Costa Rica and Germany Sign Agreement to End Double Taxation
Last Wednesday August 10 at Germany’s Federal Foreign Ministry Office, Costa Rica and Germany celebrated the ratification of the establishment of legal instruments as part of an agreement to eliminate double taxation of income and assets, stated Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Relations in a press release Friday.
The agreement aims to provide clear guidelines for both countries that will allow for the elimination of double taxation where such situations might exist. This would apply to individual’s income taxes, real estate taxes; and vehicle, boat and aircraft ownership taxes.
The agreement will enter into effect starting January 1, 2017.
This agreement also provides enhanced mechanisms for both countries to detect fiscal evasion, as well as allows them to link and coordinate their taxation systems, and have a more effective exchange of information. Most importantly, the agreement allows for a strengthening of the two country’s economic relations, stated the ministry.
The valuable legal agreement offers Costa Rica enhanced judicial security, and with it, a greater opportunity for trade and for investment by Europe’s strongest national economy, said ministry officials.
Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly voted in favor of the agreement, which was a long time in the making, this year on February 2.
The instruments were signed by Carlos Lizano, interim Business Attache for the Costa Rican Embassy in Germany, who was accompanied by Giancarlo Luconi Coen, Costa Rican Ambassador to Germany, and by Dr. Götz Schmidt-Bremme, Germany’s Legal and Consular Affairs Director for the Federal Foreign Ministry Office, who represented Germany in signing the legal instruments.
