Guatemala capital gains tax calculator

A resident individual pays a flat 10% of the taxable gain under article 92 of the Ley de Actualizacion Tributaria (Decreto 10-2012). The 5% rate some summaries quote is the tax on distributed dividends and profits, not on a capital gain. A non-resident is taxed under Título V, where the 25% catch-all for taxed income not otherwise enumerated applies to the gain. That 25% is the literal reading of article 104 numeral 4; PwC states a flat 10% for Guatemalan-source capital gains without a resident limitation, and EY's 2026 guide says individual capital gains are 10% regardless.

Article 89: the sale value of the asset or right less its cost. The sale value is what was actually received less the expenses of the transfer, a deduction capped at 15% of that value. For shares or participations, article 89 numeral 3 lets the seller use either the documented acquisition value or the issuer's certified book value at the transfer.

A capital loss offsets future capital gains of the same nature only, for a maximum of two years from the year it arose (article 91); the Regulation (article 80) adds that it can never offset habitual-business gains or ordinary income. Same-year losses offset the year's gains before the 10% applies, and an unused balance lapses.

For tax year 2026 a resident individual's capital gain is taxed at a flat 10% of the taxable base: article 92 of the Ley de Actualizacion Tributaria (Decreto 10-2012) sets the rate for rentas de capital mobiliario e inmobiliario and ganancias de capital at diez por ciento (10%). The 5% rate in the same chapter (article 93) applies only to the distribution of dividends, profits and utilities, not to a capital gain. SAT's property-gains guidance works the same example: a Q150,000 sale with a Q95,000 book cost leaves a Q55,000 gain taxed 10% = Q5,500. Sources: https://portal.sat.gob.gt/portal/biblioteca-en-linea-sat/legislacion-tributaria/ and SAT, Ganancias de capital en la venta de bienes inmuebles.

Article 89: the base is the sale value of the asset or right less its cost. The sale value is the amount actually received less the expenses of carrying out the transaction (buying and selling commissions, notarial and registry costs and similar), a deduction capped at 15% of the sale value. A resident individual who does not keep full accounting uses the documented acquisition value, or a lawfully revalued value on which the tax was paid, as the cost. Source: the law and its Regulation (Acuerdo Gubernativo 213-2013).

Article 89 numeral 3 (as amended by Decreto 19-2013) provides an alternative cost for shares or participations: the acquisition value documented by the seller, or the value in the issuer's books at the moment of the transfer, which the issuer must certify, as the taxpayer elects. The calculator treats the documented acquisition cost as the default and an issuer-certified book value as the alternative the seller may elect for a given sale. There is no cadastral or registered-value alternative for real estate: the research sheet's suggested low-percentage-of-value election does not exist in Decreto 10-2012 or its Regulation.

Losses: article 91 allows a capital loss to be offset only against future capital gains of the same nature, up to a maximum of two (2) years from the year the loss arose; the Regulation (article 80) repeats that a capital loss can never be offset against habitual-business gains or ordinary income. A balance unused when the two years expire lapses and gives no deduction or credit. Same-year capital losses offset the year's capital gains before the 10% applies. The research sheet said no carryforward period could be located; the two-year limit is article 91 of the law.

Article 87 numeral 2 exempts the gain on an occasional transfer of the taxpayer's personal-use movable property, but not gains from the sale of vehicles, boats and aircraft that must be entered in the corresponding registers. There is no general main-residence exemption for immovable property; the municipal IUSI property tax is a separate annual tax, not a capital-gains exemption.

No exemption applies to shares or securities traded on the Bolsa de Valores Nacional: the exchange's own material states that the ordinary tax rules apply to secondary-market gains. The Regulation's only security-specific rule (article 82) concerns Guatemalan state-issued securities transferred to non-residents within the thirty days before a payment date. Source: Reglamento del Libro I (Acuerdo Gubernativo 213-2013).

Crypto: no crypto-specific rate, holding-period test or exemption was located in the law or SAT material. A Guatemalan-source crypto gain therefore falls under the general capital-gains rule of article 84 numeral 3 (a transfer outside a habitual trading business), and habitual trading is analysed as an activity of lucrative character. This is an application of the general law, not a crypto-specific SAT ruling.

Non-residents: Title V taxes them separately. Article 97 reaches any taxed income of a non-resident, article 103 sets a non-resident's capital-gains base per Title IV, and article 104 numeral 4 applies 25% to taxed income not enumerated in numerals 1 to 3; capital gains are not enumerated. Article 101 taxes a non-resident without a permanent establishment separately on each payment, with no compensation between them. The 25% is the literal reading of the article 104 numeral 4 catch-all (Decreto 10-2012, articles 103-104: https://www.congreso.gob.gt/assets/uploads/info_legislativo/decretos/2012/010-2012.pdf) and it is not settled: PwC states without a resident limitation that Guatemalan-source capital gains are flat 10% (https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/guatemala/individual/income-determination), and EY's worldwide personal tax and immigration guide 2026 says individual capital gains are 10% regardless of regime (https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-gl/technical/tax-guides/documents/ey-gl-worldwide-personal-immigration-tax-guide-03-2026.pdf). The conflict between the literal statutory catch-all and those secondary statements is unresolved; the calculator keeps the 25% reading and flags it, and the resident 10% of article 92 is unaffected.

Filing: a capital gain is self-assessed and paid on form SAT-1321 within the first ten business days of the month following the transfer (article 95). Where the payment already bore withholding, the taxpayer is not required to file a separate return for it (Regulation article 81). Source: SAT portal and SAT-1321 guidance.