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.
Arguing that the country "fulfils all its commitments in terms of fiscal cooperation", the European Union decided to remove it from its list of nations and territories considered as non-cooperative.
Albania, Costa Rica, Mauritius, Serbia and Switzerland have implemented, ahead of schedule, all the reforms necessary to comply with the principles of good tax governance of the European Union (EU).
The Agreement with the Republic of Italy for the exchange of information on tax matters entered into force on June 17th.
The signing of this bilateral agreement took place in May 2016 and establishes the provisions through which the exchange of tax information between both jurisdictions will be regulated, while seeking to strengthen the international fight against tax evasion.
Since April 21, the agreement that avoids double taxation and mitigates its effects has been in force, as well as helping to eliminate barriers to trade and prevent tax evasion.
On March 21, Law 9644 was published in La Gaceta, corresponding to the agreement between the Republic of Costa Rica and the United Mexican States, which avoids the double taxation of income and wealth taxes.
With the new agreement published in the official newspaper La Gaceta, double taxation is avoided and its effects mitigated, as well as helping to eliminate barriers to trade and prevent tax evasion.
On March 21, Law 9644 was published in La Gaceta, corresponding to the agreement between the Republic of Costa Rica and the United Mexican States, which avoids the double taxation of income and wealth taxes.
The predictive model designed with data mining techniques used by the Ministry of Finance in Costa Rica has detected payments to third parties totalling more than $31 million.
By cross matching information from the 132 databases available to the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Intelligence Office is trying to predict which companies are more likely to evadetaxpayments, depending on their historical behavior measured through transactions, tax returns and other data. By linking together all of the information, they are identifying patterns of behavior similar to those of other companies that have evaded taxes in the past.
Since 1999 Costa Rica has been included in the list of nations considered tax havens by the South American country.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance:
COSTA RICA TAKEN OFF BRAZIL'S LIST OF TAX HAVENS
The Federal Revenue Secretariat of Brazil (Receita Federal do Brasil or RFB) has removed Costa Rica from the list of countries with favored taxation, known as tax havens.
A bill approved in the Legislative Commission creates a register of shareholders to which the tax authority would have unrestricted access.
The main objective of the project against tax fraud is to enable the Directorate General of Taxation to seize the assets and bank accounts of taxpayers classified as delinquent, under the order of a judge.The embargoes could be extended for a period of up to two years.
From 2014 to 2015 the size of central governments remained constant at an average 18.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
From the introduction of the report: "Macrofiscal Profiles: 6th Edition" by the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies (Icefi):
2015 proved to be a period of low tax advance for the Central American region. On average, the size of central governments remained constant compared to 2014, at 18.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). However, not all nations maintained this trend in the same way. While the governments of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador, some of the largest fiscally in the region, continued to increase their participation in the economy, reporting increases of 1.5, 0.7 and 0.7% of GDP, respectively, the Government of Guatemala - one of the smallest in the world became even smaller, being reduced by 1.2% of GDP. For its part, the Government of Honduras reported a small decrease of 0.2% of GDP, fully converged with its policy of fiscal austerity, while that of Panama had a transient contraction of 1.4%, reflecting a reorganization established by the new administration and that, according to the plans for 2016, will be reversed in full.
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.
The agreement provides for the exchange of financial account information, including balances, interest, dividends and profits from sales of financial assets, both for individuals and corporations.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance in Costa Rica:
COSTA RICA signs multilateral agreement on automatic exchange of information with OECD
The Ministry of Finance is preparing a bill that would require filing an income tax statement before applying for a loan from a bank.
The purpose of this initiative against tax evasion is for the Ministry of Finance to "... have the same status as the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), ie that people must be up to date with payments to the institution in order to make arrangements in the public sector. "
An agreement has been signed between the two countries to avoid double taxation and prevent fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
From a statement issued by the Costa Rican Ministry of Finance:
COSTA RICA AND MEXICO SIGN AGREEMENT TO PREVENT TAX EVASION
- The country has signed another two agreements with Germany and Spain
On April 12 representatives of the Governments of Costa Rica and Mexico signed an "Agreement to avoid double taxation and prevent fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income." This type of instrument is intended to provide greater legal certainty to investors in their decision-making, and allows for more efficient investments to be made by eliminating double taxation.