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I am a temporary resident here in Costa Rica with a cedula. I plan to go to the US late this year. If I bring stuff back with me and am asked to pay duty on it, does anyone know how I can use my $500 exemption? Please don’t give me packing suggestions–I know how to pack things to as to avoid paying anything. I just want to know how the exemption can be used. Thanks!!!
i’ve brought in literally a ton of stuff and never used the exemption, even when i brought in a travertine bathroom sink (declared the value on the form) and at the same time i brought in a turquoise-covered buffalo skull (also declared the value) and nobody every bothered with the exemption. what are you thinking of bringing that would force you to use this exemption?
We have claimed it. But, if you do declare items of $200, you will not be allowed the $300 at a later time.
Since everything we ever bring back is strictly for personal use, we never declare anything on the back of the form. The wording on the form is a bit ambiguous as to what must be declared.
Should the Customs Officer decide that you owe duty on something, ask him or her for directions about how to use your exemption. And remember that each person gets the exemption, not each family. Remember, too, that the exemption is on a single item only.
And . . . Somebody refresh my memory. Isn’t the exemption now $1,000US?
If you are under a $1,000.00 just declare it all. I made the mistake of not writing down $78.00 in CFL bulbs on my trip in March. They yanked me aside in Liberia, I presented the receipt and still got stamped Bonificado – even though I showed them the receipt – there was no negotiating – a guy on the same flight – same thing with a $100 shop vac he was bringing for his place.
What do you mean by “Bonificado”? It sounds to me as though most people don’t get stopped at all but I want to be prepared for being the one in a million who does. It I have my receipt and I declare whatever it is and it’s under $500, am I OK???????
[quote=”debiruns”]What do you mean by “Bonificado”? It sounds to me as though most people don’t get stopped at all but I want to be prepared for being the one in a million who does. It I have my receipt and I declare whatever it is and it’s under $500, am I OK???????[/quote]
Here is the best explaination I have seen – from another site:
You are entitled to a $500.00 exoneration of customs duty every 6 months. When they stamp your passport they are saying you have used that exoneration and are not be entitled to another for 6 months.One of the questions on your customs form is have you used your exoneration in the past six months?
As mentioned here – many of us now believe it is a $1,000.00 limit now.
I have traveled to CR 29 times now and have been stopped may be six times and received three Bonificao stamps – 06, 08 and now 12. I’m just unlucky I guess. I always have the receipts, the items are always for personal use.
I just talked to a friend yesterday about this subject, in May he received a Bonificado stamp and he was bringing in silverware for his condo, declaired it and had the receipt – $97 US.
Perhaps a Forum member has better insight to this? 😆
Marcia and I just came back to Costa Rica via Juan Santamaria after a three-week trip to Michigan. As is my usual practice when we go north, I started shopping online a couple of months in advance and while there we covered just about every retail venue.
We brought back clothing, hard-to-find hardware items, two new iPads, shoes, Kindle covers, vitamins and supplements, Nylabones, dog vitamins, and flea and tick repellant, wireless telephones, coffee mugs, a decorative platter, three frying pans, cat urine odor dispersant, an external hard drive, a USB hub, and ten or fifteen pounds of stuff I can’t remember right now.
The form that Costa Rican Customs requires refers to things brought in for commercial purposes, asks about plants and animals, currency, and a few other things. It asks if you’ve used your tax exemption in the past six months.
Basically, if what you’re bringing in is for personal use, they’re not interested. We went through the “Nothing to Declare” line and nobody batted an eye.
[quote=”debiruns”]…… If I bring stuff back with me and am asked to pay duty on it, does anyone know how I can use my $500 exemption? …… I just want to know how the exemption can be used. Thanks!!![/quote]
I’m not sure that you have received an answer to your question, and I’m not sure that this response will answer it in total, but from what I have read, seen and experienced:
1. you don’t “use” it, and
2. customs (aduanas) “applies” it.I’m not sure what item or items you are concerned about bringing in or what the value is. If we had that information it may be a lot easier to answer your question.
But here is what I would do:
a. Be prepared to heed David’s advice and make the case that everything you are bringing is for “personal use” (cat urine odor dispersant?).
b. Have all of your receipts, (hopefully any items that are obviously not for your personal use do not exceed the $500 limit, or $1,000 if that has changed).But –
c. If you are returning with say 14 new iPads, then it will be difficult to make the case that all of those are for your personal use. You could try and argue that they are for Christmas gifts, but that probably wouldn’t work so in that case you need to find the nearest restroom and relieve yourself because you are going to be there a while.
d. After a lot of head scratching and discussion among the agents, you and your luggage will be pulled aside, maybe into a private room.
e. They will go through every piece of luggage and pull out all of the items that look new, and then they will divide them into 3 stacks…. personal use (duty free), subject to duty, and then the last things will be the things they want (those are called “items that are illegal” to bring in to Costa Rica.)
f. then you will argue about the third stack (probably to no avail, but they may move a couple of things back to stack number 2.
g. then they examine your receipts and decide if their determination of value is the same as the actual receipts.
h. then they add up THEIR numbers, deduct the exoneration limit, put a big red stamp on the last page of your passport, and then tell you how much more you owe in duty.If their total is less than the current limit, you get the stamp and your on your way.
I brought a 32 inch flat screen TV, and the agent just asked me for my passport and he put a stamp on it. He was not interested in looking at the receipt, which was less than 300 dollars. I assume that this means that I cannot get an exemption for six months, after which I can bring in more stuff..
If the Customs officer stamped your passport, then you have used your duty exemption for the next six months. Recall that the Customs form the flight attendant gave you before you landed asked if you’d used your exemption in the previous six months, so if you re-enter in (say) five months, you’ll have to mark the “Yes” box for that question.
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