A three-month moratorium on the payment of value added taxes, business income and customs duties is the proposal of the Executive in view of the emergency caused by the spread of covid-19 in the country.
The initiative "COVID-19 Tax Relief Project", which was presented to the Legislative Assembly on March 16, proposes that taxpayers can postpone the payment of taxes for at least three months.
In Costa Rica, the banking sector won a lawsuit it imposed against the Ministry of Finance, arising from disagreements over the method used to calculate tax payments.
The legal dispute dates back several years, since in 2003 the General Directorate of Taxation (DGT) validated the methodology suggested by the Costa Rican Banking Association (ABC) to calculate the payment of taxes on the income of financial intermediaries.
For the IMF, the country "may need additional fiscal measures, focused on the short term, to alleviate financing pressures and improve debt dynamics.”
After analyzing the current economic situation in Costa Rica, the directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) commended the recent fiscal reform, which is important to restore fiscal sustainability.
The tax reform law that would be approved in second debate in the coming weeks, involves the exoneration of arrears and penalties for taxpayers who pay their debts in the first three months after the publication of the law.
The proposed measure consists of exonerating 100% of the interest on arrears and up to 80% of the penalty to taxpayers who pay in the first month after the Law is published in the official newspaper La Gaceta.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development wants to prevent schemes that allow using different jurisdictions in order to avoid paying tax where the activity is being carried out.
An article in DF.cl reports that "The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has prepared a report, commissioned by the G20, which will be presented in early February to launch changes in international tax regulations that prevent multinationals from exploiting loopholes in order to pay very little tax by declaring profits in tax havens. "
The Costa Rican Department of Taxation will audit companies that declare income below the minimum percentages required.
The thresholds for the different productive sectors will be published before 24 September and arise from the amounts that were declared previously by the taxpayers and those detected in the audits.
Francisco Villalobos, director of the Directorate General of Taxation said that the rates published (on gross profit) "will be used for each sector, and govern the tax for the fiscal year 2011", according to an article in Nacion.com
The Costa Rican Constitutional Court accepted an appeal filed by the company La Florida SA, a subsidiary of Fifco, against IDA (Agrarian Development Institute) and the Administrative Fiscal Court.
Mercedes Agüero wrote in Nacion.com: "The company asked the judges to overrule the resolutions by the Administrative Fiscal Court which held in favor of IDA.
The Costa Rican Institute of Agrarian Development (IDA) is trying to charge this sum as the principal and interest on a debt acculumated through unpaid taxes.
IDA law establishes a tax of 5% on foreign and national beer and the differences in the manner of calculating the total amounts of previous years have motivated litigation and brought on the current situation.
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