A Ferrari declared for a fraction of its real value has become the poster case for a customs loophole that Costa Rica’s vehicle importers say is bleeding Costa Rica of millions in tax revenue. The Asociación de Importadores de VehÃculos y Maquinaria, (Aivema), is warning that luxury vehicles worth well over one hundred thousand dollars have been declared at Customs for as little as fifteen hundred dollars, and the Ministry of Finance has confirmed similar cases of its own.
Among the examples Hacienda has publicly cited is a Toyota Land Cruiser with a real market value near one hundred forty thousand dollars that was declared at only twenty thousand, a gap that allowed the importer to avoid roughly twenty six million colones in taxes. In a separate case, a Ferrari’s undervaluation created a tax shortfall of more than sixty seven million colones, or roughly one hundred thirty five thousand dollars.
The heart of the problem traces back to a policy shift Hacienda made in 2024. Import taxes on vehicles used to be calculated against a government table of minimum market prices. Under the new system, importers simply self-declare a vehicle’s value, and Customs calculates taxes from that figure. In practice, many importers have been declaring numbers far below what the vehicles are actually worth.
One widely cited case involved a two thousand twenty five BMW X6 M declared at just over seven thousand dollars despite a real Costa Rican market value near one hundred ninety five thousand dollars. The shift has coincided with a sixteen percent drop in tax revenue collected from vehicle imports, and Aivema’s leadership says the government has known about the problem for roughly a year without implementing a fix.
The issue surfaces as part of a much larger fiscal enforcement campaign. Costa Rica recently unveiled a package of twenty four measures aimed at strengthening tax collection and cracking down on evasion and smuggling without creating new taxes. Revenue Vice Minister VÃctor Julio Carvajal has said evasion and smuggling cost the country more than two point six trillion colones a year, equal to roughly five point seven percent of national output, and has described vehicle undervaluation as theft on a large scale.
Three related bills are moving through the legislative pipeline, including one that would let Hacienda set maximum taxable values by decree, one targeting the sale of fraudulent electronic invoices worth an estimated seven hundred billion colones in circulation, and one meant to speed up judicial collection on roughly four hundred billion colones in unresolved tax debt.
The undervaluation problem also intersects with organized crime investigations already underway. Following raids connected to the so called Lusso case, prosecutors seized twenty one luxury vehicles worth a combined two point seven million dollars, including two Ferraris tied to the alleged leader of a criminal network, several of which were found circulating without registration or tax payment.
Separate audits have found undervaluation of import declarations reaching as high as sixty eight percent of a luxury vehicle’s real value, a pattern investigators now treat as a potential red flag for money laundering rather than simple tax avoidance.
Aivema is pushing for Hacienda to restore a verification mechanism for declared vehicle values and has reminded the ministry that it retains the legal authority to audit declarations and collect any unpaid taxes retroactively.
