Costa Rica

Ease of Doing Business in

Costa Rica

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Costa Rica. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

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Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region Latin America & Caribbean
Income Category Upper middle income
Population 4,726,575
GNI Per Capita (US$) 7,660
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
110 122 down 12

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
57.0 54.9 down 2.1
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 128 125 up -3
Dealing with Construction Permits 128 139 up 11
Getting Electricity 45 43 up -2
Registering Property 46 45 up -1
Getting Credit 83 97 up 14
Protecting Investors 169 167 up -2
Paying Taxes 125 135 up 10
Trading Across Borders 51 62 up 11
Enforcing Contracts 128 127 up -1
Resolving Insolvency 128 127 up -1

Economy Profile

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Additional Data

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Starting a Business

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The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 128 DB 2012 Rank 125 Change in Rank down-3
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 66.5 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 66.6 Improvement in DTF** (% points) down-0.1
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 17.6457,453
Indicator Costa Rica Latin America & Caribbean OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

View methodology Procedures (number)
12 9 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

View methodology Time (days)
60 53 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

View methodology Cost (% of income per capita)
11.4 33.7 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

View methodology Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
0.0 3.7 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Check the availability of the proposed company name 1 day CRC 50,000
2 A notary public drafts and notarizes public deeds of the incorporation charter for registration before the Mercantile Section of the Public Registry 1 day 150,000
3 Send the notice of the constitution of the company for publication in Costa Rica's official newspaper "La Gaceta" and obtain a receipt 1 day CRC 820 per line (assuming 7 lines)+CRC 20 (fiscal stamp)
4 Deposit capital in the bank account 1 day no charge
5 Register the incorporation charter in the mercantile section of the public registry 3-4 weeks see comment
6 File Form D-140 with the before the Tax Department to register the firm as a taxpayer 2 days see comment
7 Legalize the company’s books 2 days USD 35
8 Apply for the business license (patente municipale) from the municipality 18 days USD 200
* 9 Apply for sanitary permit 1 day USD 30
10 Register the company as an employer with Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS, Social Security Institution) 7 days no charge
11 CCSS conducts an inspection at the company’s facilities 1 day no charge
12 Register for labor risk insurance with the National Insurance Institute (Instituto Nacional de Seguros) 1 day no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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