Treasury reduces specific tax on alcoholic beverages by 0.47% starting in November

The General Directorate of Treasury of the Ministry of Finance reduced by 0.47% the specific tax per milliliter of absolute alcohol paid by nationally produced and imported alcoholic beverages. The adjustment takes effect as of November 1, 2026, and was established in resolution MH-DGH-RES-0060-2026, published in La Gaceta No. 198 on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, in the Miscellaneous Documents section, under official reference IN202601133652.

The change is based on Article 6 of Law No. 7972 of December 22, 1999, which created tax burdens on liquors, beers, and cigarettes to finance a comprehensive plan for the protection and care of the elderly population, children at social risk, abandoned persons with disabilities, the rehabilitation of alcoholic and drug-dependent persons, and support for the work of the Red Cross. This regulation obliges the Tax Administration to officially update the tax amount every quarter, according to the variation of the consumer price index (CPI) determined by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC).

Article 6 of Executive Decree No. 29463-H, amended by Decree No. 31605-H, specifies that the update must be applied on the first day of February, May, August, and November of each year, considering the immediate quarters prior to the closings of March, June, September, and December. The authority to perform this update has fallen to the General Directorate of Treasury since resolution DGT-R-12-2014 of March 13, 2014, published in La Gaceta No. 129 on July 7, 2014, which transferred this function from the General Directorate of Taxation.

The new amounts per milliliter of absolute alcohol

Article 1 of the resolution updates the fee schedule established in Article 1 of Law No. 7972, with an adjustment of minus zero point forty-seven percent (-0.47%). The amounts are as follows:

• Beverages with up to 15% alcohol by volume: ¢3.67 per milliliter of absolute alcohol (previously ¢3.69).
• Beverages with more than 15% and up to 30%: ¢4.37 (previously ¢4.39).
• Beverages with more than 30%: ¢5.13 (previously ¢5.15).

The resolution was issued in San José at eight hours and forty-eight minutes on October 8, 2026, and is signed by José David Barboza Navarro, General Director of Treasury.

The drop in the price index that explains the reduction

Recital VII of the document states that the consumer price index levels for June 2026 and September 2026 correspond to 100.000 and 99.530, respectively, which generates a variation of -0.47%. On this basis, Recital VIII concludes that it is appropriate to update the specific tax per milliliter of absolute alcohol with a decrease of zero point forty-seven percent.

It is, therefore, a technical adjustment for deflation and not a discretionary decision by the head of the agency: the amount is recalculated using the quarterly formula established by Law No. 8399 of December 19, 2003, whose Sole Transitory provision refers to the mechanism in Article 6 of Law No. 7972.

Without a prior hearing and with the repeal of the August resolution

Recital IX justifies dispensing with the ten-day hearing for entities representing general or corporate interests required by Article 174 of Law No. 4755, the Code of Tax Norms and Procedures. The reason invoked is that there are reasons of public interest and urgency that require the resolution to be published before November 1, 2026, as the drafting, review, and approval of the text can only begin after the determination of the September 2026 CPI, which the INEC carries out in the first days of October.

Article 2 nullifies resolution MH-DGH-RES-0040-2026 of July 13, 2026, published in Supplement No. 98 of La Gaceta No. 140 of July 28, 2026, which had set the amounts in effect since last August 1 at ¢3.69, ¢4.39, and ¢5.15. Article 3 establishes that the new resolution takes effect as of November 1, 2026.

The adjustment arrives on the eve of the year-end season, when the demand for liquors and beers is concentrated, and applies equally to national production and imports, which Law No. 7972 taxes with the same taxable base of milliliters of absolute alcohol. The reduction is marginal in unit terms, but it applies to a tax that is part of the final price of each bottle and which finances social programs for the elderly, children at social risk, and rehabilitation for alcohol and drug consumption. The document does not quantify the fiscal effect of the adjustment nor project its transfer to consumer prices.

Source: La Gaceta, No. 198 of October 20, 2026, Miscellaneous Documents, p. 4 (official reference: IN202601133652).