Curridabat exempts elderly people in poverty from municipal…

The Municipality of Curridabat will exempt people aged 65 or older in conditions of poverty or extreme poverty, registered in the National Information System and Single Registry of State Beneficiaries (SINIRUBE), from paying fees for road cleaning, waste collection, and other municipal services. The benefit was formalized through Agreement No. 66, approved by the Municipal Council in article 32°, chapter 3°, of the minutes of Ordinary Session No. 107-2026 on May 19, 2026. The Municipal Support Regulation for Older Adults in Poverty was published in La Gaceta No. 202 on Monday, October 26, 2026, pages 74 to 76, with the official reference IN202601134536.

The legal framework and the scope of the regulation

The text develops Law No. 10,359, “Municipal support for older adults in poverty,” in effect since July 13, 2023, whose article 9 empowers municipalities to regulate the application, processing, timeframe, challenge, and format of these benefits. The regulation consists of 25 articles distributed across six chapters and governs the jurisdiction and competence of the Municipality of Curridabat.

The publication appears signed by Dayana Álvarez Cisneros, from the Municipal Secretariat, dated Curridabat, October 15, 2026, and corresponds to a second publication. Pursuant to article 25, the regulation enters into force upon its publication in the Official Gazette.

Article 4º enables the municipal Administration to apply the exemption “according to the budgetary and asset capacities of the applicant and according to a technical financial study that supports the possibility of granting the benefit.”

What the exemption covers and what is excluded

Article 9 details the services covered by the exemption, which is granted upon request and following a technical financial study:

Road cleaning and separate waste collection.
Transport, recovery, treatment, and proper final disposal of ordinary waste.
Maintenance of parks and green areas.
Municipal police service.
Maintenance, rehabilitation, and construction of sidewalks.
Any other urban or non-urban municipal service established by law, even if the beneficiary does not demonstrate interest in such services.

Article 10 expressly excludes the exemption from public prices, commercial licenses, cemeteries, real estate tax, and special contributions.

Requirements and annual application window

To avail themselves of the benefit, article 6º requires:

Be 65 years of age or older, in accordance with Law No. 7935.
Be a taxpayer of the Municipality of Curridabat and be up to date with tax obligations.
Be registered under the condition of poverty or extreme poverty in SINIRUBE.
Be the owner of the domain (bare ownership and usufruct) or the usufructuary of a single real estate property.
Have habitual residence and be the owner of the properties subject to the benefit before July 13, 2023, to avoid tax crimes related to property transfers.

The application must be submitted during the first two months of each calendar year, and requests submitted after the deadline are rejected ex officio. The benefit is strictly personal and is not transferable to occupants, successors, or corporations.

Procedure, deadlines, and budgetary control

The procedure is submitted at the Service Platform, on the first floor of the Municipal Palace, or by email. The Tax Department verifies the status in SINIRUBE and transfers the case to the Financial Department, which has ten business days to report the financial impact. The resolution must be decided within one month, with the possibility of an extension, and a notice for incomplete information grants ten business days before the request is archived.

Those who are not registered or have outdated data are referred to the Social Management Department, where a Social Work professional conducts the socioeconomic study and records the qualification in the system. Every January, the Administrative Financial Department must prepare a study on institutional capacity and submit it to the Municipal Council to decide whether the exemption continues.

Loss of benefit and means of appeal

Article 19 establishes three grounds for loss: falsehood in the information provided, change in socioeconomic classification, and loss of ownership of the domain or usufruct of the property. The Tax Department then issues a resolution that activates the collection of debts with interest and penalties.

The denial or loss of the benefit allows for a motion for reconsideration before the Tax Department and an appeal before the Mayor’s Office, within the fifth business day following notification. The regulation also mandates the publication of the benefit on the website and institutional social networks and subjects the beneficiaries’ data to Law No. 8968 on the protection of individuals regarding the processing of their personal data.

The regulation converts a legal authorization in effect since 2023 into an operational procedure with defined deadlines and responsible parties, but ties each exemption to an annual financial study. For elderly taxpayers in Curridabat, it opens a two-month window per year; for municipal finances, it creates a budgetary evaluation obligation that the Council must review every January.

Source: La Gaceta, No. 202 of October 26, 2026, Regulations–Municipalities section, pp. 74-76 (official reference: IN202601134536).