Countries › Paraguay › Guide › 6. Taxes › Tax incentives in Paraguay: Ley 7548 investment regime, 1 percent maquila tax and 0.5 percent free zone tax

Tax incentives in Paraguay: Ley 7548 investment regime, 1 percent maquila tax and 0.5 percent free zone tax

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Last verified: 2026-10-28 · Status: Changing

Paraguay's three main incentive regimes were refreshed in 2025. Ley 7548/2025 replaced Ley 60/90 with duty and IVA exemptions on capital goods for approved projects, plus a ten year dividend tax exemption and an INR exemption on foreign bank loans for projects of at least US$13,000,000; Ley 7547/2025 rebuilt the maquila regime, which replaces IRE, IDU and INR with a single 1 percent tax for export manufacturing and services. Free zone users exporting to third countries pay a single 0.5 percent tax on export income under Ley 523/1995.

USD figures use PYG 5,868.31 per US dollar, the Banco Central del Paraguay reference quotation for 28 October 2026 (planilla de cotizaciones of that day). Conversions are for orientation only.

Key facts

Minimum investment for the Ley 7548 IDU and INR exemptions	13000000 USDLey 7548/2025 art. 4 d) and e), as of 2026-10-28 · in force
Length of the Ley 7548 IDU exemption	10 yearsLey 7548/2025 art. 4 e), as of 2026-10-28 · in force
Minimum investment for the tourism and entertainment capital goods exemption	20000000 USDLey 7548/2025 art. 4 f), as of 2026-10-28 · in force
Maquila single tax rate	1 %Ley 7547/2025 art. 37, as of 2026-10-28 · in force
Pure maquiladora domestic sales cap, share of prior year exported volume	10 %Ley 7547/2025 art. 18, as of 2026-10-28 · in force
Free zone single tax on export income	0.5 %Ley 523/1995 art. 14, as of 2026-10-28 · in force

The rule

1. Ley 7548 benefits. Companies and sole proprietorships, Paraguayan or foreign, with an approved investment project in industry, farming or services can obtain: exemption from import duty on capital goods and raw materials for making capital goods; IVA exemption on capital goods as provided in Ley 6380 art. 100; IVA exemption on the first transfer of those capital goods between beneficiaries; INR exemption on interest to foreign banks for project financing and a ten year IDU exemption on dividends from the project, both for investments of at least US$13,000,000; and duty and IVA exemption on capital goods for tourism and entertainment projects of at least US$20,000,000. The thresholds cannot be reached by adding separate projects and can be updated by decree for CPI.
Cost to do it: Projects above US$13,000,000 must be prepared by registered national consultants (art. 8).
Example: A US$15,000,000 plant paying PYG 1,000,000,000 of dividends a year abroad saves PYG 150,000,000 of IDU a year for ten years. / On US$170,407 of yearly dividends the saving is US$25,561 a year.Ley Nº 7548/2025 Régimen de incentivos fiscales para la inversión (repeals Ley 60/90), Art. 3, 4 and 32, 2025-09-08 official text · verified 2026-10-28

2. Ley 7548 procedure. The MIC led Investment Council must give its opinion within 60 calendar days of the application and the Ministers of Industry and Commerce and of Economy and Finance must issue the biministerial resolution within 15 days of that opinion. Renewals for new investments can be requested within 20 years of the first grant. Assets older than six months before the application are not eligible. Projects approved under Ley 60/90 keep their terms. The law took effect on promulgation and publication.
Cost to do it: No government fee in the law; consultancy and environmental impact declaration are prerequisites (art. 8).
Example: Application filed 1 March: Council opinion by 30 April, resolution within 15 days after. / About 75 days from filing to resolution under the statutory deadlines.Ley Nº 7548/2025 Régimen de incentivos fiscales para la inversión (repeals Ley 60/90), Art. 9, 12, 13, 14, 34, 35 and 37, 2025-09-08 official text · verified 2026-10-28

3. Maquila single tax. Maquila contracts and activities under an approved maquila programme pay a single tax of 1 percent of the higher of value added in Paraguay or the export invoice value (submaquila: of value added or billing). Value added means local goods and services purchased, local payroll including social security, depreciation of own capital goods and the maquila fee received. Maquila income is exempt from IRE, IDU and INR, and from all other national taxes except fees for services. Maquiladoras recover export IVA credit, service maquilas within 0.5 percent of value added or export invoice. Pure maquiladoras can sell up to 10 percent of the previous year's exported volume in the local market after paying import taxes.
Cost to do it: Single tax 1 percent; programme approved by biministerial resolution on CNIME advice.
Example: Export invoices of PYG 10,000,000,000 with local value added of PYG 3,000,000,000: tax on the higher, PYG 100,000,000. / On US$1,704,068 of exports the maquila tax is US$17,041, with no IDU on dividends.Ley Nº 7547/2025 Régimen de maquila (replaces Ley 1064/1997), Art. 18, 37, 38 and 39, 2025-09-08 official text · verified 2026-10-28

4. Free zone tax. Free zone users exporting exclusively to third countries pay a single Impuesto de Zona Franca of 0.5 percent of gross income from sales to third countries, paid with each export clearance, and are exempt from all other national, departmental and municipal taxes, including on remittances of dividends abroad and on royalties, interest and fees paid abroad. Sales into Paraguay up to 10 percent of total sales keep the regime; above 10 percent the domestic share is taxed under income tax with a 70 percent rate reduction for industrial and service users. Users may opt for the general income tax and are locked in for four years.
Cost to do it: 0.5 percent of export income.
Example: Exports of PYG 5,000,000,000 pay PYG 25,000,000 of free zone tax. / On US$852,034 of exports the tax is US$4,260.Ley Nº 523/1995 Régimen de zonas francas, Art. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, 1995-01-16 official text · verified 2026-10-28

5. Transfer pricing reach. Transactions between Paraguayan taxpayers and free zone users or maquila companies are presumed to be between related parties and require a transfer pricing study regardless of size.
Cost to do it: Budget a transfer pricing study for any domestic customer or supplier of the incentivised entity.
Example: A local supplier to a maquiladora files a transfer pricing study on those sales. / A US group's Paraguayan distributor buying from its free zone affiliate is in scope.Ley Nº 6380/2019 De modernización y simplificación del sistema tributario nacional, Art. 37 and 39, 2019-09-25 official text · verified 2026-10-28

Regime	Income tax	Dividends abroad	Imports	Who approves
Ley 7548/2025 investment	IRE 10% (general)	IDU exempt 10 years if US$13M or more	Duty and IVA exempt on capital goods	MIC and MEF biministerial resolution
Ley 7547/2025 maquila	Single 1% on higher of value added or exports	Exempt	Temporary import, duties suspended	MIC and MEF on CNIME advice
Ley 523/1995 free zone	Single 0.5% on export income	Exempt	Exempt	Free zone concession and user contract
General regime	IRE 10%	IDU 15%	Duty, IVA	None

Incentive regimes compared (laws on BACN, verified 28 October 2026)

Worked example

A Brazilian group sets up an export assembly plant with US$15,000,000 of equipment.
Under Ley 7547 maquila: on export invoices of PYG 20,000,000,000 (US$3,408,136) it pays 1 percent, PYG 200,000,000 (US$34,081), and no IDU on dividends.
Under the general regime with a 10 percent margin it would pay IRE of PYG 200,000,000 plus IDU on PYG 1,800,000,000 of dividends, PYG 270,000,000.
Under Ley 7548 instead, it keeps IRE but imports the equipment duty and IVA free and gets ten years of IDU exemption.

Step by step

Choose the regime by market: maquila or free zone for export platforms, Ley 7548 for local market or mixed projects.
For Ley 7548, prepare the project file (art. 8), including the environmental impact declaration, and apply to the MIC.
For maquila, submit the programme to the CNIME secretariat at the MIC.
Do not buy capital goods more than six months before applying (Ley 7548 art. 9).
Plan transfer pricing studies for related local transactions.

Common traps

Ley 6380 still cites Ley 60/90 (art. 100) and Ley 1064/1997 (art. 40); read them together with Ley 7548 and Ley 7547.
The US$13,000,000 threshold applies per project; separate projects cannot be aggregated (Ley 7548 art. 4).
For non resident investors the IDU exemption is lost if the money comes from a low tax jurisdiction or the home country would credit the IDU (Ley 7548 art. 4 e).
Maquila and free zone domestic sales above 10 percent lose the single tax treatment on the excess.

Sources

Related: Paraguay country profile · live dashboard · central bank and release calendar · our posts on X · where Argentina is involved, see The Argentine Thread guide

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