COSTA RICA NEWS — Despite the announcement Monday that the cost of the 2015 Marchamo was lower than last year, thousands of vehicle owners who already paid and others checking costs online, found that in fact the cost was higher. So what gives?
The announcement of a drop of an average of 7% in the cost of the 2015 Marchamo was made by the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS), the state insurer providing the Seguro Obligatorio de Automóviles (SOA )- mandatory coverage. The INS is also the state agency in charge of collections.
There was a drop, but only on the insurance portion, which makes up only 20% of the total cost.
The other items, like property tax and the transport authority (Cosevi) contribution, representing the bulk of the total, went up: property tax went up 6% and the Cosevi contribution for a passenger vehicle went from ¢10.000 last year to ¢10.317 this year. Similar increases are being applied to all types of vehicle classes.
For his part, the M de Hacienda (Minister of Finance), Helio Fallas, said “it’s not that we want to take more money,” denying that its a government cash grab, to offset the shortfall in weak state coffers.
Fallas said he lacked precise details, but the tax increase was due to an adjustment formula not related to the country’s fiscal situation.
Another factor in the increased cost is the property value or “valor fiscal”, this is the vehicle’s value set by Hacienda, to which the tax rate is applied. The value is arbitrarily set by the tax debarment for the class of vehicle, which can be appealed by the property owner.
It wasn’t a question of deception, just point of view.
Source: La Nacion; Ministerio de Hacienda
Article sez “The value is arbitrarily set by the tax debarment for the class of vehicle, which can be appealed by the property owner.”
Arbitrarily, really? So how about a little info on how to do a appeal?
stfree, in San José, you have to visit the taxation office located in the red brick building on Avenida 8a, around the corner from funeral home (no joke). There is an office where you can appeal the fiscal value, you file the paperwork and then wait. The cut off for the following year is October, I believe. That is, any filing you would make after the cut off date, with be effective the year after next, 2017 if you were to file today. That is if an adjustment in your favour is made. I did mine years ago, brought down the value then from 6.8 million to around 4 million. In my case, there were only two Cadillacs in the classification and I owned both of them. Not sure if that was a factor.