American Expatriate Costa Rica

English-language news and information on Costa Rica

Archives for January 3, 2017

Decrease in the amount to be paid for traffic fines

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Good news: a reduction in the fines of the Traffic Act is in force since January 1st. Based on the Price Index published each June by the National Institute of Statistics and Census, the Judiciary must calculate the amount of traffic fines governing the following year, from the first day of January. The CPI in […]

33 Fake Food Handling Certificates were confiscated

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The Health Ministry confiscated 33 fake food handling certificates with various irregularities in the tents from the exhibition field of Zapote. This was confirmed by Guillermo Flores, director of the Central-South region of San José. We conducted an investigation with different directors of these areas and many of the certificates were confiscated because they do […]

Switzerland says goodbye to its sacred banking secrecy

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The International Convention on the automatic exchange of bank information entered into force on January 1st, a move that will allow Switzerland no longer be considered a tax haven. With the implementation of the ‘Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters’, Switzerland complies with international fiscal standards, which guarantees that the financial information […]

Chaos at COSEVI! Users started to complain and protest

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Road Safety Council (COSEVI) offices were invaded by chaos: its public was fed up after long, more-than-2-hours waiting lines to do paperwork. The incident occurred at 4 pm: users realized that they wouldn’t be served. As consequence, they started to complain. The scandal was such that security forces had to go to the place. Regarding […]

The Zero Burns with Fireworks campaign did not achieve its goal

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Unfortunately the “Zero Burns with Fireworks” campaign did not achieve its goal: two children got burns due to the use of explosives in the recent Christmas season. On January 1st, an 11-year-old child from San José was admitted in the Burns Unit, at the National Children’s Hospital (HNN), because a firework exploded in his hands. […]