Costa Rica approves seven more agreements on tax-information sharing

As lawmakers ended their 2013 session Thursday, the Finance Ministry reported that the legislature approved seven new agreements on the sharing of tax information with several Nordic countries. 

During the month of December, Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly approved accords to exchange tax information with Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Norway, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

“The legislative approval of these seven Information Exchange Agreements represents a great advancement in international accountability and an important commitment by the country in terms of fiscal transparency and automatic exchange of information relevant for tax purposes,” said acting Finance Minister Jose Luis Araya, in a statement Friday.

Earlier this year, Costa Rica signed an agreement to share information with the United States about the financial holdings of U.S. citizens living in order to enforce the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, FATCA.

The recently approved tax transparency agreements come as President Laura Chinchilla’s administration works to prepare Costa Rica’s application to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of many of the world’s developed countries.

In the past, both the International Monetary Fund and the OECD have accused Costa Rica of being a tax haven.

Since 2009, Costa Rica has signed similar agreements with Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Mexico and the Netherlands.