Costa Rica taxes on a territorial basis: only Costa Rica-source income is taxed, for both individuals and companies. Costa Rica has no Controlled Foreign Company regime. Costa Rica operates a self-assessment system, with the Ministry of Finance conducting post-filing review.
The Costa Rican tax year runs 1 January to 31 December (aligned with the calendar year since a 2019 reform). The corporate filing deadline is generally within 2.5 months of the fiscal year-end.
Costa Rica's headline corporate income tax (CIT) rate is 30%.
The headline personal income tax (PIT) rate is 25%.
The standard VAT/GST (or equivalent consumption tax) rate is 13%.
An individual is a Costa Rican tax resident if they stay in Costa Rica, continuously or not, for more than 183 days (including arrival/departure days) during the same fiscal period; sporadic absences count toward Costa Rican presence unless the taxpayer proves tax residency elsewhere via a foreign residency certificate. Costa Rica's system is territorial: only Costa Rica-source income (from services rendered, goods located, capital invested, or rights used in Costa Rica) is generally taxable, for both residents and non-residents, regardless of residency status. A 2023 reform (enacted to exit the EU's tax "gray list") introduced an exception: foreign-source passive income (e.g., dividends, interest, royalties, capital gains) becomes taxable where the recipient belongs to a multinational group and fails an economic substance test.
A non-Costa-Rican entity has a Costa Rica permanent establishment through a fixed place of business or a dependent agent habitually concluding contracts in Costa Rica on the entity's behalf, following the OECD Model Treaty definition as applied under Costa Rican domestic law and any applicable tax treaty.
Costa Rica has no Controlled Foreign Company rules.
Costa Rica has no specific thin capitalization rules.
Costa Rica does not use an elective check-the-box classification system; entity classification generally follows the entity's actual legal characteristics. Costa Rica does not have a comprehensive ATAD2-style anti-hybrid regime.
No foreign bank account or foreign financial asset reporting regime exists requiring residents to separately disclose foreign accounts; consistent with Costa Rica's territorial system, foreign-source income falls outside the Costa Rica tax base entirely and is not reported on the annual tax return at all.
Costa Rica's territorial system already excludes foreign-source dividends and capital gains from the domestic tax base entirely, functioning as a broader substitute for a conventional participation exemption.
Costa Rica's territorial tax system limits the practical role of a foreign tax credit, since foreign-source income is generally outside the Costa Rican tax base to begin with rather than taxed-then-credited.
Costa Rica has a limited network of approximately 5 double tax treaties in force, including Germany, Mexico, and Spain - notably, these treaties generally don't apply to foreign-source income earned by Costa Rican residents, since that income isn't taxed domestically under the territorial system in the first place. Costa Rica joined the OECD in 2021 and has been working to expand its treaty network since. Costa Rica has no comprehensive income tax treaty with the United States, though Tax Information Exchange Agreements exist.