Taxes On Worldwide Income To Be Implemented in Costa Rica?

In an effort to increase revenues – with little apparent success in decreasing costs – the President of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla is considering a global income tax similar to that which is imposed by the IRS Code on all U.S. citizens.

As all U.S. citizens will know, under the IRS Code, income derived from any source, anywhere in the world, is subject to U.S. taxation with a few difficult to achieve exceptions.

So based on the fact the U.S. citizens should be paying taxes on their worldwide income anyway, this would have very little impact on the U.S. citizens who are retired in Costa Rica however, I do know one British guy (and Brits and Canadians who are permanent residents here do NOT have to pay taxes on their worldwide income) who makes a decent income generated outside of Costa Rica who does not like this idea at all…

The IRS does have double taxation agreements with many countries where a U.S. citizen would NOT pay taxes twice and based Costa Rica’s very close relationship with the U.S., if this is approved, I doubt very much if there would be any chance at all of double taxation…

Having said that, please remember that we have seen many ‘proposed changes’ over the years which were never approved and there are already different versions of this story depending on which newspaper you are reading …

Like nearly every other bloody silly proposal that comes out of the mouths of politicians across the globe who have zero knowledge and experience of surviving in the real world, let’s hope that this is not implemented.

VIP Member DavidCMurray started a Discussion Forum on this topic here.

Spanish readers can see the La Nacion newspaper article here: PAC y Gobierno negocian 18 puntos para agilizar plan fiscal.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.