Setting Up a Business in Costa Rica

An in-depth guide for foreign entrepreneurs and companies looking to enter the Costa Rican market — a model of democratic and environmental stability, highly specialized in bilingual nearshoring, medtech, and sustainability, with substantial tax incentives in its free zones.
This guide covers legal structures (S.A. and S.R.L.), business taxation — a 30% standard corporate rate outside the free-zone regime, clearly distinguished from the incentives concentrated within it — 13% VAT, substance requirements under Law 10381, company formation, the cost of labor (roughly 26.5% CCSS charges, mandatory 13th-month pay), and immigration routes including investor and rentista residency. Includes a dedicated chapter on Costa Rica’s deliberately built bilingual workforce, its global medtech cluster anchored by Baxter, its genuine sustainability policy, and the mechanics of the Law 7210 free zone regime — a full 8-year tax exemption (12 outside the metro area), followed by 50% for 4 more, home to over 760 companies including Intel, HP, and Amazon. An operational checklist and useful contacts round out the guide.
Available in English and Spanish.