Year-end tax close in Costa Rica

In one sentence: the ordinary fiscal period in Costa Rica runs from 1 January to 31 December, and the tax is declared and paid no later than 15 March of the following year.

If anyone talks to you about closing on 30 September, their information is old. The fiscal period used to run October to September, inherited from the coffee harvest, and it moved to the calendar year with Law 9635. Since then the close is 31 December. Special periods can be authorised, but they have to be requested — they are not automatic.

1 · Income: all of it, in its own year

Invoices issued in December and collected in January. The income belongs to the year it accrued, not the year the money arrived.
Rejected or unconfirmed documents. A document the tax authority did not accept does not exist for tax purposes — check before the year closes.
Pending credit notes. If there was a December return, the note should go out in December.

2 · Expenses: supported

This is the block where most money is lost, and almost always for the same reason: paperwork.

Purchases not accepted. A document received without its acceptance message supports neither input VAT nor a deductible expense. How it works.
Tickets instead of invoices. A simplified receipt does not work for deducting. If you have expenses backed by tickets, there is still time to ask for the invoice.
Foreign services with no purchase invoice. Platform commissions, licences, advertising. You have to issue it yourself.
Withholdings not made. Some expenses only deduct if the corresponding withholding was practised.

3 · Provisions: accounting yes, deductible no

Christmas bonus, severance, notice pay, unpaid holidays. In your books they accrue every month, and that is right. For tax they deduct when they are paid. This is where accounting and tax separate the most, and it is exactly what generates deferred tax in the accounting standards.

4 · Assets and depreciation

Low-value assets. If the unit cost does not exceed 25 % of a reference wage, the whole thing goes to expense in the period instead of being capitalised.
Assets that no longer exist. Something scrapped or sold has to leave the register, with its accumulated depreciation.

Why November and not March

Almost everything on this list can still be fixed before the year closes and cannot be fixed afterwards. You can ask a supplier for the proper invoice in November; in March that invoice belongs to another year. You can accept a pending purchase in November; in March the credit is gone.

In November, almost everything has a remedy. That is the whole argument for doing this exercise early. A close reviewed in March is an audit of your own mistakes; reviewed in November it is a to-do list.

If you are a foreign owner

Two dates that land badly for someone who is not here year-round: the close on 31 December and the corporate tax before 31 January. Neither sends a reminder, and both fall in the weeks when a seasonal owner is least likely to be paying attention.

From Ticuenta

What is missing, visible before December

Purchases still unanswered, documents without a response from the tax authority, foreign services with no purchase invoice — all in one list, while there is still time.

See how it works

About this article. The fiscal period running to 31 December comes from Law 9635; the treatment of provisions and the low-value asset threshold, from article 8 of the Income Tax Act and its regulation.

Verified as of 24 September 2026. Tax rules change. This is information, not tax advice — a real close is work for your accountant.

Sources: Current legal texts (Sinalevi) Ministry of Finance

Year-end tax close in Costa Rica: what to check before 31 December