SIGN UP FOR OUR By Wendy Anders
New cars arrive in Costa Rica, under the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. (CAFTA).
If you were looking to purchase a spanking new 2018 car early next year, it looks like you will have to wait until September due to new regulations established by the Costa Rican Internal Revenue Service, as reported in El Diario Extra, Costa Rica’s daily tabloid.
Fernando Rodriguez, vice minister of finance, told Diario Extra that the following year’s car models can only be imported starting on September 1 of each year. So 2018 models will be available as of September of next year.
Newer cars were skewing the car-value calculations, causing other cars to be devalued in relation to the newer models in the tax calculation system, thus prompting the agency to make the change in car import regulations, reported El Extra.
With 2017 cars circulating starting in January 2016, this had a large impact on tax calculations which are largely derived from the car value, continued Rodriguez.
The ruling does not apply to used car imports.
Last year the agency received 9,000 claims for billing errors in the calculation of vehicles’ property tax, reported El Extra.
The list of car tax values for calculating the annual permit fees or “marchamo” will be published later this month. The finance agency said that there will be no raises in the mandatory tax categories of the annual permit.
