By 30 April 2026, the digital platforms covered by Costa Rica’s reporting rules had to file their first annual report with the Ministerio de Hacienda. It lists the people who earn through them, with their tax identification and the details of each property. Owners who rent out property are among them. The obligation comes from resolution MH-DGT-RES-0025-2024, published in La Gaceta on 6 November 2024 under Costa Rica’s commitments to the OECD. It adds no new tax. It does let the tax authority see rental income that reaches an owner through a platform, whether or not that owner ever registered.

The rules themselves are older. The law on hospedaje no tradicional (non-traditional lodging) was published on 19 November 2019 (Ley 9742). Its regulation followed in October 2021 (executive decree 43154-H-TUR). Together with the tax laws and the canton’s patent law, they ask the owner for three registrations. A listing on a platform counts as none of them.

What the law covers

The law covers renting self-contained buildings to tourists for periods of no less than 24 hours and no more than a year (article 3 of Ley 9742). Its list runs from houses and apartments to villas, chalets, bungalows and rooms, and ends with any similar building. It applies to anyone who does so habitually and for profit, in their own name, whether through their own website or through a platform. A house rented by the week to visitors from December to April falls inside it.

The house itself has to meet only basic conditions (article 13): periodic cleaning, a bathroom with a toilet, maintenance, basic hygiene, and containers to separate waste. The activity is allowed in areas zoned residential, provided it does not disturb the neighbourhood (article 16). A condominium’s own regulations bind hosts and guests alike (articles 5, 6 and 8). Short stays in a condominium house therefore depend on what those regulations say.

The first registration: the ICT

Every host has to register with the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (article 8). The law describes it as a simplified digital registration that may ask for no more than the platforms already ask. The decree spells out what that is (article 4). The registry takes the owner’s name, identity number and legal address. For the property it takes the province, canton and district, the exact address (used only for tax purposes), the number of rooms and the maximum number of guests. It also asks for an email, a website and a phone number. Any change has to be reported within the month after it happens.

The ICT has fifteen calendar days to validate a request and reply by email with a user code. The registry is public: anyone can look up a host’s name and identity number, the district, and the number of rooms and guests.

Owners are not the only route into the registry. The ICT may search the platforms’ listings, identify hosts who have not registered and register them on its own initiative (article 10 of the law, article 8 of the decree). The Dirección General de Tributación has permanent electronic access to the whole registry (article 9 of the decree). The law treats renting without registration as an illegal commercial activity (article 14). Tributación, the Ministerio de Salud and the municipality deal with it.

The second registration: Hacienda

The host also has to register as a taxpayer with Tributación and issue an itemised electronic invoice (article 8). Hacienda’s own guide for non-traditional lodging gives ten business days from the start of the activity to register. Since 6 October 2025 that is done on TRIBU-CR, the system that replaced the old ATV portal. A foreign owner without a Costa Rican identity number first applies for a NITE, a special tax identification number.

Two taxes follow.

  • VAT at 13% applies to the price of every stay and is declared monthly. Airbnb’s tax guide for Costa Rica, dated November 2025, states that the platform does not add VAT to the price. The host has to include it in the rate and invoice it.
  • Income tax on the rent falls by default under rentas de capital inmobiliario, the tax on income from real estate. The rate is 15%, applied after a flat deduction of 15% of gross income that needs no receipts. Hacienda’s worked example starts from ₡1,000,000 of rent. That leaves ₡850,000 taxable and ₡127,500 to pay: 12.75% of what the guests paid. It is declared monthly, within the first fifteen calendar days of the month after the income, and only for months with income.

An owner with at least one employee registered with the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social can ask to move the rental into the ordinary profits regime instead. That regime taxes net income after actual expenses, and Hacienda’s guide says the choice holds for at least five years. A house held through a company adds that company’s own annual filings, described in the holding company guide.

The 12.75% figure circulated widely in July 2025. Tributación’s director, Mario Ramos, said then that hosts would be paying 12.75% of their income by the end of 2026 as platform data reached Hacienda. Several English-language sites since reported it as a new tax that Airbnb would withhold from payouts. It is the existing rental tax described above.

The law does provide for platforms to withhold a host’s taxes when the guest pays through them (article 9). Airbnb’s November 2025 guide describes no such withholding. It also says the reporting resolution creates no new tax obligation for hosts.

The third registration: the municipality

The canton of Talamanca runs from Cahuita to the Panamanian border. Every lucrative activity in it needs a municipal licence and pays a patent tax (Ley 8778 of 2009), and the law names the rental of property among the activities it covers. The tax is two colones per thousand of gross income, VAT excluded. It is paid in four quarterly instalments, with a 10% discount for paying the year in full in the first three months. Each year, by 15 January, the holder files a sworn declaration of the previous year’s income with a copy of the income tax return. A licence holder who misses it is assessed by the municipality and fined 20% of the previous year’s tax.

A licence is only granted to an applicant who is up to date with municipal taxes, including the property tax. The tax is owed for as long as the licence is held, even in a year with no guests. On 24 October 2024 the municipal council heard a proposed reform of Ley 8778, so the rate is worth confirming at the municipality before a first declaration.

What it means for a buyer

For someone buying a house on this coast with rental income in mind, the arithmetic is straightforward. Of every ₡1,000,000 a guest pays before VAT, the rental income tax takes ₡127,500. The municipal patent takes ₡2,000. The platform’s fee, cleaning and upkeep come after that. The 13% VAT sits on top and has to be in the published price. In a condominium, the regulations also decide whether short stays are allowed at all.

Before an offer

  • If the house is in a condominium, read its regulations for rules on short stays before making an offer.
  • If the house is already rented to visitors, ask the seller for its ICT registration and municipal licence. Check that municipal taxes on the property are paid: a licence is only granted to an applicant who is up to date.
  • Decide whether the house will be held personally or through a company, since that changes which tax return carries the rent.

This is general information: which income tax regime fits a particular owner is a question for a Costa Rican accountant.

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