Regulatory updates - Costa Rica

On November 19, 2024, the Costa Rican Ministry of Finance published in the Official Gazette the Resolution on the Technical Provisions of Electronic Receipts for Tax Purposes "MH-DGT-RES-0027-2024" which contains Version 4.4 of the Electronic Receipts.

The official publication contains a new Annex of Structures and XSD schemes for the latest version and an update to Version 4.3, currently in force. Starting next year, two new nodes will affect the receipts that support the sale of medicines.

Updates of Version 4.3

The current Version 4.3 will be updated to include two new specific nodes for receipts supporting the sale of medicines, thus strengthening the health sector's control and monitoring capabilities.

The test environment with the modifications of version 4.3 related to the sale of medicines will be available as of November 20, 2024. Starting January 1, 2025, taxpayers who sell medicines for human consumption must implement and activate version 4.3 of the “Annexes and Structures”, the fields entitled “Medication Registration” and “Pharmaceutical Form.”

New Structures and XSD Schemas Version 4.4

Version 4.4 comes equipped with an updated annex of XSD structures and schemas. Taxpayers can use version 4.4 voluntarily as soon as April 1, 2025. Starting June 1, 2025, transition to version 4.4 becomes mandatory, and from this date, this must be the only version in use.

Repeals of previous requirements

With the new rules published, the following regulations are repealed:

• DGT-R-12-2018 “General obligation for the use of electronic receipts”;
• DGT-R-39-2018 “Reform of the General obligation for the use of electronic receipts”;
• DGT-R-033-2019 “General resolution on the technical provisions of electronic receipts”.

Changes made by the General Directorate of Taxation (DGT) in the resolution MH-DGT-RES-0013-2023 affect the reading of the electronic address on electronic receipts.

Furthermore, another important amendment pertains to the VAT taxable event for sales on credit in electronic invoicing systems. It is applicable when goods or services are taxed at the time of sale with an e-invoice with the addition.

Additional changes include:

• Two fields were added to the sales conditions: Code 10, regarding "VAT credit sales up to 90 days" and Code 11, regarding "Payment of the sale on credit in VAT in up to 90 days".
• In note number 8.1, Value Added Tax Rates, Code 09: Reduced tax rate of 0.5%, was included.
• The field name "Exemption Percentage" was adjusted to "Decimal", which gains four integers and two decimal places.

The new Resolution takes effect as of 10 September 2023. A period of 90 calendar days (three months) is granted from its effective date so that taxpayers have enough time to modify their electronic receipt systems.