Corporate Tax Email - NCC Law

**please see FAQ Corp Tax page for add'l information**

Dear Clients

Starting April 1st, 2012, a new annual tax for Costa Rican corporations will apply. The tax rate varies depending on whether taxpayers are active entities or not. Most of the corporations which are incorporated by our Firm as legal mechanism to hold the assets of our foreign clients, are registered before the Tax Authority as inactive companies.  However, every corporation should be individually reviewed.

For the 2012 fiscal period, the tax will be prorated for a nine month period; therefore, the amounts payable will be ₡135,225 ($264) for active corporations and ₡67,613 ($132) for inactive corporations.

The 2013 fiscal period requires corporation to pay the full year,  that is $300 for active corporations and $150 for non active corporations. This US Dollar amount may have a slight change next year since this tax is legally defined as “a percent of a monthly base salary” and it is paid in local currency.  This amount will fluctuate modestly each year depending upon the exchange rate between the US Dollar and the CR Colones as well as the defined minimum wage as measured in Colones.

This law authorizes company´s officers to resign their current positions in Costa Rican companies and also entitles company owners (shareholders) to dissolve these companies before July 2012 to avoid the taxes. This may be the suggested option for companies with no commercial activities and no assets.

The law also authorizes the company owners to transfer assets to themselves individually before the company is dissolved.   This transfer can be effected without taxes or other governmental fees normally required as part of assets transferring transactions. This option does save the taxes incurred by the corporation.  However, this option subjects the assets previously held by the corporation to estate planning issues.  Further, this option exposes those assets to personal liability claims. In case of corporations that hold assets, especially those owned by foreign nation, the safest course of action would be to retain the corporation and pay the taxes. 

The document enclosed explains the proposed tax and the penalty for failure to pay as required by law.

If you want my office to process this 2012 tax payment, please let me know. In addition to the amount to be paid to the Tax Authority, we charge $65 to cover wire transfer fee, exchange rate variations and processing fee.  If you are transferring funds from a local account, the corresponding fee will be $50.

Please feel free to contact me with your particular inquiries and upon your request, wire transfer information will be provided. 

Finally, please take note that this e mail has been addressed to you since your contact information appears in our client´s data base.  If you are not a client of our firm, this e mail was not intended to reach you.  In such case, please disregard this communication and receive my apologies for any inconvenience it may cause.

Best regards

Ricardo Cordero