Capítulo I. De la Defraudación y Contrabando Aduaneros

Customs fraud is any act or omission by means of which the payment of the taxes applicable to the customs regime is willfully evaded, in whole or in part.

Violation of the rules and improper application of the prohibitions or restrictions provided for in customs legislation, for the purpose of seeking to obtain an advantage in violation of such legislation, also constitutes fraud.

Special cases of defraudation in the customs branch are:

a)The performance of any operation using documents in which the references to quality, class, quantity, weight, value, provenance or origin of the goods are altered.

b)The falsification of the bill of lading, air waybill, bill of carriage, commercial invoice, letter of correction or certificate of origin or any equivalent document, without prejudice to the liability incurred for the very act of falsification.

c)The substitution of goods temporarily exported or imported, at the time of effecting the reimportation or reexportation.

d)The use of goods imported under a duty exemption or reduction of payment of the applicable taxes, for purposes other than those for which the exemption or reduction was granted.

e)The execution of contracts of any nature, on the basis of documents covering goods totally or partially exempt from payment of import duties and taxes, without the prior authorization that may be necessary.

f)The alienation, by any title, of goods temporarily imported, when the customs formalities to convert such importation into a definitive one have not been complied with.

g)The willful decrease of the value or of the quantity of the goods subject to appraisal, by virtue of damage, impairment, deterioration or defect, in a manner ostensibly greater than that which should correspond.

h)The undue decreases of tariff units, effected during the appraisal proceedings, or the fixing of values that are not in accordance with the provisions of the tariff legislation in force.

i)The inaccurate declaration of the quantity actually entered or departed introduced into the national customs territory.

j)The unlawful obtaining of any concession, permit or license to import goods totally or partially exempt from or exonerated of taxes.

k)The determination of the base price of the goods subject to auction, with a value lower than that which corresponds.

corresponding. authorization of the customs authority participates in

l)To use a manifestly inadequate legal form or structure, in order to evade taxes.

m)To have in one's possession goods not originating in the country, in quantities greater than those covered by the respective import or entry documents.

*n) The omission to declare or the inaccurate declaration of the goods or of the data and requirements necessary for the correct determination of import taxes, in import policies, customs forms or other declarations required by the customs authority for this purpose

*ñ) To effect the declarations of goods recording a customs value lower than the price actually paid or payable, with the intent to omit totally or partially the payment of the customs tax obligation, by providing inaccurate data in the respective declarations, supported by invoices or other types of commercial documents or with altered or falsified transport documents or that do not correspond to the commercial transaction effected

*o) To simulate importation, exportation, reexportation or availing oneself of any other customs regime or operation in order to obtain fiscal, tax or any other benefits granted by the State

The clandestine introduction into or extraction from the country of merchandise of any kind, origin or provenance, evading the intervention of the customs authorities, even if it does not cause fiscal harm, constitutes smuggling in customs matters.

The introduction into or extraction from the national customs territory of merchandise whose importation or exportation is legally prohibited or limited also constitutes smuggling.

The following are special cases of smuggling in the customs field:

a)The entry or exit of goods through places not authorized.

b)The removal, disposition or consumption of goods stored in customs warehouses, whether public or private, or in premises authorized for that purpose, before payment of the corresponding import duties.

c)The loading, unloading or transshipment of goods without complying with customs formalities

d)The clandestine introduction or extraction of goods by concealing them in false bottoms, in other goods, on the body or in the baggage of persons, or by using any other means intended to evade customs control.

e)The introduction of goods originating from zones of the national territory that enjoy exonerative tax regimes or regimes privileged in any form, to other places in the country where such benefits do not exist, without having complied with the corresponding customs formalities.

f)The dropping in the territory of the country or in its territorial sea of foreign goods with the object of using them by evading the customs authority.

g)The violation of seals, stamps, doors, containers, and other means of security of goods whose customs formalities have not been perfected or which are not destined for the country.

h)Any other form of concealment of goods at the time they are introduced into or taken out of the national customs territory, or during inspection operations or the act of appraisal.

It is presumed to have introduced contraband goods:

a)Whoever sells them directly or indirectly to the public, in commercial establishments or private dwellings and cannot prove their lawful importation.

b)Whoever transports them aboard a vehicle in customs transit without their being manifested or whose ownership is not recorded in the respective official documents.

c)The person engaged in the provision of transportation services, if in his warehouses there are any not originating in the country without being covered by the respective importation, entry or transit documents.

d)The driver of a vehicle inside which the goods in customs transit that it should contain are not found.

e)Whoever arrives forcibly at a place not under customs control, without reporting, within the twenty-four hours following the occurrence of such event, to the nearest customs authority.

*f) The natural person or legal person who, having declared in accordance with the customs legal regime and having communicated it to said Tax authority -SAT-, after verification that an international transit or transfer of goods in the national territory was completed, but fails to bring them to or enter them at the declared destinations previously authorized, in both cases, by the customs authority, in the following situations:

1.The owner of the goods, the consignee, importer, the carrier or the driver of the vehicle, who, carrying out a declared and authorized customs transit, from a customs office of entry to another customs office of exit, does not do so by the fiscal route or way authorized for such purpose by the customs authority; abandons said route with the purpose of unloading the goods at a place different from the destination declared; does not conclude the customs transit within the time limit set in the document that authorized said customs operation; or does not appear to exit the goods at the customs office of exit declared upon entering the national territory.

*2. The owner of the goods, the consignee, importer, the carrier or the driver of the vehicle, who, carrying out a declared and authorized internal transit or customs transfer, to and from free zones, fiscal warehouses or customs depots, does not do so by the fiscal route or way authorized for such purpose by the customs authority; abandons said route with the purpose of unloading the goods at a place different from the destination declared; does not conclude the transit or customs transfer, within the time limit set by the Customs Service; or does not enter the goods in the fiscal warehouse or customs depot consigned upon entering the national territory; or who, having declared that the goods entered into the national territory would be processed in a free zone, violates the corresponding legal regime.

*3. The Customs Agent who intervenes and acts in the preparation, presentation and settlement of the declaration of goods necessary for the authorization of the transit or transfer of the goods, when these are taken to another destination, and omits to inform the Tax Administration that the transit or transfer was not carried out, or was not completed in accordance with the destinations that were declared and that the Customs Authority authorized, within the five working days following the time limit in which the authorized transit or transfer should have ended.

*4. The legal representative of the fiscal warehouse or customs depot, who having issued a letter of acceptance for the receipt of the goods under the applicable customs regime has communicated to the customs authority his commitment to provide this service; and, the same not being carried out, omits to inform thereof. When the authorization, the communication to the authority and the omission to inform it that the provision of the service was not carried out are attributable to an employee, the legal representative and his principal shall be jointly and severally liable.

The communication referred to in this numeral shall be submitted to the Customs Authority within the five working days following the time limit in which the arrival of the goods at the customs depot or fiscal warehouse should have occurred.

5.The owner, as the case may be, or the person who as lessee, usufructuary, or otherwise, exercises control over the real property in which the competent authorities find goods entered into the national territory, resulting from non-compliance with the transit or transfer declared in accordance with the respective customs legal regime.

On establishment as a crime.

Customs fraud and customs smuggling shall constitute a crime when, from the valuation made by the customs authority, it is determined that the Customs value of the goods involved in the act is in an amount greater than the equivalent of three thousand Central American pesos ($CA 3,000.00) or exceeds three percent (3%) of the total FOB value of the shipment. The Customs Authority shall apply the lesser of the amounts indicated above. In the case of customs fraud, the crime shall be established when there is intent to evade taxes or to infringe customs legislation, provided that the value of the goods exceeds the amount or percentage established in this paragraph.

If it does not exceed the amount referred to in the preceding paragraph, it shall constitute a tax violation and it shall be resolved administratively, in the manner established for such purpose by the Board of Directors of the Superintendency of Tax Administration -SAT-, for which it shall issue the respective Agreement, except in the case of surpluses of undeclared goods to which the procedure established in the National Customs Law shall be applied. However, the Superintendency of Tax Administration -SAT- shall proceed to the destruction of the goods when ownership thereof cannot be established or the non-tax requirements required both for their nationalization and for their commercialization are not met, as well as in cases in which, had the amount indicated in the preceding paragraph been exceeded, the crimes of customs smuggling or special cases of customs smuggling would have been incurred. Excepted are the cases in which submission to a customs regime is documented with the goods declaration, in which the Superintendency of Administration, with the entire customs clearance procedure through to the release of the goods, shall impose the respective sanctions and shall return them to their owner. In any case, once such circumstances have been verified, destruction shall be carried out within a time limit of no more than ten (10) days, counted from the date on which the competent State institutions have granted their consent for the performance of this act.

The customs authority shall keep updated its database for consultation of reference prices, which it shall use for determining the value of the goods, in accordance with the Agreement on the implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1994. The Customs Authority shall make the reference service available to taxpayers electronically and free of charge.

Obligation.

The Ministries of Public Health and Social Assistance, of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, of Energy and Mines, the other ministries, as well as the dependencies and entities of the State, within the scope of their jurisdiction, are obligated to provide the necessary assistance requested by the Customs Authority, the Public Prosecutor's Office or the National Civil Police, with respect to goods that have been seized on the presumption of the commission of crimes of customs smuggling or special cases of customs smuggling. Likewise, they shall provide the necessary and immediate assistance to the respective authorities to verify compliance with the non-tax obligations required of the goods in order to be imported or marketed in the country, matters which they shall record through detailed reports. The public official who refuses to provide the assistance referred to in this provision or provides it negligently shall incur the corresponding civil, criminal and administrative liabilities.

If it is determined that there are sufficient grounds to consider the commission of the crimes of customs smuggling and special cases of customs smuggling, the corresponding authorities shall proceed in accordance with the provisions of Article 16, paragraph c) of this Law, unless the special legislation on the subject, according to the product, good or article in question, establishes a specific procedure.

The obligation referred to in this article shall extend to cases of goods whose value does not exceed the amount and percentage indicated in Article 6 of this Law, when the matter must be resolved administratively.