Filing Costa Rican rental income month by month

In one sentence: you file with form 116 if you are an individual and 117 if it is a company, within the first 15 business days of the following month, and only in months where there was income.

Which form is yours

Form	For	Used to be
116	An individual	D-125
117	A company	D-125
118	A public entity	D-125

If the property is in your own name, it is 116. If it is in a company's name, 117. It is the easiest mistake to make and the easiest to avoid — and it matters for a foreign owner, because holding the property through an SRL is so common. Which one you are.

How much you pay

The rate is 15 % on gross income, but first you subtract a 15 % deduction that needs no receipt at all. The quick calculation:

Gross income × 12.75 %

Month's rental income: ₡1,000,000
Blind deduction, 15 %: − ₡150,000
Taxable base: ₡850,000
Tax at 15 %: ₡127,500

That 15 % deduction replaces your expenses. It does not add to them. Do not also subtract the platform commission, the cleaning or the utilities: the deduction comes “with no need for receipts” precisely because it admits no others.

The deadline, and why it is worth counting properly

The first 15 business days of the month following the one in which the income was received. Business days, not calendar days. So with public holidays in between the date shifts, and it does not always coincide with the 15th for VAT.

Watch that: VAT and this return run on different calendars. Filing both “on the 15th” works by coincidence some months. VAT is calendar days; this one is business days. The VAT return.

Months with no income

They are not filed. If nobody stayed in October, that month carries no rental income return. This is the opposite of VAT, which is filed every month whether or not there was anything to declare.

Which has a practical consequence worth knowing: a gap in this return is not an omission, as long as there really was no income. What is an omission is a month with a booking and no return.

If you moved to the profits regime

Then none of this applies: you file annually with form 101 or 102, with quarterly instalments, and your real expenses are deductible. The comparison and what it costs to switch are in property income or profits.

From Ticuenta

The month's figure, per property

What was invoiced, month by month and property by property — the figure this return asks for, without adding up invoices by hand.

See how it works

About this article. The form numbers are the current ones in TRIBU-CR, which replaced the D-125; the 15 % rate on a base reduced by a blind 15 % deduction, and the business-day deadline, come from the Income Tax Act.

Verified as of 24 September 2026. Tax rules change. This is information, not tax advice.

Sources: Current legal texts (Sinalevi) Ministry of Finance