In Costa Rica, the Constitutional Chamber ruled in favor of the Observatorio Ciudadano de Transparencia Fiscal, an institution that filed an appeal to obtain information on how many individuals appear as owners of shares.
After the Observatory requested to the Ministry of Finance statistical information that can be obtained from the Registry of Shareholders and Beneficial Owners (RABF), the authorities refused.
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.
Facing the proposal of the authorities to abolish the banking secrecy in the country, businessmen of the industrial sector are opposed, because they argue that there are already legal procedures in the country to do it through a judge.
At a press conference on February 11, Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves defended the proposal to access sensitive information from taxpayers and said that by lifting banking secrecy they were seeking to tackle tax evasion.
In Costa Rica, the General Directorate of Customs announced that companies that have tax or employers debts will not be able to complete the procedures and formalities needed to export or import goods or services.
Resolution DGA-030-2019 of the Directorate General of Customs (DGA), issued on October 22 of this year, states that "... it is communicated that the Information Technology Information System for Customs Control will verify compliance with these requirements and if there are outstanding debts will prevent continuing with the import or export procedure requested by electronic transmission."
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.
Costa Rica "will strengthen its fiscal sustainability by controlling expenditure and modernizing the tax system with a $350 million loan approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)."
During the controversy generated by the implementation of the fiscal reform in Costa Rica, the approval of a $350 million credit was announced to "support the country in the implementation of its fiscal reform program."
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.
From May 2019, foreign customers will have to declare to local system banks that their funds meet their country's tax requirements.
The Superintendence of Banks of Panama (SBP) approved Agreement 02-2019, which implements the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, which consists of expanding the required due diligence measures of banks with their customers.
Until April 26 will be in public consultation the regulations of the Income Tax Law in Costa Rica.
From the Ministry of Finance statement:
April 12, 2019. As was done with the first proposal of the regulation to the Law of Value Added Tax (VAT), the Ministry of Finance made available on its website, the first draft of the project "Modifications and Additions to the Income Tax Law Regulation", which regulates Title II of the Law to Strengthen Finance, No. 9635, of December 3, 2018.
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.
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.
The financial deficit of the Central Government at the end of last year was equivalent to 6% of the Gross Domestic Product, 1.2% less than originally expected.
According to the authorities, the fiscal deficit as a proportion of GDP was lower than expected because of the measures taken in terms of collection, expenditure containment and efficiency, and the approval of the Law to Strengthen Public Finances.
The cost of not making decisions about the serious fiscal problem affecting Costa Rica "is incommensurable and has the potential to affect not only the economic but also the social and democratic order of the country."
This is the emphatic and clear position of the Comptroller General of the Republic of Costa Rica regarding the serious and risky situation in which the public finances of the country find themselves.Furthermore, as is well mentioned in the report "Fiscal and Budgetary Evolution I semester 2018", published recently by the institution, if decisions related to solving problems of short-term liquidity and modifying the structure of public expenditure to the medium and long term continue to be delayed, the cost to the country will be much more than just economic.
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.
español
7265
