Manitoba’s premier, Brian Pallister, has failed to reassess the value of his tropical vacation home for the past decade, contravening Costa Rican property tax rules and adding more questions as to whether he owes unpaid taxes to the government.
A Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, municipal official — the municipality where Pallister’s vacation home is located — said that Pallister’s property has not submitted the required property declaration form at the municipal level since it was built in 2008.
It takes time to go through [the Costa Rican government’s] process.
– Premier Brian Pallister
“Every five years they should update it … it should have been [updated in] 2013,” Ramon Guevara, who is in charge of the Santa Cruz Department of Housing, said in an interview with CBC News. The Canadian news media said Pallister has denied a request for an interview, but his director of communications says he is willing to pay any tax he is found to owe the government.
Starting in 2009, Costa Rica has an additional tax on “luxury” homes valued at more than ¢100 million colones (US$180,000 dollars) planning to put the money toward housing for low-income Costa Ricans. In 2018, any home worth over ¢129 million colones must pay the tax, at a sliding scale based on the assessed construction value of the home.
Valverde said because Pallister’s home is recorded as over the ¢100 million colones.
Read the complete story at CBC News.
