The Tax Administration of Costa Rica and the Costa Rican Drug Institute, by resolution No. DGT-ICD-R-19-2020 of August 6th 2020, published in the National Gazette “Diario Oficial La Gaceta” No. 201 of August 13th 2020 and No. DGT-ICD-R-12-2021 of February 26th 2021, published in the National Gazette “Diario Oficial La Gaceta” No. 44 of March 4th 2021, ruled that the obligation to present the annual declaration of the Transparency and Final Beneficiaries Registry (RTBF for its acronym in Spanish) for legal entities was established during the month of April, starting this month of April 2021 and for trusts for one time only, the obligation was carried forward to June 2021.
In this manner, according to such resolutions, legal entities that filed the 2019 ordinary declaration in the RTBF system, must comply with such obligation no later than April 30, 2021, the information previously filed will be preloaded in the system so that the obligor can update the data that has changed or simply confirm that the declaration has no changes and make its filing.
In the specific case of trusts, it is important to note that in order to complete their declaration in the RTBF system, they must first have a unique identification number granted by the Public Registry; once the identification is assigned, the trustee of the trust must go to a public notary so that he/she may include in the RTBF system the identifying data of the trust, as well as the data of its representative or authorized person, in accordance with the provisions of the trust contract.
Companies recently registered in the Public Registry, have 20 working days to file the ordinary declaration, when a legal entity is transformed into a company of another species, in the terms established in Article 225 of the Costa Rican Code of Commerce or Article 36 of the Law of Associations No. 218, which entails a change of class in its legal identification card, will be considered a different legal person and therefore must file an ordinary declaration within 20 working days following the registration of the transformation of the legal identification card made by the Public Registry, even if the predecessor legal entity has filed the ordinary declaration for that period with the legal identification card it previously had.
For the merger of legal entities that results in a new legal entity, and due to such situation has been granted a new legal certificate by the Public Registry, an ordinary declaration must be filed within 20 working days following the date on which the merger was formally registered.
For third party resource managers and non-profit organizations, which are not yet required to file the declaration directly in the RTBF system, they must maintain the information in accordance with the Costa Rican Law to Fight against Tax Fraud and have it available to deliver it to the Tax Administration and the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Costa Rican Drug Institute, when required, until the procedure is established for them to file it directly in the system.
If you have any questions or require assistance with the Transparency and Final Beneficiaries Registry, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.
