The rules come from the Código Civil (Civil Code; Gaceta Oficial No. 2.990 Extraordinario, 1982) and the Ley de Impuesto sobre Sucesiones, Donaciones y Demás Ramos Conexos (Law on Inheritance, Donation and Related Taxes; Gaceta Oficial No. 5.391 Extraordinario, October 22, 1999).
What the Código Civil requires
A donation is the contract by which a person transfers a thing or a right, free of charge, to another person who accepts it (art. 1.431). The essentials when donating a home:
Form. The donation and its acceptance must be made in authentic form, and, in the case of real property, they have no effect against third parties until both acts are registered (art. 1.439). The Ley de Registros y Notarías (Registries and Notaries Law) requires donations of real property to be recorded in the Registro Público (public registry) (art. 46, num. 5).
Acceptance. It must be made during the donor's lifetime, and the donation only takes effect when the donor learns of the acceptance (art. 1.440). An adult child accepts in person or through an authentic poder (power of attorney) (art. 1.441); a non-emancipated minor child, through their legal representatives (art. 1.442).
Married parents. If the home belongs to the comunidad conyugal (marital community property), both spouses must consent to transferring it free of charge (art. 168).
Continuing to live in it. The donor can reserve the use or the usufruct, for themselves and afterwards for other persons who exist when the reservation is made (art. 1.456), and agree that the property returns to them if the child dies first (reversion, art. 1.453).When it can be revoked
The Code provides for two causes: the child's ingratitude and supervivencia de hijos (the later existence of children) (art. 1.459). Ingratitude covers the grounds for unworthiness in art. 810 and wrongfully refusing to provide support to the donor (art. 1.460); the action prescribes one year after the donor could have learned of the fact (art. 1.461). Supervivencia de hijos only applies if the donor had no living children, or did not know they had any, when donating (art. 1.462), so it does not apply to someone who donates to their own child.
How much tax a donation to a child pays
The law applies to donations the same progressive rate table of art. 7 that it uses for inheritances (art. 59). A child is in the first group, with ascendants, spouse and adopted children:
| Value donated (in unidades tributarias, or tax units) | Rate | Amount subtracted (UT) |
|---|
| Up to 15 | 1% | None |
| 15.01 to 50 | 2.5% | 0.23 |
| 50.01 to 100 | 5% | 1.48 |
| 100.01 to 250 | 7.5% | 3.98 |
| 250.01 to 500 | 10% | 10.23 |
| 500.01 to 1,000 | 15% | 35.23 |
| 1,000.01 to 4,000 | 20% | 85.23 |
| More than 4,000 | 25% | 285.23 |
The tax is the value in UT times the bracket's rate, minus the amount subtracted. The unidad tributaria has been worth Bs 43 since June 2, 2025 (Providencia SNAT/2025/000048, Gaceta Oficial No. 43.140), and we did not find a later adjustment. At that value, the top bracket starts at Bs 172,000, less than 200 dollars at the reference rate of the BCV (the central bank) with value date October 27, 2026 (Bs 887.302 per dollar). Almost any home donated to a child pays 25% of its value minus 285.23 UT (Bs 12,264.89).
Example: a home valued at Bs 8,873,020 (about 10,000 dollars at that rate) pays Bs 2,205,990.11, close to 24.9% of its value.
Who pays. The law places the obligation on the child who receives (art. 57), but donor and recipient are jointly and severally liable (art. 63).
Marital property. What is donated from the comunidad conyugal counts as coming from a single donor (art. 60). If you donate to several children, the rate applies to each one's share (art. 61). Donations from the same donor to the same person within five years are added together (art. 62).
Exemptions and reductions. The exemptions in art. 66 do not cover a home unless it is worth 25 UT (Bs 1,075) or less, and the reductions in art. 11 (applicable through art. 68) only reach shares of 500 UT (Bs 21,500) at most.
The family home. On inheritance, the home that was the permanent seat of the decedent's household, and that passes for those purposes to descendants, ascendants or spouse, is left out of the tax base (art. 10, num. 1). The title on donations does not refer to that rule (art. 75 only applies chapters V to VII). We read the exclusion as not reaching donations, so donating the house during your lifetime could cost much more than inheriting it, but this is our reading: we found no doctrine from SENIAT (the national tax authority) and no court ruling on the point. Confirm it with a tax advisor.
Usufruct. If the parents reserve it, the value of what is transferred is calculated with arts. 19 to 22 (art. 69).Return and certificate before the Registro
The donor files a sworn return and self-assesses the tax on the same form when stating the intention to donate (art. 71). The tax arises at that moment and must be paid before granting any document that formalizes the donation (art. 64). If the donor revokes or the child does not accept, a refund can be requested.
Once the tax is paid, the tax administration issues a certificado de solvencia o liberación (clearance or release certificate) (art. 45, applicable through art. 75).
The Ley de Registros y Notarías also requires:
A document drafted and approved (visado) by a lawyer (art. 23).
The solvencia (clearance certificate) for municipal taxes on the property (art. 97).
The form for the ISLR (income tax) advance payment, which art. 97 asks for with every document that transfers real property. But the advance in art. 86 of the Ley de ISLR only taxes transfers for consideration (a título oneroso), and its art. 14 (num. 7) exempts recipients of donations. We found no published criterion for donations: ask at the Registro.On the fee: art. 83 num. 7 sets 0.50%, 1% and 2% for sales, mortgages, exchanges and other contracts, without naming donations; confirm at the office what it charges. The procedure is like that for registering a sale.
Selling instead of donating: the 20% rule
Selling to a child below value does not avoid the tax:
Art. 70, num. 1. If the market value exceeds by 20% or more the price declared in a sale between relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or the second degree of affinity, that difference is considered a donation.
Art. 73. The tax authority can presume a gift (liberalidad) from well-founded, consistent and precise indications, such as a price that is not equivalent to the real value, that was not paid or was returned, or the parties being spouses or relatives within those degrees. Those involved can prove otherwise (art. 74).A real sale, by contrast, pays the 0.5% ISLR advance on the price, except in cases such as the main home (art. 86), and may trigger tax on the gain: see ISLR on the sale of a home.
The other children: legítima, reduction and colación
The legítima (the heirs' protected share) is the share of the estate that the law reserves for descendants, ascendants and spouse (art. 883): half of what each of them would receive without a will (art. 884).
Reduction. Donations made in the last ten years of the donor's life are reduced if, at death, they exceeded the portion the donor could freely dispose of (art. 1.468). Only the heirs entitled to a legítima, or their heirs, can request it; the action prescribes after five years and cannot be waived during the donor's lifetime, not even by consenting to the donation (art. 1.469).
Colación (bringing gifts back into the estate). A child who inherits together with their siblings must bring into colación what they received by donation, unless the donor waived it (art. 1.083), and even then they only keep the donation up to the disposable share (art. 1.084). In colación by imputation, the home is valued when the succession opens (art. 1.099).
With a reserved usufruct. What is given to an heir entitled to a legítima with a reserved usufruct is charged to the disposable portion and the excess is brought into colación, at the request only of the heirs entitled to a legítima who did not consent (art. 886).If the child later inherits from the donor, the donations of the previous five years are added to their inheritance share, deducting the tax already paid (art. 62). See selling an inherited property.
The SENIAT site did not load from outside Venezuela, so we did not confirm the current form or requirements for filing a donation. With several children, a usufruct or marital property, consult a lawyer.
