Technical article

Land Tax on a Country House in Brazil and Ecuador

They have started to ask what the tax office will want each year, and whether the internet and power reach that far.

By Neil Solomon · 5 min read

Picture a couple named Paul and Linda. Both are 59. They dream of a house with some land, a porch and a view. They have started to ask what the tax office will want each year, and whether the internet and power reach that far.

I went to the government pages. The land tax part is covered for three countries. Internet and power are not tax matters, and they are left to the providers.

What the pages show

Brazil

The tax is paid by the owner, the holder of the land title or anyone who holds the land under any title. Each year a declaration is filed for each property. The tax equals a rate times the value of the bare land. The rate depends on the total area and the "grau de utilização", the share of the land in use. Here are the rates in percent.

The law has two more rows, for 1,000 to 5,000 ha and above 5,000 ha. I leave them out because a country house is unlikely to be that large.

Take a plot of 20 ha with land worth BRL 1,000,000 and more than 80% in use. The rate is 0.03%, so the tax would be BRL 300 (my arithmetic). If less than 30% of it were in use, the rate is 1.00% and the tax would be BRL 10,000 (my arithmetic). The law says the tax can never be less than "R$ 10,00". It may be paid in up to three installments, none below BRL 50. These amounts come from the law's consolidated text on the government's legal site, which in the version read on 11 October 2026 still shows the BRL 10 minimum and the BRL 50 installment floor. The tax office's own ITR page, last updated 21 August 2023, says the tax applies outside town limits and that the rate is higher for large, little-used land. That fits the table.

Ecuador

Ecuador has two layers.

The national tax. The tax office taxes the total hectares a person holds. It applies above 25 ha outside the Amazon. In Amazon zones the limit is 50 ha from 2019. The tax is 0.001 of a basic income figure for each hectare above the limit, times a yearly factor. The page lists the factor only up to 2017 (11.29). It lists nothing newer, so I cannot give a current amount. It also lists many exempt lands, such as protected areas and community lands. The page has no date. Filing runs from 1 January to 31 December each year on the tax office's website.

The local tax. Each town sets its own rural property tax. I read one ordinance, from Loja, dated 2023. The rate rises with the taxable value. It is 0.00 per mille for the first 15 basic salaries, 0.69 per mille up to US$10,000, 0.80 per mille from US$50,000 to US$100,000, 1.00 per mille from US$500,000 to US$1,000,000 and 1.05 per mille above that. A fire service charge of 0.15 per mille of the appraised value is added. A per mille is one part in a thousand. I only read Loja. Other towns could differ, within the band the law sets (0.25 to 3 per mille, article 517 of COOTAD, read 11 October 2026).

Paraguay

The property tax law (Law 125/91, with later changes) sets the property tax at 1% of the fiscal value of the property. The tax base is the fiscal valuation set by the national land registry service, and the executive approves the values each year by decree. A reduced rate of 0.50% applies to smaller rural properties, under 5 hectares, that meet conditions, such as being the owner's only property used for farming. The municipalities collect the tax (Paraguayan legal and government sources, read 11 October 2026). The text does not give a worked example, and the fiscal value is often below the market price, so ask the municipality for the value it uses.

What is left open

• Internet and power for country homes are not tax matters, so they are not covered here. Ask the providers for a written yes or no for the exact address.
• Ecuador: the current national rate. The page lists the factor only up to 2017.
• Ecuador, local rates: the law (COOTAD, article 517) sets the municipal rural property rate between 0.25 and 3 per mille of the value, and each town fixes its own inside that band. Loja is one example.

An accountant or lawyer who works with Americans abroad could confirm how these taxes would apply to a foreign owner.