Playa del Carmen Tax Hikes Impact Low-Income Families

CHETUMAL — In addition to promoting higher land appraisal values that would exceed those of Cancún, the aggressive revenue-raising policy of the Estefanía Mercado Asencio administration will impose increases on municipal public service fees in Playa del Carmen, on top of the annual adjustment due to the update of the Unit of Measurement and Update (UMA).

This flood of tax increases is crowned with an effective 3% rise in the tax rate that low-income individuals and families will pay for purchasing social or popular housing, which translates into an economic blow when the federal government has launched an ambitious program to promote housing construction for low-income families, such as the Viviendas del Bienestar program, meaning the Playa del Carmen government wants to take a “cut” even from that.

Increase in ISABI for Social and Popular Housing

In the Municipal Finance Law, there is an increase of one-third more to the Tax on Acquisition of Real Estate (ISABI), which is paid by people who purchase real property, raising its collection rate from 3% to 4% of the value of the purchased property, with the authority choosing to apply the rate based on the highest value among the purchase price, appraisal value, commercial value, bank value, or the last declared by the seller.

This increase particularly hits families with limited economic resources for housing acquisition, because it also reduces from 12% to 10% the percentage of ISABI that can be deducted when purchasing social or popular housing and limits it to a single occasion per buyer, which equates to an overall 3% increase in the net tax rate that less fortunate individuals will pay.

Vacation Rentals to Pay Environmental Sanitation and Garbage Fees and Licenses

In public services, fees are rated in UMAS and therefore increase obligatorily every year since the UMA value rises each February; but the Estefanía Mercado government did not consider this “natural” increase sufficient and for 2026 decided to apply increases to the number of UMAS it will charge for a large number of services, such as civil protection permits, operating licenses, pet care, cemeteries, and the Civil Registry.

Most fee increases also affect captive taxpayers, with the only notable exception being the extension to vacation rentals of the obligation to obtain a Municipal Operating License and land use certificate, register with the Municipal Taxpayer Registry, have a Tax Status Certificate, pay garbage collection, and charge their guests the Environmental Sanitation Fee, so starting in 2026, individuals, legal entities, or economic units that provide lodging services in houses, apartments, mobile homes, and camps through digital platforms must do so.

The land use certificate for lodging services on digital platforms will cost from 30 to 70 UMAS, meaning it will be from over 3,500 to over 8,269 pesos next year.

The Operating License will cost them from 7 to 25 UMAS, that is, from over 820 pesos to over 2,900 pesos, for lodgings classified from the most rustic to high-end.

Furthermore, it establishes a high fee for obtaining and renewing Operating Licenses for department stores and self-service stores, which will be over 1,400 pesos starting when the UMA increases.

Businesses are also created an environmental charge for sound emissions into the atmosphere, for which bars, restaurants, and discos must pay for music use over 1,770 pesos quarterly; commercial center establishments will pay over 2,360 pesos annually; but loudspeaker services must cover the over 1,700 pesos fee daily.

Likewise, special events will also have to pay a music permit, which will be over 3,500 pesos per event.

Increases and New Charges for Public Services

Several municipal services that have additional increases are mainly aimed at tourism and commercial businesses, which the Playa del Carmen government will heavily tax in 2026, as they will also be the main targets of large increases in the Property Tax, which derive from the rise in the land appraisal value table that was also carried out, and increases to double the construction licenses for residential, tourist, and commercial condominiums.

One of the main increases is in the garbage collection service, which will only be for certain specific business types, but with primary impact on municipal market tenants, who will have increases from double to quadruple the current rate, as it will rise from one UMA to 2 to 4 UMAS per month, meaning costs from over 230 pesos to over 470 pesos monthly, depending on the business type.

Additionally, to receive garbage collection service, hotels, motels, and auto-hotels must declare their number of rooms; hostels, inns, and houses must declare their number of beds; and lodging services offered through digital platforms must declare their guest capacity.

Here a new charge is also created for tire shops, workshops, tire shops, and tire marketers, who will be charged 0.22 UMA monthly per tire for “extended responsibility,” in addition to the garbage collection fee of 3 UMAS.

Fees for use of public space by street vendors, fixed and semi-fixed, also increase, ranging from 350 to 560 pesos monthly; for builders for placement of scaffolding, machinery, or construction materials; and adds several charge concepts for permits for people conducting activities in the federal maritime-terrestrial zone, meaning on beaches.

Here it also creates other charges, for using public lighting infrastructure for ornamental, commercial, special events, and communication line anchorages, without specifying in the first three concepts whether it is only for hanging something from poles or for placement under the light.

In the case of civil protection, fees for various permits increase and charge concepts are created, similarly in matters of obtaining land use, subdivisions, subdivisions, alignments, and urban and environmental criteria, and the cost of permits for spectacular signs and advertising billboards exceeding two meters in height will also rise.

Another charge created is for the liaison office service for processing Mexican passports, which will be 3 UMAS, meaning over 350 pesos starting February 2026.

It also imposes new charges on owners of urban bus transportation on linear and established routes, as well as private passenger transportation vehicles, urban and suburban, for use of stops, for obtaining, renewing, and replacing operator badge-cards, in addition to requiring them to pay an annual physical-mechanical inspection.

It is notable that these new charges are created when the state government seeks to modernize urban transportation service in Playa del Carmen, as in Cancún and Chetumal, through its Mobilidad del Bienestar (Mobi) program, meaning it is another program from which the Estefanía Mercado government wants to obtain a fiscal “cut.”

It also doubles costs for cleaning vacant lots instead of their owners, similarly increasing fines for such omission.

It equally creates fees for Public Veterinary Clinic services for pets, including treatments, sterilizations, and cremations.

Abusive Charges

The State Congress corrected the Playa del Carmen government’s plan on some abusive charge measures it intended to establish, such as charging for car window tinting permits but limiting their validity to six months, so they adjusted it to be one year, as state law establishes, while its cost will be 10 UMAS, meaning over 1,200 pesos starting February next year.

In other cases, Congress asked the municipality to establish a single clear fee per case, as it intended to set ambiguous cost ranges that could be applied arbitrarily depending on the taxpayer.

But there are other fee increases that will cause heavy burdens, such as the increase applied to civil protection permits for daycares, schools, and educational centers, which will have increases of 30% to 60% over current costs, in a range from over 2,300 pesos for the smallest to over 41,300 pesos for those with the largest capacity, fees that will be the same as those for hotels, and which will increase if they have LP gas installations. Additionally, it establishes the charge for the driving test and certificate at 4 UMAS, meaning over 460 pesos.

Another charge created is gender identity recognition, with which in Civil Registry matters the municipal government appears very progressive, but sets a high cost of 12 UMAS, meaning over 1,400 pesos starting next February, more expensive than a divorce. The same happens with name changes for children and adolescents, which will cost the same as a divorce, 10 UMAS, over 1,100 pesos after the UMA increases, despite supposedly guaranteeing the right to identity.

Dying will become more expensive, as the cost of cemetery vaults rises to over 2,300 and over 3,500 pesos every six years depending on the level, and up to over 2,900 and over 5,300 pesos in perpetuity.

Starting now, Aguakan or the Potable Water and Sewerage Commission (CAPA), in case they keep the concessioned services, will also be charged for opening trenches for potable water or sewer services, as well as companies that open channels for electricity and telecommunications services, such as CFE or Telmex, at a rate of over 885 pesos per linear meter excavated.

Promise Higher Property Tax Only in Tourist and Commercial Zones

It should be mentioned that these increases come along with Property Tax hikes that will result from increases in appraisal values for collection, which as main impact make Playa del Carmen the municipality with the most expensive land values in the state, as they are placed at almost double those of Cancún for tourist use, since in Playa del Carmen the highest value will be 12,500 pesos per square meter, while in Cancún’s Hotel Zone it is 7,000 pesos.

In his presentation before the State Congress, municipal treasurer Edgar Regalado Hendricks promised that the increases will be focused exclusively on zones where urban appreciation is highest, which are the coastal, tourist, and commercial areas located between the beach and the federal Chetumal-Cancún highway, which within the city coincides with Avenida 50. Thus, he explained that there are two main types of land value increases, marked on the appraisal map in orange for those that will have increases from 10 to 930 pesos per square meter, which are for tourist or commercial zones that have grown in 13 years and had not been increased.

On the other hand, marked in red are those that will have increases from 1,000 to 7,000 pesos per square meter of land, supposedly because their values are miscalculated or zones developed substantially without updating, as according to the treasurer there are cases of commercial or tourist properties with values similar to housing in Villas del Sol.

The zones where Property Tax increases will be applied are mainly Playacar, the hotel zone from north to south, the downtown zone, and the Corazón zone.

Likewise, he assured that in the case of popular neighborhoods, social housing, and marginalized zones, values will also be updated, but said it will be with “fiscal impact restrictions so that updating appraisal values does not translate into disproportionate Property Tax increases.”

However, there are still more fee increases in the reform to the Municipal Finance Law, which all social sectors of Playa del Carmen will feel when seeking to conduct any economic or even social or family interest activity.