If you own a car or motorcycle and forgot to pay the marchamo in some year, you probably know the feeling: the debt grows, surcharges appear, and by the time you want to catch up, the bill no longer looks so small. That is why a new proposal in the Legislative Assembly has drawn so much interest. According to Delfino.cr, lawmaker Mangell Mc Lean Villalobos of the National Liberation Party (PLN) has presented a bill to forgive marchamo debts on vehicles with a fiscal value of up to ₡13,020,000, provided the owner pays the 2028 marchamo. Here we explain how it would work, what precedents it has, and what arguments have been put forward.
What the marchamo is and why debts build up
In simple terms, the marchamo is the annual payment that keeps a vehicle’s right to circulate valid. This charge bundles several items. Delfino.cr notes that the bill covers taxes, stamp duties, insurance, and fees administered by the Ministry of Finance (Hacienda), the Institute for Municipal Development and Advisory (IFAM), the Road Safety Council (Cosevi), the Public Transport Council (CTP), and the National Insurance Institute (INS), and that they correspond to the property tax on motor vehicles and its other components.
Debt accumulates when a year goes unpaid. Adjustments, interest, fines, and penalties are added to the arrears, so an unpaid period weighs more with each passing year. This dynamic explains why many people stop regularizing their situation: the final amount can seem out of proportion to the original tax. For owners of vehicles they no longer use, there is also deregistration for non-use, which, according to the proposal, would likewise require paying all outstanding periods.
The proposal: what is forgiven and what is required
The bill, identified as file 25.886, seeks to add a transitory article VII to Law 7088, the Tax Adjustment Law. According to the explanatory memorandum reported by Delfino.cr, the forgiveness would cover the principal, adjustments, interest, fines, and penalties for those who owe payments for 2027 or earlier periods.
The central condition is different from a simple pardon. To qualify, the person would have to pay the 2028 circulation right before January 1, 2028. According to the text, that single payment would make the forgiveness effective. The proposal limits the benefit to motor vehicles and motorcycles and, according to La Teja, to those with a fiscal value equal to or below ₡13,020,000. The proponent argues that this cap aims to focus the relief on lower-income sectors.
La Teja also reports that the text bars the benefit to top officials of the Supreme Powers, such as the presidency, ministers, lawmakers, magistrates, mayors, and executive presidents, as well as their spouses. It is important to remember that this is a bill, not a law in force: what is described is what the initiative proposes. In addition, the bill would require Hacienda to run a national communication campaign to publicize the benefit.
Background: a previous attempt and its results
This is not the first time the lawmaker has raised the issue. According to Delfino.cr, the explanatory memorandum recalls laws 10.119 and 10.389, approved by the Plenary with a similar mechanism. Mc Lean also presented file 25.630, which proposed repeating the formula for the 2027 marchamo. That file remains in committee. On September 8, the Plenary rejected, by 29 votes to 20, a motion to waive procedural steps for it. La Teja, for its part, describes the outcome as a rejection of the initiative by lawmakers from the Pueblo Soberano Party (PPSO), who hold a majority in Congress according to the same report.
Given this background, the new bill changes two elements: the reference year, which becomes 2028, and the fiscal value cap, which the previous file did not have. Delfino.cr indicates that the INS and Hacienda provided criteria and figures during the processing of file 25.630, in official letters dated August 19 and 20, 2026, and that the proponent says he took them into account.
The numbers behind the debt
The figures are at the heart of the debate, but they should be read carefully. Hacienda, using data from July 2026, quantified for the 2015-2026 period a delinquent portfolio of 10,673,534 records, amounting to roughly ₡461,786.08 million in taxes and surcharges. That figure counts the same vehicle once for each unpaid period and includes aircraft and vessels. In other words, it does not equal 10.6 million distinct vehicles, as the way some reports present it might suggest.
In the case of the Compulsory Motor Vehicle Insurance (SOA), the INS reported on the application of Law 10389. That law covered 77,705 vehicles. Of an associated premium of ₡9,498,556,437, ₡3,963,375,340 was paid and ₡5,535,181,097 was forgiven. This means that approximately 42% was actually paid. As of June 30, 2026, the INS estimated the outstanding SOA premium at ₡231,797,923,326, with 1,334,437 vehicles pending.
These figures help explain why the topic generates discussion: the precedents show that a significant part of the debt covered by those laws was not recovered through payment. But the data also allows different readings, depending on what one wants to measure.
Two views on the same mechanism
According to Delfino.cr, Hacienda argued that repeated forgiveness can create moral hazard, that is, that people who pay on time may feel that waiting pays off. It also warned that it can undermine equality among taxpayers and erode the culture of compliance. It added that the previous file lacked a technical study and recalled that Law 10390 already allows the tax to be paid in three advance installments.
News sources
- Delfino.cr: Diputado del PLN propone condonar marchamos atrasados a vehículos de menos de ₡13 millones si pagan el de 2028
- La Teja: Hay una noticia relacionada con el marchamo que podría llegar a alegrarle el bolsillo a más de uno
- CRC 891: ¿Tiene marchamos pendientes? Nueva propuesta busca eliminar deudas, multas e intereses