Título III. De las disposiciones generales, transitorias, derogatorias y vigencia

Real property that is the object of a sale or exchange and that does not appear in the tax registry (matrícula fiscal) shall be registered therein immediately, with the taxpayer's information and the information contained in the notarial notice referred to in Article 38 of the Notary Code; for that purpose, the following information must be stated in the notice:

1.For rural estates, the name of the estate, if it has one; the number assigned by the corresponding Property Registry, if any; the legal or estimated surface area; the municipal jurisdiction to which it belongs; and other installations, if any;

2.For urban estates, the name of the town, the Municipality and the Department in which it is located shall be stated; the registrations in the Property Registry, if any; its dimensions and boundaries; the street, number and zone, if any; and those elements that make known its value.

The obligations arising from the application of the Single Property Tax may be extinguished by the means established in the Tax Code. It shall not be permissible to extinguish such obligations by the adjudication of immovable property in payment. Payments made in accordance with Decrees Numbers 62-87 and 122-97, both of the Congress of the Republic, from January 1, 1998 through the date on which this law enters into force, shall be applied to the payment of the tax owed by the taxpayer, as determined in accordance with this law.

The Directorate is under the obligation to submit to the Ministry of Public Finance an annual report of activities, in which it shall record the number of registrations opened and cancelled, appraisals carried out, notarial notices received and processed, the amount of tax collected and exempted, and delinquent accounts pending collection; on-site inspections carried out nationwide to verify the appraisals; a breakdown of the tax account, indicating how much has been delivered to the municipalities of the country; and any other matters deemed pertinent in the judgment of the Ministry.

Any provision issued to create, abolish or modify the rates of this tax and other tax obligations, as well as the exemptions established in this law, must be made as an express amendment to this law, so that the unity of its text is preserved.

In this regard, the creation, suspension and modification of those rights and obligations by means of administrative circulars, decisions, Ministerial Agreements or Government Agreements is prohibited.

The headings that appear at the beginning of the articles of this law do not have interpretive character.

For the correct interpretation of this law, it shall be understood, unless otherwise indicated, that when the following expressions are used:

1."The law" or "of the law" refers to this Decree;

2."The tax" or "of the tax" refers to the Single Tax on Real Estate (Impuesto Único Sobre Inmuebles);

3."The Ministry" or "Ministry" refers to the Ministry of Public Finance;

4."Administering entity" or "administering entities" refers to the General Directorate of Cadastre and Appraisal of Immovable Property and the municipalities that administer the tax;

5."The Directorate" or "Directorate" refers to the General Directorate of Cadastre and Appraisal of Immovable Property; and,

6."The Registration" or "Registration" refers to the Fiscal Registration (Matrícula Fiscal).

Until the self-assessment declaration referred to in this law is processed, the tax payable by taxpayers shall not be less than that which they are currently obligated to pay.

The Executive Branch, through the Ministry, shall issue the Regulation to this law within a period of thirty days from its entry into force.

In order to facilitate better compliance with the obligations of assessment, control and payment of the tax, Notaries, when authorizing public instruments containing contracts of sale or transfer of immovable property, shall, within a time limit of fifteen days from the date of authorization of the deed, give notice to the General Directorate of Cadastre and Appraisal of Immovable Property or to the respective municipalities, and shall also comply with the following rules:

a)In contracts of alienation:

Fill out and submit the corresponding form, which shall serve as notice of the alienation. Said form shall indicate:

1)Name of the taxpayers;

2)Their vecindad identity card (cédula de vecindad) numbers;

3)Tax domicile of the grantors;

4)Tax identification number, if they have one;

5)Property that is the subject of the contract;

6)Registration number in the Property Registry, if it has one;

7)Tax registry number (matrícula fiscal);

8)Location and area of the property, expressed in units of the decimal metric system.

b)In acts of donation of immovable property:

1)Names of the donor and the donee;

2)Vecindad identity card (cédula de vecindad) numbers;

3)Tax domicile of the grantors;

4)Tax identification numbers (NIT);

5)Family relationship, if any, between the grantors;

6)Value of the donation.

c)In acts of unification of properties and any others that are not subject to payment of the tax:

1)Date of the act or contract;

2)Names of the grantors;

3)Their vecindad identity card (cédula de vecindad) numbers;

4)Tax domicile;

5)Tax Identification Numbers (NIT);

6)Description of the unified properties, indicating their location;

7)Area, in units of the decimal metric system;

8)Tax registry number (matrícula fiscal);

9)Data identifying the unified estate (finca);

10)Registration number of the unified estate (finca) in the Property Registry.

d)In cases of subdivision of immovable property:

In cases where estates (fincas) are formed by division of other properties, they shall report to the collecting entity the data indicated in the preceding subparagraphs that are pertinent and that correspond to the new estates, within the term of 15 days from the registration of the subdivision in the Property Registry, providing the plans of the distribution of the land and, where applicable, of the distribution of the property, land and construction.

Notaries who fail to send the forms and notices mentioned in this article shall be sanctioned with an administrative pecuniary fine.

In order to broaden the taxpayer database and in view of the importance of having a purged register, late payments of the tax, fines and interest are forgiven in all cases recorded with the Ministry of Public Finance up to December thirty-first, nineteen ninety-seven. Likewise, the tax, fines and interest are forgiven in all cases recorded with the municipalities that are already administering the Single Property Tax, up to December thirty-first, nineteen ninety-six.

The debt that has been incurred by the municipalities in favor of the Municipal Development Institute -INFOM- is forgiven, as well as the debts that arose between the Ministry of Public Finance and the municipalities of the country, by reason of the application of Decree Number 62-87 of the Congress of the Republic and its amendments, up to December thirty-first, nineteen ninety-seven.

All owners, possessors, lessees, etc., of immovable property referred to in the content of Decree Number 122-97, Law on the Single Tax on Real Estate -IUSI-, are definitively exempted from the taxes accrued by the application of the provisions of said law, from the date it entered into force until the entry into force of this decree. By virtue of the foregoing exemption, the Ministry of Public Finance and its dependencies shall not collect or impose fines, interest or surcharges for taxes left unpaid on immovable property under the application of Decree Number 122-97. Payments that have been received shall be applied on account of the tax that is definitively determined in accordance with this law.

Any legal or regulatory provision that refers to Decree Number 62-87 of the Congress of the Republic, or to its articles, shall be understood to refer to this law.

In the application of this law, and insofar as it does not contradict or conflict with the provisions of the Tax Code, the legal provisions contained in the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure, Decree-Law Number 107, shall apply in a supplementary manner.

Decree Number 122-97 of the Congress of the Republic, Law of the Single Tax on Real Property, and any other legal or regulatory provision that conflicts with this law, are hereby repealed.

The present decree was declared a matter of national urgency with the favorable vote of more than two-thirds of the total number of deputies who make up the Congress of the Republic, approved in a single debate, and shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the official gazette.