IUSI Calculator 2026: Enter Your Cadastral Value, Get the Annual and Quarterly Amount

⚠️ Update — September 24, 2026: Decreto 18-2026 was signed and published in the Diario de Centro America on August 28, 2026. It sets IUSI to 0 por millar for homes (residential and mixed use) and rescales commercial property to 3/6/9 por millar, but the new rates take effect 90 days after publication (January 8, 2027 according to Congress sources quoted by Prensa Libre). Until then you still owe the rates on this page (Decreto 15-98). Full detail, sources and open questions: IUSI Reform 2026 (Decreto 18-2026).

What IUSI Is in Guatemala

IUSI (Impuesto Unico Sobre Inmuebles) is Guatemala’s annual real estate tax. It’s regulated by Decree 15-98 of the Congress and is collected by each Municipalidad based on the cadastral value of the property. The funds finance local services (roads, water, garbage, security).

Unlike many countries, IUSI is relatively low — typically 0.2% to 0.9% of cadastral value per year — and the cadastral value is often well below market value, so the effective tax rate on actual market value is even lower.

The IUSI Brackets (Decree 15-98, Article 11)

The rate depends on which bracket the cadastral value falls in:

“Per mil” means per thousand, so 9 per mil = 9 / 1,000 = 0.9%.

The bracket sets the rate, and that rate applies to the FULL cadastral value — IUSI is not computed marginally per portion like income tax. A Q100,000 property pays 9 per mil on the entire Q100,000 = Q900/year (Prensa Libre’s worked example). One practical consequence: crossing a bracket boundary re-rates the whole value — Q70,000 owes Q420/year, but Q70,001 owes about Q630/year.

What Counts as Cadastral Value

INCLUDED (Decree 15-98, Article 3):

• The land itself
• Structures, buildings and installations permanently attached to the property (house, garage, walls, pool, water/electrical systems)
• Improvements to them (paved driveway, terraces)
• Permanent crops — Art. 3 puts these inside the base, and defines the class by a test rather than a list: any crop with a production term of more than three years counts, which takes in coffee, cardamom, rubber and fruit trees

EXCLUDED (Article 3, second paragraph — the list is short and closed):

• Machinery and equipment
• On rural properties: the worker housing, schools, health posts, dispensaries and other social-benefit buildings for that property’s workers

Decreto 15-98 does not route trees or permanent crops to some other tax — it taxes them inside IUSI, which is the único (single) tax on real property. Seasonal crops are not in the Art. 3 list either way.

How the value gets set (Article 5) — four routes, and the first one is the taxpayer’s own:

1. Autoavalúo — the owner’s sworn self-assessment, filed when the Ministry or the Municipalidad convokes one (Art. 6). Skip the convocation and the municipality may hire a private valuer and bill you for it.
2. Direct appraisal by DICABI (Direccion de Catastro y Avaluo de Bienes Inmuebles) or the Municipalidad’s own valuation office, under MINFIN’s valuation manual.
3. Technical appraisal by an authorised valuer at the owner’s request, certified under oath.
4. The value stated in the aviso notarial when the property is sold or otherwise transferred.

A value lower than the one already in the matrícula fiscal is not operated (Art. 5, final paragraph). If the property has genuinely lost value through verifiable damage, the route is a request under Art. 7, with the appraisal at the owner’s cost.

Worked Examples

Case 1 — Modest property valued at Q50,000

• Falls in the Q20,001–Q70,000 bracket → 6 per mil on the full value
• Q50,000 × 0.006 = Q300/year (or Q75/quarter)

Case 2 — Middle-class property valued at Q200,000

• Falls in the Q70,001+ bracket → 9 per mil on the full value
• Q200,000 × 0.009 = Q1,800/year (or Q450/quarter)

Case 3 — Premium property valued at Q1,000,000

• 9 per mil on the full value
• Q1,000,000 × 0.009 = Q9,000/year (or Q2,250/quarter)

Case 4 — Luxury property valued at Q5,000,000

• 9 per mil on the full value: Q5,000,000 × 0.009 = Q45,000/year (or Q11,250/quarter)

Quarterly Payment Schedule

Article 21 of Decree 15-98 establishes quarterly payment, due within the month following each quarter’s close:

Art. 22 lets you prepay up to four quarters — the law grants no discount for it, and Guatemala City’s own catastro FAQ confirms prepayment carries none (checked 20 Aug 2026). A few municipalities may run their own incentives; ask your catastro. Pay at the Municipalidad cashier, bank window (Banrural, BAM, Industrial), or online portal where available.

Late Payment Penalties

• Late payment: a single 20% penalty (multa) on the amount not paid — Decreto 15-98 Art. 25. The same article rules out an interest clock: because of the special nature of this tax, late payment does not generate the compensatory interest of Arts. 58-59 of the Código Tributario, nor the mora sanction of its Art. 92. The 20% is the whole sanction.
• No interest clock: the 20% does not compound and no interest runs while the quarter sits unpaid. A quarter that is one month late and one that is three years late carry the same 20% on that quarter’s principal.
• More than four quarters behind: you can ask for an instalment agreement of up to twelve months on principal + multa (Art. 24).
• Continued non-payment: the Municipalidad may issue a certificacion de deuda (collection certificate)
• Long-term debt: judicial collection (juicio economico coactivo), which adds judicial costs. The prescription period for the tax is four years (Art. 28).

Most importantly: a property with unpaid IUSI cannot be sold or mortgaged. You need a solvencia de IUSI (proof of payment) before closing any transaction.

How to Get Your IUSI Boleta

1. Visit the Municipalidad’s tax office (Direccion Financiera or Departamento de IUSI) with your DPI and property title (escritura).
2. Request the boleto de cobro showing the cadastral value and the quarterly amount.
3. For Guatemala City and several departmental capitals, the IUSI can also be looked up online using the matricula fiscal number.

Special Cases and Exemptions

Under Art. 12 of Decreto 15-98 the exemption is by entity, and the list is closed:

• The State, its decentralised and autonomous entities, the municipalities and their enterprises
• Diplomatic and consular missions of countries Guatemala has relations with — only where reciprocity exists
• International organisations Guatemala is a member of
• USAC and other universities legally authorised to operate in the country
• Authorised religious entities, where the property is used for their worship, social assistance or education and those services are provided generally and free of charge
• Private schools that teach official study plans and programmes
• Professional colleges (colegios profesionales)
• CDAG (Confederación Deportiva Autónoma de Guatemala) and the Guatemalan Olympic Committee
• Properties of legally constituted cooperatives

Two things people get wrong. The Q2,000-and-under exemption is not on this list — it is the first bracket of the Art. 11 rate schedule, i.e. a rate of zero, not an Art. 12 exemption. And “charitable” or non-profit organisations in general do not appear in Art. 12 at all. Private homes and commercial property are never exempt, whatever the owner’s finances.

Tips for Foreign Buyers

If you’re buying property as a foreigner or from the diaspora:

1. Always request the solvencia de IUSI before signing the escritura — verify there are no debts.
2. Get the cadastral record put in your name when you buy. Decreto 15-98 sets no deadline for the buyer — the update runs through the aviso notarial your notary is legally required to file (Art. 35, which points at Art. 38 of the Código de Notariado; Art. 27 fines notaries who fail to send it). Do it anyway and confirm with the municipality that the change was actually operated: as the acquirer you are jointly liable for tax and penalties owed on the property at the date of acquisition (Art. 9), and until the record moves the bills keep going to the seller. Some municipalities quote their own 15- or 30-day window — ask yours.
3. Pay quarterly from abroad via bank transfer or online portal where available.
4. Hire a gestor or accountant to manage IUSI plus the building permit / Plan de Manejo Ambiental if you build.

Related Resources

• How to Pay IUSI — muniguate portal, authorized banks, documents needed, and the errors people hit at the cashier.
• Construction Cost Calculator Guatemala — Plan total costs for building on your IUSI-paying land.
• Moving to Guatemala from UK — Common destination for British property buyers in Antigua and Lake Atitlan.
• Moving to Guatemala from USA — American buyer playbook with tax implications.

Legal Sources

• Decreto Numero 15-98 of the Congress — Ley del Impuesto Unico Sobre Inmuebles, Article 3 (what the tax falls on), 5-6 (how the value is set / autoavalúo), 11 (brackets), 12 (exemptions), 21-22 (deadlines and prepayment), 24 (instalment plans), 25 (the 20% late penalty, and the exclusion of interest), 28 (four-year prescription). Full text: Contraloría General de Cuentas mirror (retrieved 2026-08-20).
• DICABI — Direccion de Catastro y Avaluo de Bienes Inmuebles, Ministerio de Finanzas Publicas (MINFIN returns 403 to automated clients, so this is named, not read).
• Each Municipalidad’s IUSI regulation — Local ordinances may add specifics on payment methods, online portals, and discounts. There is no national register of these ordinances, so this entry carries no link.
• Full text of Decreto 15-98: the Contraloría mirror above returns 403 to automated clients; a readable copy of the same statute is published by INAP.

This page provides general guidance on Guatemala property tax. For complex cases (multiple properties, inheritance, commercial use, re-valuations), consult a tax accountant or notary.