The text, open for comments until November 11, contains incorrect cross-references between its own articles, inconsistent citations of regulations, and discrepancies with the law it purports to develop
SANTO DOMINGO.- The draft regulations for the application of Law 30-26 refer to a section and a paragraph that do not exist in the law or in the Tax Code as the law left them, and to a chapter that the text itself does not have; it refers in several points to articles that deal with another subject and does not develop provisions that the law itself mandates to be regulated, according to a comparison of the text published by the Legal Counsel of the Executive Branch with Law 30-26, promulgated on June 18, 2026.
The 40-article draft is available for download and comment on the Legal Counsel's website until November 11. The consultation is similar to a public hearing, but conducted in writing and online: the Executive Branch publishes the draft, and anyone can submit their comments until the specified date.
Provisions that do not exist
Article 26 requires that certain goods comply with "items 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the paragraph of item IX" of subparagraph e) of article 287. Item IX, which was added by article 24 of the law, lists five characteristics, from 1 to 5, and does not have a number 6 or a labeled paragraph.
Paragraph II of Article 30 refers to "paragraph V of 383" of the Tax Code, when Article 48 of the law added to that article only paragraph IV, which is the one that Article 30 itself invokes at the beginning.
Repeated reference to the wrong article
Article 37 refers six times to Article 35 of the regulations regarding the presumption of sale of assets transferred as a donation. Article 35 addresses the Family Homestead, and the presumption is found in Article 36.
Section d) of Article 27 requires justification of the industrial nature of an asset according to the criteria of Article 23, which regulates changes in the classification of taxpayers for advance payments, and not Article 25, which defines industrial use.
Article 15 applies the exception to the 5% withholding tax on payments from the State and places it in subparagraph d) of Article 309 of the Tax Code. In that paragraph, according to the wording of Article 17 of the law, subparagraph d) corresponds to the 15% withholding tax on slot machine winnings, and the 5% withholding tax on payments from the State is subparagraph e).
The General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII) also identifies that withholding as item e) in its Consultation of May 23, 2025.
Paragraph I of Article 11 refers to "this Law" within a regulation, and Article 40 entrusts the Tax Administration with rules for "this chapter", although the draft is not divided into chapters.
Citations of norms, seen and unseen
The draft title mentions "tax simplification" in the name of Law 30-26; the fourth Whereas clause and the second Whereas clause refer to it without that expression. The same regulation appears as "Regulation No. 50-13" in the Whereas clause and as "Decree No. 50-13" in Article 29, and Regulation 139-98 appears with three different citations.
The paragraph of Article 12 of the draft provides that the reference in paragraph I of Article 297 to Articles 305 Bis and 305 Ter shall be understood as referring to Articles 305-1 and 305-2. Paragraph I of Article 297, as drafted by Article 15 of the law, already mentions Articles 305-1 and 305-2 and does not use the numbering "Bis" and "Ter," so the draft designates the same two articles with a nomenclature that the promulgated text does not use.
The text cites regulations not included in the recitals: Laws 18-88, 2569, 1024, 82-25, 32-23, 146-02, 87-01, and 2-04, and the Labor Code. Conversely, the recitals include Law 107-13 and General Rule 07-14, which the text does not use.
Internal contradictions
Article 33 defines the direct line "up to the second degree" of consanguinity; subparagraph b) of article 37 regulates the direct line "from the second to the fourth degree".
Article 36 is entitled "presumption of donation", but establishes the presumption that the act is a sale.
Differences with the law
Paragraph IV of Article 16 of the Tax Code, as worded by Article 2 of the law, provides that the taxpayer may deposit the amount of the debt to avoid precautionary measures and pecuniary penalties.
Paragraph IV of Article 2 of the draft allows the Administration to apply penalties for infringements in addition to the penalty for late payment, and paragraph I establishes that the deposit suspends late payment surcharges and compensatory interest, an effect that the law does not mention.
Regarding objections to the classification of incentive beneficiaries, Article 9 of the law states that the Ministry of Finance and Economy "shall recommend" to the Executive Branch to object to any application that does not meet the requirements; Article 7 of the draft states that it "may request" the objection and sets out five criteria that the law does not enumerate.
The law also establishes that institutions must submit a feasibility study and a cost-benefit analysis to the Treasury before receiving the application, a procedure that the draft does not elaborate on.
Paragraph II of article 297, according to the wording of article 15 of the law, sets a transitional rate of 30% on the taxable income of taxpayers with income of RD$1,000 million or more during 2026, 2027 and 2028.
The draft uses that threshold in two different ways: Article 12 applies the 30% to the substitute tax on supplementary remuneration when payments in kind reach that amount, and Article 19 establishes it as a withholding tax on payments to non-residents.
Article 60 of the law sets the departure tax at $30 for "all persons leaving the country" and provides no exemptions. Article 39 of the draft exempts transit passengers who do not formally enter the country and continue their journey within the following 24 hours, as previously reported in El Inmobiliario.
Changes to Regulation 139-98
The draft rewrites three articles of Regulation 139-98, on income tax, without indicating in each case what it eliminates.
- Article 13 replaces Article 47, on the exemption for the sale of the home: the current text allows proof of ownership with a contract under private signature legalized by a notary, admits "any other document" that the Administration considers reliable and accepts the address of the National Register of Taxpayers as proof, and the new wording does not include any of the three.
- Article 14 replaces Article 70: it raises the withholding on other income concepts from 10% to 15%, with an effective withholding of 3% instead of 2% for transport, non-personal services, contractors and transfers of registrable movable property, and omits the current subparagraph e) on interest, without saying whether it is repealed.
- Article 28 of the draft defines the twelfth part of the Christmas salary on the ordinary salary earned, without modifying Article 48 of the current regulations, which exempts that salary up to the twelfth part of the annual salary.
Unlike Regulation 139-98, which is divided into chapters and closes with a repeals article, the draft has no chapters or general repealing clause.
Provisions that the law requires but the draft does not address
Articles 25 and 35 of the law stipulate that the Executive Branch will establish, through regulations, the procedure, the method for determining taxes, the payment frequency, and the forms for the Simplified Tax Regime. The draft does not contain any article regarding this regime.
Articles 41 and 44 of the law refer to the regulations implementing the selective consumption tax on alcohol, tobacco, and vaporizers, and paragraph V of Article 380, which introduced Article 47, tasks the Executive Branch with setting the rates for fiscal control mechanisms by decree. These matters are also absent from the draft.
The draft also makes no reference to the tax amnesty of article 8 of the law, applicable until December 31, 2026, and its article 3 lists criteria for evaluating payment agreements without including the conditions of article 17-1: an initial 15%, guarantees, monthly installments, loss of the benefit after three consecutive unpaid installments and a maximum term of 12 months, or up to 24 when the debt corresponds to periods longer than 12 months.
In its structure, the text does not include an article approving the regulation, although the title says that it "approves" the regulation, nor a clause on entry into force, transitional provisions, a general repeal, or a closing formula.
The only repeal, that of General Rule 2-80 on inheritances and donations, appears as a paragraph of article 34.
Writing errors
Article 4 repeats the preposition in "article 24 of the Tax Code"; the paragraph of article 19 writes "one billion Dominican prisoners"; article 18 writes "stablecoins"; article 6 writes "reduction" and article 36 writes "documentation", "linkage" and "more" without an accent mark.
Article 12 omits articles in "of Regulation 139-98" and "in article 318", and article 14 says "For the purposes of application".
The first sentence of article 24, "However, if there is no reduction in income…", is incomplete, and article 38 is the only one without a title.
Comments on the project are being accepted on the Legal Consulting portal until November 11.
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