Tabaco — Costa Rica

Cada viajero mayor de edad puede ingresar hasta 500 gramos de tabaco elaborado libres de impuestos como parte de su equipaje, junto con cinco litros de vino, aguardiente o licor. La ley mide el tabaco por peso, no por cajetillas ni cartones: revise el peso del producto, no la cantidad de cigarrillos. Pasarse del limite no es una falta; el funcionario de aduanas levanta la declaracion de oficio y usted paga los tributos sobre el exceso.

Original (EN): Each adult traveller may bring in 500 grams of manufactured tobacco duty-free as part of their baggage, alongside 5 litres of wine or spirits. The law measures tobacco BY WEIGHT, not by pack or carton count - check the weight printed on your product, not the number of cigarettes. Going over is not an offence: a customs officer opens a declaration on the spot and you pay import tax on the excess.

No fine is stated for exceeding the tobacco quantity - the consequence is tax, not a penalty. Customs declarations for goods a traveller brings beyond their baggage are processed DE OFICIO (art. 272 a) of Decreto 44051-H: "Importacion de mercancias distintas del equipaje, realizada por viajeros"), so duties are simply assessed and paid. A DIFFERENT trigger - concealing goods rather than exceeding a limit - does carry a consequence: art. 374 b) provides "Si detectare mercancias no declaradas se procedera a su decomiso y se seguira el procedimiento correspondiente." Note precisely: art. 366 is headed "Clases de equipaje" and its ex officio mechanism is triggered by a VALUE threshold on non-baggage goods, not by this 500 g quantity - do not cite it as the excess-tobacco rule.