CONFOTUR is the Dominican tourism incentive that can wipe out your transfer tax and your annual property tax for fifteen years. It is real, it is written into law, and it is also the single most misrepresented thing said to buyers in Cap Cana. Here is what it actually does, and the two questions that decide whether it applies to you.
What the law gives you
Law 158-01, as amended, lets the government grant tourism-development incentives to approved projects. When a project holds that approval, the buyer of a unit in it receives two things that matter:
- No transfer tax at closingThe standard 3% transfer tax on the registered value is waived. On a US$ 400,000 unit that is US$ 12,000 you do not pay on the day you sign.
- No annual property tax for fifteen yearsIPI, the 1% annual tax on value above the exemption threshold, does not apply to that unit for the exemption period.
Those are the two that show up in your bank account. The exemption belongs to the project first and reaches you through your purchase — which is exactly where the confusion starts.
The part that is usually left out
CONFOTUR is not a feature of Cap Cana. It is a status a specific development applies for, is granted, and can be granted for a defined scope.
Of the 43 developments I currently track inside and around this gate, 13 carry it. That is fewer than one in three. When a sales office says “everything here is CONFOTUR”, they are describing their own building at best and are simply wrong at worst.
Three things about that status that rarely make it into a brochure:
- It has a resolution numberAn approved project has a numbered resolution with a date. If nobody can give you that number, treat the exemption as unconfirmed, not as pending.
- It has a scopeA resolution covers defined phases, towers or unit types. A project can be genuinely CONFOTUR-approved and your specific unit can still sit outside what the resolution covers — a later phase, a commercial unit, a plot sold separately.
- It has a clockThe fifteen years run from the exemption taking effect, not from your closing. Buying into a project that was approved six years ago means you inherit what is left, not a fresh fifteen.
Ask for the resolution number and the date, in writing, before you sign anything. Then have your own lawyer — not the developer’s — confirm that the resolution covers your unit and tell you how many years remain.
The two questions that decide it
Strip away the sales language and it comes down to two.
Does the resolution cover my unit? Not the project, the unit. Phase, tower, number. This is a document question with a document answer, and a lawyer can settle it in an afternoon.
How much of the fifteen years is left? An exemption with eleven years to run is worth meaningfully more than one with three, and neither is worth what a brochure implies when it just says “CONFOTUR” next to a price.
What it is worth, roughly
Take a US$ 400,000 unit as a working example. The transfer tax saving is around US$ 12,000, paid once, at closing. The annual property tax saving depends on the exemption threshold and on how the unit is registered, but on a property of that value it is on the order of a few thousand dollars a year — so over a full fifteen years the total can be a meaningful fraction of the purchase price.
That is worth having. It is not worth buying the wrong unit for, and it is not a reason to skip the questions you would otherwise ask about the developer, the contract and the delivery date. I have seen buyers accept a weaker escrow arrangement because the exemption made the deal feel like a bargain. The exemption does not protect your deposit.
If a project does not have it
Thirty of the 43 developments on my list do not carry CONFOTUR, and several of them are among the better things being built here. Not having the incentive is not a red flag. It means the arithmetic is different: you pay the 3% at closing and the annual tax from year one, and that cost belongs in your model from the start rather than as a surprise at signing.
What should concern you is not the absence of the exemption. It is a sales office that is vague about whether it has one.
What I do on your behalf
Before a development goes on this site I ask for the resolution number, and I check whether it covers the units being sold. If a project is marked CONFOTUR on a page here, that is what it is based on — not a claim made to me over the phone.
I am a broker, not your lawyer, and the confirmation that matters is the one your lawyer signs. What I can do is make sure you are asking for the right document before you are emotionally committed to a unit.
Incentives are granted under Law 158-01 and its amendments, administered by the CONFOTUR council. Terms change; confirm the current position with a Dominican attorney before you commit funds.
