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Services
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Fees (USD)
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Total cost of company incorporation with one shareholder and standard articles
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5 600
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Compliance fee
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from 440
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Nominee director
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3 300
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Bank account opening
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from 2 500[1]
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Incorporation of a Costa Rican company includes the following steps:
1) It is necessary to decide on:
2) Paying fees for services
3) It is necessary to provide documents for directors / shareholders / attorneys:
4) Preparing a package of documents
for company incorporation, having the documents signed by the directors and shareholders.
5) Filing an application with the Trade register
The incorporation of a company can take from 24 to 72 hours once all the necessary information and documents have been provided.
The company documents will include:
A company must have at least one director who is an individual.
The minimum number of shareholders in a company is 1; they can be individuals or legal entities; there are no requirements as to their residency.
This can only be an individual. If a company does not do business in Costa Rica as such, the auditor’s appointment is nominal in nature.
There are no requirements for the size of share capital.
An annual fee is charged for the provision of a legal address, registered agent services, annual corporate tax, and annual contribution to the education and culture fund. The company's auditor prepares financial statements; however, if the company does not conduct any business in Costa Rica, it is considered inactive and only requires filing nil financial statements.
If the company does not conduct any business, an Inactive Company Declaration must be filed annually to confirm the company's status as inactive.
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Services
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Fees (USD)
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Total cost of incorporation of a new company (not including apostilled copies of corporate documents or translation[3] or compliance fee)
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5 600
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Subsequent annual maintenance (starting from the second year), including provision of a registered office, registered agent services, annual corporate tax, and annual education and culture fund levy; not including compliance fee
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3 250
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Annual Inactive Company Declaration (for companies that are not currently operating)
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695
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Filing of Final Beneficial Owners Register
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650
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Local director (Costa Rican resident) annual fee[4], not including a power of attorney
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3 300
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Apostilled power of attorney with translation into English
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from 1 320
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Apostilled set of copies of corporate documents
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from 550
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Extract from the register of companies (without apostille)
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760
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Official translation of a set of corporate documents into English
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from 520
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Compliance fee
Payable in the cases of: - incorporation of a company, - renewal of a company, - liquidation of a company, - transfer out of a company, - issue of a power of attorney to a new attorney, - change of director / shareholder / beneficial owner, except the change to a nominee director / shareholder, - signing of documents. |
440 (standard rate, includes the check of 1 individual)
+ 200 for each additional individual (director, shareholder, or beneficial owner) or legal entity (director or shareholder) if such legal entity is administered by GSL + 265 for each additional legal entity (director or shareholder) if such legal entity is not administered by GSL 550 (rate for high-risk companies, includes the check of 1 individual) 135 (signing of documents) |
[1] Please check with a consultant of GSL Law & Consulting about the possibility of opening a bank account for the specific activity.
[2] The fees are valid as at September 2026.
[3] The fee does not include certification or translation of copies of passports of directors / shareholders / beneficial owners or of powers of attorney for the making of constitutive documents.
[4] Nominee director’s fee only covers the director’s annual corporate duties to the company, and does not include any additional work done on the instructions of the client / under legal requirements.