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Costa Rica · tax residency · 2026

How many days make you tax resident in Costa Rica?

183days
Tax residency thresholdchecked 2026-08-18 · hacienda.go.cr

183 days Individuals who stay in Costa Rica, continuously or discontinuously, for more than 183 days — including the days of arrival in and departure from the country — during the same fiscal period are considered tax resident. makes you tax resident in Costa Rica — but the day count is only the test people know about.

Next step

One email when the app can tally these days for you.

How we know

Figures are as Dirección General de Tributación, Ministerio de Hacienda publishes them at hacienda.go.cr, checked 18 August 2026.

Day threshold
183 days Individuals who stay in Costa Rica, continuously or discontinuously, for more than 183 days — including the days of arrival in and departure from the country — during the same fiscal period are considered tax resident.
Tax year
1 January – 31 December
Other tests
The tax administration may count sporadic absences towards the 183-day period unless the taxpayer produces a tax residency certificate showing tax residence in another country. Each spouse is assessed independently; joint filing is not permitted.
Worldwide income
No — territorial system
Special regimes
Costa Rica is widely reported to operate a remote-worker regime under Ley 9996 (Ley para Atraer Trabajadores y Prestadores Remotos de Servicios), which exempts qualifying visa holders from income tax on their foreign-source income and from import duty on work equipment. We could NOT verify this from any official page today, so no figures are recorded here.
Authority
Dirección General de Tributación, Ministerio de Hacienda
Official page
hacienda.go.cr
Checked
18 August 2026

Sources are listed further down the page.

How the counting works

TERRITORIAL SYSTEM: residents are taxed only on Costa Rican-source income. 'For individuals domiciled in Costa Rica, any income obtained within the boundaries of Costa Rica is considered as Costa Rican-source income and is taxable.' Foreign-source income of a resident is outside the charge, which is why crossing the 183-day line matters far less here than in a worldwide-income country. NO OFFICIAL SOURCE: www.hacienda.go.cr and hacienda.go.cr timed out at DNS from our fetcher, and Costa Rica's official legal information system (pgrweb.go.cr / sinalevi.go.cr) failed TLS certificate verification, so every figure in this entry rests on PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries (secondary). The residency test is attributed there to article 10 of the Income Tax Law regulations. Costa Rica moved its fiscal period to the calendar year; the calendar-year tax year here is taken from the secondary source and was not confirmed against Hacienda.

Why the day count is the part you can control

Ties, homes and intentions are argued after the fact; days are a record. That is why the first thing an adviser asks for is a list of the days you were in the country — and why reconstructing it from boarding passes and photos a year later is a bad afternoon. Log each stay as it happens and the tally is simply there, with the dates that produced it. If you are moving to Costa Rica to work remotely, the Costa Rica digital nomad visa page covers the permission side.

Sources

Questions people ask about Costa Rica tax residency

How many days can you spend in Costa Rica before becoming tax resident?

183 days Individuals who stay in Costa Rica, continuously or discontinuously, for more than 183 days — including the days of arrival in and departure from the country — during the same fiscal period are considered tax resident. makes you tax resident in Costa Rica; the system is territorial, so foreign income may fall outside it. Days are not the only route in: The tax administration may count sporadic absences towards the 183-day period unless the taxpayer produces a tax residency certificate showing tax residence in another country. Each spouse is assessed independently; joint filing is not permitted. Checked 18 August 2026 against hacienda.go.cr.

When is Costa Rica's tax year?

1 January – 31 December. Day counts are measured against that year unless the rule names a different period — here, Individuals who stay in Costa Rica, continuously or discontinuously, for more than 183 days — including the days of arrival in and departure from the country — during the same fiscal period are considered tax resident..

Are residents of Costa Rica taxed on worldwide income?

Not in the usual way: Costa Rica taxes on a territorial basis, so foreign-source income may fall outside the net. Costa Rica is widely reported to operate a remote-worker regime under Ley 9996 (Ley para Atraer Trabajadores y Prestadores Remotos de Servicios), which exempts qualifying visa holders from income tax on their foreign-source income and from import duty on work equipment. We could NOT verify this from any official page today, so no figures are recorded here. Confirm your own position with the authority or an adviser.

Is there a special tax regime for people moving to Costa Rica?

Costa Rica is widely reported to operate a remote-worker regime under Ley 9996 (Ley para Atraer Trabajadores y Prestadores Remotos de Servicios), which exempts qualifying visa holders from income tax on their foreign-source income and from import duty on work equipment. We could NOT verify this from any official page today, so no figures are recorded here. Conditions and time limits apply; the official page below is the place to check them.

How does Stretch count tax days for Costa Rica?

Every stay you log feeds the tally: Stretch counts the days you were present against the 183-day threshold in the right window, so "how long was I actually there?" is answered before your accountant asks. Tax-day tallies are part of Stretch+; the day counter and the alerts are free forever.

Tax days elsewhere

Costa Rica, the rest of it

Stretch is a tracker, not legal advice, and this is not tax advice. Visa and tax rules change and are applied by the authority, not by an app — every figure here shows its source and the date we checked it. Checked 2026-08-18; confirm on the official page before you apply or file.