Gain on Exchange Taxable
- Details
- Category: The Nation
- Published on Tuesday, November 09 2010 06:03
- Written by Rod Hughes
- Hits: 727
Dec. 15 is Costa Rica's tax deadline and if you earned money from this years colón exchange rate, the Finance Ministry says it's taxable by a 1988 law. However, if you lost money you can deduct it as a business expense.
This deduction will relieve at least some distress in the tourism industry where most income is in now-weakened dollars. Although raw tourism numbers are up this year over 2009, that was not always reflected in hotel and tour company bottom lines.
On Oct. 20, 2009, purchase value of the dollar was ¢577. A year later, the dollar had plummeted to ¢504. In past years, the colón was carefully inflated but in recent years was freed to float. The result made neither exporters nor tourism businessmen happy.
