Transparency and Beneficial Ownership Register:
Commercial and civil companies, trusts, trustees of third-party financial resources and non-profit organizations are required by law to file an annual statement indicating who are the beneficial owners of them, as well as the participation of each of them in the entity and other relevant information that allows an effective control in the fight against tax fraud, money laundering and financing of terrorism.
The information provided in this declaration is confidential and the public does not have access to it. Government agencies may only have access to such information in cases strictly authorized by law and under strict controls that justify such access and the confidentiality of the information. Only the Costa Rican Drug Institute and the Tax Administration may have access to the information, but not in a general way, but only when they are in the middle of a specific investigation.
Who must submit the Transparency and Beneficial Ownership Register?
Individuals and other legal structures domiciled in the country, administrators of third-party financial resources in favor of their clients, non-profit organizations and private trusts, including foreign trusts that carry out activities in Costa Rica, through their legal representative, are obliged to file the report.
To carry out this declaration and to guarantee the confidentiality of the information, the system only allows access to persons with a digital or electronic signature issued by the Central Bank of Costa Rica. For now, it can only be done with such signature, which is only issued to citizens or foreigners residing in Costa Rica. If you do not have such signature, then a power of attorney must be granted to a person who does have such signature in order to file the Report.
When must the Transparency and Beneficial Ownership Registry be filed?
It will correspond to file the ordinary return in April of each year. However, the Tax Administration may change this date according to the needs that exist at any given time.
For the year 2023 the Tax Administration has changed the deadline for filing the report, so it must be filed from May 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023.
Ordinary, extraordinary and corrective returns:
Ordinary returns are those filed each year in April.
Corrective returns are filed in cases where some information in the ordinary returns must be corrected.
Extraordinary returns are filed when there is a substantial change in the shares, meaning changes in more than 15% of the value of the shares or quotas of the company. When a merger takes place, the prevailing legal entity must file an extraordinary declaration. Likewise, when there are variations in the parts of the trust and or its final beneficiaries.
Penalties in case of non-compliance with this declaration:
In case of total or partial non-compliance in the provision of information within the term determined by law, a sanction equivalent to a proportional pecuniary fine of 2% of the gross income figure of the offending company or entity, in the profit tax period, prior to that in which the infraction occurred, with a minimum of three base salaries and a maximum of one hundred base salaries (For the year 2023, the base salary is equivalent to ¢462,200.00 colones).
In case the amount of gross income is not known, a sanction of ten base salaries will be imposed.
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