Costa Rica: Temporary relief for imports, quantification of exchange differential, ultimate beneficial owners reporting

Recent tax-related developments in Costa Rica include:
 

Temporary relief for domestic imports

The Law of "Temporary Relief for Maritime Transport Costs for National Imports, in order to mitigate the container crisis" came into force as of 30 March 2022.

The purpose of the law is to make a temporary adjustment to the tax base of goods imported by sea, for customs purposes. For the determination of the tax base of import duties and taxes, taxpayers who import goods by sea bound for Costa Rica in containers or as general cargo, declared from port to port, as well as international cargo consolidators, carriers, customs agents and other auxiliaries of the customs function, will have a new table of freight values ​​to determine the tax base. Likewise, some considerations are established regarding some types of load.

The provision should be applicable for a period of exactly one year, from the entry into force of the law. The executive power may suspend the application of the adjustment established by law, in the event that freight prices do not exceed the parameters regulated by this regulation.
 

Quantification of the exchange differential

The tax authority issued guidance (Resolution DGT-R-09-2022) regarding the moment of realization of the exchange differential for entities subject to surveillance and inspection of the General Superintendence of Financial Entities ("SUGEF") and the General Superintendence of Securities (“SUGEVAL”) as of fiscal year 2022.

The guidance provides that the moment of realization of the exchange differential will be in accordance with the regulation of the position in foreign currency of the exchange intermediaries established in article 4 of the Regulation of Cash Operations, issued by the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Costa Rica.

Accordingly, the entity must quantify the exchange differential realized on the closing day of the fiscal period, and this must be compared with the position in foreign currency corresponding to the closing day of the previous fiscal period. In both cases, the dollar sales exchange rate of the Central Bank of Costa Rica will be used.
 

Ultimate beneficial owners reporting

The tax authority issued guidance (Resolution DGT-ICD-R-010-2022) relating to the requirement to report information about ultimate beneficial owners to the platform managed by the Central Bank of Costa Rica.

The guidance provides:

• Once an ordinary declaration has been sent, its presentation term is considered exhausted and may only be modified by means of the extraordinary declaration or by means of a corrective declaration, as appropriate.
• Extraordinary declarations must also be presented when there are variations in the parts of a trust and/or its final beneficiaries.
• Non-profit organizations must maintain the information provided in chapter II of the Law to Improve the Fight against Tax Fraud (chapter on the registry of transparency and final beneficiaries) and have it available to deliver it to the Tax Administration and the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Costa Rican Drug Institute ("ICD"), when required, until the procedure is established for them to submit it directly in the system.

Read an April 2022 report (Spanish) and (English) prepared by the KPMG member firm in Costa Rica