Costa Rica ranks 17th overall on the 2025 International Tax Competitiveness Index, three places better than in 2024.
How does Costa Rica raise tax revenue? Explore the latest data regarding corporate taxes, individual taxes, consumption taxes, property taxes, and international taxes in Costa Rica below.
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The Tax Foundation' s International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI) measures the degree to which the 38 OECD countries' tax systems promote competitiveness through low tax burdens on business investment and neutrality through a well-structured tax code. The ITCI considers more than 40 variables across five categories: Corporate Taxes, Individual Taxes, Consumption Taxes, Property Taxes, and International Tax Rules.
The ITCI attempts to display not only which countries provide the best tax environment for investment but also the best tax environment for workers and businesses.
While there are many factors that affect a country’s economic performance, taxes play an important role. A well-structured tax code is easy for taxpayers to comply with and can promote economic development while raising sufficient revenue for a government’s priorities.
93 min read
Excise taxes generate more than two trillion dollars worldwide each year. While tying an excise tax revenue source to a specific expenditure program can be a best practice, the efficiency depends on the revenue source, the spending program, and why the excise tax was implemented in the first place.
6 min read
Tax-preferred private retirement accounts often have complex rules and limitations. Universal savings accounts could be a simpler alternative—or addition—to many countries’ current system of private retirement savings accounts.
23 min read
Rather than returning to a world of retaliatory tax measures and transatlantic disputes, the OECD should continue to decrease the compliance costs of Pillar Two by simplifying the rules to reduce any possible risk that the US has a compliance cost advantage and working with G7 countries on a side-by-side solution.
6 min read
The US has a reasonably robust system for containing profit shifting; it is in effect already working towards the Pillar Two goals. Its negotiating posture is in many cases curbing unreasonable sidetracks, not undermining the whole project.
The agreement represents a major change for tax competition as well, and many countries will rethink their tax policies for multinationals. However, the US will continue to chart its own course, and other countries may prefer to do the same, depending on the final outcome of the G7 statement.
8 min read
Rather than adopt temporary policies that phase out and expire, policymakers should focus their efforts on long-term reforms to support investment.
7 min read
The BEPS project’s 15 actions were decisive responses to real problems in cross-border taxation, offering real benefits but also real costs. A decade of implementation experience has revealed a critical side effect: sharply higher compliance costs for both tax administrations and the business community.
While well-designed excise taxes can make society better off, some of the health taxes proposed by the WHO use a pretty façade to cover for policies that fail to deliver their promised benefits.
5 min read
The ongoing economic uncertainty from Russia’s war in Ukraine, economic recovery, supply chain disruptions, and rising interest rates have highlighted the importance of business investment.
30 min read