| Luxury home tax may influence political campaign
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Foreign owners of property here and Costa Ricans are just waking up to the fact that the luxury home tax will take a bite out of their wallet this Christmas season. Some have expressed the idea that repeal of the tax will become a key element of the presidential election campaign. Laura Chinchilla, said to be the front runner, is closely identified with the tax that was created by the Óscar Arias Sánchez administration. She was a vice president for a time, and the tax is the product of a legislature controlled by her Partido Liberación Nacional.
An analysis of the news
The tax has been the subject of just three articles in the Spanish daily La Nación since 2006, according to a search of the newspaper's archives. The last article was just eight short paragraphs and appeared Sept. 30. It said that the law would go into effect the next day. The full consequences of the tax have not been revealed to the Costa Rica community. For example, a home worth one colon more than 100 million colons is subject to the tax. That seems like a big number, but in dollars it is $172,500. Owners of such a home on the threshold of the tax would have to pay 62,500 colons for the last quarter of 2009 and quickly pay 250,000 for all of 2010. The money is due Jan. 15. That is 312,000 colons right at Christmas time, some $539. A number of Costa Rican homeowners are going to have to dig into their Christmas aguinaldo to pay the tax. Most are not aware of that fact yet. The Dirección General de Tributación was ordered by the law to publicize the tax in the nation's news media. To date no such advertising has been seen even though the tax-collecting agency is quick to pounce on those who do not submit the proper forms. An additional problem is that homeowners are faced with an elaborate and confusing system for determining the tax. A.M. Costa Rica has labeled the system unfair and the worst of all possible appraisal systems. Some savvy Costa Ricans already have hired professional appraisers. An additional implication for homeowners is that Tributación will forward the estimated value of the property to the municipalities, which, in turn, will adjust the value for local tax purposes. Municipal assessments have been notoriously much lower than true value. So many homeowners will see a steep increase in municipal tax, too. Perhaps particularly grating to Costa Ricans will be the use to which the tax will be put. The money is to be used to clear slums, but many who live in such deplorable conditions are not Costa Ricans. No political party has seized this situation as a campaign element yet, but as Christmas and the time for paying the tax approaches, one or more certainly will. And it will not be Liberación Nacional, which must defend the tax and the way it was put into force.
|
|