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Each municipality is different. If you do online banking with BN, you can pay your PROPERTY taxes online (in most municipaities, just choose the right one from the map or drop-down list. For example, if you have a pr-ty in Jaco, that will be Garabito muni in Puntarenas).
You even have an option to make a partial payment now.
You’ll need to know the id of your SA (or your personal if the property is under your personal name). Don’t forget to print the receipt in case they “don’t receive the money”.For the corporation taxes you have no choice, but to go to BCR or ask your lawyer do that for you. There is a form to be filled as well before you pay the tax.
Hope that helps!
Success!! They fixed the system for the Garabito municipality. Like always, you just have to wait a bit:-)
David,
The only way to pay this tax is either online or in person in Jaco. At least that’s what I was told.
I’ve been paying it in person for years. Wasn’t a big deal at all. Unfortunately now I can’t drive there for health reasons. I don’t think I’ll be in trouble if I don’t pay for a year or two. I believe they only auction a property after 3 years of not paying pr-ty taxes. The penalty isn’t that big, so not worth risking a long drive.I can pay it in person in Jaco in the municipaity. Very easy to do. Unfortunately it’s a VERY long drive for me (that I’m trying to avoid.) I guess, I’ll keep trying with the bank page.
Thank you for suggestions. Yes, I removed spaces and dashes. I also tried 1 zero, 2 and 3 zeroes on both sides. I also tried to omit the fist digit, then the next 3. Then I did all that and added zeroes.
Nothing works:-(I get either “Error al validar identificacion” if I use cedula juridica, or “Identificador sin pendiente” if I select identificacion.
Well, it looks like I’m out of luck. On the other hand I’ll give them another month. May be it’s one more error on their website. It took them several months to fix the previous screen error (before last week I got an error the moment I chose Garabito from the drop-down).
I’ll let you know if/when I succeed with the payment.
Agree with Maravilla, but have to point out that rural Italy is CHEAPER than CR at the moment. We spent 3 weeks there last summer. I was truly surprised just how affordable it was (the rural part, same on the French side).
The only question I have is why would you, Barb, want to move from one 3rd world country (CR) to another (rural Italy is as close as it gets to 3rd world)? It just doesn’t make any sense.. you’ll waste your money and precious energy. Rural Italy is full of EXACTLY the same problems as CR (the ones you’re trying to escape).
For those trying to bash Barb, why? She’s made her mind. Good for her! Go ahead, Barb, do what is best FOR YOU.
Don’t plant seeds. It doesn’t work. We tried it and failed miserably:oops: May be it had to do with the quality of seeds (we bought in a local store. It was quite expensive, btw)
Do as “finca” suggested or do what we did: look for neighbors with grassy areas and ask if your gardener can collect grass “hijos” (end part of the grass plant, it usually has roots as well.0 You just pull it and tear, so that the original part is not pulled out. Your gardener should know what I’m talking about. All Ticos do that. Usually neighbor-Ticos and even some Gringos won’t mind at all: they’ll cut those “hijos” anyway next time they cut the grass. We shared our grass with everyone who asked.
Plant the rooted parts of the collected “hihos” in rows 30 sm or so apart (5 sm between hijos in the row). They will grow nicely!
If you’re going to buy the grass in “carpet” pieces, cut it in bands of 10 sm wide and plant in rows 30-40 sm apart. Important! Make sure that the pieces are not elevated: put soil between the grass rows, so that it’s all even. It will make the grass spread faster.
Be realistic in your expectations: it will take about a year for the grass to cover the “bold” spots.
Don’t buy any other grass othere than St Augustine (the most common grass in CR, Mexico and US South).
Clover (mani) will not do well close to the beach area.
It will greatly depend on where you live. When we lived in the Central Valley, we never had a problem (I guess when pesticiding coffee, ticks get killed as well as do the termites). We also aplied flea/tick drops every month (and still do that).
When we moved to the Caribbean side, we started to have tick problem right away. They are everywhere and they are huge! We’re still looking for a remedy…
Our meanwhile solution is not let our dogs in the house anymore. May be that’s a solution for you, too? It’s warm outside and there are no real predators (depends on where you are and the dog’s size, of course). We also do a pat-check every day to look for new ticks.
Have you/your lawyer received a notice from the muni last year? They were sending some owners reqests to prove that the buildings existed for more than x number of years, and ifso they grandfather them. I don’t remember what x was. Anyway, if you’re worried, have a friend visit muni in Jaco and speak to Johny. To the best of my knowledge, they will be finishing plano reguladoro for Azul, Guacalillo and some other beach areas this year.
This is good news/bad news, depending on how you look at it. Good is that you’ll get a consession (if you applied, of course) that adds legality to “owning/using” land/house there, but you’ll also start paying for that consession.
BTW, with regards to the comment above that Tarcoles is a “poop” river, ALL big rivers on Pacific are poop rivers. If you lived in CR you’d know that. At least with Tarcoles there is a good chance that it will be cleaned once that sewage plant is built. Of course it will take many years, but at least there is a chance (and money). No such luck for other rivers.
As a Canadian, I agree with David and costaricafinca. There are SOME good thing about CR public caja, like cheaper drugs, but you always get what you paid for.
The VAST majority of expats use some combination of public-private. The biggest concern for me personally is that you can’t find out how good the doctor/surgeon is. You have to take chances. In Canada and US this info is public knowledge. There is also NO recourse whatsoever if things go wrong. Do things go wrong all the time? Not at all, but it’s something to keep in mind when you move to CR.I personally had a great experience in Catolica, but we paid handsomely for what would’ve been COMPLETELY FREE in Canada.
If you think that CR public health system is on par with the Canadian one or better, you WILL be disappointed.
CR caja is still a good value for what you get, but for the majority of expats it has to be supplemented by private medicine.
Shouldn’t be the case, though it might be something specific to your muni.
Typically the only time you need to do that in CR is when you register your newly-bought property with the muni (if you choose to do so).
If you have any friends living in the area, ask them to visit muni and ask if a re-assessment is going on. It should take half an hour at most. It would be beneficial if you could send a Tico/a or someone who speaks fluent Spanish.
It depends on how much you’re wiling to spend. If “almost for free”, go to your local ferreteria or acerradera (saw mill) and get the wood (will be very inexpensive as you don’t need thick or long). Buy a saw if don’t have one already (costs 2 mil for the cheap one that will do the job). Buy a box of screws, semi-professional stapler and nylon netting for the screen in the ferreteria. Do the frames, staple the net, nail/screw to the frames, paint if desired. You’re done! One-day project with total cost, may be $50-$100.
If you’re not handy, go to any glass shop in your neighborhood. They’ll quote the aluminum screens. The cost is around $40 for 30sm by 1m screen (we are in Grecia, the price is from 2 years ago).
If you plan to spend a significant amount of time living in Grecia, I strongly suggest you don’t stay in the town center unless you are deaf:wink:
There is a good reason that expats DON’T live in the town center (with very rare exceptions).It never gets cold in the mountains unless you climb to the Poas volcano altitude, but if you really want to check the low altitudes around Grecia, you might look at “Bella Vista”, “Barrio Latino”, and “San Roque” neighborhoods.
I suggest avoiding “La Arena”, “La Argentina”, “Las Pilas” neighborhoods.
I also suggest you check the house yourself (or ask a local friend to do that for you) before you commit to a whole year lease.
There are several new developments on your way from MaxiBodega to San Roque (one of them is “Ingenio” and it always has somethimg for rent).
If you come during the low season, there will be plenty of houses for rent. If that’s the case, it might be a good strategy to come here and drive around the abovementioned areas. You can stay in one of many great hotels/B&Bs meanwhile.
[url=https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/cfmbb/messages.cfm?messageid=B66F905F-24E8-5ED2-F190099DA9483FA6#B66F905F-24E8-5ED2-F190099DA9483FA6]https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/cfmbb/messages.cfm?messageid=B66F905F-24E8-5ED2-F190099DA9483FA6#B66F905F-24E8-5ED2-F190099DA9483FA6[/url]
Dave’s Guest House ($35) [url=www.welovecostarica.com/public/1421.cfm]www.welovecostarica.com/public/1421.cfm[/url]
Mango Valley ($35 and up) [url=www.mangovalley.com]www.mangovalley.com[/url]
Villas Escondidas ($45 and up) http://www.villasescondidas.com
Posada Mimosa ($60 and up) [url=www.mimosa.co.cr]www.mimosa.co.cr[/url]
La Terraza ($90 and up) [url=www.laterrazab-b.com]www.laterrazab-b.com[/url]
Sometimes you can also see flyers in English (house for rent) at the MaxiBodega ad-board (to the left from the entrance).
Just to give you an idea, a very good Tico-style house will be around $350 monthly (unfurnished) or about $500 furnished. American-style house will be $500 and up (unfirnished) and $750 and up furnished.
Go for it. We use it and are quite happy. No real investment needed. The on-demand unit of 5 liters costs under $100 and 12 liter unit about twice as much (I’d go with the later).
The most popular brand is “Gines” (that’s what we have). It’s very easy to install as well.
2 tanks (cylinders) of 25 liter (buy second-hand for $10 each). Each refill costs $18 at this time. Gas price goes up and down all the time, but so far stayed below $20 per 25 l tank.
The second tank so that you have a spare in case you don’t want to rush to the store if you run out of gas.Most pulperias (grocery stores) have full tanks readily available. You bring them your empty tank and they exchange it for full one (well, plus 9 mil for the gas).
You will save A LOT of $$ going with gas as oppose to electric, especially at the beach where you’ll have to use air-conditioner a lot.
Since your son was born here, he has a CR citizenship (automatic, no need to apply).
You can use Irish passport to travel, no problem. Just don’t forget to put a stamp in the immigration, otherwise they won’t let him out of the country.
When you come back your son doesn’t need to leave the country every 3 months as he is a citizen. All you need is to go to the local registry and get his official certificate of birth. That certificate will have your son’s CR cedula number that you can use, for example, in a public hospital.When you have time, you can get a CR passport for your son. Once he is 12 (I believe that’s the age) you can get a CR plastic cedula (with a photograph) for your son.
