Simplified or standard regime in Costa Rica

The underlying difference: in the standard regime you charge VAT, declare it monthly and apply credits. In the simplified one you do not charge VAT to the customer: you pay a tax calculated on your purchases, not your sales, and you file every three months.

Who can join

Access is voluntary and it is not open to everyone: the tax authority establishes it by decree, activity by activity, after studying the sector.

What the tax authority studies	The limit
Average capital invested in the activity	Not authorised if yours exceeds it
Amount of purchases made	Not authorised if they exceed the group's average
Gross and net yield of the sector	Defines the factor applied
Number of employees and wages paid	Feeds into setting the limits

What changed with Law 10512, of September 2024. Micro-businesses with no more than five employees, in any economic activity, registered and active in the Economy Ministry's business register or the Agriculture Ministry's, can now join too. It is the largest opening the regime has ever had.

How the tax is calculated

Not on what you sell. A factor is applied to a variable that depends on your activity, and that factor comes from applying the VAT rate to the gross yield the tax authority determined for the sector.

If you are…	The variable is…
A seller of goods	Purchases
A service provider	Purchases plus what you paid for labour
A producer or manufacturer	Production costs and expenses

When it is filed

Quarterly — October, January, April and July — within the first fifteen calendar days of the following quarter, with payment at the same time. The standard regime files monthly.

The big question: do you have to invoice?

Historically the answer for the simplified regime was no: those in it are not required to issue invoices for their sales in the cases the tax authority provides for, though they must request them from their suppliers and give a document when the buyer asks for one.

But the reform left an express exception. The exemption from invoicing applies “except for micro-businesses registered in the business register”. In other words: whoever entered the regime through the door Law 10512 opened does have to issue electronic invoices. You get the simplification of the tax, not of the documents.

Which suits you, in practice

Simplified suits you if…	Standard suits you if…
You sell mostly to final consumers	Your customers are businesses that need the input VAT
Your purchases are low relative to your sales	You buy a lot and want to apply that credit
You want to file four times a year instead of twelve	You need formal documents in order to sell

The point that decides more cases than you would think. If your customers are businesses, not being able to give them a document that supports their input VAT and their expense takes you off their supplier list. Plenty of businesses stay on the standard regime for this, even though the simplified one would be cheaper.

And it is not forever

Joining is voluntary and so is leaving. If the business grows and stops meeting the parameters in the decree for your activity, you have to move to the standard regime. Better to review it before the tax authority does.

From Ticuenta

If you do have to invoice, make it the easy part

Version 4.4 documents without a long setup, meant for someone invoicing low volume.

See how it works

About this article. The regime is chapter VIII of the VAT Act, articles 35 to 40, reformed by Law 10512 of 4 September 2024. The specific parameters for each activity are set by their own executive decree — confirm the one for yours before deciding.

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

Sources: Current legal texts (Sinalevi) Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce

Simplified or standard regime in Costa Rica: which applies and which suits you