Costa Rica Expertise LLC

By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Here is a yearly reminder. Education and culture taxes — Timbre de Educación y Cultura — are due next Monday, March 31.

Many people, including professionals, sluff off filing form D.110 and paying these taxes. However, paying them is required by Ley 5923, and every company in Costa Rica listed at the Registro Nacional is required to pay this tax. A company’s net capital amount determines the tax to be paid.

The tax amounted to quite a bit of money in 1976, the year the general assembly enacted the law. Today, the amount is almost insignificant and is a nuisance tax to most.

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By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

The sign of things to come: Banco Cuscatlan now requires citizens or resident aliens of the United States to fill out a W9 form for personal accounts at the firm's banks in Costa Rica.

Why? Because Citigroup bought Grupo Cuscatlan from Corporación UBC Internacional S.A. for $1.51 billion in cash and stock. Grupo Cuscatlan has operations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras and Panamá.

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Norwegian artist Edvard Munch could have been thinking of bureaucracy as inspiration for his famous 1893 painting "Scream."

By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

What is Tributación Directa doing? One does not know whether to get drunk, curse or cry.

Tributación Directa is the tax collecting agency.

Last year, taking company books to be legalized was a long process in San José. A registrant had to fill out a form, play musical chairs, and then leave the five or six books for over a month.

In February, the tax department decided to become efficient. The first thing officials did was make a new rule that made all unused, printed legal books currently in existence obsolete. They wanted the first page of any book they legalized to have a special form imprinted on it.

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By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

It is tax time again. Tax returns for individuals and companies are due on Friday. Yes, this Friday.

Every company is required to register with the taxman. This registration happens when one gets a set of legal books approved at the tax authority, Tributación Directa. The form to do so changed this year from one without a number to Form 406. The old form had no number and was clumsy looking. It can still be used until Friday, but starting Monday, to register a company to get legal books authorized one must use the new form.

There are several important deadlines for taxpayers in Costa Rica. The most important ones for expats are Dec. 15 when Form 101 for income taxes is due and March 31 when Form 110 for education and cultural taxes is due.

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Justice and the Transparency Phantom are accompanied by the wolf-like tax police in execution of the new tax plan.

An analysis of the fiscal plan (4)

By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Transparency and Justice are teaming up and, using the synergy of information technologies and law, will surely prevail in collecting more taxes from everyone.

Transparency sits alongside Accountability, implying an openness and willingness to accept public scrutiny, decreasing the capacity for deception, as in hiding money from the tax people. Typically, transparency is used when discussing oversight of public officials. Now it is the individual citizen whose holdings and life is transparent. The concept has been referred to as the Transparency Phantom in a previous article.

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