www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Starting Dec 2, there is a $5 exit tax for land boarder crossings. Reading this article from the Tico Times and a few other of the daily e-papers, something tells me this is going to be a big mess until they get the how/where can I pay part resolved.

http://www.ticotimes.net/More-news/News ... er-26-2013

Too funny for words. This tax was obviously designed to catch up those self-same Nicas who were smart enough to get into the country by shall we say unofficial means...but who aren't smart enough to use unofficial means to go home for the holidays? I get that right? * BTW, does this cover boat trips to, say, Boca del Toro?
* This kinda reminds me of regulations so loosely written/enforced so as to provide lawyers/smugglers ample opportunities for profit. Breathlessly awaiting the official stats on revenue collected vs. unofficial estimates of revenue avoided.

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

For each pair of persons that crosses, $5 goes into the register and $5 gets split among the border officials (and I use that term loosely).

Sometimes I get it right. As I posted, I kind of had a feeling this would happen:

"New $5 land exit tax remains in force less than a day"
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

"The government appears to have suspended the new $5 land exit tax, but there has been no official confirmation.

John Koger, who runs A Safe Passage, reported this Tuesday and said that the suspension was because of the problems at the border crossing after the new tax went into effect Monday. The suspension was Monday night, he said. Koger is an agent for bus companies, including Tica Bus that makes daily trips to Nicaragua.

The Dirección General de Migración, which had announced the new tax Nov. 26, was unable to confirm the suspension Tuesday afternoon.

An anonymous employee posted to the agency's Facebook page that there had been no official notice from the government, presumably the tax agency, the Dirección General de Tributación.

Other readers reported that they had heard the tax was suspended.

Koger said that he had confirmed the suspension via telephone call to immigration and that officials will post an announcement in the La Gaceta official newspaper when the tax goes back into effect. However a reporter's calls to the agency went unanswered.

That seems to be a continuing problem because there are postings on the agency's Facebook page (the new thing in CR, govt via facebook) in which persons say they failed to get a reply to text messages or to telephone calls.

The problems were predictable because the tax went into effect before there was a way for travelers to pay it at the border crossings. The immigration agency said that credit card machines will be installed, but when the tax was announced, the agency said travelers had to buy proof of payment at a bank.

The tax agency said last week it had entered into an agreement with Banco Crédito Agrícola to handle the money the same way that the bank handles the airport exit tax. Within two weeks, the bank was supposed to have automatic machines to collect the tax from credit and debit cards and give receipts at Paso Canoas, Río Sereno-Sabalito, Sixaola and Peñas Blancas. These are the major crossings.

Koger noted that Tica Bus will let passengers pay the tax at its terminal when it goes back into effect. "

This is going to be a mui tico "snafu" (for those that remember what that term means) for a year or more until they can figure how to stop their border employees from scamming with the bus and transport companies and also scamming with the "Jose's by any-ways"; and before banks get their ATM's installed in these super remote areas which then inivitably which will fail reg for 2 more years.

This article quotes from A Safe Passage, a bus ticket agency. Here's their site: http://costaricabustickets.com/
BTW, don't confuse them with Safe Passage/Camino Seguro, a ch!ldren's social service organization in Guatemala.

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED