Marchamo and DEKRA: The Two Car Bills Every Nicoya Resident Owes Each Year (and When)

Buy a car on the Nicoya Peninsula and, within your first year, two separate bills will arrive that newcomers almost always confuse with each other. They sound interchangeable — both are annual, both are legally required to keep driving, both get muttered about at the pulpería — but they are run by different organisations, cost wildly different amounts, and fall due on completely different schedules. Getting them straight is the difference between a quiet year and a fine at a checkpoint. Here is how the marchamo and the RTV really work in 2026, in plain terms.

The marchamo is the big one. It is your derecho de circulación — your permit to have the car on the road at all — and it bundles several things into a single payment made once a year to the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS): the annual vehicle property tax, the mandatory accident insurance (the SOA, Seguro Obligatorio Automotor, which covers injury to people, not damage to your car), plus assorted stamps and fees. The 2027 marchamo opens for payment on 1 November 2026 — INS has said collection begins the first week of November — and it is due by 31 December. Pay it, and a new sticker goes on your windshield; miss the deadline, and you are driving illegally into the new year, with interest piling on top.

What it costs depends entirely on your car, because the tax portion scales with the vehicle's fiscal value as set by the tax authority (Hacienda), not its sale price. A modest, older used car — the kind most people actually drive out here — tends to land somewhere around ₡160,000 to ₡200,000 (very roughly US$310 to US$390), while a newer or higher-value vehicle climbs well past that. The only reliable number is your own: from early November you can look yours up on the INS site or any bank's app using the license plate, and you should, because the amount surprises people every year. A practical local tip — pay in the first half of November. December brings website crashes, long virtual queues, and the genuine risk of leaving it until the car is briefly un-drivable on the 1st of January.

The RTV is the other bill, and it is almost nothing by comparison — which is exactly why people underestimate how much trouble skipping it causes. The revisión técnica vehicular is the mandatory technical safety inspection: brakes, lights, emissions, suspension, the basics. For years it was run by a company called Riteve; since 2022 it has been operated by DEKRA, and the name change still trips people up. A standard light-vehicle inspection in 2026 runs about ₡6,800 including tax (roughly US$13), with a cheaper re-test if you fail and come back; motorcycles are a little less. You book a slot in advance — the call centre is 4000-1100, or online at dekra.cr — rather than just showing up, and you bring the car, its circulation papers, and your ID.

The part newcomers miss most is when your RTV is due, because it is not a fixed date — it is tied to the last digit of your license plate, which assigns you a month in the year, and then to your vehicle's age for how often. As a general rule, newer light vehicles (roughly the first five years) are inspected every two years, and older ones every year — so most cars out here, which are not new, come due annually. Check your specific month against the official DEKRA calendar when you register the car; driving on an expired RTV is an easy ticket, and a failed inspection you never went back to fix is worse.

Two things worth holding onto. First, these are genuinely separate: you can have a perfectly valid marchamo and an expired RTV, or the reverse, and a traffic officer (tránsito) can fine you for either. Second, the rhythm is learnable and it is the same every year once you have it — RTV on your plate's month, marchamo every November. For a first-year resident still finding the bank, the registry, and the right pulpería, that predictability is a small mercy. Put both on a calendar the week you buy the car, and the Costa Rican vehicle year stops being a series of unpleasant surprises.

Sources & honesty note:
- Marchamo 2027 payment window (1 November – 31 December 2026) and the first-week-of-November collection start: INS announcements as reported by Costa Rican outlets (El Observador, La República), November 2026.
- What the marchamo bundles (vehicle property tax, SOA mandatory insurance, stamps) and that the amount scales with Hacienda's fiscal value of the vehicle: INS and Costa Rican vehicle-guide sources. The ₡160,000–200,000 figure is a rough range for a modest older car only — your exact amount is published per-plate by INS from early November and is the only reliable one.
- DEKRA/RTV tariffs (~₡6,012 + IVA ≈ ₡6,800 for a light vehicle; cheaper re-test; lower for motorcycles): DEKRA's published 2026 tariff schedule (resolution RE-0006-IT-2025); booking via 4000-1100 / dekra.cr.
- RTV timing by license-plate last digit, and the newer-every-two-years / older-annually frequency: DEKRA's published inspection calendar and Costa Rican vehicle-inspection guides. Confirm your own month and frequency against the official calendar.
- Dollar conversions are approximate at late-2026 exchange rates and move with the colón. All figures and dates are 2026 estimates set annually by the government and INS — confirm the current year's amounts directly before you pay. This is general orientation, not legal or financial advice.
- This piece was written by AI from the published sources above, and the header illustration is AI-made.

Made using AI.