Costa Rica

Costa Rica: Capital gains taxes (%).

In arriving at effective capital gains tax rates, the Global Property Guide makes the following assumptions:

• The property is directly and jointly owned by husband and wife;
• They have owned it for 10 years;
• It is their only source of capital gains in the country
• It has appreciated in value by 100% over the 10 years to sale
• The property was worth US$250,000 or 250,000 at purchase.
• It is not their sole or principal residence.

These assumptions are critical. In many countries a holding period of less than 5 years results in capital gains being taxable. But a longer holding period often results in no capital gains tax being payable. For more details see the Data FAQ

Source: Global Property Guide Research, Contributing Accounting Firms

Costa Rica does not publish house price statistics. The Banco Central de Costa Rica has general statistics on production, employment, business confidence, the country�s fiscal position, etc. The Instituto Nacional de Estad�stica y Censos has rather basic web pages. The Ministerio de Hacienda de la Republica de Costa Rica has quite a creditable-looking set of pages, but some of the actual data is very old.