The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) was approved by the OECD Council on 15th July 2014 and requires its member jurisdictions to obtain information about their financial institutions and to automatically exchange this information with other jurisdictions annually. It defines; the type of financial information to be exchanged, the financial institutions required to provide such information, the different types of accounts which should be included, the taxpayers who are involved, as well as the standard monitoring procedures that financial institutions must follow.
Application in Costa Rica:
By Law 9.118 and its decree Nº 37619-RE, both of 2013, Costa Rica ratified the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
By the decree No. DGT-R-16-2020, published on August 5th 2020 in the Official Journal La Gaceta, CR Tax office establishes, to comply with the implementation of this modality of information exchange, the definitions, general obligations to report information, due diligence procedures for accounts of natural and legal persons as well as the conditions and compliance deadlines that must comply with the entities obliged to supply the information, in addition to the effective application referred to the financial accounts as established by the CRS and its comments. In addition to the above, the Tax Administration establishes the so-called frequently asked questions as required or 'frequently asked questions' (FAQs) and their answers, corresponding to this topic and published both by OECD Global Forum as per the Tax Administration.
The above decree was ratified and notified to all financial and baking regulated institutions by the General Superintendence of Financial Institutions (SUGEF) by the resolution SGF-2859-2020 dated August 14, 2020.
Objective: States the parameters within which financial institutions must at the end of each year, provide data to send to the tax authorities in the country of origin of the person or company.
Parties required to comply: Institutions from within the national banking system must submit their reports base upon their records.
Reportable Jurisdiction: Refers to jurisdictions other than Costa Rica with which there is an agreement in place, or which have ratified the OECD Common Reporting Standard which obligates them to provide such information. Jurisdictions that have ratified the Convention should be consulted on the OECD website: https://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/Status_of_convention.pdf
Content of the report: The Bank must report, names, addresses, tax residences, IBAN account numbers and the current bank account balances of foreign individuals and companies to the Directorate-General for Taxation division of the Ministry of Finance.
Reportable accounts: All accounts, regardless of their balance. But the following will be considered high-value accounts and will be subject to more rigorous review procedures:
Individuals: Those whose bank balance from 2016 onwards exceeds USD $1 million.
Corporate account: Those whose bank balance from 2016 onwards exceeds USD $250,000
Exceptions: Pre-existing accounts related to retirees; life insurance contracts; the sale, exchange or lease of properties provided that the account is opened and used only to guarantee the buyer's obligations.
