Paraguay Tax Payment Plans Now Cost 1.4% a Month

Settling a Paraguayan tax debt in installments got more expensive overnight. Decreto 6478/2026, issued on 31 July and in force from 1 September 2026, fixes the monthly interest on DNIT payment plans at 1.4%. The rate it replaces, set by Decreto 5028/2021, was 1.1%. The change takes effect one day after the amnesty that waived that interest entirely stopped accepting files.

What Decreto 6478/2026 Changes for Paraguayan Tax Debt

The decree resets one number, and the arithmetic around it is worth seeing side by side, because three similar-looking percentages circulate in Paraguayan tax practice and only one of them moved.

Scope is limited to taxes administered by the DNIT's internal-taxes arm, which is where income tax and VAT balances sit; customs obligations run under a separate management. In simple annual terms the financing cost moves from 13.2% to 16.8%, a rise of just over a quarter.

The new rate attaches to facilities granted from today onward. Plans already approved keep the rate that applied when they were signed, so nobody currently paying in installments sees their schedule rewritten.

Why Some Coverage Called This Tax Change a Cut

Several outlets reported the measure last week as a reduction, from 1.5% to 1.4%. That comparison uses the wrong baseline. The 1.5% figure is the recargo por mora, the surcharge that accrues on tax you simply have not paid, and it is unchanged.

The two numbers sit close together by design. Article 161 of Ley 125/1991 obliges the Executive to fix the payment-plan rate annually and to keep it below the late-payment surcharge, which leaves a narrow band to work in. Measured against the rate actually in force until yesterday, 1.4% is an increase, not a discount.

A Pandemic-Era Tax Rate Reaches Its End

The 1.1% was never the normal setting. Decreto 5028/2021, signed on 18 March 2021, cut the financing rate as a palliative measure while the pandemic ran, and it replaced Decreto 6605/2016 in doing so. According to Mersan's reading of the new decree, 1.4% is the level that governed before that cut.

Read that way, today is less a policy departure than the quiet expiry of a five-year concession. The stated justification is to align the financial cost of payment agreements with current conditions while preserving the incentive to file on time.

The Timing Sits Right Next to the Tax Amnesty

Yesterday closed the exceptional regime under Decreto 5154/2025, which waived 100% of late-payment and financing interest on obligations for periods closed up to December 2023. We covered that deadline and who it reached ten days before it expired.

The two dates stack. A taxpayer who signed under the amnesty pays no interest on the covered balance at all. A taxpayer who did not now carries the ordinary surcharge on the arrears plus a financing rate a quarter higher than last week's. The cheapest month of the year to regularize was August, and it has gone.

What the New Paraguay Tax Payment Rate Means for You

For most readers of this site the answer is nothing. If your income arises outside Paraguay and your local filings are current, no payment plan is in play, and the territorial system is untouched by any of this. The decree prices a debt; it does not create one.

Three situations do change in cost. If you hold a RUC and have fallen behind on returns, the interest on regularizing is higher from today. If you own a Paraguayan company, the same applies to its balances. And if you have an entity you stopped trading but never formally closed, its filing obligations have continued running, which is the case where a small oversight quietly compounds. Our RUC and filing guide sets out what the ongoing obligations actually are.

US citizens and green-card holders: a Paraguayan payment plan settles a Paraguayan liability and nothing else. The United States taxes worldwide income on the basis of citizenship, so your IRS filing position is unaffected by what you agree with the DNIT, and a Paraguayan company generally brings US information returns of its own. Our guide for US persons sets out the reporting side.

Frequently Asked Questions About Paraguay Tax Payment Plans

Does the 1.4% rate apply to a payment plan I already have?

No. Decreto 6478/2026 applies to facilities granted from 1 September 2026. An agreement approved before that date continues on the rate in force when it was granted, so an existing schedule does not change.

Which taxes does the new payment-plan interest cover?

Those administered by the DNIT's internal-taxes management, the category that includes personal income tax, corporate income tax and VAT. The decree does not address customs obligations, which fall under a different arm of the same authority.

Is payment-plan interest the same as the late-payment surcharge?

No, and conflating them is what produced last week's "rate cut" headlines. The surcharge of 1.5% a month accrues on tax left unpaid. The 1.4% is what the DNIT charges to finance a balance you have agreed to pay in installments, and Ley 125/1991 requires it to stay under the surcharge.

Holding an old Paraguayan RUC or a company you stopped using, and unsure what has accrued on it? Establishing the actual balance takes a document request rather than a guess, and today it is worth a fraction more than it was in August. Send us a message.

Disclaimer: General information on a decree in force from 1 September 2026, not tax or legal advice. Rates, scope and transitional treatment turn on the individual file. Have a Paraguayan tax professional read your account statement before signing any payment agreement.

Sources

• ▹Impuestos Py: Decreto N° 6478/2026
• ▹Mersan: Novedades Tributarias, julio 2026
• ▹Base Legal: Decreto N° 5028/2021, tasa de interés para las facilidades de pago de tributos
• ▹BACN: Ley N° 125, que establece el nuevo régimen tributario (art. 161)
• ▹Prensa Mercosur: DNIT reduce desde septiembre el interés para pagar impuestos en cuotas
• ▹El Nacional: Pagar impuestos atrasados será más barato desde septiembre