The Legislative Assembly is preparing to consider, in the first debate, a bill aimed at exempting inactive companies from the obligation to file an income tax return.
The file of this legislative proposal is number 22,307 and was presented by Deputy Pablo Heriberto Abarca. The initiative will be discussed in the Assembly, despite the opposition of the Ministry of Finance.
In the first nine months of 2019, 4,715 companies were closed, 13% more than the total number of companies closed during the whole of 2018, which could be because of the entry into force of the Personal Income Tax Law.
Since 2017, the year in which the Corporate Income Tax Law came into force, the number of corporations that closed their operations in the country began to increase.
Companies that have been dissolved by the National Registry of Costa Rica for being delinquent in the payment of the tax to legal entities can liquidate their assets, despite being inactive.
The National Registry clarified that the assets of the 265 thousand companies that were dissolved were not canceled, what remains in relation to them are collateral goods or mortgages, which means that the owners can dispose of them by means of a process of liquidation.
The National Registry of Costa Rica has announced that it will dissolve companies that have not paid tax to legal entities for a period equal to or greater than three years.
From a statement issued by the College of Accountants:
August 2017.Next Friday, September 1, the collection of the Tax on Legal Entities will be reactivated, this tax applies to all types of commercial companies, such as Limited Liability Companies, limited partnerships, collectives, individual limited liability companies, and others.
The law passed in first debate establishes an annual tax of between $119 and $394, depending on whether the company is active or not and the amount of income generated.
The bill was approved this morning in the first debate, and resources that are collected will be used, only this once, for hiring police officers.
The Congress of Costa Rica has been inspired by the famous tango Cambalache and now those who "work day and night like an ox are the same as those who live off other people, those who kill are the same as those who cure, or those who live outside the law..."
EDITORIAL
The Costa Rican Legislative Assembly has given final approval to a bill that clears the records of crimes committed by people after they have served their sentences. Until now, criminal records have only been "cleaned" after 10 years have passed since the sentence was carried out.
Legal tax engineering is a mandatory business practice for anyone who wants to be competitive in today's globalized world, and only those who are not entrepreneurs can afford to refuse to acknowledge this fact.
EDITORIAL
With the same firmness that we criticize businesspeople who evade taxes or bribe officials to get a contract, we must defend every business practice which is framed within the law to pursue the best use of available resources to generate wealth through the production of goods and services, which is what businesses do.
This is the aim of the bill that would expunge ex-convict's criminal records so that they can find work without their potential employers knowing about their criminal past.
EDITORIAL
The vast majority of people resolve their economic and existential problems without resorting to crime. They are obliged to act this way because of the education they received in their homes, where they were taught not only be honest and law-abiding, but also to distrust those who are not. From children we learn to discriminate between bad and good, an essential life skill. We need to distinguish between food that is good and food that is harmful to our health. We must be able to distinguish between an honest business and one that is not. That's life, continuous decision making based on our knowledge and values which is what also should govern conduct in society.
The new bill states that the tax payable by commercial companies will range between 15% and 60% of a monthly base salary, depending on their income.
This bill which is currently being discussed in the Committee on Financial Affairs of the Assembly is another attempt by the executive branch, after the first proposal of the administration Solis was declared unconstitutional.
Report of Costa Rica´s performance, through the selection, measurement and evaluation of a set of variables that include social, economic, environmental and political aspects of development.
Overview of the State of the Nation Report 2015:
In the past five years, the State of the Nation has warned about the severity of the problems that threaten the sustainability of human development, the political system's inability to find answers and the need to correct the country's course. Therefore, in 2011 it was stated that behind the political and economic stability a wearing down of Costa Rica's historical progress could be detected. In 2012 the absence of solid progress was noted and in 2013, the existence of myths about the "country we are," which led to do the same actions being repeated with different results expected. Last year, the Twentieth Report stated that it was the end of an era and the political system was being called on to lead the transition with minimal confrontation and costs for the weaker groups.
With the new bill the aim is to redeploy the payment of corporation tax, which was declared unconstitutional and suspended in January.
The new initiative seeks to resurrect the creation of the tax, fees and penalties, redefining the criteria for their application. However, there are Members who do not support this measure, who assert that is mostly affects small and medium enterprises.
A ruling by the Constitutional Court has declared the tax on corporations illegal, starting from 2016, but companies must pay for the fiscal year 2015, which ends of on January 31.
From a statement issued by the Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica:
By Vote No. 2015-1241, the Constitutional Chamber, by a majority declared as unconstitutional fundamental articles of the Law on Taxes on Corporations No.
The decree submitted for public consultation by the General Directorate of Taxation of Costa Rica requires commercial companies to provide information about its members and the composition of its capital.
There is currently a period of 10 working days for companies that do not agree with the draft decree to declare so and make comments. This measure aims to implement the standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The creation of a Register of Shareholders in Costa Rica aims to control the payment of tax on transfer of real estate.
EDITORIAL
Analysts say that if the purpose of the creation of the Register of Shareholders was the fiscal control of a commercial act geared towards commercial companies with specific characteristics, simpler ways could have been devised to achieve it, rather than creating a general obligation for all corporations.
The Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica is discussing a bill to extend the liability of legal persons to shareholders, in cases of fraud or incompliance
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. José María Villalta, said: "If it is proved in a trial that there is fraudulent or abusive use of a legal personality to circumvent the law, what will happen is that the principle separation and limitation of liability between the company and its partners will be broken. "