The official notice obliging all entities of the country's financial system to provide the tax authorities with information on the bank accounts of all their foreign clients was published in the Gazette.
"That in order for the Tax Administration to comply with the implementation of this information exchange modality, it is considered essential to establish the definitions, general obligations to report the information, due diligence procedures for the accounts of individuals and legal entities as well as the conditions and compliance deadlines to be complied with by the entities required to provide the information, in addition to the effective application referred to the financial accounts as established by the CRS and its comments", the document explains.
German Morales, managing partner of Grant Thornton Costa Rica, explained to Nacion.com that "... the side must inform, every December, how much is the balance of the current account that the foreign person has here. It is intended to be reciprocal, for example, if a Costa Rican opens an account in Mexico, it is reported from there. Then, Taxation will have the current accounts of the Costa Ricans abroad."
Morales added that "... The bank must inform, every December, how much is the balance of the current account that the foreign person has here."
These new obligations arise after the Costa Rican government, by adhering to the Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information on Fiscal Matters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), committed to implement the Automatic Exchange of Information corresponding to financial accounts, called Common Reporting Standard.
In order to update the Intergovernmental Agreement for the Effectiveness of the Tax Compliance Law on Foreign Accounts, signed by both parties in 2013, the governments of both countries signed a complementary agreement to FATCA.
According to the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica, with the subscription of the complementary agreement, the legal basis of the FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) will be updated with the provisions of the Agreement with the Government of the United States of America for the exchange of information on tax matters, which will enter into force next September.
Since July 17, the agreement between the Dominican Republic and the United States for the exchange of information on reportable bank accounts entered into force.
Dominican financial institutions must identify the accounts of individuals, legal entities or other specialized entities such as U.S.
The Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions of Nicaragua has authorized Banco Corporativo to carry out financial intermediation activities in the country.
The entry of a new financial market participant is received favorably by other banks, provided that "...
Banks in Costa Rica must provide customer’s banking information directly to Costa Rican Drug Institute when requested by the office.
Financial institutions must provide people’s banking data to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) on request, as prescribed by executive decree. The FIU is a department of the Costa Rican Drug Institute (ICD).