Dominican Republic Senate Advances Yacht Tax Bill in First Reading
Dominican Republic · TAX
Key Facts
- —Bill File 01837-2026-SLO-SE was filed on 19 August 2026.
- —Stage The Dominican yacht tax bill passed first reading on 26 August 2026.
- —Sponsors Senators Alexis Victoria Yeb and Ginnette Bournigal de Jiménez filed it.
- —History Two earlier versions lapsed in the Chamber of Deputies.
- —Context Tax exemptions already cost 4.54 percent of gross domestic product.
A Dominican yacht tax bill cleared its first Senate hurdle, reopening an old argument about who gets exemptions.
The Dominican Republic’s Senate approved a recreational nautical tourism bill in first reading on 26 August 2026. The measure pairs long-awaited boating safety rules with tax breaks for yachts and pleasure craft.
What the Senate actually approved
The Senate cleared the bill regulating recreational nautical tourism in first reading on 26 August 2026. Its own legislative record lists the file as 01837-2026-SLO-SE, deposited on 19 August 2026.
The record shows the text was taken into consideration and freed from committee on the day it arrived. It returned to the floor a week later for the first of two required votes.
Senators Alexis Victoria Yeb, of María Trinidad Sánchez province, and Ginnette Bournigal de Jiménez, of Puerto Plata, are the sponsors. Both have carried the same text for more than four years.
A second reading is still needed before the bill moves to the Chamber of Deputies. Nothing in the Dominican yacht tax bill has become law yet.
An old text on its third attempt
This is not a new idea reaching Congress for the first time. The Senate passed an almost identical text in 2022 and again in later sessions.
The Chamber of Deputies records a 2024 version, file 03269-2024-2028-CD, marked as lapsed. A 2025 version, file 04893-2024-2028-CD, was deposited on 6 October 2025 and lapsed as well.
Dominican bills expire when a legislature ends without a final vote. That procedural clock has killed this measure twice in the lower chamber.
The Senate note attached to the current file says the initiative was already approved as number 00956-2025. It adds plainly that the text lapsed in the Chamber of Deputies.
The tax breaks inside the text
The fiscal chapter is what makes the Dominican yacht tax bill contentious. It sits alongside navigation rules that few people dispute.
When the Senate passed an earlier version, the business daily elDinero reported a zero import tariff on pleasure craft. The list covered inflatables, sailboats, yachts, plastic boats and personal watercraft.
The same account described a fifteen-year exemption from property tax on land and buildings used for nautical tourism. Imported materials, equipment, furniture and spare parts not made locally would also enter free.
The current text has not been posted publicly by either chamber. Reports of a flat ten-year waiver, and of relief from the value-added tax, remain unconfirmed.
The case the marina sector makes
The Asociación Dominicana de Marinas Deportivas y Clubes Náuticos, the marina and yacht club association, has pushed the measure for years. Its figures are the backbone of the argument for the Dominican yacht tax bill.
The association counts roughly 3,000 visiting vessels a year, about a tenth of the boats crossing the Caribbean in season. It puts the direct spend near US$150 million a year.
Average spending is estimated at US$1,500 per boat per week during a season of about five months. Sport fishing adds a further sum during the summer.
Marinas and the property around them represent about US$1.5 billion of invested capital. The association counts more than 2,500 direct jobs across the sector.
Marinas and the regional race
The country has about 1,288 kilometres of coastline and a handful of established harbours. Marina Casa de Campo, Marina Cap Cana and Puerto Bahía in Samaná anchor the offer.
Marina Cap Cana advertises more than 150 slips and can berth yachts of up to 250 feet. Ocean World and Marina Punta Cana add further capacity.
The association’s own share figure implies that nine of every ten transiting boats stop somewhere else. Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and the Bahamas are the obvious nearby alternatives.
No published berth-by-berth comparison with those three destinations was available for this report. The sector’s claim rests on cost, not on a documented capacity gap.
Why the sponsor now leads with safety
On 27 August 2026 Victoria Yeb asked the floor for final approval of the Dominican yacht tax bill. He framed the request around deaths in Dominican coastal waters, not around tariffs.
He cited Gabriela Cartagena Gómez, a 20-year-old United States citizen struck by a boat on 20 June. The incident happened at Bahía de las Águilas, in Pedernales province.
He also named the drowning of visitor Moira Clayton Finney at Isla Saona, and earlier incidents at Bayahíbe and Boca Chica. The senator said the country cannot wait for another tragedy.
The safety chapter sets speed limits, marks bathing and diving zones, and requires rescue gear. It also mandates operator licences, periodic inspections and an accident register kept by the navy.
The fiscal objection
The sharpest published criticism came from Deputy José Horacio Rodríguez when an earlier version reached the lower chamber. He argued that someone could import a US$4 million yacht duty-free while staples stayed taxed.
He also warned that around ten local boatbuilders would face untaxed competition. His broader point was that the Dominican tax system is already regressive.
The numbers give that argument weight. The finance ministry put the tax take at 14.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2025, or RD$1,134,472.9 million (US$19.3 billion).
Its own tax expenditure report estimates forgone revenue of RD$393,541.54 million (US$6.7 billion) in 2026. That equals 4.54 percent of gross domestic product, and tourism already accounts for part of it.
A country that could not pass a tax reform
Tourism exemptions alone are put at RD$14,691.71 million (US$249.6 million) for 2026. That is 0.17 percent of gross domestic product and 3.73 percent of all exemptions granted.
Peso figures are converted at the Banco Central de la República Dominicana reference selling rate. That rate stood at RD$58.8735 to the dollar on 28 August 2026.
The backdrop matters. The government filed a fiscal modernisation bill on 8 October 2024 and pulled it before any vote.
Finance Minister Magín Díaz later said the design was flawed and the political consensus never existed. In June 2026 a new anti-crisis package drew the same charge from opposition leader Leonel Fernández.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has the Dominican yacht tax bill become law?
No. The Dominican yacht tax bill passed only a first Senate reading on 26 August 2026, and a second vote is still pending.
Which taxes would the bill waive?
Reporting on an earlier version described a zero import tariff on pleasure craft. It also described a fifteen-year property tax exemption for nautical tourism sites.
Why has the measure failed before?
Two earlier versions cleared the Senate and then lapsed in the Chamber of Deputies. Dominican bills expire when a legislature closes without a final vote.
Sources
- www.senadord.gob.do
- www.senado.gov.do
- www.diputadosrd.gob.do
- ensegundos.do
- eldinero.com.do
- eldinero.com.do
- www.hacienda.gob.do
- www.hacienda.gob.do
- www.bancentral.gov.do
- www.marinacapcana.com
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