SANTO DOMINGO – Law 155-17 against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism establishes a limit of one million pesos for real estate transactions. Transactions exceeding this amount must be justified to financial intermediaries.
Therefore, real estate agents must strive to understand the scope of this provision so that they can warn their clients that when they exceed that amount, they must present evidence of its lawful origin; otherwise, they would be engaging in a fraudulent transaction that may be punishable.
“The real estate business involves a level of responsibility and a set of precautions that the agent must know in order to ensure the business is safe and that bad practices that put them and their clients at risk are not encouraged,” explained lawyer Robinson Cuello Shanlatte, speaking last night at the fourth module of the CBR-01 Certification of the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI).
The aforementioned law identifies real estate agents within the “non-financial obligated subjects”, who are under the supervision of internal taxes and defines them as natural or legal persons who carry out professional, commercial or business activities, which by their nature are susceptible to being used in money laundering and terrorist financing activities.
“In real estate, in previous years, many business closures involved carrying cash in bags, but this is no longer possible after the asset law,” explained the professor from UNIBE.
That is why "Due Diligence" is so important, established by law as the set of procedures, policies and actions by which obligated entities establish adequate knowledge about their clients and related parties, current and potential, ultimate beneficiaries and the activities they carry out.
Trust
In the second part, Roberto Carlos Jorge, an advisor and consultant in the mortgage and trust market, through his company FIDEMIX, reviewed Law 189-11 on the Development of the Mortgage and Trust Market in the Dominican Republic.
As cycles of the real estate project within the law, he cited the incorporation of the land, the marketing or pre-sale and the real estate development or construction of the work.
Among the advantages of the trust he mentioned were:
1-Single payment 10% ISR
2-Save on mortgage costs (2%)
3- 27% Capital Gains Exemption (contribution)
4- 3% Tax Exemption on Real Estate Transfer
5- ITBIS Bonus Facility for First Home Buyers (MIVHED)
