Invoicing abroad from Costa Rica

In one sentence: exports of goods are exempt, and so are services provided by a Costa Rican taxpayer when they are used outside the territorial scope of the tax. The document to issue is the export invoice.

What almost nobody takes advantage of

The general VAT rule is harsh: if a transaction generates no tax, the related purchases generate no credit. Someone selling exempt normally eats their suppliers' VAT as one more cost.

Export is the exception. The law grants input credit for tax paid on goods and services used in export-exempt operations, in operations related to them, and in services provided to be used outside the territory. In other words: you do not charge your foreign client VAT, and you still recover the VAT you paid on computers, rent, professional services or raw materials.

For a developer, a designer or an agency invoicing clients abroad, this is real money that is often left on the table simply because nobody claimed it.

What counts as export

Operation	Treatment
Export of goods and related operations	Exempt, with credit
Services provided by a taxpayer and used outside the territory	Exempt, with credit
Purchases destined to produce export goods or services	Exempt
Sales to and between free-zone beneficiaries	Exempt

The key is “used outside”. It is not enough that the client is foreign, and not enough that they pay you in dollars. What decides the treatment is where the service is consumed. A service contracted from abroad but consumed here is not an export.

Which document you issue

The export invoice — one of the seven types in version 4.4, with its own currency and exchange rate. Two things changed with 4.4 that matter here:

The recipient's identification is now mandatory. It used to be optional on an export invoice; it is not any more, and the field grew to twenty characters.
If the CABYS code is a good, the tariff heading is mandatory. For services it does not apply.

And one that trips people up when correcting: a credit note on an export counts as an export, not as a local sale. It goes in the same box of your return.

Currency and exchange rate

You invoice in the client's currency, and the document carries the Central Bank reference selling rate of the issue date. Not your bank's rate, and not the rate on the day the money arrived. The difference between the two is exchange rate variance, with its own accounting treatment — it is not an error to fix on the invoice.

How it is declared

As an exempt sale, separately from local sales. That an operation carries no tax does not remove the obligation to issue the document and record it — this is the single most common mistake in practices and studios working for clients outside the country.

The case · development work for a client in Panama

Service invoiced: US$ 3,000
Use and consumption: Outside Costa Rica
VAT to charge: ₡0 — export of services
VAT on your related purchases: Recoverable as credit
Obligation: Export invoice, recorded as an exempt sale

If you are a foreigner working from Costa Rica

This is the article that matters most if you live here and bill clients abroad — the typical remote worker or consultant. Two points:

You still have to register and invoice. Exempt is not the same as outside the system: the export invoice is a Costa Rican electronic document and it goes through the tax authority like any other.
Claim the credit. Your laptop, your co-working desk, your accountant's fees — the VAT on all of it is recoverable when your output is export of services. Not claiming it is a voluntary donation.

From Ticuenta

The export invoice, with its own box

Ticuenta issues the export invoice with the exemption that corresponds, keeps it separate from local sales in the return, and carries the Central Bank rate of the day.

See how it works

About this article. The exemption and the right to credit on exports come from the VAT Act; the changes to the export invoice — mandatory recipient identification, tariff heading on goods — from the version 4.4 annex.

Verified as of 24 September 2026. Tax rules change. This is information, not tax advice — whether a specific service counts as used outside the territory is worth confirming with your accountant.

Sources: Ministry of Finance Current legal texts (Sinalevi)

Invoicing abroad from Costa Rica: no VAT, but you keep the credit