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Costa Rica Withholding tax rates

Costa Rica Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.

The withholding tax (impuesto sobre remesas al exterior) Costa Rica levies on Costa Rican-source payments to persons not domiciled in Costa Rica - dividends, interest, royalties, technical advisory, fees, transport, reinsurance and other heads - each at its domestic statutory rate under art. 59 of Ley 7092 (Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta), as amended by Ley 9635 and Ley 10335, before any double-tax agreement relief. Administered by the Dirección General de Tributación (Ministerio de Hacienda).

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Current valuestructured — see the API
In force from2022-12-21
Official sourceLey 7092, Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta, art. 59 'Tarifas' (consolidated text, Sistema Costarricense de Información Jurídica / SINALEVI, ficha 10969): 'a) Por el transporte y las comunicaciones... ocho coma cinco por ciento (8,5%)... c) Por los honorarios, las comisiones, las dietas y otras prestaciones de servicios personales... veinticinco por ciento (25%)... d) Por los reaseguros, los reafianzamientos y las primas de seguros de cualquier clase... cinco coma cinco por ciento (5,5%)... g) Por las utilidades, los dividendos o las participaciones sociales... quince por ciento (15%) o del cinco por ciento (5%), según corresponda. h) Por intereses, comisiones y otros gastos financieros... quince por ciento (15%)... j) Por el asesoramiento técnico-financiero o de otra índole, así como por los pagos relativos al uso de patentes, suministros de fórmulas, marcas de fábrica, privilegios, franquicias y regalías... veinticinco por ciento (25%)... l) Por cualquier otra remesa... treinta por ciento (30%).' (Rates: transport/communications 8.5%; fees and personal services 25%; reinsurance and insurance premiums 5.5%; dividends 15% or 5% as applicable; interest 15%; technical advisory, patents, trademarks, franchises and royalties 25%; any other remittance 30%.)
Last verified2026-08-10
Verificationprimary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited.
The full current consolidated Spanish text of art. 59 (and related arts. 18, 19, 28 bis, 31 ter) was read verbatim from the official Costa Rican legal-information system (pgrweb.go.cr SCIJ, which now redirects to sinalevi.go.cr, ficha normativa 10969, latest version), including the amendment annotations by Ley 9635 (3 December 2018) and Ley 10335 (21 December 2022). The effective_from is the statute date of Ley 10335, the most recent amendment to art. 59 (it rewrote inciso h) on interest); its La Gaceta publication/commencement date is not asserted.
Provenancesource fingerprint

What this value means

THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. Costa Rica's remittances-abroad tax runs from 5.5% to 50% depending on the payment type, across twelve heads in art. 59 (a) through (l). A caller wanting a number must name which payment type; read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. A double-tax agreement can reduce any of them, and whether relief is available depends on the recipient's residence, beneficial ownership and the treaty's own conditions. We do NOT serve treaty rates: they are bilateral, run to thousands of country pairs, and applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup. (Costa Rica's treaty network is small - Spain, Mexico, Germany, UAE.) Domestic exemptions also exist - notably interest on credits from multilateral development banks and bilateral/multilateral development organisations is exempt (art. 59 h)). The tax is levied on gross Costa Rican-source amounts paid or credited to persons not domiciled in Costa Rica (arts. 52-55) and the withholding is a single and definitive tax (art. 60). effective_from is the date of Ley 10335, the most recent amendment to art. 59; the rate structure otherwise dates substantially from Ley 9635 (3 December 2018, in force 1 July 2019). Heads not broken out below: pensions and salaries 10% (b); use of films, recordings and international news 20% (e); radionovelas and telenovelas 50% (f); payments to non-domiciled performers for occasional public spectacles 15% (k).

Get it programmatically

curl https://latamref.dev/v1/cr/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://latamref.dev/v1/cr/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://latamref.dev/provenance/cr/withholding-tax

Other Costa Rica series: BCCR monetary policy rate (TPM) · IVA standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (lowest generic monthly rate) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Statutory legal interest (interés legal) · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions

The same figure elsewhere: Dominican Republic · Ecuador · El Salvador · Guatemala · Guyana · all 22