Formation for non-residents
We set up S.R.L. and S.A. companies for foreign founders. Costa Rica taxes on a territorial basis, so income earned abroad falls outside corporate tax. No residency requirement for members or managers. We draft the notarial deed, file with the Registro Nacional, obtain your cedula juridica and appoint a resident agent. For gambling projects we prepare a legal opinion. Everything is handled remotely.
Corporate, tax and annual conditions of the Costa Rican jurisdiction for non-residents in 2026.
An S.R.L. is run by one or more gerentes, with no board of directors required. This is the practical option for non-residents. An S.A. needs a three-member board plus a comisario. Both are incorporated by notarial deed.
No residency requirement for members or managers. There are no restrictions on nationality, and corporate members are permitted. You do not need to travel to Costa Rica - a power of attorney is enough.
If no manager is a Costa Rican resident, the company must appoint a resident agent - a licensed Costa Rican attorney. The agent receives official notices and maintains contact with the registry.
Costa Rica taxes on a territorial basis. Only Costa Rican-source income is taxable. The domestic rate is 30%, with progressive rates from 5% to 20% for smaller companies. Foreign income is not taxed.
Costa Rica issues no online gambling licence and has no dedicated regulator. The working route is a local company plus a legal opinion from a Costa Rican attorney. Costa Rican players must be excluded by geo-blocking.
The annual corporate levy, impuesto a las personas juridicas, is up to $300. Non-payment leads to dissolution. Beneficial ownership details and a tax return are filed with the authorities each year.
The final cost depends on the package you choose, the company type, resident agent services and any additional project requirements.
Information current as of July 2026.
From basic S.R.L. registration to a full package with annual maintenance and banking support.
Basic S.R.L. registration
Annual maintenance included
Director, documents and banking
For launching an S.R.L. with director or shareholder services, a complete set of corporate documents and banking support. Suitable for projects that need a legal opinion.
Important: we advise on choosing a bank or payment provider and help you prepare your application, but we cannot guarantee that an account will be opened. The final decision always rests with the bank or EMI after reviewing the company and its beneficial owners.
Territorial taxation, no residency requirements and the reputation of an ordinary country rather than a classic offshore. Costa Rica is not on the EU or FATF blacklists, which makes working with payment providers easier.
Costa Rica has no online gambling regulator and issues no licence. The working route is a local company plus a legal opinion from a Costa Rican attorney. A fast start for testing your product.
Development, hosting and technical support for overseas clients. Income from foreign sources is not subject to corporate tax.
Marketing, outsourcing and affiliate programmes. Costa Rica sits in a convenient time zone for working with the US and Latin America.
An S.R.L. works well for holding shares in operating companies, property and intellectual property rights. Quotas can only be transferred through a notary.
Only Costa Rican-source income is taxable. Profits from overseas clients fall outside corporate tax.
Members and managers can be non-residents. You do not need to travel - registration is completed by power of attorney.
Costa Rica is an OECD member and sits outside the EU and FATF blacklists. To banks it reads as an ordinary jurisdiction, not a Caribbean offshore.
Registration from 10 days, with no minimum capital requirement. The annual levy is up to $300 and no audit is required.
To register an S.R.L. you will need documents for the members and manager, along with a decision on the ownership structure. Every stage is handled remotely by power of attorney through a Costa Rican notary.
The document set depends on the ownership structure and the notary's requirements. GAM projects will also need a description of the platform and target markets.
An S.R.L. is run by one or more gerentes, with no board of directors required. Residency and nationality are irrelevant. An S.A. requires a three-member board plus a comisario.
Two members are required at incorporation; quotas can be consolidated in one person afterwards. Foreign companies are permitted. Beneficial owners holding 15% or more are reported to the Central Bank register.
If no manager is a resident, a resident agent is appointed - a licensed Costa Rican attorney. A registered address in the country is required; a physical office is not.
The name is checked for availability with the Registro Nacional. The suffix S.R.L., Ltda. or Limitada is mandatory. An English name is permitted provided a Spanish translation is supplied.
There is no statutory minimum capital; in practice around $100 is declared. The constitutive deed is signed before a notary by power of attorney. Once registered, the company receives its cedula juridica.
Costa Rica taxes on a territorial basis, so foreign income is not taxed. In return, the jurisdiction requires annual filings: a tax return, the corporate levy and up-to-date beneficial ownership data.
Foreign income
income from foreign sources is not taxed in Costa Rica
Domestic income
progressive rates from 5% to 20% for smaller companies
Annual levy
payable by every company, including dormant ones
Audit
financial statements are not filed with the registry
Only Costa Rican-source income is taxable. Profits from overseas clients fall outside corporate tax. This is not a relief or a special regime, but how the tax system is built.
The annual corporate levy, impuesto a las personas juridicas, is up to $300 depending on company status. It does not depend on turnover. Non-payment leads to dissolution and removal from the registry.
Domestic supplies are subject to IVA at 13%. Dividends carry an additional 15% tax on top of corporate tax. A company with no Costa Rican revenue pays neither.
Pay the annual corporate levy, impuesto a las personas juridicas
File beneficial ownership details with the Central Bank register
File a tax return: D-101 for active companies, D-195 for dormant ones
Maintain accounting books and renew resident agent services
Costa Rica participates in the automatic exchange of information under CRS and is an OECD member. The territorial regime does not exempt the beneficial owner from tax in their country of residence - assess CFC rules in advance.
Information current as of July 2026.
Costa Rican banks generally require an in-person visit and work mainly with residents. For non-residents the practical route is an EMI or a bank in a third country. To be blunt: banking here is harder than the registration itself, and you need to prepare for it in advance.
The main route for non-residents. Launch within weeks, multi-currency details, no visit required. Costa Rica is not blacklisted, so onboarding is smoother than for offshore companies.
The state-owned Banco Nacional and Banco de Costa Rica, along with the private BAC Credomatic, open accounts for local companies but usually require the signatory to attend in person. The review cycle is long and the entry threshold is high.
The bank looks at whether the operations are real and where the funds come from. Gambling projects face an additional question: what confirms the activity is lawful. This is where the legal opinion does its work.
We will assess your activity, payment geography and bank requirements before you apply.
Filing with the Registro Nacional takes 3-5 working days. Most of the time goes on apostilling documents and drafting the deed. Every stage is handled remotely by power of attorney.
Costa Rica works well for a fast start, but it has firm limits. Below are the honest drawbacks and the jurisdictions that close them.
Costa Rica has no online GAM regulator and issues no licence. A legal opinion covers an MVP and product testing, but major platforms, tier-one PSPs and advertising networks expect a real licence. That means Anjouan or Curacao.
State-owned Costa Rican banks usually require an in-person visit and work with residents. For a non-resident the route is an EMI or a bank in a third country. There is no ready-made "company plus local account in a week" here.
The corporate levy, beneficial ownership report to the Central Bank and a tax return are due every year, including for dormant companies. Missing the levy leads to dissolution and removal from the registry.
A Costa Rican structure gives no right to operate in regulated markets such as the UK, Germany or most of the EU. Costa Rican players must be excluded by geo-blocking. Check your target markets in advance.
The company is set up to obtain an online GAM licence. The fastest and most affordable licensing route on the market: approval in 2-4 weeks, covering GAM projects. The right move once a legal opinion is no longer enough.
The company is set up under a licence with direct regulatory supervision following the LOK reform. A recognisable jurisdiction that clears bank and payment provider compliance more easily. Requires a local structure and a resident manager.
A fast, low-cost entry into the offshore segment. The right fit when the task is a simple holding or trading structure with no licensing ambitions and no annual filings.
A classic IBC with zero tax on foreign income. Cheaper than Costa Rica to maintain and quicker to register. It falls short on reputation: banks scrutinise Belize companies more closely.
Every project is different - we tailor the solution to the specific task, jurisdiction and business model.
Costa Rica Two founders, the platform nearly built, funded out of pocket. They had Curacao in mind at first, then ran the numbers and backed off: the licence alone would have eaten half the budget, and nobody had seen the product yet. The task was simpler - open an EMI account and start driving traffic in a couple of markets.
Solution An S.R.L. plus a legal opinion from a local attorney. We were blunt about it from the start: this is not a licence, and it does not open regulated markets. The client took the point, and geo-blocking was set up around the target GEOs. The EMI came through on the third attempt; the first one turned us down.
Everyone told me not to be cheap and just get the licence. But the product was rough, and I could not see what I was paying for. We went with Costa Rica, ran it for six months, saw the numbers - and now we are going for a proper licence, but knowing why. That was the honest way round.
Costa Rica A dev team of 12, all invoicing as sole traders and getting paid however they could. US clients started asking for a proper contract with a legal entity and a W-8BEN-E. On top of that they were hitting payment limits. Estonia was on the table, but the tax on distributed profit broke the model.
Solution An S.R.L. with a resident agent - US income falls outside the territorial principle. The time zone lined up nicely, which the clients appreciated. The account went to an EMI; we left the local bank alone, too slow and it needs a visit.
We put off setting up an entity for about two years because it all looked complicated and expensive. Turned out the question was never the country - it was that we were framing the problem wrong. We did not need an offshore, we needed to be a proper counterparty for the Americans.
Costa Rica The client had spent ten years buying property across Central America, all of it held personally across three countries. Then came children, and with them the question of succession. A lawyer in Panama pitched his own structure, but the client wanted a jurisdiction without the offshore aftertaste - the banks had already asked a few awkward questions.
Solution An S.R.L. as the holding company. Quotas transfer only through a notary and re-registration, so ownership cannot change quietly. Assets moved across gradually, roughly four months. Costa Rica is not blacklisted, and the bank accepted the structure without follow-up queries.
What mattered to me was that the children would not be sorting out paperwork in three different countries later. And that it should not look like a scheme. Panama would have worked too, but the questions start at the bank straight away. Here there were none, and that counts for a lot.
If you cannot find the answer to your question, get in touch and we will look at your situation in detail.
Get a consultationFiling with the Registro Nacional takes 3-5 working days, but that is the final step. The real timeline is driven by apostilling documents and drafting the notarial deed. Allow from 10 days for registration, and separately a few weeks for opening an account - these are different stages of the project.
Not quite. Taxation is territorial: Costa Rican-source income is taxed at 30%, with progressive rates from 5% to 20% for smaller companies. Income from overseas clients falls outside corporate tax. This is not a relief or a special regime, but simply how the country's tax system is built.
No. Costa Rica has no online gambling regulator and no licence as such. The working route is a local company plus a legal opinion from a Costa Rican attorney. The document confirms that the activity does not conflict with Costa Rican law provided the company serves only overseas players. Banks and payment providers request it during onboarding. It is not a licence, and it does not open regulated markets.
A legal opinion covers the MVP stage: testing the product, driving traffic, connecting an EMI and seeing the numbers. Once the project grows and tier-one PSPs, advertising networks and platform providers come into play, a full licence is needed. That is when operators look at Anjouan or Curacao.
No. The constitutive deed is signed before a Costa Rican notary by power of attorney, so no travel is required. A visit may be needed later if you want an account with a local bank - state-owned banks usually expect the signatory to attend in person.
Partly. Beneficial owners holding 15% or more are reported annually to the Central Bank register, but the data is not publicly disclosed. Access is available to tax and law enforcement authorities. Costa Rica participates in the automatic exchange of information under CRS.
The annual corporate levy, impuesto a las personas juridicas, of up to $300; a beneficial ownership report to the Central Bank; and a tax return - D-101 for active companies, D-195 for dormant ones. No audit is required and financial statements are not filed with the registry. Missing the levy leads to dissolution.
No. We advise on choosing a bank or payment provider and help you prepare your application, but we cannot guarantee that an account will be opened. The final decision always rests with the bank or EMI after reviewing the company and its beneficial owners. For non-residents the main route is an EMI; local banks usually require an in-person visit.
An S.R.L. is run by one or more gerentes, with no board of directors required - this is the practical option for non-residents. An S.A. requires a three-member board (president, secretary, treasurer) plus a comisario. Ownership in an S.R.L. is divided into quotas, and transferring them requires a notarial deed and re-registration.
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