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TRIBU-CR

Registering your economic activity in Costa Rica, and why the code matters

Your obligations are not assigned by what you say you do. They are assigned by the activity you have registered — and everything else follows from it.

6 min readTicuenta
In one sentence: registration is done in TRIBU-CR, in the single taxpayer register, choosing an activity code from the ISIC classification. That code determines which taxes apply to you and which forms you will file.

Why the code matters so much

Because obligations are not assigned by what you say you do, but by the activity you have registered. The tax authority's own material says it plainly: a taxpayer's obligations depend on the economic activity they carry out.

Among other things, it changes:

  • Whether VAT applies to you, and on which form you declare it
  • Whether you are in the general or the simplified regime, which have different filing frequencies
  • Which information returns fall to you
  • Whether your income tax goes through profits or a capital regime
The mismatch shows the moment anyone cross-checks. If you are registered under one activity and issue documents under another, your returns point one way and your invoices another. The tax authority does not need to visit you to see that.

Where and how

  • Go into the TRIBU-CR virtual office

    At ovitribucr.hacienda.go.cr. If you are a foreigner without a Costa Rican ID, you first need a NITE.

  • Apply to register in the single taxpayer register

    It is the procedure that puts you on the books as a taxpayer. Later changes are made through the data modification return.

  • Choose the economic activity

    The codes follow the ISIC classification. Check the current list on the tax authority's site: it is updated, and the code a colleague passed you three years ago may have changed.

  • Get the signing certificate and the credentials

    If you are going to invoice, you need both and they come from the same place. How to get them.

You can have more than one activity

It is normal as soon as a business grows: you sell and also provide a service, or you rent out a property on the side. Several activities can be registered, and each brings its own obligations with it.

What does not work is registering one and operating another. If your business changed, what you do is amend the register, not keep invoicing under the old code.

What registration switches on

DutyWhat it means
Issuing electronic documentsIn version 4.4, from the first sale
Filing returnsThe ones your activity calls for, at their own frequency
Filing information returnsAmong them the 270, which is monthly
Keeping accounting recordsAnd retaining the supporting documents
Amending or deregisteringIf you change activity or stop trading
Deregistering is a duty too. If you stop trading and do not say so, the returns you do not file keep counting as missed. Closing an activity is a procedure, not a silence.

Quick questions

Can I register before I have customers?

Yes, and it is usually the right thing to do: you have to be registered before issuing the first invoice, not after.

I registered with the wrong code. What now?

It is corrected with the data modification return. It is a procedure, not a penalty, and it is much better for you to correct it yourself.

Does an individual register too?

Yes. An independent professional registers their activity exactly as a company does. Individual or company.

From Ticuenta

Registered and invoicing the same day

The seven version 4.4 documents from day one. And if you are coming from other software, your numbering continues where it was.

See how it works

About this article. The taxpayer's duties and the dependence on the economic activity come from the tax authority's own material; the filing frequencies from the official list of returns in TRIBU-CR. Confirm the current ISIC list before choosing your code.

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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