Do you know where and how to pay the Costa Rica corporation tax? The Costa Rica corporation tax was approved in January 2012 and though I thought someone would put a motion against it in the Sala IV, that didn’t happen. So the new law seems to be going into effect on April 1st, 2012.
Some information in this article is not totally up to date anymore. For up to date information (made on 2/22/2018) go to the November 2017 Update Corporation tax and form D140.
Between January and now, I have received lots of emails asking how you can pay the tax. Well, the government created the tax but didn’t create a solution to make the payments. Today I can give you the great news that the National Register and the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) agreed on working together on this.
How to pay the Costa Rica corporation tax
As of the 2nd of April, when this new tax needs to be paid, you can just go to any of the 247 BCR offices anywhere in the country or go to their website and pay it there. Those who live out of the country and don’t have a BCR account will need someone in Costa Rica to pay the Costa Rica corporation tax for them.
Have you paid your mandatory corporation tax every year? Did you get your mandatory digital signature yet? Did you register the shareholders with the government? If your answer is NO and you don’t know how to resolve this, click on the banner below. We have the solution, at a very affordable cost.
Which data do you need to be able to pay
To pay the corporation tax, the only data you have to provide is the legal identification number of the corporation you want to pay the tax for. For those who don’t know what the corporate ID looks like, generally, it is as in 3-101-XXXXXX.
You have several corporations
Many of you own different properties in Costa Rica and have each one in a different corporation and maybe a different corporation for each car. You need to figure out if you want to transfer all the Costa Rica real estate into one corporation or transfer them into your own name. Or maybe leave the one that owns the car, as that is meant to be done for your own protection.
To make a correct decision, contact your attorney and ask him/her for counsel.
How much time do you have
The new law provides for a period of 30 days – until April 30th to pay the Costa Rica corporation tax. Since the payment system is not up and running, we can’t be sure, but you will probably need to have an account with BCR to make the online payment.
Some attorneys are already offering the service and I have seen it offered at $100 per corporation. But if you don’t live in Costa Rica, you will need to look for a solution.
Education and Culture tax stamp
Now, while we’re talking about taxes, most of you don’t know that when you have a corporation, you also need to pay a yearly tax stamp, called “Timbre de Educación y Cultura”. I guess most attorneys forget to tell you when they sell you the corporation. The Timbre de Educación y Cultura is generally due by March 31. Many people do not even know it exists and they don’t pay it.
However, it is a tax obligation and it would be prudent to pay the tax – you can pay the Costa Rica corporation tax later i.e. past the deadline and just pay a small interest penalty. Generally, the amount is between 750 to 6,000 Colones depending on the capital stock of the company.
The Luxury Home tax
I also want to remind those who own a luxury home in Costa Rica will have to pay the Luxury Home Tax or also called Solidarity Tax. Properties in Costa Rica with the construction of a lower value than ¢100,000,000 (about $175,000) are exempt from paying the fee of 0.25% over your appraised value. There is no obligation to file the Luxury home tax if you are under that value. If your property is border-line, we recommend filing. No matter if you have a luxury beach home or a home on the golf course, you have to file before the 1st of January every year.
If you don’t file and they catch you, you will be charged 10 times the tax you should have paid and if you file the wrong values, they will charge you 5 times the tax. We have a great 44-page E-Book by real estate attorney Roger Petersen about the Luxury home tax that you can buy on our website.
Do you own a property in a corporation in Costa Rica? Then click on the banner below to view the services you will need, offered at very affordable prices.
Still cheap
If you have read all the above, you might ask yourself how many taxes you will have to pay. But most of the above add up very little as the percentages are very low. If you add it all up, you’ll find that all these taxes are maybe 1/10th of what most of you used to pay back home.
Check on this article about Costa Rica taxes, it explains a bit more about the taxes we all pay or not pay in Costa Rica.
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