by Ivo Henfling- ivo Henfling started the American European Real Estate Network Costa Rica in 1996 and has grown it into the largest Costa Rica MLS with thousands of up to date property listings for sale and for rent. Ivo has written hundreds of articles about real estate and living in Costa Rica for The Tico Times, Escazu News and other online informational sites.
NOTE: When I wrote this blog, I had published Form D-140 from 2011 that was replaced by a new form in 2016. A reader on the social media said there were two forms, the reason we insisted with the tax office to give us the correct information.Unfortunately, the tax office has not been clear about this and it turns out that the 2016 form replaces the other.
Here you can download the correct NEW Form in Spanish D140 DECLARACION DE INSCRIPCION EN EL REGISTRO UNICO TRIBUTARIO.
Now, a Costa Rican corporation filing is also required, if your corporation is inactive. Just paying the 2017 corporation tax is not enough.
In another blog, I already explained what and how you can make the 2017 corporation tax payments.
The Finance Ministry of Costa Rica has decided that the new corporation tax also requires owners of inactive corporations to file Form D-140.
Here you can download Form D140 DECLARACION DE INSCRIPCION EN EL REGISTRO UNICO TRIBUTARIO.
In person
The D-140 form must be filed personally or by a representative with the powers of attorney to do so.
If you have someone in Costa Rica with the power of attorney to file the declaration, it is a pretty easy diligence. We strongly urge you to contact your attorney to look for a solution if you don’t.
Why?
There are many existing corporations that are inactive but show as active. Active corporations are charged a higher corporation tax or “Impuesto a las Personas Jurídicas”.
If you have a corporation to hold real estate, nothing else, you can file it as an inactive corporation.
When to file
Each corporation is required to corporation filing with Form D-140:
a) Corporate ID ending in 1 and 2: During the month of October 2017.
b) Corporate ID ending in 3 and 4: During the month of November 2017.
c) Corporate ID ending in 5 and 6: During the month of December 2017.
d) Corporate ID ending in 7 and 8: During the month of January 2018.
e) Corporate ID ending in 9 and 0: During the month of February 2018.
Where
Form D-140 can be filed in any of the Finance Ministry’s offices, find a directory Ministerio Hacienda locations.
When you go, bring:
- a copy of the Personería Juridica, which you can pull online from the National Register website.
- the NIS number from your electricity bill
- and whether you present a cedula or a passport, it must be the same document with the same number as recorded in the Personería Jurídica. If you have a cedula, a NIT tax number is not needed
Penalty
Failure to submit the corporation filing Form D-140 within the established deadlines will lead to a penalty.
This penalty is established in article 78 of the Tax Code and ranges from half base salary up to a maximum of three base salaries, determined by the delay in filing the form.
The base salary 2017 is of 426,200 Colones.
This free information on Corporation filing is a service from the American European Real Estate Network. We appreciate your business and referrals.
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Last week’s article about the requirement for inactive corporations to file Form D-140 has generated lots of emails and comments on our social media.
Many expats do not read or write Spanish and do not know how to fill out the form. For this reason, I have made the effort to create the same form in English, which you can download by clicking on the image below. Click on the image, save to your computer and print out.
I suggest you do as follows:
1. Download the Spanish form D-140 and print it out. Use this form to fill it out and present to the nearest tax office. See a directory where to present the form further down in this article. Click here to download the Spanish version.
2. Do NOT use the English form to fill it out, use it only as an example, so you understand the Spanish version and you can fill out the information in the correct place on that form.
Economic activity
In III – Economic activity, you need to fill out what the activity of your corporation is.
- If you use the corporation only as a holding company of the property where you live, you can fill out“Únicamente para uso de un bien inmueble como casa de habitación”
- In case the corporation is a holding company for a car, you can fill out “Únicamente para uso de bien mueble”.
- If the corporation is a holding corporation of raw land, you can fill out “Únicamente para uso de bien inmueble como lote sin construir”.
Rental property
When the corporation holds an income generating investment property such as a rental unit, then you should be filing the corporation as an active corporation. Then you need to file income tax, which is a whole different topic. Contact your accountant to discuss.
Active corporations
Active corporations all file for income tax, so they do not have to file Form D-140.
Personal filing
The filing of the form is personal. Check with your lawyer who has the power of attorney to file for the corporation. If you have not given anybody a power of attorney and you don’t want to either, have the completely filled out D-140 form apostilled by the nearest Costa Rican embassy in your country. Then you can send the form with anyone to the tax office and it is not necessary to go in person.
Make a copy of the form so the tax office can stamp it as received.
When to file
The Finance Ministry has given a time limit file:
a) Corporate ID ending in 1 and 2: During the month of October 2017.
b) Corporate ID ending in 3 and 4: During the month of November 2017.
c) Corporate ID ending in 5 and 6: During the month of December 2017.
d) Corporate ID ending in 7 and 8: During the month of January 2018.
e) Corporate ID ending in 9 and 0: During the month of February 2018.
Some readers have asked if they can file corporations ending differently all at the same time. We checked with the tax office and their answer is that any form can be filed before the time limit expires.
Where
You can file Form D-140 in any of the Finance Ministry’s offices; download a directory of all locations here.
