Government compliance - Costa Rica

E-invoicing is mandatory in Costa Rica. The system is managed by the General Directorate of Taxation (DGT) and applies to all businesses operating in the country, regardless of size or industry.

The Ministry of Finance (Ministerio de Hacienda), through its General Directorate of Taxation (DGT – Dirección General de Tributación), is the governmental body responsible for invoicing in Costa Rica.

The current electronic invoicing system in Costa Rica requires that both the issuer and the recipient of the electronic invoices, report/validate them with tax administration immediately and automatically. This validation process with the administration is simultaneously executed  with the delivery of the document to the counterparty of the transaction.

• The taxpayer sends an XML of an invoice to the Tax authority (within 8 days), via their billing system i.e. Fonoa, for validation.
• The billing system sends the XML file to the servers of the Ministry of Finance, where it will be signed with the cryptographic key and will receive an acceptance or rejection indication from the Tax authority.
•  The Tax authority receives the invoice and has up to 3 hours to validate it and send an acknowledgment of acceptance or rejection. This XML message will accompany the sending of the invoice to the recipient.
• The receiver must formally accept or reject the invoice within 8 days of the invoice’s approval.

Our Partners integration ensures that you are compliant with the requirements for E-Invoicing in Costa Rica.  Our certified partners pull invoice information from Cloudbeds and allows you to generate compliant invoices within their system that comply with the technical requirements of the DGT including applying the electronic signature.