This year, June 30 is the last day available to carry out the Registration of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries.

What is the Registry of Transparency and Beneficial Ownership (RTBF)?

The Transparency and Final Beneficiaries Registry consists of a computer system developed by the Central Bank of Costa Rica, which allows legal persons and other legal structures such as: trusts, third-party resource managers and non-profit organizations; provide the information to register its participants (shareholder partners, quota holders or some other denomination depending on the type of legal person, parties that make up a trust, or other administrative members of legal structures, etc.) and their final beneficiaries, as well as other information of natural persons that allows effective control in the fight against tax fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing.

Legal basis:
Second chapter of the Law to Improve the Fight against Fiscal Fraud, Law No. 9416.
Regulation of the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries, Decree No. 41040-H.

Where should I provide the information required for the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries?

The information must be presented in the transactional platform of the Central Bank of Costa Rica called Central Directo: https://www.centraldirecto.fi.cr.
Legal Bases
Artículo 4 de la Resolución Conjunta de Alcance General, DGT-ICD-R-06-2020

Can the information be provided to the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries (RTBF) in person with physical documents?

No, the entire process is done digitally, through a web portal on the internet. With the objective of promoting voluntary compliance, the General Directorate of Taxation makes available to the obligors the Tax Kiosks that are located in the different Tax Administrations of the country, under the self-management method to make said declaration.

Source:

Ministerio de Hacienda

Who are the subjects obligated to provide information in the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries (RTBF)?

Answers:

The subjects obligated to provide information are:

• legal entities with current share capital and/or those that have been assigned a legal identification number by the National Registry.
• third-party resource managers.
• non-profit organizations
• private trusts, including foreign trusts that have legal identification assigned by the National Registry and carry out activities in Costa Rica.

Note: currently only legal persons and trusts must provide the information, the other obligors will be incorporated later, with the proper official communication. But they must have the information available in case the competent authorities request it.

Legal Bases

Artículos 5 y 6 de la Ley para Mejorar la Lucha contra el Fraude Fiscal, Ley N°9416

Artículo 3 del Reglamento del Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales, Decreto N°41040-H Considerando IX de la Resolución Conjunta de Alcance General, DGT-ICD-R-06-2020

What are the subjects that are excluded from providing information in the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries (RTBF)?

Asnwers

The subjects excluded from presenting the information are:

• Companies whose shares are listed on an organized stock market, whether national or foreign. Article 19 of the joint resolution of general scope establishes the necessary requirements for the application of this exclusion (they must prove it annually by means of a summary record on the Central Directo platform).
• Public Trusts
• In relation to their depositors, financial entities supervised by the General Superintendency of Financial Entities, and legal persons, legal structures such as: third-party resource administrators, authorized, regulated and supervised by the General Superintendency of Securities or the General Superintendency of Pensions, in what corresponds to its clients and investors.
• The Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch, Supreme Court of Elections, centralized, decentralized, autonomous, semi-autonomous public entities and embassies.

Legal Bases

Artículos 4 y 8 del Reglamento del Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales, Decreto N°41040-H.

Artículo 19 de la Resolución Conjunta de Alcance General, DGT-ICD-R-06-2020.

What type of digital signature certificate should be used in the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries (RTBF)?

Answers

To interact with the Transparency and Final Beneficiaries Registry, the person responsible for providing the information established in article 1 of the Joint Resolution of general scope and its reforms, must have a valid digital signature certificate for natural persons.

Every person who interacts with the RTBF must have a digital signature card for a natural person, be it the legal representative, the proxy, who has extrajudicial representation in the legal entity and even notaries.

It should not be confused with the digital signature card for legal persons, since for the purposes of the RTBF only digital signature for natural persons is accepted.

Legal Bases

Artículo 5 del Reglamento del Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales, Decreto N°41040-H.

Artículo 3 de la Resolución Conjunta de Alcance General, N°DGT-ICD-R-06-2020.

What happens if the person responsible for including the information in the declaration of the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries – RTBF does not have a DIMEX or DIDI identity document, or for some other situation makes it impossible for him to obtain a digital signature and therefore does not can you make the statement?

Answer

If the person responsible for providing the information does not have a DIMEX or DIDI identity document and for this reason cannot obtain a digital signature in Costa Rica, they may provide the information to the RTBF through another person who does have a digital signature, for which you must go before a notary public so that:

a) It is the notary who verifies whether there is already a person with sufficient powers to make the statement.

b) Grant a special power of attorney in a public deed so that the proxy can fill out the declaration.

In both cases, the notary must enter the Central Directo digital platform to accredit (register) that person empowered in the RTBF system. After this procedure by the notary, said representative may enter the system with his digital signature to make the declaration on behalf of the obligated subject. In the exercise of this function, notaries must follow the guidelines issued by the Superior Notarial Council for notarial activity.

In the event that he is abroad, he must go before the consul to carry out the corresponding procedure.

Legal Bases

Artículos 14 y 23 de la Resolución Conjunta de Alcance General, N°DGT-ICD-R-06-2020.

Lineamientos del Consejo Superior Notarial.

What is considered “final beneficiary” for the purposes of the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries (RTBF)?

Answer

For purposes of the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries, the final beneficiary is considered to be that natural person who has any type of final effective control over a legal person or legal structure or chains of ownership over them, or who receives benefits from them; either through:

• have direct or indirect control by ownership of substantive shares in the case of legal persons
• for appearing within the parts of a trust.
• for exerting significant influence.
• Ultimately, if no final beneficiary is determined from the above conditions, the person with the main management position may be considered as such.

Legal Bases

Artículo 2 del Reglamento del Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales, Decreto N°41040-H.

What are the sanctions for not providing the information corresponding to the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries (RTBF)?

Answers

Sanctions in the case of non-provision of information are regulated in article

84 bis of the Code of Tax Regulations and Procedures and consist of three specific situations:

• When public notaries issue documents to obligated subjects, they must verify the list of defaulters and, if included, must be included in the document.

• The National Registry may not issue certifications of legal status or register documents in favor of obligated subjects.

• A proportional pecuniary fine of 2% of the figure of the gross income of the legal entity or legal structure will be applied to them, in the profit tax period prior to the one in which the infraction occurred, with a minimum of three base salaries. and a maximum of one hundred base salaries.

Legal Bases

Artículo 16 de la Ley para Mejorar la Lucha contra el Fraude Fiscal, Ley N°9416.

Artículo 84 bis del Código de Normas y Procedimientos Tributarios, Ley N°4755.

Artículos 25 y 26 del Reglamento del Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales, Decreto N°41040-H. Artículo 27 de la Resolución Conjunta de Alcance General, N°DGT-ICD-R-06-2020.