price, and Playa del Carmen counts one more value
The three base articles order the same thing, that the highest value on a list wins, and the list changes from one municipality to the next.
Playa del Carmen's article 23 QUÁTER lists four values. The agreed price adjusted by the national consumer price index, the cadastral appraisal no older than 180 days, the appraisal by an expert on the state registry of property appraisers for tax purposes, checked and validated by the state authority and likewise no older than 180 days, and the last value declared by the seller. That fourth item does not exist in the other two laws, and the winning value is then indexed under article 17-A of the Federal Tax Code.
Tulum's article 49 and Cozumel's article 27 list three, and both accept an appraisal performed by a bank. Playa del Carmen no longer does: its third item was reformed on December 10, 2025 and now requires a registered state expert. For setting the base, a bank appraisal works on the island and in Tulum and falls short in Playa del Carmen.
Two rules are identical in all three. The closing paragraph of those same articles 23 QUÁTER, 49 and 27 sets usufruct and bare ownership at 50 percent each of the property value. And payment falls due within fifteen days of the act, under articles 23 SEXIES, 51 and 29.
The housing deduction, with three different ceilings
None of the pages we read mentions it, and it exists in all three municipalities. Low income and popular housing carry a deduction of ten UMA raised to the year, subtracted from the base before the rate applies. With the 2026 UMA from INEGI, published on January 8 and in force from February 1, the daily value is 117.31 pesos and the annual one 42,794.64, so the deduction is 427,946.40 pesos.
The ceilings that decide what counts as low income or popular housing do change, and they are measured at the end of construction.
| Municipality | Article | Low income | Popular |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playa del Carmen | 23 DECIES | 20 annual UMA, 855,892.80 | 25 annual UMA, 1,069,866.00 |
| Tulum | 55 | 17 annual UMA, 727,508.88 | 28 annual UMA, 1,198,249.92 |
| Cozumel | 32 | 15 annual UMA, 641,919.60 | 25 annual UMA, 1,069,866.00 |
One further condition shows up only in Playa del Carmen: the deduction applies provided this is the first acquisition of the home and also of the buyer, two first times at once. Tulum and Cozumel leave that condition out. Being honest about our inventory: BUZZ starts at 2,000,000 pesos, above both Playa del Carmen ceilings, so the deduction does not apply to it.
Alongside the tax, closing adds notary fees with their value added tax (IVA), recording fees, the appraisal and two certificates, and for a foreigner inside the coastal strip, the Foreign Affairs Ministry permit and the bank trust with its annual fee. The detail is in the bank trust guide, the buying process guide, the preconstruction guide and the first property guide. Ask for the estimated cost sheet before signing the promise agreement: if it shows 2 or 3 percent acquisition tax for Playa del Carmen or Tulum, it came from an old template.
Property tax: same base, same two-month periods, different discounts
The base is not only the cadastral value either. Playa del Carmen's article 12 orders the highest among the cadastral value, the bank value, the value declared by the taxpayer and the rent the lot produces or could produce, and Cozumel's article 12 with Tulum's article 30 follow the same logic. The calendar is in fact identical: articles 16, 34 and 16 require payment in advance every two months, within the first ten days of January, March, May, July, September and November. What changes are the discounts.
The discounts for paying the year up front look alike and do not match. Playa del Carmen's article 18 authorizes the council to grant up to 25 percent if payment is made through January 31, and up to 20 percent through the last business day of February. Tulum's article 36 says before January 31 for the 25 percent and up to 15 percent in February, and Cozumel repeats that pair in its article 18. Through the 31st and before the 31st are different dates, and 20 against 15 percent is different money.
Those same three articles grant a benefit to people with a disability, pensioners, retirees or holders of an INAPAM or INSEN card, on a single property that is their own home. Playa del Carmen and Tulum word it as up to 50 percent, and Cozumel as 50 percent, with no "up to". Playa del Carmen sets a deadline of the last business day of June and rules out the January and February discounts; Cozumel allows them on the amount above its cap. The caps are on taxable value: 25,000 UMA in Playa del Carmen, 20,786 in Tulum and 40,000 in Cozumel, and since only the first two define UMA in their article 5 as the daily value, we do not convert Cozumel's into pesos. The full conditions are in the retirement guide.
The property tax clearance certificate is required to close, so a seller behind on it stops the signing.
Selling: federal income tax and the 5 percent state tax
On a sale, income tax applies to the gain, which is the price minus the acquisition cost adjusted for inflation, minus improvements backed by invoices, commissions and the notary costs from when you bought. The notary computes and withholds.
On top of that runs a state tax that none of the three pages we read mentions. The Ley de Hacienda del Estado de Quintana Roo devotes its second section to the cedular tax on sales of real estate. Article 22 sets the rate at 5 percent. Around that rate, article 19 defines the object and includes sales through a trust and the assignment of rights over assets held in one, article 20 taxes individuals, and article 21 refers the base and the exemptions to the general provisions, to chapter IV of title IV of the income tax law and to its regulations.
Here we correct our own July version, which said ten days. The deadline is fifteen. Articles 23 and 24 were reformed on July 24, 2024 and now read fifteen days following the sale and following the signing of the deed.
Article 24 also carries a regime none of the three pages we read picks up. The notary is released from computing and remitting the tax when the seller is an individual engaged in business activity. Since June 10, 2025 that release only operates if the seller declares before the notary that the property forms part of the assets of their business activity and the deed includes three documents: a current certificate of state tax obligations from the Quintana Roo tax authority, the SATQ, the receipt of the sale notice, and the receipt of the last annual return or, in a first year of business, their federal taxpayer registration. With the notary released, the taxpayer remits on their own within that same window, and the notary must still report the transaction by filing within fifteen days.
Any appraisal used as the base must come from an expert on the state registry, carry SATQ validation and be issued before the deed is granted. Article 26 Bis makes notaries who must compute the tax jointly liable for it, which is why your notary will ask for the complete file before signing.
The primary residence exemption is measured on the price
Article 93, section XIX, subsection a) of the income tax law exempts the income from the sale of a primary residence when the consideration does not exceed seven hundred thousand investment units and the transfer is formalized before a notary. The Bank of Mexico published the UDI at 8.824423 pesos for September 25, 2026, which puts the ceiling around 6,177,000 pesos. The UDI moves daily and the number that matters is the one on your signing date.
The limit looks at the price, and going over it does not erase the exemption either: the gain is determined on the excess, and deductions are taken in the proportion that results from dividing the excess by the consideration received. It applies provided that in the three preceding years you have not sold another exempt primary residence.
Since the reform of July 24, 2024, article 26 of the state law copies that ceiling, that proportional rule and its own three year rule, with a sworn statement before the notary. It adds a territorial condition that is easy to miss: the primary residence includes the land area that does not exceed three times the area covered by the buildings, and tax is due on the excess. Proof is given to the notary through an INE voter ID card, tax receipts for electricity or landline service, or a bank statement, provided the address on the document matches the property being sold and it is in your name, your spouse's, or that of your ascendants or descendants in a direct line.
A unit you rented by the night all year is unlikely to be your primary residence. The tax treatment of that case sits in the Airbnb guide and the live and rent guide.
If you live outside Mexico
The regime for a nonresident selling real estate in Mexico lives in article 160 of the income tax law; article 161 deals with shares, and that is where IBG Legal, the most careful source in the group we read, places it. This is the second correction to our July version, which cited 161 and also required a legal representative for the gain option.
Article 160 sets 25 percent on the total income received, with no deductions. As an option, it allows applying to the gain the maximum rate in the tariff of article 152, today 35 percent, with the gain determined under chapter IV of title IV and without deducting the losses in the last paragraph of article 121. And article 160 itself says that in sales recorded in a public deed no representative in the country is required to elect that option.
The primary residence exemption is out of reach: article 93 sits in title IV, which taxes individuals resident in Mexico, while a nonresident is taxed under title V.
There is a paragraph in the same article that none of the three pages we read mentions, and it bites in the reverse case, when the foreigner is the BUYER. If the tax authority performs an appraisal and it exceeds the agreed consideration by more than 10 percent, the entire difference counts as income of the nonresident buyer and is taxed at 25 percent. Recording a deed below the real value can create a tax bill for the foreign buyer.
And there is the other half of the bill. Your own country will want its share, and the credit for taxes paid in Mexico only works if you documented things properly on this side. The cost of living guide covers running costs if you are also moving.
How we work this
Every peso of improvement backed by an invoice in your name and with your tax ID lowers the gain, and with it both the income tax and the state tax. A 400,000 peso kitchen paid in cash with no invoice does not exist for the tax authority: keep the deed, the receipts for the tax and the notary costs, the remodeling invoices and the invoiced sales commission.
Before a client signs an offer we ask for the notary's estimated cost sheet with the current municipal rate in writing, the property tax status and the maintenance fee status. When they sell, we build the deduction file before setting the price, because the price is negotiated once and the invoices do not show up later.
We are master broker in four cities and keep an office in Playacar Phase II, so we check the rate and the calendar city by city. To choose between markets there are the Playa del Carmen versus Tulum comparison, the Cozumel guide, the guide to investing in Tulum, the areas guide, the fraud guide and the Maya Train guide.
If you want the real breakdown for a specific unit, including the ones in our available inventory, write to us. We do not give tax advice. What we give is the complete file, on time, so your notary and your accountant can.