A Phnom Penh condominium valued at $150,000 for tax purposes produces an annual property tax bill of $95. The number is small enough to be forgotten, and it usually is, until a sale, a mortgage file, or a transfer to a family member requires a clean record. The General Department of Taxation sets the filing and payment period from 1 January to 30 September of each taxable year, which means the Cambodia property tax 2026 window closes on Wednesday, 30 September.
The obligation is the Tax on Immovable Property. The tax authority defines immovable property to include land with or without construction, houses and other dwellings, and buildings or structures of any kind, naming hotels, apartments, condominiums and co-ownership buildings, offices, factories, warehouses, markets, roads, bridges, water and electricity production systems, airports, ports and car parks. The governing instruments are Prakas No. 493 MEF.PrK dated 19 July 2010 and Prakas No. 576 MEF.Prk.GDT dated 19 September 2024.
The Cambodia property tax 2026 arithmetic
The rate is 0.1 percent of the tax base. The base is 80 percent of the total property value, combining land value and construction cost, with construction cost varying by the lifespan of the structure, whether it is above or below ten years, by type, meaning concrete, non-concrete or condominium, and by the price attributed to each floor. Those values come from the capital and provincial annex attached to Prakas No. 371 MEF.PrK dated 5 May 2011, from which 100 million riel is deducted for each property.
Run the sequence. On a unit valued at $150,000, the base is $120,000. Deduct the equivalent of 100 million riel, roughly $25,000, and $95,000 remains. At 0.1 percent, the bill is $95. A $400,000 unit produces $295. Four units across a portfolio produce a few hundred dollars a year against several hundred thousand dollars of capital.
Property valued at 100 million riel or less carries no filing obligation at all. That is worth reading precisely. It is not a discount. It removes the declaration requirement entirely for the smallest units.
Note also what the base is not. It is not the price on the sale and purchase agreement and it is not a broker's valuation. It is a schedule figure derived from official annex tables, which is why owners are frequently surprised in both directions when they first register.
Geography decides the obligation
Under Article 148 of the Law on Taxation, promulgated by Royal Kram No. NS/RKM/0523/004 dated 16 May 2023, the tax applies to immovable property located in the administration of the capital and the provinces. In current practice the tax authority applies it only to property inside the capital and the cities of provinces. Property located in the districts of provinces is not subject to the tax.
For anyone holding provincial land, that single distinction determines whether a filing exists. A plot inside Siem Reap city sits in scope. A plot in a surrounding district does not. Property in a special economic zone that directly serves production and service activity is exempt. Agricultural land under cultivation, together with structures that permanently and directly serve agricultural activity, is also outside the tax, and where the title document already records the land as agricultural, no separate certification from a competent authority is required.
Land that falls outside the geographic scope of the immovable property tax may instead sit within the Tax on Unused Land, governed by Prakas No. 573 MEF.Prk.GDT dated 19 September 2024, which runs on the same annual 1 January to 30 September declaration period. One obligation ends where the other begins.
The 80 percent rule off-plan buyers should read
Houses, buildings and structures under construction that are less than 80 percent complete and not yet in use are exempt from the tax, though the land beneath them is not.
That threshold defines the moment an off-plan position converts from a land liability into a building liability. It is a clean rule with a soft edge, because completion percentage and first use are matters of documentation rather than opinion, and the documentation sits with the developer. Buyers taking handover in a given year should establish where the building stood on that measure, because the answer determines the first year in which a declaration is due.
Registration is where files break
Non-payment is rarely the problem among foreign owners. Non-registration is.
Unregistered property must be registered either at the Department of Tax on Movable and Immovable Property of the General Department of Taxation, which covers property nationwide, or at the service counter of the provincial or khan tax branch where the property sits. Applying for a property tax payment card requires Form PT 01, a copy of the ownership certificate or transfer letter or sale contract, a passport for foreigners, a residence book or certificate of residence for foreign holders, photographs of the property, its latitude and longitude, utility receipts where they exist, a telephone number and email address, and supporting documents such as a construction permit where the structure is new or renovated. Owners without a card can obtain one against a service fee of 5,000 riel.
Declaration and payment run through the Department of Tax on Movable and Immovable Properties and provincial or khan tax branches, or through branches of ACLEDA Bank, Canadia Bank, Vattanac Bank, Cambodia Public Bank and other banks holding a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Registered properties can also be declared and paid through the GDT Taxpayer App, which returns a payment receipt by email.
There is a second requirement that owners miss more often than the first. Taxpayers must update their property information when land is built on, when structures are added, reduced or demolished, when the owner, occupant or final beneficiary changes, when a plot is subdivided or consolidated, and when the registered owner's name needs correction, including for spelling. The tax file is expected to track the title file. When the two diverge, the divergence surfaces at the least convenient moment.
Late filing and late payment attract administrative penalties under Article 233 of the Law on Taxation, comprising additional tax of 10 percent and interest of 1.5 percent per month on the unpaid or underpaid amount. On a $95 liability that is trivial. On an unregistered property held for eight years, the arithmetic changes character.
What the August notification adds
On 4 August 2026 the Ministry of Economy and Finance issued Notification No. 008 MEF.S.N.N on exemptions and concessions relating to the transfer of ownership or possession of immovable property. It suspends the 100 percent late payment penalty on stamp duty applied three months after issuance of specified land transfer documents through 31 December 2027, permits stamp duty and property tax to be settled on completed construction on the basis of a construction permit or a certificate from the competent authority establishing the construction date, and provides a stamp duty exemption on transfers of property owned by service personnel.
The second measure is the operative one for condominium owners with older files. Where evidence of completion was previously the obstacle rather than the liability itself, a construction permit or authority certificate now clears it. Files that were stuck can move.
Most owners can settle the entire obligation in an afternoon, from anywhere, for less than a quarter of service charges. The queue in the last week of September is avoidable.
The $95 is not the point. The unbroken record it produces is the point, and that record is read by every counterparty who touches the asset after you.
Owners who treat annual compliance as a filing chore usually discover its value at exit, when the file is opened by someone with no reason to be patient. The work is cheapest in August and most expensive at the closing table.
At My First Corner, registration status is one of the first items we check when a client asks what their unit is worth. The conversation is available when it is useful.
