Formal Obligations For Inactive Companies

Resolution on the obligations of tax registration and filings for inactive companies

Under the recent Costa Rica Tax Reform, the concept of taxpayer for income tax purposes was extended after July 1, 2019, considering as taxpayers all legally incorporated entities, regardless of whether they perform or not any economic activities, including professional activity entities, government-owned companies, collective entities without legal representation and participation accounts existing in Costa Rica. After this amendment, all legal entities are considered taxpayers for income tax purposes, regardless if they were considered inactive entities in the past.

Through a general resolution published on December 20, 2019, the following formal obligations for inactive entities were imposed starting this month (January, 2020):

Registration obligation: Inactive entities must get registered before the Tax Registry of the Tax Administration. Tax return filing obligation: These entities must make an annual filing detailing all their assets, liabilities and equity, using a new tax form. With respect to the registration obligation indicated in the first item above, companies must fulfill the registration according to the last number of their corporate ID number:

January 2020: Corporate ID's ending in 1 and 2 February 2020: Corporate ID's ending in 3...