Costa Rica enacts law on tax exemption regimes that are under Treasury supervision

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EY Global
7 Sep 2022
Subject Tax Alert
Categories Corporate Tax
Jurisdictions Costa Rica

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  • The provisions of the law are applicable to the tax exemptions that are under the supervision of General Directorate of the Treasury, including those that are processed through the platform Exonet.

On 1 September 2022, Costa Rica enacted Law No 10.2861 (the Law) regarding tax exemption regimes. The Law is applicable to exemptions that are under the supervision of the General Directorate of Treasury and includes provisions related to the procedure for granting tax exemptions, the procedures for the control and revocation of tax exemptions as well as a new sanctioning regime applicable for non-compliance with the tax exoneration regime.

Among others, the Law includes:

  • Application and granting of tax exemptions under the supervision of the General Directorate of Treasury.
  • A three-business day period for filing an appeal and extraordinary appeal before the Tax Administrative Court when the General Directorate of Treasury denies an exemption request.
  • Tax settlement (voluntary or ex officio) on goods that were acquired with tax exemptions.
  • Procedures for the revocation of the tax exemptions granted, with the detail of the phases of the procedure.
  • Three new penalties applicable to the misuse of the exempted goods, failure to submit reports to the Tax Authority and non-payment of a tax settlement.
  • Sanctioning procedure, with the detail of the phases of the procedure.
  • A periodic review of the tax exoneration regimens by the General Directorate of Treasury, in order to assess the need to maintain, modify, reduce or partially or totally eliminate tax exemptions.
  • The Law provides that the Tax Code shall be applicable for everything that has not been addressed in the Law.
  • Repeal of approximately 138 exemptions that are now obsolete.

The Law entered into force on 1 September 2022.

 

For additional information with respect to this Alert, please contact the following:

Ernst & Young, S.A., San José, Costa Rica
  • Rafael Sayagués
  • Randall Oquendo
  • Daniel Quesada
Ernst & Young LLP (United States), Latin American Business Center, New York
  • Lucas Moreno
  • Ana Mingramm
  • Pablo Wejcman
  • Enrique Perez Grovas
Ernst & Young LLP (United Kingdom), Latin American Business Center, London
  • Lourdes Libreros
Ernst & Young Tax Co., Latin American Business Center, Japan & Asia Pacific
  • Raul Moreno, Tokyo
  • Luis Coronado, Singapore


For a full listing of contacts and email addresses, please click on the Tax News Update: Global Edition (GTNU) version of this Alert.

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    1. The name of the law is “Law on exemptions regimens, their granting and the control over their use and destination, Law N° 10.286” (in Spanish: “Ley de regimens de exenciones del pago de tributos, su otorgamiento y control sobre su uso y destino”).