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SYNDICATION By Roger A. Petersen
Click here to purchase the e-book
Another free service of American-European Real Estate Group
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This book is a guide to calculating the value of your property in Costa Rica, filling out the luxury home tax forms, taking into account all the guidelines that are given my the Ministry of Tax (Ministerio de Hacienda).
The book about the new Luxury Home tax in Costa Rica or Solidarity Tax contains active links to an extensive array of documents, laws,regulations, valuation maps, and calculation tables which you are able to either download or access directly using this book and which together should provide you with a good framework for making an informed decision about what you should do with this new tax. We are talking about la Ley 8683,impuesto solidario para el fortalecimiento de programas de vivienda.
The Ministry of the Treasury has also compiled land valuation maps for most of Costa Rica. Most of these maps were completed in 2008 and the Ministry of the Treasury expects the local Municipal governments to incorporate them into their valuation standards.
The Legislature has placed into the law sanctions for not complying with the law. Specifically Article 12 of the law establishes fines and penalties for either failing to file the required declaration form or filing the form but under reporting the value of the property.
The law imposes sanctions for failing to file IF the tax is due or UNDER REPORTING the value of the property, however the law does not mention any sanction or penalty for NOT FILING if you don't owe anything. As such, if the value of your property is under the ¢100,000,000) you should probably not file anything. If you are borderline it would be good to have some sort of appraisal on file in case you are audited in the future. Owners of properties in condominium should contact their condominium administrator or board of owners.
Especially those who own property in large and expensive gated communities are bound to be checked on first.
Those who have more than 300 m2 construction should get an appraisal
We have been interviewing many people willing to do your appraisal for a fee. Fees run all over the map. I have found 5 companies that do appraisals for banks and other institutions, who have years of experience and will take responsibility if the government does not accept their appraisal. They will charge depending on the location of your property and the size of your property. Send me an email with the size of your house (more or less), size of your property and in whose name it is. I will forward you the contact info on the right appraiser in your area. You can count on the following fees that were agreed on with all the appraisers:
- Up to 250 m2 ¢127.000
- From 251 to 350 m2 ¢157.000
- From 351 to 450 m2 ¢187.000
- From 451 to 550 m2 ¢207.000
- From 551 to 650 m2 ¢237.000
- From 651 and more ¢282.000
The appraisers included in this the cost of pulling a study of your property in the National Register and pulling a survey, so you don’t have to worry about this.
Also, they will calculate the common areas if you live in a gated community or condominium.
Properties with construction of a lower value than ¢100,000,000 (about $175,000) are exempt of paying the fee of 0.25% over your appraised value. There is no obligation to file if you’re under that value. If your property is borderline, we recommend filing. You have to file before the 1st of January 2010. If you don’t file and they catch you, you will be charged 10 times the tax you should have paid and if you file the wrong values, they will charge you 5 times the tax.
As you can see, we have tried to make this as easy as possible for you and we are not charging you for this, we just wanted you to receive the usual after-sale service that you are used to as a AE Real Estate Group client.
If you are interested in the appraisal, send me us email with your name, the name of ownership (in case of an S.A.) and ID number, the approximate size of construction and more or less size of your property and we will get back to you with the name and contact info of who you can contact to get your appraisal done.
Just copy/paste the following info and send email to ivo@american-european.net
- ID number
- Full name
- Phones
- Email address
- address
ARTICLE 1.- Purpose of the Law
To create a direct tax in favor of the central Government, whose product will be destined, exclusively, to finance public programs addressed to the provision of decent living, to persons and families who are considered poor or extremely poor. This tax will fall over the value of the real estate properties that are of residential use, that are used usually, occasionally, or for recreation, including fixed and permanent premises.
For more, feel free to purchase the E-book by Attorney at Law Roger Petersen through the above link.