Vehicles Overvalued and
Pay Higher Marchamo Fees
According to Daniel
Gómez, Ministerio de
Hacienda (revenue
ministry), the 2008
Marchamo portion of the
property tax is based on
the current value of the
vehicle and not the
depreciated value in the
case of imported
vehicles.
The annual circulation
permit, which is due and
payable by not later
than December 31 and
collected by the
Instituto Nacional de
Seguros (INS) - state
insurance agency -
included, among other
items, property tax on
vehicles.
Gómez explained that
Hacienda takes into
account the current
value of the vehicle
even though the vehicle
had been imported some
years ago. Gómez gave
the example of a vehicle
valued at us$18.000 when
imported three years
ago, but now valued as
new at us$21.000. Gómez
said that Hacienda
collects the tax on the
higher amount and not
the lower.
Gómez says that
calculating mechanism is
contained in Ley 7088
which allows Hacienda to
collect tax on the
higher amount.
"For vehicles the
depreciation method is
different than that of
other goods", said Gómez.
Jenny Phillips,
viceministra de Ingresos,
said that the public has
to understand that we
cannot change what is
established in law. "I
can not apply anything
other than the law",
said Phillips.
For Gómez the
calculation method is
just, saying that it
would be next to
impossible to apply a
different method to each
vehicle. "It is not
logical when there are
almost a million
vehicles in Costa Rica",
said Gómez.
Gómez added that
vehicles are not
depreciated as much as
in the past, saying that
car values are
maintaining and that
owners take a huge loss
when selling their
vehicles.
Gómez said that vehicles
today are being resold
at pretty much the same
value of when they were
purchased. "There isn't
much of a loss due to
inflation", sad Gómez.
Notwithstanding,
Hacienda officials say
they have noted that the
value of new vehicles
has risen between 15%
and 20% during the past
three years.
Hacienda uses the new
car price list
(importation value) to
determine the tax value
on vehicles.
Aside from the varying
importation tax on the
type of vehicle,
Hacienda applies a
standard depreciation
rate of 13.4% on all
private vehicles no
matter if it was
imported in 2006 or
2007. According to
Phillips the
depreciation rate levels
the calculation process.
To calculate the
property tax paid on a
vehicle, Gómez added
that Hacienda also takes
into account the Índice
de Precios del
Consumidor (IPC) -
consumer price index -
or inflation to
December, which this
year is calculated at
9.5%. |
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