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The NITE: the tax ID a foreign host needs in Costa Rica

You can own and rent out a place in Costa Rica without being Costa Rican or a resident. What you cannot do is invoice without a tax identification number — and that is what the NITE is for.

6 min readTicuenta
In one sentence: the NITE (Número de Identificación Tributaria Especial) is the number the Costa Rican tax authority assigns to foreign individuals and entities that have no Costa Rican ID but do have tax obligations here. It is requested in TRIBU-CR, the tax portal.

Why you need one

Because the obligation to pay tax in Costa Rica does not depend on where you live, but on where the income is generated. Airbnb's own tax guide for Costa Rica puts it plainly:

You are required to pay income tax if you generate income in Costa Rica, regardless of whether or not you are a resident of the country.

Airbnb · Tax considerations for sharing your space in Costa Rica (November 2025)

And it adds that foreign hosts must request a NITE in order to operate in TRIBU-CR. Without a tax identification number you cannot register your activity, you cannot issue electronic invoices, and you cannot file returns. Everything else waits on this.

Where you will see it once you have one

Inside an electronic invoice every identification carries a code. The version 4.4 annex defines them like this:

CodeType of identification
01Costa Rican ID, individual
02Costa Rican ID, company
03DIMEX — residency card
04NITE
05Non-domiciled foreigner
06Non-taxpayer
Do not mix up 04 and 05. NITE and non-domiciled foreigner are different things with different codes. The first is your identification as a taxpayer here; the second describes a counterparty abroad. If your invoices go out with the wrong code, the document does not say who you are.

How to get one

It is done in TRIBU-CR, at ovitribucr.hacienda.go.cr, through the option for Solicitud de Inscripción en el Registro Único Tributario — the application to join the taxpayer register — which is available for both foreign individuals and foreign companies.

What is usually asked for:

  • Your DIMEX, or failing that a residency card or passport.
  • Proof of address, typically an electricity bill showing the meter number and the address.
The NITE expires. It has been published that it runs up to ten years, and the tax authority has notified expiry dates to foreign taxpayers. Write down when yours expires: an expired number blocks everything else, the same way an expired signing certificate does.
Confirm the requirements in TRIBU-CR before you go. The portal's procedures have changed several times since October 2025, and this list is what is published today. We would rather tell you than have you make the trip for nothing.

What comes after the number

Having a NITE is not the end of the paperwork: it is permission to start it. With it you can register your economic activity, and that is where the real obligations begin:

  • Register the activity

    For a rental of less than a month, the activity code is 551001.

  • Issue an electronic invoice to every guest

    With 13 % VAT. And yes, you charge it, not the platform — Airbnb collects the VAT on its own service fee, never on your stay.

  • File every month

    VAT always; rental income in the months where there was any. And if you pay a commission to a foreign platform, the remittance tax on it too.

All of that, in detail and with numbers, is in the Airbnb tax guide and the Booking guide.

From Ticuenta

Your NITE goes in once

Once it is set up, every invoice goes out with identification type 04 and your number, without you having to remember which code it was.

See how it works

About this article. The identification codes come from the version 4.4 annex; the quotation is from Airbnb's own tax guide for Costa Rica. The procedure and its requirements are the ones published in TRIBU-CR today, and they have changed more than once — confirm them before you start.

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

Sources: Ministry of Finance Current legal texts (Sinalevi)

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