General Instructions Establish a Business National Registry Tourism Sector
A general description of the basic and common steps for the establishment of
a business enterprise in Costa Rica is detailed below.
Diagram N° 1 illustrates the logical
sequence of the different stages.
1. Under what legal capacity will the company operate?
If the company is going to operate as a:
Natural Person, please proceed to the question: What type
of company is it? (Section 2.2)
If a company that is already registered at the National Registry,
is going to be used, please proceed to the question: What type of company is
it? (Section 2.2).
If you are attempting to register a newly incorporated company[1]
consult the National Registry (Section 3).
Once the corresponding procedures have concluded please proceed to the question:
What type of company is it? (Section 2.2).
If the company needs to register trademarks under the company name at the National
Registry, please consult Registration of a national brand, adopted (foreign),
commercial name (Section 3.3).
If the company wishes to operate as an artificial person and wants to save time,
it may use an incorporated company already entered into record at the Registry.
Additional time can be saved if said incorporated company already has accounting
books, is registered at the General Income Tax Office, and it is current with
its tax obligations.
2. What type of enterprise is it?
If it is not an exporting or tourism company (it is of Another
Type) and it will not be located in the shoreline area, please proceed to the
question: Will the Company require building new infrastructure? (Section 2.3).
Once the pertinent procedures have concluded, please proceed to the question: Will the company need to build? (Section 2.3).
If the company will be established in the shoreline area[3]
(ZMT) (regardless of the type of activity), please move on the question: Will
the company be located in the ZMT? (Section 4.1) of the Tourism Sector.
Once these procedures have concluded, please proceed to the question: Will the
Company need to build? (Section 2.3).
3. Will the company need to build?
If the company does not require new infrastructure[4], please proceed to the section Official Registration Procedures (Section 2.4).
If the company does require new infrastructure, please proceed to the section Pre-design Survey[5] (Section 6). At the same time verify if the project is subject or not, to an Environmental Evaluation to be presented before the SETENA[6], to this effect please consult Which projects are subject to an environmental evaluation before the SETENA? (Section 7.2).
If it is not subject to said procedure, refer to Approval
of plans and construction permits (Section 8.2) and to the
Diagram N° 4.
If it requires an environmental evaluation by the SETENA, refer to General Description of the Environmental Evaluation Process (Section 7.3.1) and to Diagram N° 3. Once these procedures have concluded, consult the section Approval of plans and construction permits (Section 8.2) and Diagram N° 4.
Once the abovementioned procedures have concluded, please proceed to the Section Official Registration Procedures (Section 2.4).
4. Official registration procedures
All companies, whether operating as a natural or artificial person, must comply
with various obligations and administrative procedures. While said procedures
can be carried out separately, it is convenient to execute them in the pre-established
order set forth in this Manual. The procedures executed at the Costa Rican
Social Security Office (CCSS) and at the National Insurance Institute (INS), usually
are pre-requisites to obtain the municipal license. The interested party must
register at the following three institutions:
General Income Tax Office of the Ministry of the Treasury,
to register as a taxpayer in order to comply with the payments and other tax
obligations. Consult the section General Income Tax Office (Section 9.1).
National Insurance Institute (INS), in order to underwrite
the occupational risk policy. Consult the section National Insurance Institute
(Section 9.2).
Registration as an employer at the CCSS, in order to pay the social security contributions. Consult the section Costa Rican Social Security Office (CCSS) (Section 9.3).
Once these procedures have concluded, or else, while executing
them simultaneously, proceed to the section Will the Company Require an operation
certificate from the Ministry of Public Health? (Section 2.5).
The registration as a taxpayer must be completed no later than ten days after the
company has been entered into record at the Registry, in the case of artificial
persons. When they are natural persons, they must register within ten days
after initiating operations.
The number of the occupational risks policy is a pre-requisite for registration
as an employer at the CCSS.
5. Will the company require an operation certificate from the Ministry of Public
Health?
In order to know if the company must process an operation certificate at the
Ministry of Public Health, please refer to Section 10: Ministry of Public Health:
Operation Certificate, Sub-section 10.5 Appendixes, where there is a List of activities
(Groups A,
B,
C). The aforementioned is included
with the objective of locating the group to which the activity to be developed
belongs.
If the activity is to be found in:
Group C (low risk), must ask for the corresponding permission before the Ministry of Health. Consult Municipal Patent (Section 11).
Group A (high risk), the interested party must request said certificate. Please consult the section: Ministry of Public Health: Operation Certificate (Section 10), Sub-section 10.2: Group A (high risk). Once this procedure has concluded please proceed to the Municipal License (Section 11).
Group B (moderate
risk), the interested party must process said certificate. Please refer
to the section Ministry of Public Health: Operation Certificate (Section 10),
Sub-section 10.3 Group B (moderate risk). Once this procedure has concluded
please proceed to the Municipal Patent (Section 11).
If the company requires an operation certificate, it may initiate the procedure
simultaneously or separately, from the official registration procedures. The
operation certificate is a pre-requisite in order to obtain the municipal license.
6. A registry of origin product foods, importer requires its company animal or vegetable.
If its company operates as physical or legal person and requires:
To make, to commercialize, to concern and to distribute to
the foods of certain name and trade name and nourishing raw materials that are
commercialized in national territory? Consult Food Registry (Section 12.1) before
initiating operations
To concern vegetables or products of vegetal origin, with aims of distribution and/or commercialization, within the national territory, Consults Vegetal Product Registry (Section 12.3) before initiating operations.
[1] Whether it is a corporation, a limited liability company,
of limited partnership, or a general partnership.
[2] The Costa Rican Foreign Trade Corporation.
[3] Pursuant to Article 9 of the Costa Rican Shoreline Area Law N° 6043 and its
amendments, The Costa Rican shoreline area is understood as the two hundred meter
wide strip of land alongside the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines of the Republic,
regardless of its particular characteristics, measured horizontally from the regular
high tide, and including the land and rocks visible during low tide. For all
legal purposes, the Costa Rican Shoreline area does also comprise the islands, small
islands or islets and large marine rocks, as well as all the land and natural formations
jutting out from the ocean level within the territorial oceans of the Republic.
Coco's Island is excluded from this regulation, as it will remain under the direct
domain and possession of the State, as well as all those other islands, whose domain
or administration are determined by the present law or other special laws.
[4] The company does not need to build when it rents facilities, it purchases them
or, for example, when it decides to establish itself in a free trade zone or an
industrial park.
[5] The Pre-design Surveys are executed simultaneously with the procedures at SETENA.
Both are usually carried out during the pre-feasibility stage or the project feasibility
stage.
[6] National Technical Environmental Secretariat (SETENA).
© Copyright 2005 MEIC