Free-zone exemptions and their duration

Dossier: Taxes and incentives03-impuestos.md
Domain: Taxes: income tax, VAT and withholdingimpuestos
Room: Invest · Taxes: income tax, VAT and withholding/invertir/impuestos
Audited: Audited

Under Decree 65-89 (the Free Zones Act), zone administrators enjoy an income tax exemption for fifteen (15) years and users producing industrial goods or services for ten (10) years, counted from notification of the qualification ruling - terms verified in the 19 Aug 2026 audit against the text published by MINECO. In addition, according to advisers' summaries (inbers.com, Vesco): exemption from VAT on transactions inside and between free zones, and exemption from import duties (DAI) and VAT on imports of machinery and inputs. For as long as the income tax exemption lasts, the user also pays no Solidarity Tax (ISO) (Article 4(d), Decree 73-2008).

The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.

Figures

Exención de ISR, administradoras de zona francaDecreto 65-89, texto MINECO: 15 añosvigente, verificado 19-ago-2026
Exención de ISR, usuarios productores de bienes o serviciosDecreto 65-89, texto MINECO: 10 años desde la notificación de la resolución de calificaciónvigente, verificado 19-ago-2026

Caveat

VAT and DAI exemptions according to advisers; it still has to be checked that the MINECO compilation incorporates the 19-2016 and 6-2021 reforms in full

Sources

MINECO — Decreto 65-89, Ley de Zonas Francas (texto)mineco.gob.gtconsulted Aug 19, 2026
inbers.com — zonas francas en Guatemala: qué son y su tratamiento (resumen de asesor)inbers.comconsulted Aug 19, 2026
Vesco — las zonas francas en Guatemala (resumen de asesor)vescco.taxconsulted Aug 19, 2026

Related records

This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.