Pursuant to Executive Decree No. 41040-H dated April 5th, 2018, the Tax Administration establishes the mechanisms, operations, access and controls for the creation of the Shareholders Registry stipulated in the Law to Improve the Fight against Tax Fraud.
The legal representatives of legal entities and corporations domiciled in Costa Rica must report and disclose details about their shareholders or final beneficiaries to the Central Bank of Costa Rica.
Trusts will be also required to provide this information, except for public trusts, third-party asset managers ornon-profit organizations. None of the financial entities supervised by SUGEF or SUGEVAL will be required to comply with this new requirement nor any publicly traded companies listed on organized stock exchanges, either locally or internationally since they are already subject to specific stock market rules and regulations.
Please click the following link to see the Executive Decree No. 41040-H.
This new requirement comes into effect on March 1, 2019 as per the following schedule based on the last digit of your corporation identification number (cédulajurídica):
The legal representatives of the entities must have a valid digital signature, ‘Firma Digital’ id, to proceed with the filing.
The ‘Firma Digital’ is issued by the Costa Rica Central Bank either directly or by an authorized Costa Rican bank.
However, the ‘Firma Digital’ is only available for Costa Rican citizens or legal residents with a valid DIMEX, residency ID card.
If you are the legal representative and you cannot obtain the ‘Firma Digital’, you must opt for: Granting a Power of Attorney (POA) to a third party that you trust that has or can obtain the ‘Firma Digital’ to do the registration on behalf your corporation.
Once the issue of the ‘Firma Digital’ is resolved, then it will follow to register the legal representative or the POA holder into the database: https://www.centraldirecto.fi.cr (not function it yet, as they are working on the proper adjustments)
As soon as the legal representative or POA holder is duly registered, following the instructions provided in the indicated website, they can fill out the registration form disclosing the information about the corporation and its shareholders (not available yet the form).
Therefore, seeking proper legal advice is highly advisable to avoid fines and penalties.