This year Costa Rica property taxes are re-assessed by two entities, the municipalidad where your property resides, and the central government for their luxury home tax application. We hear stories about prices being increased outrageously on some homes, especially in places like Escazu or the playas in guanacaste, but here in Tilaran I was not at all surprised with the new assessment of my small real estate. The muni seems very efficient and they have a new engineer assigned to the property department. Rosemary was professional, funny and smart and after 20 minutes of interview questions which she plugged into her computer out came the new assessment which was an increase in value of 150% over the previous value. This did not seem unfair to me and as Rosemary promised the money would be put to good use fixing roads and other works projects for the area I accepted her decision, thanked her and went off to seek other adventures in Costa Rica.

I would like to point out that my property came in well below the minimum value to report to the central government for paying of the luxury taxes ... although in reality the luxury tax is not very much money and will go to help out those less fortunate. So I cannot offer first hand knowledge of the process.

If you have not yet been to the muni to declare your property value, i urge you to go before the middle of december as any property not brought up to current evaluations will require that the engineer make a personal visit to the property to make a proper determination. Rosemary told me that none of the expensive homes around the lake had yet reported in to her.

If you should need assistance in working with the Muni in Tilaran you can call on Muriel at Blue Water Real Estate. Muriel is Tica, speaks english and spanish, and can assist in seeing that you meet the obligations of this property evaluation. She can be reached at:

Arenal Real Estate office
8354-9368

Have a great day!