In Costa Rica, the business sector is opposed to a proposed law that would give Icafé the power to impose requirements and controls on the processes of supplying the raw material necessary for grain production.
Costa Rican businessmen are opposed to the bill that gives Icafé the authority to impose requirements and controls on the processes of supplying the raw material necessary for grain production.
In the current period, the Legislative Assembly plans to discuss bill 21.163, which aims to transform the powers of the Costa Rican Coffee Institute (Icafé), but the business sector anticipates that the proposed modifications will lead to a rise in the prices of the product.
A bill being discussed in the Costa Rican Assembly aims to accelerate and simplify the processes followed by companies when they request to be declared in a state of insolvency or bankruptcy.
Currently in the country there are two liquidation processes, which are bankruptcy and insolvency, in addition to two others in which "...the debtor makes proposals to creditors to reach a solution, which are the administration and reorganization with judicial intervention, exclusively for companies, and the preventive agreement, for companies and individuals."
The lack of a competition law in Guatemala could expose the country to sanctions from the European authorities, since it is a requirement demanded in the regulations of the Association Agreement with the European Union.
Since the end of 2016, the Association Agreement (AdA) required Guatemala to have a law on the matter, since in 2019 a Central American competition authority would have to be created.
Not considering the costs of the collection process, nor market conditions, are some of the failures that banks identify in the bill being discussed in the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica.
The bill presented by the Executive Branch of Costa Rica to transform the state refinery Recope empowers the State to make alliances with private companies and "incursion into alternative chemical energy", but maintains the monopoly of fossil fuels.
On April 8, 2019, the Alvarado administration presented an initiative before the Legislative Assembly that seeks to transform the Costa Rican Oil Refinery (Recope) into the Costa Rican Company of Alternative Fuels and Energies (Ecoena).
Until April 2 will be in public consultation in Costa Rica the regulations of the Value Added Tax Law, which incorporates the changes of the first proposal disclosed on January 29.
This is the second consultation carried out, since on January 29, 2019, the proposal for "Regulation of Title I of Law No. 9635 of December 3, 2018, denominated "Value Added Tax Law" (VAT) was made available to the public.
A 3% additional to the 13% VAT that was expected to be charged in Costa Rica as a tax on accommodation services provided through the Airbnb platform and other similar platforms was finally removed from the bill being discussed in the Legislative Assembly.
Bill 20.865 for the regulation of non-traditional hosting and its intermediation through digital platforms, which is discussed in the Legislative Assembly and determines the taxes to be charged for the activity, will be modified by the Economic Affairs Commission.
In Costa Rica, a law project proposes to disable construction companies that do not comply with contracts with state entities for a period of five years.
The proposed law is analyzed by the Economic Affairs Committee of the Congress, and according to representatives of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), if approved, the law would allow sanctioning construction companies that do not complete the works agreed with the State.
Entrepreneurs in Costa Rica are warning of the negative impact of not maintaining, in the new law of public finances, the VAT exemption on local purchases of goods and services carried out by free zone companies.
The Association of Free Trade Zone Companies of Costa Rica (Azofras) points out that in the bill to strengthen public finances that is being discussed in the Assembly, motion 302 was not revised, a motion which aims to keep the VAT exemption on the local purchases of goods and services carried out by free zone companies, both to be incorporated into export products and for their operations.Currently the sales tax exemption applies.
Businessmen in the industrial sector are warning that "expanding the reach of the RECOPE and authorizing it to charge fuel rates is like giving them a blank check on which to write the numbers they want to spend."
Industriales gave reasons for their opposition to the draft Fuels Law, that are related to the law, cost, technical reasons and the country's competitiveness, in a note sent to the Environment Commission of the Legislative Assembly.
Leaving out VAT on private education and the basic basket, the substitute text of the bill to Strengthen Public Finances was approved in the legislative committee.
The controversial substitute text of the Bill Strengthening Public Finance that has already passed the first filter, and may now be analyzed by the Plenary of the Assembly, left out two of the taxes that the Alvarado administration intended to implement in its plan: VAT of 1% and 2% on products in the basic basket and 2% on private education services.
The new tax reform proposal presented by the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica includes the creation of a global income system to impose and collect a tax on the profits of companies and individuals.
Taxing all of the profits of natural and legal persons, including those currently paid separately by the identity code income method, is the principal new feature of the new tax reform plan presented by the Ministry of Finance.
In Costa Rica a bill has been presented in the Legislative Assembly that proposes establishing a tax of $1 on every box of pineapples exported.
If the initiative by Deputy Gerardo Vargas Varela from the Frente Amplio party prospers, the tax of $1 for each box of pineapples exported would be similar to the one charged, since 1971, on exported boxes of bananas.
A modification has been made to the law to equalize the incentives received by the free zones that operate in Grecia, Valverde Vega, Naranjo, Palmares and San Ramón, with those outside of the Greater Metropolitan Area.
From a PAC Party bulletin:
April 3, 2018.The Legislative Assembly approved, in a second debate, the project to improve the conditions for the installation of free zones in the West Region of Alajuela (File No. 20,464).
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