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Just a note….we just used David Cohen for a new fridge and had nothing but good things to say about the experience. He does appliances and said he also does mattresses. Just a thought if you need something.
Forgive me but I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about so one can assume the same would apply to a few others reading this forum…
You “used” David Cohen?
Would you care to elaborate?
Scott
OK to clarify. We were looking for appliances and in an older series of posts David Cohen was recommended as a source. We contacted him and purchased a new refrigerator. We was great to work with, had a good price and free delivery. This is just a note if anyone should be looking. Hope this makes better sense.
3 years ago I contacted Mr. Cohen to purchase 2 fridges, 1 cooker, 1 wall oven, 1 counter top cooker, 1 deep freeze, 1 washer and 1 dryer. Quite a good order in anyone’s books I would say. Well we are still waiting for him to report back to us. Rather late right?
If one wants to purchase numerous items it is much cheaper to hire transport, go to the free trade zone shops in Golfito, obtain a purchase order, stay the night in a hotel and next day purchase your items. If I am correct one can purchase US$2000.00 every 6 months.Colleen, in your own name, you can purchase a single item worth up to $1,000US every six months duty-free. Each family member (spouse, children, et al) has this privilege.
That is, if you buy (say) a range for $800, that uses your own duty-free privilege for the next six months. You cannot also buy (say) a microwave for $150 and receive the duty exemption on that even though the total is less than $1,000. What’s more, if you buy a single item for $1,000.01 including shipping and other taxes, that cannot be exempted. The entire “pre-duty” cost must be $1,000US or less.
Furthermore (somebody please correct me if I’m wrong), duty-free purchases are still subject to Costa Rica’s retail sales tax (13%). It’s only the Customs duty that’s exempted.
It may be possible to “buy” someone else’s duty-free privilege in Golfito. I don’t know about that.
We have the best of all worlds in a family of Ticos that live with us. Marcos is a messenger for BNCR and knows the country well. He searches for our needs and then we go to see what he has found and make a decision. Sometimes those things (appliances) are in Golfito but we have a van and a pickup and do our own transport.
This is a question for me…Can my wife and I combine our alotted $1,000 each to purchase one item over $1,000?
[quote=”waggoner41″] Can my wife and I combine our alotted $1,000 each to purchase one item over $1,000?[/quote]
Les, what I’ve been told is that if the total cost of getting an item to Costa Rica (purchase price plus shipping, insurance, etc) exceeds $1,000.00US then it cannot be exempted from Customs duty. So the answer to your question would be “No”.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”waggoner41″] Can my wife and I combine our alotted $1,000 each to purchase one item over $1,000?[/quote]
Les, what I’ve been told is that if the total cost of getting an item to Costa Rica (purchase price plus shipping, insurance, etc) exceeds $1,000.00US then it cannot be exempted from Customs duty. So the answer to your question would be “No”.
[/quote]Well, if we talk about Golfito, and if the rules there have not changed in 8 years, the answer would be YES.
If you go to Golfito, be prepared for an adventure, and make sure you speak Spanish, otherwise it is quite confusing and you may not be able to take full advantage of your tax free rights.
Last time I went to Golfito (with 3 friends) was in 2004. The tax free amount per person (tarjeta) was $ 500. If you wanted to buy a more expensive item you had to combine 2 tarjetas, but only members from the same family were allowed to do so. What we did was, hire 2 families (there are many sitting outside the free zone selling their tarjetas) in order to buy a stove for $900 and a washer for $750. The “leftover” $ on each tarjeta could be used for smaller items. Actually, we sold these leftover $ to a guy who wanted to buy boxes of whisky. With our own tarjetas, $500 each, we bought smaller items such as Microwave oven, TV, tires for the car, a Tico Washer etc. and again, the leftover $ were sold to the whisky guy. Since the invoices are made out to the different people, we all together had to be on the check out (the families, the whisky guy, and the 4 of us). The large items were delivered on a huge truck, the smaller items we stuffed into my Isuzu Trooper. What I recommend, if you do not live close to Golfito, stay one extra day, otherwise it is quite tired. Back then we saved about a 40 % (comparing with San Jose prices), part of this off course pays for hotel and gas.Do you have to be a resident to take advantage of the tax free amount in Golfito? If we only have tourist statis, can we still use the exemptions?
Thanks
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