How to Duly Establish and Legally Register a Company in Costa Rica
As long as you have an incorporation agent and the so-called Power of Attorney, to register a company in Costa Rica is not as complicated as compared with other countries. It is not a requirement for a corporate owner to be a Costa Rican resident – the assigned agents are legally qualified to establish and register the corporation. After hiring your own agent, below are the further steps you need to take.
Arrange and settle agency fees
Whether the agent that you have is on his own or is part of an agency, you must comply in the agency fees to be required as mobilization payments in the document processing. Inclusive with the payments for the processing itself, the obtainment of documents may have corresponding prices.
Decide and finalize the company structure
A company structure and its system should be finalized and agreed upon by the owners or the company management. To register a company in Costa Rica, a project plan will be created based on this company structure, to which appropriate documents will be processed based on the timeline also dictated and allotted by the government.
Have your company name translated
All company names in Costa Rica are translated in Spanish. A separate firm will be assisting you in translating your proposed firm name. The firm will also take care of the process regarding the reservation of your desired company name with the Costa Rica Registrar of Companies.
Sign the required documents
The processing agency will provide you all the requisites required to register a company in Costa Rica. Affixation of signatures will have to be done for the needed documents and papers to be notarized and legalized. The signed documents must be submitted and returned to the agency, which the agency will prepare for official documentation registration in the corresponding Costa Rican authority.
Create a corporate bank account
The assisting agency or firm that you have hired for the processing of your registration also has the responsibility to open the corporate bank account for the company. They may also pay the necessary incorporation fees as requested by the authorities.
Have an incorporation charter registered
You must also be able to file a company incorporation charter to the mercantile division of the Costa Rican public registry. From this does the firm also gain permission to have the corporation’s bookkeeping be legalized.
Be an official Costa Rican taxpayer
Whilst preparations for an official office address is also being undertaken, the hired firm or agency may use their office address in specifying the corporation’s location in the D-140 form provided by the government. This form registers the company to be a legal taxpayer of the country.
Gather the insurance
To register a company in Costa Rica, it must be taken into account that as an employer, you must obtain insurance for the workers. It is imperative that labor risk insurance be obtained from the National Insurance Institute of Costa Rica.
Be registered with the Costa Rican Social Security
Upon the corporation’s incorporation, the hired firm or agency shall officially register your company as an employer in the CCSS, or the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social.
Have your Costa Rican company kit delivered
After the successful registration, your hired agency will be sending your complete company kit, wherein the documents filed and received are compiled.
It is a duty of an aspiring business owner to make sure that all decks are on hand, and all documents are filed to be able to legally register a company in Costa Rica. Policies are not as strict as in others, but that doesn’t mean that the process shouldn’t be taken seriously, or that the application is easy.
