The luxury-home tax, officially a solidarity tax, is the annual bill people forget because it is not the municipal property tax. Property tax is 0.25 percent of a municipal registered value and is usually modest. The solidarity tax looks at the construction: the building and the installations fixed to it. Land is outside the base. For 2026 it applies once that construction value passes ₡143 million. At the Central Bank reference sell rate of ₡450.06 per dollar on September 11, 2026, that threshold is about $318,000. The dollar line moves whenever the exchange rate does. Use the colones. See Taxes and legal guide.
It reaches primary homes, second homes, and recreational homes, whether an individual or a company owns them. Concession holders are inside it too. A modest house on an expensive lot can fall under the threshold. A large house on a cheaper lot can fall over it. The lot’s glamour is not the test.
The brackets, without a fake invoice
The 2026 decree sets seven rates, from 0.25 percent up to 0.55 percent: 0.25 percent up to ₡359 million, 0.30 percent to ₡720 million, 0.35 percent to ₡1,081 million, 0.40 percent to ₡1,443 million, 0.45 percent to ₡1,800 million, 0.50 percent to ₡2,162 million, and 0.55 percent above that. Brackets are reset each December with the consumer price index, so next year’s colón figures will not be these figures.
What this page will not do is turn those rates into “your house owes $X.” Accountants still need to confirm whether each rate applies only to the slice of value above the previous line or in some other way. Until that computation is confirmed for a specific valuation, a dollar example would be a guess. Ask the accountant who will sign the return.
The value is not the listing price
The base is the municipal or fiscal construction value. On the Gold Coast that figure is often far below what a buyer just paid. That can be a relief in year one and a shock after a reassessment. Do not subtract the tax from your offer using the asking price as the base. Ask for the valuation the filing actually uses.
The declaration, form D-174, is filed every three years. The tax itself is paid every year, by January 15. Miss the distinction and you will either over-file or under-pay. Put January 15 on the same calendar as the Santa Cruz quarterly property-tax dates if the house is in that canton: March 30, June 30, September 30, and December 31. Confirm the canton. Flamingo, Potrero, the Conchal area, and Las Catalinas are generally Santa Cruz, and a parcel can still surprise you.
Older dollar shortcuts do not match the 2026 decree. If someone quotes a round dollar threshold from a prior year, they are using a stale conversion. Start from ₡143 million and let the accountant apply the brackets to the construction value in the file.
When you are comparing two houses, ask for each municipal construction value before you compare the carrying cost. A villa with a higher asking price can sit under the tax if the fiscal construction value is modest, and a renovated house on a quieter lot can sit over it. The January 15 payment is easy to miss when you are not in the country that week, so put it on the same calendar as insurance and the HOA draft. If the house is owned by a company, the company files. The tax does not disappear because the name on the folio is a sociedad.