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I agree the disparity is sort of shocking and it certainly motivates me to consider some sort of energy audit to verify our usage. If you are considering purchasing existing homes, as we did, why not ask to see a record of past electric bills. Then apply the current rates to the historical average usage. And of course add on for additional lighting, appliances or equipment you intend to use. We bought our home several years ago and the electric bill was a manageable $150. We’ve reduced usage somewhat through some conservation measures, but the rates have increased, resulting in our now less tolerable bill.
We have a pool in Dominical and have calculated that the electrical component of its operating cost is around $225-250 per month. We do not have A/C and our total electric bill averages $325 at current rates. The pump timer was broken a few months ago, and the pump ran continuously for many days before anyone noticed, and our bill was much higher. Pools can be expensive–there are chemical and other maintenance costs beyond electricity to consider, but we consider our pool our very beautiful A/C-alternative. When we get hot, we cool off with a swim.
[quote=”jneiman”]Is the filing a requirement for any homeowner?[/quote]
My appraiser said no filing was required if one was under the 100,000,000 threshold. That seems to sync with what was in La Nacion on Thursday.
…Before I so rudely interrupted myself…I was going to add that my “trusted advisor” said that because we were so close to the threshold, we should file anyhow to get our value on record. Our appraisal showed that some of what we had on file at the muni level was in error and he suggested that we would eventually want both filings to contain consistent data about our property.
“This is causing uncertainty in the market, which depresses the resale value of homes. If we can determine, with reasonable accuracy, at what dollar value, again in Gringo terms of value, a home has to have in order to pay tax, that will go a long way in making people feel comfortable again.”
Oh, I get it. You are in the real estate biz. Every property is going to be different, so I don’t think you can generalize. A VC-09 new property will be, according to the Hacienda’s system, valued at approx $800 per square meter. A new VC-06 will be valued at approx $190. It will of course move with the exchange rate. So, do the math. With new construction its easy because there is no depreciation. With an already built house, get an appraisal so you know its value according to the Hacienda’s methodology. How many meters of VC-7, or VC-08, or VC-09 construction can one build/purchase and not reach the 100,000,000 colones mark?
IMO, the old days of undervaluing property to save at the muni are soon to be long gone, and good riddance. The declarations made at the muni will have to match those made for this tax. Its a good thing. Everyone will start to contribute fairly at the muni level. I know the funds are needed at that level. And hopefully the lux tax will also go towards its intended purpose.
I think you are still thinking that market value or actual construction value has something to do with value for purposes of this tax.
The method is thus: Determine what type of construction your home is, usually VC06-VC09 for most expat homes. Each type of house has a per square meter value set by Hacienda. For example, a VC07 house is to be valued at 325,000 colones per square meter. Then you deduct applicable depreciation. It doesn’t matter what your actual construction cost was or your purchase price was. You just use the prescribed values for the type of home you have. And that is either a judgment call you make, or you can hire an appraiser to tell you what you have. I ended up hiring an appraiser and found that my home was a VC06.
Valuing all of the other features is the same. You use the per square meter value set forth in the manual of construction values referenced by Scott in a post several months ago. Different types of pools have different presumed per square meter costs. Different types of grass have different presumed per square meter costs.
The features of each type of home are described in all the available literature. The more complex the architecture and the more grandiose the fittings, the higher the value.
Hope this helps. We found Roger Peterson’s book very helpful.
After you value the house istelf, then you have to value all of its other components separately. Each item has a different value per sq meter and a different useful life. So, yes the pool and its surround have to be included, too. Roger Peterson’s book has been extremely helpful in understanding it and I recommend it if you are similarly struggling with compliance.
Thanks for your quick response. I get the “under roof” part. Its the terraces that are not “under roof” that I am asking about.
Do you think there is a permit on file at the muni that would include the architect’s measurements. Is that sort of record keeping common here?
I’m just concerned that our property has suffered inflation at the hands of brokers since its changed hands 3 times.
[quote=”Andrew@CR”]Thanks for the help. I’ll take a look. Of course, transito’s website is down at moment![/quote]
This is what I’m seeing when I go to the site. Sorry, I should have quoted it for you.
” Los días 28 y 29 -10-09 de las 08:00 hrs. A las 16:00 hrs. En sentido 1-2, labores de reparación de iluminación del túnel Zurquí, paso regulado.”
Some delays, but not blocked bt a slide today anymore.
This site is updated daily with information about closings:
I agree it worth discussing because I think some of these responses are inaccurate. I (your basic 50-ish gringa) drive between Dominical and San Jose almost every month, usually by myself. I’m a little surprised at the alarming descriptions of these two lovely drives. It is about 4 hours by either route, not an all day affair at all.
These are major, highly traveled routes–not the road to Timbuktu. The mountain route has fewer trucks now that the coastal road has been improved. It is best driven early in the day because clouds do build up in the afternoon and visibility suffers. If you are worried about passing trucks, don’t pass. I tend to find a bus that is maintaining a good pace and let it lead my way. The bus drivers know when its safe to pass, when its wise to slow down. The landscape is dramatic. Plenty of good places to stop along the way. The coastal route is very easy nowadays, with just a few km still unpaved down by Hatillo. The bridges have all been rebuilt. Taking a puddlejumper is always a possibility, but you can be perfectly safe on either of the driving routes. This has been a dry year and there have been no significant closures on either route this year.
Here is a link to the transito site where you can check current road conditions: http://www.transito.go.cr/estadorutas/index.html
Good luck.
The cost is $120 per month. Initial installation costs were about $800. Here is the customer support email address: soporte@skylynxcostarica.com. I’m sure they will be able to put you in touch with the right person.
Good luck.
Hi – We own a villa in Lagunas/Dominical, too. Welcome to the neighborhood! We use Skylynx as do many of our neighbors. Its expensive and relatively slow (compared to my US connection), but sufficient for email and on-line banking and skype telephone calls. Frequent outages with small credits given for those frustrating interruptions. The tower that brings the service to our neighborhood has been in place for almost two years now and I think many of us who are due to re-up are hoping there are other viable options. I haven’t heard of anything better yet.
We had a similar problem on visit last year. We used our CapitalOne card which at the time had a very low interest rate on both new purchases and a not insignificant old balance. It was a good card for us, earning miles we could use for more travel.
Running low on cash on our way out of the country, we “charged” our $52 exit tax payment. We later learned that this “credit card service” is really a BCAC bank branch and that “charges” are really “cash advances”. These are often treated differently than regular charges, and in our case with CapitalOne the “cash advance” triggered a greater than 10% increase in our interest rate — on all outstanding balances and new purchases. We lost our favorable interest rate.
The interest charges on the first statement were quite a shock, but customer service would not bend for us. We cancelled the card and rolled the balance into a new miles card with a lower interest rate.
Best advice – pay cash unless you’ve scrutinized all the fine print in your credit card contract. Has anyone noticed if there are signs at the tax counter advising people that they are getting a cash advance, not making a charge?
We recently faced a similar timing issue. What we learned was that despite what CR immigrations rules appeared to require, our airline (Delta)said that passports needed at least 6 months of unexpired time and that if we did not have that amount remaining we would not be allowed to get on the plane in the US. We made many calls and went up the ladder with Delta, since that seemed inconsistent with what we were reading online. So, I’d advise checking with your airline, too.
Not wanting to risk being turned away at departure, we decided to renew our passports.
So, a few weeks ago, we applied to renew our passports (applications sent to passport office by federal express) and paid the extra charge for expedited service. We received our new passports 12 days later in our regular mail service. Happily surprised – and just a bit peeved that I “lost” 5 months of passport time due to early renewal.
Hope this is helpful. Good luck.
