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Electronic invoicing for Costa Rica

You rent out a place in Costa Rica. The tax part can be handled.

Every stay has to be invoiced with 13 % VAT, the platform's commission has to be documented, and the rental income has to be declared — monthly. Ticuenta turns a booking into all of that.

Read the Airbnb tax guide See pricing

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The app is in Spanish. Costa Rican electronic invoices are filed in Spanish — the format, the catalogues and the fields are set by the tax authority, not by us. The screens are in Spanish too, for now. These guides are in English. If you would use the app in English, tell us.

What you actually owe, in plain terms

Short-term rental in Costa Rica is a taxable service. Whether you live here or not, whether your guest is foreign or not, and whether the money lands in a Costa Rican account or not, these are the obligations:

ObligationTo whomWhen
Register as non-traditional lodging Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) Before you operate. Required by Law 9742
Register your activity as a taxpayer Tax authority, in TRIBU-CR Before your first paid booking
Invoice every stay with 13 % VAT Your guest, by electronic invoice With every booking
Document the platform's commission A purchase invoice you issue yourself Monthly
Declare VAT and income tax Tax authority, in TRIBU-CR VAT monthly; income tax by regime
Two of these surprise almost everyone. Airbnb and Booking will never issue you a Costa Rican invoice for their commission — you have to issue it yourself. And the first obligation on the list is not a tax one at all, which is exactly why it gets missed. The full guide, with numbers.

What Ticuenta does with that

  • Your bookings come in on their own

    Connect Smoobu and every booking arrives with its guest, its nights and its amount. If you list directly on Airbnb, the calendar tells the app what to invoice and when, and the amount is cross-checked against Airbnb's own transaction file.

  • Each stay becomes a real electronic invoice

    With the 13 % worked out of the price your guest paid, the Central Bank exchange rate of the day, the XML signed and sent to the tax authority, and the answer filed.

  • The commission gets its purchase invoice

    Once a month, from the file the platform publishes. It is the one thing almost everyone stops doing by the third month, and the one that leaves a cost with nothing behind it.

  • The monthly filing is already added up

    VAT charged, VAT credited and rental income, per property and per month, ready for the declaration.

How your bookings get in

I use Smoobu

The channel manager connects to Ticuenta and bookings arrive with their amount. You review and issue.

I list directly on Airbnb

Airbnb gives you a calendar and nothing more. It says what to invoice; you enter the amount, and it gets cross-checked.

They are mutually exclusive: together they would invoice the same night twice.

Pricing

In colones, VAT excluded. No card to start, no minimum term, and two months free if you pay annually.

PlanForPer month
Lodging Airbnb, Booking and vacation rental ₡7,500 (about US$ 17)
Independent Professionals who invoice occasionally, up to 30 documents a month ₡2,500
Business Companies invoicing daily, no cap ₡5,000

The Lodging plan is a flat price: it does not go up with the number of properties or the number of bookings. Colón amounts are what you pay; the dollar figure is only for reference and moves with the exchange rate.

Tell us about your case

Write in English. We read everything, and we will tell you plainly whether Ticuenta fits what you need — including when it does not.

Ticuenta is a product of Aster T Novantatré Limitada, San José, Costa Rica. What you read here is information, not tax advice: confirm anything that matters with your accountant before you act on it.