If you own a home in Costa Rica and the building alone is valued above ₡143 million, you owe a tax that many owners have never heard of until they are late paying it. It falls due every January 15.
Its real name is the Impuesto Solidario para el Fortalecimiento de Programas de Vivienda — the Solidarity Tax for the Strengthening of Housing Programs — created by Ley 8683 and in force since 2009. Everyone calls it the luxury home tax. It is not the same thing as your municipal property tax, and paying one does nothing about the other.
The threshold measures only what you built
This is where owners get caught. The ₡143 million test looks at the value of the construction and its fixed, permanent installations. The land underneath does not count toward deciding whether you owe anything.
But once you cross that line, the calculation changes shape. Hacienda then assesses the property including the land, valued from its zone maps, and if you are in a condominium your proportional share of the common areas comes in too — the administration is obliged to give you that figure.
So a modest house on an expensive lot can pass the threshold on the building and then be taxed on a total far larger than the building alone. If you are anywhere near the line, pay a certified appraiser rather than guessing.
The threshold moves every year, and it can move down
Hacienda re-sets the exempt amount each December, indexed to the consumer price index. Most years it rises with inflation. For 2026 it fell. The CPI variation for the reference period was −1.31%, which pulled the exempt amount from ₡145 million down to ₡143 million under Executive Decree 45358-H. A home that sat just under the line last year may be over it this year without a single thing changing about the house. If you were exempt in 2025 by a narrow margin, check again.
What you actually pay
The rates are progressive, applied to the taxable value in bands rather than as a single rate on the whole amount. For 2026:
| Taxable value | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to ₡359 million | 0.25% |
| ₡359m to ₡720m | 0.30% |
| ₡720m to ₡1,081m | 0.35% |
| ₡1,081m to ₡1,443m | 0.40% |
| ₡1,443m to ₡1,800m | 0.45% |
| ₡1,800m to ₡2,162m | 0.50% |
| Above ₡2,162m | 0.55% |
Most owners who owe this tax at all sit in the bottom band.
Declare every three years, pay every year
These are two separate obligations and people routinely conflate them. The declaration goes on form D-174, filed through the Oficina Virtual in Hacienda’s TRIBU-CR system. You file it once every three years, updating the declared value of the property. If you bought a home during the year and it falls above the threshold, you file whether or not the three-year cycle is due.
The payment is annual, through TRIBU-CR or at the counter at authorized banks. Both the declaration and the payment are due by January 15. Older guidance still refers to form D-179 and the ATV platform. That was correct for more than a decade and is no longer current — TRIBU-CR replaced ATV, and the form number changed with it.
Missing the deadline
Late filing and late payment both carry penalties and interest under the Código de Normas y Procedimientos Tributarios. Interest is set periodically by Hacienda rather than fixed in the law, so check the current rate rather than relying on a figure you read somewhere.
Holding the property through a corporation, an SRL or a trust does not exempt it. Neither does using the house occasionally or only as a holiday home — the tax applies to residential property regardless of how often anyone sleeps there.
Where the money goes
Collections fund housing programs for families in extreme poverty. That is what the “solidarity” in the name refers to, and it is the reason the tax survived past the ten-year term originally written into Ley 8683.
Reviewed for the 2026 tax period. The exempt amount and the bracket thresholds are updated by executive decree each December.
