New Obligations for Inactive Corporations

Ivan Granados - FEB 28, 2020
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In December 2019, a new resolution (DGT-R-075-2019) was announced in Costa Rica that requires inactive corporations to:

1. Register with the Tax Office’s Single Tax Registry — the Spanish name is Registro Único Tributario (RUT) — under the code number “960113.”
2. Submit annual tax return forms regarding their assets, liability and share capital. Previously, only corporations that were active, or generating income, had this Tax Office filing obligation.

This new law requires two forms, D-140 and D-135, to be filed according to scheduled deadlines indicated later in this article. Failure to comply is subject to heavy fines of up to 1,350,600 colones or $2,390 US, or more.

Inactive corporations are defined as: “…those companies incorporated in the country that do not have lucrative, income producing, activity of a Costa Rican source.”

This includes all commercial companies, branches of foreign companies and individual limited liability companies.

There are two steps required for compliance with the new law:

1. File form D-140: Declaración de Inscripción en el Registro Único Tributario via the Virtual Tax Administration (ATV) at www.hacienda.go.cr. This form covers pertinent details such as the corporation’s legal representative, address data, contact information, etc.
2. File form D-135: Declaration for Legal Persons Patrimonial Dormant is also available via ATV. This form is a declaration of assets, liabilities and share capital.

Specific aspects to note for each step are as follows.

Step 1

It is not necessary to file form D-140 if the company/corporation had already filed D-140 with the Tax Office in 2017 or 2018, in compliance with Law 9248: Tax on Legal Persons.

Filing deadlines for form D-140 correspond to the last digits of a corporation’s legal ID:

Legal ID ending                                Filing Month

1 and 2                                                      January 2020

3 and 4                                                     February 2020

5 and 6                                                     March 2020

7 and 8                                                      April 2020

9 and 10                                                    May 2020

Step 2

Form D-135: Declaration for Legal Persons Patrimonial Dormant is filed annually. This requirement applies even if the corporation/company had no change in income status. For example, if there was no income in 2020 nor in 2021, an annual return must still be filed.

The filing deadline for Form D-135 is within two months and 15 days from the fiscal year end.

The current fiscal year ends on December 31, 2020. Therefore, the first filing period for Form D-135 will be between January 1, 2021 and March 15, 2021.

Other HOWLER Legal Ease articles

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Tax Time, Corporations and Property Owners
Corporate Tax Update
Power of Attorney in Costa Rica
Annual Tax Over Costa Rica Corporations
Due Diligence, Purchasing a Vehicle in Costa Rica
Costa Rica Income and Sales Tax
Estate Planning
Purchasing a Condominium in Costa Rica
Buying a Business in Costa Rica
Applying for Cost Rica Residency
Corporate Alert
Set Up a Corporation in Costa Rica

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