The 10 % service charge in Costa Rica

The rule: wait staff in restaurants, bars, cafés and other table-service establishments are paid by the customer, on top of their salary, with a compulsory 10 % in all cases calculated on each table's bill excluding tax, shown separately on the invoice as “Servicio 10%”.

They are two different things

	The 10 % service charge	A voluntary tip
Compulsory?	Yes, in all cases	No, it is discretionary
On the invoice?	Yes, separately	No, never
How it is calculated	10 % of the bill excluding tax	Whatever the customer decides
Who it goes to	The worker, through the employer	Directly to the server

The base is the bill without the tax. The 10 % is calculated on the consumption, not on the total invoiced with VAT. Calculating it on the total inflates the charge and is not what the law requires.

Why it is not salary

Because it is payment from a third party outside the employment relationship between the server and their employer. Which is why it does not form part of salary and is not taken into account for calculating and paying the social security contributions and employment entitlements the employer owes.

The practical consequence is large: the 10 % does not enter the base of the Christmas bonus, the holiday, notice or severance. And it generates no employee or employer contribution.

But that does not make it the business's money. Exactly the opposite: the law says employers shall not share in the benefit of that 10 %, nor prevent or interfere with its collection, and are not responsible for obligations relating to it. It is the worker's money passing through the establishment's till.

The deadlines for handing it over

Item	How the customer paid	Deadline to hand it over
10 % service charge	Cash	One week
10 % service charge	Debit or credit card	One month
Voluntary tip	Debit or credit card	One month

These are maximum periods. The cash one is short for an obvious reason: that money already came into the till in full.

What is absolutely prohibited

Making any deduction from the 10 % service charge: for a contribution to the employer's expenses, for collecting it, for replacing, repairing or improving crockery or any other supply of the establishment, or on any analogous ground.

This is the practice the law came to stop: charging the server for broken plates, the dropped glass, or “their share of the costs”. A breach is penalised under article 614 of the Labour Code, and the employer is obliged to pay the sums owed duly index-linked.

And withholding the 10 % is not a labour offence: it is a criminal one. An employer who withholds what was collected as the 10 % service charge is penalised under article 223 of the Criminal Code. And whatever the worker fails to receive through the employer's fault is treated as a debt owed to them.

How it is recorded

The 10 % is not the establishment's income and not a salary expense. It is money received on behalf of a third party: it comes into the till and goes out to the worker. On the balance sheet it lives as a liability until it is handed over.

The case · one table's bill

Consumption: ₡20,000
Service 10 %, on the consumption: ₡2,000
VAT on the consumption: ₡2,600
The restaurant's income: ₡20,000
Liability to the server: ₡2,000

When it is handed to the worker, that liability is debited against the bank or the till. And it does not go through the payroll: it is not salary, it generates no contributions and it does not belong in the payroll entry.

Putting it in revenue is the expensive mistake. It inflates the establishment's sales, and with them the income tax base, on money that was never its own. And on the other side, recording the hand-over as a salary expense distorts staff costs and the reconciliation with the social security payroll.

A question worth asking your accountant

The treatment of the 10 % service charge for VAT has been publicly debated, and we have not found an official criterion that settles it unambiguously. Since it is a decision taken line by line on the invoice, it is worth confirming with your accountant and applying the criterion consistently, rather than changing it from one month to the next.

From Ticuenta

What is not yours, in its own account

Keep the 10 % in a separate liability account: the month's sales do not include it and the outstanding balance stays in view.

See how it works

About this article. Everything cited comes from Law 9116, on protecting the employment of wait staff, which reforms Law 4946 — creating the right to a tip for restaurant workers, of 3 February 1972 — and Law 5635. The penalties refer to article 223 of the Criminal Code and article 614 of the Labour Code. This is not legal advice.

Verified as of 24 September 2026. Rules change. This is information, not legal or tax advice.

Sources: Current legal texts (Sinalevi) Ministry of Labour

The 10 % service charge in Costa Rica: whose money it is