Aruba property taxes, read from the ordinance: how a condo's land tax is valued, set and owed

Aruba's annual property tax, the grondbelasting, is owed by whoever holds the condo on 1 January, on a value the tax inspector fixes for a five-year period, at 0.6% for a non-resident owner and between 0% and 0.60% for a resident. This page goes past the headline rate into the mechanics the Landsverordening grondbelasting itself sets out: how a holiday home's value is worked out, when a new residence enters the roll, when the value can be challenged, the relief for a home left empty, and how a non-resident's rental income is taxed. It applies none of it to YOO Aruba's prices, which start at $443,000, because the taxable value is the inspector's figure, not the sale price.

Who owes Aruba's land tax, and for which year?

The ordinance answers this with a date, not a sale. The person who holds a property on 1 January, as owner or under another real right such as a long lease, is the taxpayer for the whole calendar year, and the Departamento di Impuesto states that this holds even if the property is sold during the year. Whoever owes the tax on the land also owes it on everything built on it, so for an apartment right the assessment covers the residence together with its share of the ground.

The assessment is made once for a five-year period and entered in a roll, the legger, then collected each year in four equal parts that fall due on the last day of each quarter; no part can be collected within a month of the date on the assessment notice. On a transfer, the ordinance makes the new owner jointly liable for land tax owed on the property for the current year and the year before, and the tax office can pursue either the buyer or the person still named on the roll. In practice the Aruban notary handling a resale withholds the seller's land-tax arrears from the sale proceeds, which is how a buyer is normally protected; the statutory liability is the reason that check matters.

How is the taxable value of a condo worked out?

Two different tests apply, and the one that governs depends on how the home is used, not on where its owner lives. A built property that serves the taxpayer as main residence is valued at what it would fetch on the open market if sold empty. Every other property is valued on its yield. The ordinance takes the property's annual yield, multiplies it by 8⅓ for a building completed after 1 March 1977, and compares the result with the unoccupied market value; if the yield figure is the lower of the two, the market value is used instead.

For a foreign buyer at YOO Aruba the second test is the relevant one, because a holiday home, or a residence placed in the optional rental program, is not the owner's main residence. In effect the market value works as a floor, and the yield figure lifts the base above it only where the property earns a high return for its value. The text read for this page does not say whether the annual yield is gross or net, so this page does not turn the factor into a yield percentage; that step belongs to the inspector and your advisor.

Timing matters as well. Work on each new five-year roll begins in the October before the period starts, and values are drawn from data on the property's value or yield in the last three months of the preceding year. The registered value then does a second job: on any later sale, the transfer tax is charged on the higher of the price and that registered value.

What land-tax rate applies, band by band?

Two schedules sit in the same article of the ordinance. For anyone who is not a resident natural person, which covers non-resident individuals and every company, the rate is a flat 0.6% of the total value. For resident individuals the rate depends on the band the value falls in, from 0% at Afl. 120,000 or less up to 0.60% from Afl. 750,000. The article frames the tax as a percentage of the total value, so on its wording a band sets one rate for the whole value rather than charging each slice separately the way an income-tax table does; the assessment notice is where the arithmetic is confirmed.

The bands are fixed in florins. At the fixed rate of Afl. 1.79 to the US dollar the thresholds convert to the approximate dollar figures in the table, which are a reader's guide, not statutory amounts. A foreign owner who later becomes resident moves from the flat rate onto this scale; a company holding a residence never does.

When does a new residence enter the roll, and when can its value be challenged?

Between rolls, the ordinance lets the registered value change only for listed events: a transfer, new building, an extension or partial renewal, demolition, destruction by disaster, a property becoming taxable or exempt, splitting or merging, and a change of use. When one happens, the value and the assessment are set again with effect from the tax year after the year of the change. Anyone who acquires a property must file a land-tax return with the Inspector within one month of acquiring it, and an owner must do the same within one month of any listed change; where an assessment comes out too low because no return was filed, the Inspector may add a penalty of up to 100%.

For a building due in Q4 2027, the construction, the division into apartment rights and each buyer's transfer are all events of that kind, so the first assessment that reflects a finished YOO Aruba residence falls in a tax year after the change, on dates the Inspector sets. On the published cycle, 2022 opened the current five-year period, which places the next one at 2027 through 2031, valued on data from the last three months of 2026.

The window to object is narrow. A value can be challenged only in the first year of a five-year period or, after a listed change, in the year the new assessment is issued, and in either case within two months of the date on the assessment notice. Outside those windows the value stands until the next roll, so a new owner should read the first notice the day it arrives.

Is there land-tax relief while the condo stands empty?

Yes, within strict limits. Where a building, or a separately used part of one such as an apartment, has stood both unused and unlet for at least six consecutive months, the person assessed for that whole period is granted relief from the tax for it, but only on request. The request goes to the Inspector no later than three months after the end of the year in which the right arose, with a copy of the assessment notice, and where the apartment was valued together with other property the relief is worked out on the share of the value attributable to it.

Both conditions must hold. A stay by the owner counts as use and a booking counts as letting, so a residence visited every winter or let for part of the year will usually not meet the six-month test. Whether a given pattern of visits, or a listing that drew no bookings, qualifies is the Inspector's decision, and this page promises the relief to no one. The ordinance also grants relief for the rest of a tax year when a building is wholly or partly destroyed by an unforeseen disaster, scaled to the loss of value and requested within three months after that year ends.

How is a non-resident owner's rental income taxed in Aruba?

Aruba's income-tax ordinance reaches people who do not live on the island when they have income from Aruban sources, and real estate situated in Aruba is one of those sources. What is taxed is the net yield: rents and other payments from tenants, less the costs of acquiring, collecting and keeping that income, which the ordinance lists as including interest on debts, insurance and maintenance of the property, taxes resting on it such as the land tax, letting costs and management costs. A home that serves as the owner's own main residence produces no taxable yield, but a non-resident's Aruban condo is not that home.

The rates come from the ordinance's table. A tax-free amount of up to Afl. 30,000 a year, about US$16,760, is deducted to reach table income, which is then taxed at 10%, 21%, 42% and 52% in rising bands, the top rate applying above Afl. 135,527, about US$75,713. The amounts can be indexed each year, and an accounting firm's summary stated as current in January 2026 still gives the same entry point and top band. Whether the tax-free amount applies in full to a non-resident is not settled by any text read for this page, so treat the table as the scale and put the allowance to an Aruban tax advisor.

Separately from income tax, stays let to visitors carry the 12.5% tourist levy on the room rate, as reported by local accounting firms, and an environmental levy of US$3 per occupied room per night, while the published guidance on turnover tax for lettings disagrees and is left open here. Your home country may tax the same income too, which is a question for an advisor there.

What changes if the condo is held through a company?

Three things. The land tax becomes the flat 0.6% for good, since a company is never a resident natural person, and the main-residence valuation is never open to it. Since January 2023, according to an Aruban accounting firm's published summary, the transfer tax reaches not only a notarial transfer of title but also a transfer of economic ownership and a sale of shares in a real estate company, at the same rates: 3% on the value up to Afl. 250,000 and, on the part above it, 6%. A company counts as a real estate company where at least 30% of its assets are Aruban real estate and that real estate wholly or mainly, meaning 70% or more, serves to generate, sell or exploit property; its shares are then valued at no less than the registered value of its Aruban properties.

Where such a transfer is not made by notarial deed, the seller must notify the tax inspector within two weeks, and a late notice can draw a penalty of up to AWG 100,000 or, for a property worth more than that, up to 10% of its value. A company can suit an owner for other reasons, but it does not take a residence outside Aruba's property taxes; settle the structure with an advisor before the deed is signed, not after.

Common questions

Who pays Aruba land tax on a condo sold partway through the year?

The person who held it on 1 January owes the land tax for that whole year. The buyer is jointly liable for unpaid tax of the current and the previous year, which is why the notary withholds a seller's arrears from the proceeds.

Is a non-resident's Aruba condo valued on its rent or its market value?

On whichever is higher: the annual yield multiplied by 8⅓ for a building completed after 1 March 1977, or the open-market value of the home sold empty. Only a taxpayer's main residence is valued on market value alone.

Can I get Aruba land tax relief if my condo stays empty?

Only if the apartment stood unused and unlet for at least six consecutive months, and only on a request filed with the Inspector within three months after the year ends, with a copy of the assessment notice. Owner stays and lettings both break the condition.

Do non-residents pay Aruba income tax on rental income?

Yes: the net yield of real estate situated in Aruba is Aruban-source income for a non-resident, taxed on a table running from 10% to 52%. Whether the Afl. 30,000 tax-free amount applies in full to a non-resident is unsettled, so ask an Aruban tax advisor.