www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I wonder if anybody knows if I have to pay an exit tax in this situation.

I arrive in SJO at 6:20pm on day 1. On day 2, 10:20 (16 hours later), I'm flying out to MDE for a few days.


Thanks.

I arrived at SJO, left the airport to visit an amiga, and returned to the airport on the same day for a COPA flight to MDE. I got an exit tax exemption at the booth located next to the departure security checkpoint. On a subsequent trip, with a similar itinerary, I spent the night with my amiga in Alajuela and returned to the airport in the morning. I was told that I did not qualify for the exemption because I did not arrive and depart on the same day. On that occasion, I had to pay the $26.

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Blue Devil

Pura Vida...enjoying life to the fullest...

You know the old saying, you cannot avoid death or taxes.

Last trip I heard a rumor from one of the SL drivers that the SL and some other hotels will be selling the Exit Tax. Anyone hear of this coming down the road? Of course if it is in rumor form, it will take 5 years.

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In honor of Jimmy V week, "Don't give up, don't ever give up!"

You used to be able to buy an exit tax stamp right at the airport -- curb side when you get out of your car. I never stayed at a hotel so I don’t know if they sold them at the registration desk or the concierge.

The sellers were the same kinds of guys who sell genuine Cuban cigars and genuine Ray Bans outside the Del Rey. There was a lot of fraud, theft and sleight of hand. I have been told the reason that the government took it over is too many tourist complaints.

That doesn't seem all that likely to me. Perhaps the real reason the government or the airport management company took it over is they found out they could make more money. It makes sense that the space for the tax stamp collectors is a concession and rents are collected by either the airport management company or the CR government.

The reason the government turned the collection of the exit tax over to Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago was because there was so much fraud in the old system they were not getting a lot of the money. Old timers will remember guys selling exit tax stamps on the sidewalk of the terminal as DiegoC mentioned. Because of the collusion between airline employees and the stamp sellers many of those stamps were resold many times over. Over the years the government has added authorized exit stamp sellers such as Banco de Costa Rica, Taca and the Hotel Presidente. Not sure if Presidente still offers that service to it's guests.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Business 101: If you have total control over a mandated payment (a monopoly) do not give up control.

the Prez stopped selling it to its guests last year

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"cuz I'm a back-door man" Jim Morrison-1969

That is the way they handle it. The sale at the airport is handled by Banco Crédito. Off airport it is sold by Banco Crédito, Banco de Costa Rica, TACA and perhaps others. However none of them are the government agency who receive the revenue or the airport authority so they do not have any employees selling the tax form but they collect the revenue. I would expect they pay a commission but then I would suspect the NC folks do also.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

If I were the profit making airport authority I would be interested in renting otherwise virtually unusable floor space. My guess is the airport management company and the government share in the rental receipts of the floor space. That may not be as expensive as space at O’Hare, LAX or Atlanta, but if they get rent it is probably pretty good.

There may be another consideration. CR is notorious for lousy accounting systems. Give someone 100 tickets and they will misplace some, pocket some . . . “gee I donknow”; they were stolen???

In 2009, there was approximately 800 pounds of coke that was being guarded in a secure building in the Quepos area last year; and it disappeared.

No one that I could find in government was held accountable. Should we reasonably expect someone to keep track of exit tax stamps if they can’t keep track of 800 pounds of a white powdery substance nearly packaged and stacked?

Actually there is a huge difference. If you notice when you pay your departure tax, whether at the airport or off, the form is computer generated so a record exists that can be audited and verified. The theft of the cocaine was an inside job which produced no paper trail other then it was here yesterday and gone today.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

An interesting point was brought up indirectly, namely--Is there a TACA ticket-selling office downtown, do they sell the exit-tax stamp, and to whom (anybody or just their customers)?
How about the 2 banks mentioned?

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"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

TACA use to have a booth at the Clarion and would usually sell to most but they closed down that operation. I have only has experience with their offices in Sabana and Escazu. Those offices only sell to (when they have the form in stock which is not always) to customers holding TACA reservations.

BCR has offices all over including one across from the Morazon hotel and in the INS building near the SL. Banco Credito has a branch at the south west corner of parque central A4 - C4. May have other downtown that I am unaware of

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

ID, that was exactly my point. Tico record keeping is, shall we say, loose. With the old system there was so much flim-flam.

With the new system there is an IRS style system to tight records and to track and record transactions so there cannot be any discrepancies with the huge income stream from the exit tax.

The old system allowed things to disappear, the new system won't.

That is undoubtedly the reason they won’t change from the current system which seems to be working back to the old flim-flam system which had no controls, checks and audits.

Where have all the dollars gone, long time passing?

According to InsideCostaRica (20 OCT 2009) in an article titled “Costa Rica Tourist Arrivals Drop in 2009 After 2008 Record Increase”, the following data are the arrivals into Costa Rica:

2007 2,290,000
2008 2,510,000
2009 2,290,000
2010 2,340,000 (Projected)

If all of them paid an exit tax the income would be:

2007 2,290,000 = $59,540,000
2008 2,510,000 = $65,260,000
2009 2,290,000 = $59,540,000
2010 2,340,000 (Projected) $60,840,000

But not all of those arrivals will pay an exit tax. Some travelers are exempt from the tax due to diplomatic status, others may have left by means other than the airport. I have never left CR by land or sea so I do not know if there is an exit tax for surface travel or sea voyage. I think what we are calling and exit tax is actually an airport tax as opposed to a universal exit tax per se. Perhaps one of the surface and sea travelers could advise.

But let say that ¾ or ½ of incoming people did in fact pay the exit fee at the airport - and we were to reduce the sums above by 25 or 50 percent, the resultant income stream is still very large That is the income stream for just the exit tax; it does not include space rental in the terminal, landing fees, fuel fees, and all the other little add ons. One of our airport guru's could probably shed new light on other less visible income streams.

On the other hand, at nationmaster.com there is an undated article titled “Tourist arrivals (most recent) by country”. Costa Rica is listed as number 56 with 811,000 tourist arrivals. That is a sizable discrepancy with the data above. The body of the artilce leads one to believe it is current as of this writing.