Brazil Property Taxes

The taxes on a home in Brazil

A home in Brazil meets five taxes over its life, from three levels of government. The city takes one at purchase and one each year. Brasília takes income tax when the home earns or sells. The state taxes it when it passes on through death or gift. The new consumption tax touches only large-scale owners and businesses.

Taxes on Brazilian property
Tax	Who collects	When	Rate or size	Where to read more
ITBI	City	On purchase	Set by each city; 3% in São Paulo	Closing costs
IPTU	City	Each year	Set by each city	This guide
Capital gains	Federal	On sale	15% to 22.5%	This guide and selling
Income tax on rent	Federal	Monthly	15% for non-residents; 0% to 27.5% for residents	Rental income
ITCMD	State	On death or gift	Up to 8%	Inheritance

Brazil doesn't tax a home for rising in value until you sell it. There is no wealth tax on property as such. If you live abroad and own a home that sits empty, what you will see is IPTU, any condominium fee and the utility bills.

Don't compare these with another country's taxes from a headline. You may read that Brazil's total is half of what Portugal or France charge. Nothing in Brazilian law supports a claim like that, and the sum depends on the sale, the city and your own country's rules.

Whether you are resident also matters a good deal. Normative Instruction SRF 208/2002 (IN 208) makes a temporary-visa holder a tax resident on the 184th day inside any 12-month window, and a permanent-visa holder a resident from arrival (art. 2). Residents get exemptions on sale that non-residents don't, and they pay tax on worldwide income. So a long stay can change far more than your IPTU.

ITBI in brief

ITBI is the city's transfer tax, paid once by the buyer, normally before the deed. São Paulo and Belo Horizonte charge 3%, and each market's rate is on its city page and in the table in the closing costs guide, which also covers the running dispute over the taxable value. The short version: since STJ Tema 1113 of 2022 the declared price is presumed correct, and Complementary Law 227/2026 now lets cities estimate value using published criteria, so expect argument over how the two fit.

Older advice that ITBI falls on "the higher of the price or the city's value" no longer describes the law. Some cities still act that way. A lawyer can tell you whether it is worth contesting.

How IPTU works

IPTU (imposto predial e territorial urbano) is the annual city tax on urban property. Under the National Tax Code, the taxable event is ownership, useful ownership or possession of the home (art. 32), the base is its "valor venal", the city's assessed value (art. 33), and the taxpayer is the owner, the holder of useful ownership or anyone in possession (art. 34). So you can owe IPTU on a home held by possession only as well.

Everything else is local: the rate, the bands, the exemption and the calendar. There's no national IPTU table, and any table of rates that claims to span several cities should tell you where each figure came from. Here is São Paulo, from Law 6.989/1966 as it stands today.

IPTU on a residential home in São Paulo city (arts. 7 and 7-A)
Slice of assessed value	Adjustment	Rate on that slice
Up to R$ 150,000	0.3% off	0.7%
R$ 150,000 to 300,000	0.1% off	0.9%
R$ 300,000 to 600,000	0.1% more	1.1%
R$ 600,000 to 1,200,000	0.3% more	1.3%
Above R$ 1,200,000	0.5% more	1.5%

Work it through on an apartment assessed at R$ 1,000,000: R$ 1,050 plus R$ 1,350 plus R$ 3,300 plus R$ 5,200 comes to R$ 10,900 a year, about US$ 2,011 at R$ 5.42. On R$ 2,000,000 the same steps give R$ 25,500. Other homes and commercial units have their own scale. Land in São Paulo starts at 1.5% and offices at 1.5%, with separate bands. Check the bill itself, because exemptions and caps on yearly rises can change what you pay.

Assessed value isn't your purchase price. The STJ said in Tema 1113 that the ITBI base has no tie to the IPTU value, so a home bought at R$ 1,000,000 might be assessed lower or higher. To budget, ask the seller for the current year's IPTU notice before you make an offer. Your title check will ask for it anyway. For monthly budgets by city, see the cost of living pages for São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Paying IPTU, discounts and owners abroad

Cities usually offer a discount for paying the year in one go and a plan for paying in installments. Rio de Janeiro's 2026 rules give a sense of what to look for. Paying in a single installment by 6 February gave a 7% discount. Residential homes assessed at up to R$ 85,260 were exempt. The bill, called the guia, also carries the city's waste collection fee, the TCL, and the rules on that fee can vary by district: some owners in the Barra Olímpica area saw higher charges in 2026 and got new payment slips, and those who had paid in one go could ask for a refund under Resolution SMF 3421/2026.

In São Paulo, Law 18.270/2025 sets a minimum installment of at least R$ 50, and since Law 18.095/2024 late payments there earn interest based on the Selic.

If you live abroad, this is where trouble starts. The notice usually goes to the address in the city's records, and a bill you never saw is still a bill you owe. Unpaid IPTU follows the home: article 130 of the National Tax Code passes those debts to the next owner unless the deed proves payment. So a buyer's lawyer will find it, and you'll settle it at sale with interest added.

Three habits avoid that. Register an address you check, or your lawyer's address, with the city. Set a reminder in the first weeks of the year, when bills tend to come out; Rio offers its slips online. Have a manager or attorney-in-fact in Brazil pay from a non-resident account, and keep every receipt.

A tenant often pays IPTU under the lease. Under the tenancy law the contract can move that cost, but the city still looks to the owner if it isn't paid. If you rent the home out and bear IPTU yourself, it comes off taxable rent. If you own an apartment, IPTU is a separate bill from the condominium fee.

How IPTU can rise

Assessed values have long been a political fight. The city council normally passes a table of land and building values. Constitutional Amendment 132/2023 added a shortcut: the mayor's office may now update the IPTU base under criteria set in a municipal law (Constitution, art. 156, § 1, III). The first such update in a city needs that local law to exist, so check whether yours has one.

The Supreme Court also ruled, in Tema 1084, that a municipal law may let the executive assess a new property individually, one that isn't yet in the general value table, provided the law sets the criteria and the owner can contest. That matters if you buy a newly built apartment. The first bill may arrive well after you get the keys, and it may not match what the building's marketing suggested.

A sudden rise can be challenged. Rio has a service for asking for a review of the charge. In other cities the process and deadlines differ, so ask at the city's finance office as soon as the notice arrives, because deadlines can be short. Where prices have moved fast, an assessed value can fall behind the market and a later update can bring a large change. FipeZAP shows 10.38% in Salvador and 8.31% in Florianópolis in the year to September 2026.

Capital gains rates

When you sell for more than you paid, the gain is taxed under article 21 of Law 8.981/1995, as rewritten by Law 13.259/2016. Each rate applies only to its slice of the gain.

Capital gains rates for individuals
Slice of the gain	Rate
Up to R$ 5,000,000	15%
R$ 5,000,000 to 10,000,000	17.5%
R$ 10,000,000 to 30,000,000	20%
Above R$ 30,000,000	22.5%

So a R$ 6,000,000 gain costs R$ 750,000 on the first slice plus R$ 175,000 on the second, or R$ 925,000. Nothing changed for 2026 on this table. A 2025 plan to rewrite investment taxes, Provisional Measure 1.303/2025, lapsed on 8 October 2025 without a vote, and articles predicting new rates from 2026 are out of date.

A resident has until the final business day of the month after receiving the money (art. 21, § 1). A non-resident pays sooner and differently, and the buyer is responsible for withholding, as set out in the guide for foreign sellers. Residents of low-tax jurisdictions pay a fixed 25% instead of this table (Law 10.833/2003, art. 47).

The gain is in reais. Since 1996 the cost isn't updated for inflation for anyone (for non-residents, IN 208, art. 26, § 2), so ten years of inflation count as gain. The cost is what you paid (article 16 of Law 7.713/1988), plus works you can document. Cost is measured in reais, so if you paid with foreign currency, the currency's own movement isn't an adjustment. Keep the invoices and the file from the purchase: a lost cost can count as zero for a non-resident.

Exemptions and reducers

Residents have several ways to cut the bill. Articles 39 and 40 of Law 11.196/2005 name residents in their own words. The others don't, but the Receita Federal's rule for non-residents shuts them all out, as the next chapter explains.

Capital gains reliefs on property for residents
Relief	Conditions	Source
Sole home	Your only property; sold for up to R$ 440,000; no sale in the prior 5 years	Law 9.250/1995, art. 23
Small sale	Sale price up to R$ 35,000 in the month	Law 11.196/2005, art. 38
Reinvestment	Put the money into other homes in Brazil within 180 days of the first sale contract; once in 5 years; the part not reinvested is taxed	Law 11.196/2005, art. 39
FR1 and FR2 factors	Multiply the gain by 1/1.0060 to the power of months owned through Nov 2005, and by 1/1.0035 to the power of months after	Law 11.196/2005, art. 40
Old purchase reduction	100% off if bought by 1969, then 5 points less a year, down to 5% for 1988; none from 1989	Law 7.713/1988, art. 18

Old purchases can add up. The reduction by year in article 18 is the rule behind what some sites call a "pre-1969 exemption". It is real, it isn't only for family trusts, and it has nothing to do with inflation. It rarely affects a foreign buyer. It can matter to someone inheriting a family home, which is why the inheritance guide asks you to check the first acquisition date.

The reducers do more work for anyone who has held a home for years. A resident who bought in March 2016 and sold in March 2026, with a R$ 1,000,000 gain, multiplies by 1/1.0035 to the power of 120, or 0.6575. The taxable gain falls to R$ 657,529 and the tax to R$ 98,629. Without the factor, the bill would be R$ 150,000. That's a R$ 51,371 difference for the same home, on residence alone.

Two details get missed. The reinvestment relief counts only for homes in Brazil, not abroad. And the 180 days start with the first sale contract if you make several (art. 39, § 1). Write down the date.

Why non-residents get less

The rule is one sentence. IN 208, art. 26, § 5 says that in working out a non-resident's gain, the exemptions and reductions for residents don't apply. Articles 39 and 40 of Law 11.196/2005 also speak by their own words of a "pessoa física residente no País". For a non-resident seller, a R$ 1,000,000 gain means R$ 150,000 of tax, about US$ 27,675, even after ten years.

Lawyers do argue this point, especially on the FR1 and FR2 factors. A 2021 column by Vitor Flores in Conjur, republished by IBET, says Law 9.249/1995, art. 18 requires residents and non-residents to be taxed under the same rules, that the reducer attaches to the property and not its owner, and that non-discrimination clauses in tax treaties point the same way. The Receita Federal's GCAP program has not applied the reducers to non-residents, and the buyer is unlikely to take the risk at closing. In practice you would pay first and then ask for a refund. A federal appeals court in the 3rd Region has decided at least one case on the reducers, but a single case doesn't set a general rule.

If you are moving to Brazil, the order of events may matter. Becoming a tax resident before a sale can open reliefs that wouldn't otherwise apply, and it also subjects you to Brazilian tax on income from everywhere. That trade needs an adviser who knows both countries' rules. Don't time a move on a blog post, including this one.

What changed in 2026

Four changes in the law reach property owners. Most of the headlines about them overstate what happens this year.

2025 to 2026 changes that touch property
Law	What it does	Who it reaches
Law 15.270/2025	From January 2026, no monthly income tax up to R$ 5,000, tapering out at R$ 7,350	Residents, including rent on monthly tax
Law 15.270/2025	Minimum tax, 0% to 10%, on total income above R$ 600,000, from calendar year 2026	Resident high earners; rent counts; capital gains on property are left out
Law 15.270/2025	10% withholding on dividends sent abroad from January 2026	Foreigners who hold property through a Brazilian company
Law 15.265/2025	REARP: update a home's tax cost at 4%, with a window of 90 days from 21 Nov 2025	Residents only; now closed; a sale within 5 years undoes it
Complementary Law 227/2026	Rewrites ITBI value rules; sets national ITCMD rules with progressive rates	Buyers and heirs; state laws come into effect from 2027 at the earliest

What did not change matters too. Non-residents' rates on rent and gains are the same as in 2025, and no law consulted for this guide rewrites them. The clause in Law 15.270/2025 for those abroad concerns dividends, and Mayer Brown reads the minimum tax as applying to residents. Someone who buys through a company now has a new 10% layer when taking profits out, which changes the old sums on company ownership. Ask an adviser before you buy that way, and check the Banco Central reporting the company takes on.

The REARP deserves a note if you buy from a resident. A seller who used it to lift the cost base within the past five years and then sells to you loses its benefit and pays on the old cost, with credit for what was paid (Law 15.265/2025, art. 7). That is the seller's tax, but it can change how keen a seller is to close.

The consumption tax reform and property

Complementary Law 214/2025 replaces five taxes with two: the federal CBS and the state and municipal IBS. Rollout runs from 2026 to 2033. CBS is charged in full from 2027, and IBS grows from 2029 as the old ICMS and ISS shrink.

An individual falls under the regime only on volume. Rentals: more than R$ 240,000 of rental income, adjusted for inflation, and more than three properties in the prior year. Sales: over three separate properties a year, each owned for under five years, or two or more self-built homes inside five years (art. 251). Most private owners won't come close. Holding companies are in from 2027 whatever their size.

Rates for those inside: 50% off the full rate on sales, 70% off on long-term rentals, and 40% off on lets of 90 days or less, which follow hotel rules (arts. 253 and 261). The audit court's estimate for CBS, published 28 October 2026, is 11.3%; the Senate sets the final figure. Residential rentals also deduct R$ 600 a month for each property (art. 260); whether that reaches lets of 90 days or less isn't settled. A new home deducts R$ 100,000 at sale, or R$ 30,000 for a lot (art. 259).

The reform matters to foreign buyers in two places. New homes from developers may price it in, whether in Vila Olímpia or Ponta Negra. And larger rental portfolios need their own calculation. When you are comparing homes on the listings, the tax reform is one more reason to ask whether a price is from an owner or a developer.

Filing in Brazil and tax at home

A non-resident doesn't file a Brazilian annual income tax return because of a home. No such thing as a yearly "declaration of assets for non-residents" exists, whatever older guides say. Tax on rent and gains is final at source, handled month by month through your attorney-in-fact or by the buyer at sale. A resident does file, and lists the home at cost. So your first return after becoming resident has to bring the home onto the list.

Your own country may also tax you. Brazil's list of double tax treaties, published by the Receita Federal, had no entry for the United States or the United Kingdom at the time of writing. The UK and Brazil signed a convention in November 2022, and the UK government's page still shows it as not in force, so check again before relying on it. Claims that it took effect in 2024 don't match either government's list. Countries on the list include Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan; Germany's treaty ended in 2006.

Without a treaty, relief depends on your own country's law. A US person, for example, reports worldwide income and usually claims a foreign tax credit for Brazilian tax. This is outside Brazilian law, so ask a tax adviser at home. Your own bank-account and foreign-asset reporting may also apply to the Brazilian account you use to pay IPTU.

Questions

How much is property tax in Brazil?

IPTU is set by each city on an assessed value. In São Paulo, a home assessed at R$ 1,000,000 pays R$ 10,900 a year under Law 6.989/1966. Elsewhere the rate and bands differ, so ask the seller for the current notice.

Do I pay tax in Brazil if I don't live there?

You pay ITBI when you buy, IPTU each year, 15% on net rent if you let the home, and capital gains when you sell. Your income from outside Brazil isn't taxed there unless you become a tax resident.

Can a non-resident use the 180-day reinvestment rule or the R$ 440,000 exemption?

Not under the Receita Federal's rule: Normative Instruction SRF 208/2002, art. 26, § 5 shuts non-residents out of residents' exemptions and reductions. Lawyers contest this for the reducers, but the buyer must withhold on the Receita's view at closing.

Do I have to file a tax return in Brazil as a non-resident?

Not for owning a home. Tax on rent and gains is final, and filings go through your attorney-in-fact or the buyer. If you become resident, you file and list the home.

What happens if I don't pay IPTU?

The debt follows the home, with interest and fines, and passes to any buyer unless the deed proves payment, under National Tax Code art. 130. The city can enforce it against the home.

Did capital gains tax go up in 2026?

No. The 15% to 22.5% table from Law 13.259/2016 still applies. Provisional Measure 1.303/2025 lapsed in October 2025. Law 15.270/2025 leaves property gains out of the new minimum tax for residents.

Is there tax for inheriting a home in Brazil?

Yes. ITCMD is a state tax of up to 8%, and rules are changing under Complementary Law 227/2026. See inheritance and property.

Sources

Written by Lucas Andrade. Updated November 2026. General information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Ask a Brazilian lawyer about your own case.