Looking up you Corporate Taxes and Title on the National Registry

Everyone should check the status of their corporation taxes and titles:

National Registry of Costa Rica:

https://www.rnpdigital.com/

Instructions for Taxes:

http://www.costaricalaw.com/video/latest/costa-rica-corportion-annual-tax-how-much-do-you-owe

Instructions for Title:

http://www.costaricalaw.com/video/latest/costa-rica-property-title-search-online

Epoch Times » The Enigmatic Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

The Enigmatic Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

By Louis Makiello On August 12, 2012 @ 7:00 am In Beyond Science

John Hoopes, University of Kansas associate professor of anthropology and director of the Global Indigenous Nations Studies Program, with a stone sphere. (Courtesy of John Hoopes)

When workers from the United Fruit Company began clearing the jungles of Costa Rica for banana plantations in the 1930s, they made a strange discovery.

They came upon numerous stone spheres—some very large—sitting in the middle of the jungle. Explorers had first reported their existence in the 19th century. Several hundred have since been discovered. The smallest are baseball-sized, while the largest are the size of a small car, weighing 16 tons.

Trying to find out who made the spheres and how, as well as their purpose, has proven difficult.

John Hoopes of the University of Kansas, who has studied the stones, holds that virtually all known spheres have been moved from their original locations or even blown up by treasure hunters. The only way of dating the spheres is by stratigraphic context (determining which layer of soil they are from), since no written or pictorial records exist.

Some have been found alongside pottery of the Aguas Buenas culture (200 B.C. to A.D. 800). Others were reportedly found at burial sites with gold ornaments dated to after A.D. 1000.

Hoopes wrote on his website that “the balls could have been made anytime during an 1,800-year period. The first balls that were made probably lasted for several generations, during which time they could have been moved and modified.

“Many of the balls were found to be in alignments, consisting of straight and curved lines, as well as triangles and parallelograms.

“One group of four balls was found to be arranged in a line oriented to magnetic north. This has led to speculation that they may have been arranged by people familiar with the use of magnetic compasses, or astronomical alignments.

“Unfortunately, all but a few of these alignments were destroyed when the balls were moved from their original locations, so measurements made almost 50 years ago cannot be checked for accuracy,” Hoopes stated on his website.

This lack of data has led to a variety of speculations. Local legends reportedly state that people had a potion to soften stone. Some authors suggest the spheres came from Atlantis or were made by aliens.

Barring a major archeological breakthrough with the discovery of more spheres, they will remain a mystery for the time being.

Costa Rica Architectural Firm Is Building Energy Efficient Homes To Combat Rising Electricity Rates

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

As electricity rates are rising in Costa Rica, luxury design build firm, Sarco Architects, is building "Green" homes. Their concern for the clients' electricity bill is only matched by their desire to protect the environment.

(PRWEB) May 16, 2012

Anyone living in Costa Rica will tell you that the cost of electricity is high. The Costa Rica Star recently reported that CNFL customers can expect to see their electric bills go up 4.7% in May. This means that anyone thinking about building a new home there will want to optimize their energy usage. That is why there are now people in Costa Rica who are seeking out alternative energy systems when building a luxury vacation home.
Roderick Anderson of Sarco Architects says, "Our clients tell us that part of the experience of enjoying their luxury vacation home in Costa Rica is keeping the electricity price tag at a reasonable level. Many people start thinking of a fully enclosed air-conditioned home, but when they get the energy bill they start thinking outside the box."
Anderson's architectural firm in Costa Rica is deeply concerned about the rising cost of electricity and really feels that the environmental impact of it all comes at a much higher price tag. Not only is his company is leading the way in designing and building energy efficient homes, but they are also highly skilled in creating environmentally responsible luxury vacation homes.
One way that his custom design build firm is doing this is by using a technology that can perform a Building Energy Analysis while still in the architectural design process. This allows for efficient building energy performance calculations right from the design model. That is very important because about 80% of the important decisions that determine a building's energy performance are made during the design process.
Having the ability to perform energy calculations allows the architects at Sarco to evaluate different design alternatives. They then complete the design by adding energy efficient systems, equipment, and lighting. This allows the architects to present a complete and integrated solution for energy efficiency in the future custom luxury homes of their clients.
The service that Sarco Architects offers lets people who are thinking of having a vacation home built in Costa Rica to do so knowing that it will be designed with utmost concern for all environmental and energy efficiency standards.

About Sarco Architects

Sarco Architects is a full-service architectural design-build firm in San Jose, Costa Rica. Sarco is driven by the desire to always be at the forefront of technology and its application to their architectural designs and their services, so they can provide the best solutions for architectural services oriented at foreign clients in Costa Rica. They will soon be opening up services in Panama.

For further information about Sarco Architects Costa Rica and their services contact:
Roderick Anderson, Intl. Assoc. AIA, Firm Principal
Sarco Architects Costa Rica
506.2283.4107
www.sarcoarchitects.com

Costa Rica Introduces New Corporate Tax

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

09 April 2012

Costa Rica has introduced a new annual tax on all corporate structures, pegged to average public sector salaries.

For 'active companies' registered in Costa Rica, i.e. those undertaking commercial activities, the tax is equal to half the average monthly base salary of a public sector employee. For 'inactive companies', those used to house personal assets but which do not undertake commercial activities, the tax is half this amount, or 25% of the base salary. For 2012, the base salary has been confirmed as CRC360,600 (USD714), meaning the tax for each active company is CRC180,300, and CRC90,150 for each inactive corporate structure.

The law provides for exemptions for not-for-profit corporations, and for small- and micro-businesses, providing they are registered as such with the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce.

With the tax payable by April 30, 2012, the government has introduced transitional measures to allow tax breaks for those seeking to restructure their tax affairs. Taxpayers wishing to dissolve corporate structures by July 2012 may receive exemption from the payment of the tax, and transfers from one corporate to another, or to an individual, will be exempt from transfer taxes otherwise due on this transaction, until October 2012, providing the company has been inactive for at least 24 months prior to the enactment of the law.

The tax has been introduced to fund enforcement projects to tackle organised crime, with proceeds going to the nation's security ministry, “Ministerio de Seguridad Publica”.

11 Costa Rica Hotels In Top 25 In Central America

Eleven hotels in Costa Rica are among the top 25 best in Central America for 2012, according to Trip Advisor Traveler's Choice 2012.

Among the hotels listed by the online travel service are: La Paloma Lodge, Drake Bay (8); Hotel El Silencio del Campo, La Fortuna de San Carlos (9); Doce Lunas Hotel,Jacó (11); Rancho Pacifico in Uvita (14); Four Seasons, Papagayo (15), Guanacaste; Pranamar villas, Santa Teresa (16); Arenas del Mar Beachfront and Rainforest Resort, Manuel Antonio (17); Hotel Royal Corin, La Fortuna de San Carlos (18); Oxygen Jungle Villas, Uvita (19); Manatus Hotel, Tortuguero (21); and Lodge Las Ranas, Playa Samara (22).

The number one hotel in Central America, according to Trip Advisor is The Phoenix Resort in San Pedro, Belize. The service describes it as "The best of both worlds: island life and modern conveniences. An exceptionally clean property, perfect location, superb staff".

Trip Advisor is used by many to find recommendations on hotels, vacation packages, resorts ad travel guides to over 400.000 destinations around the world.

The site has more than 50 million visitors monthly and over 60 million traveler reviews and opinions.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/TravelersChoice-Hotels-cTop25-g291958.

Post from Costa Developers about Costa Reserva

This was posted on the owners forum by Mauricio Roman:
"We are planning on resuming the development in Costa Reserva, unfortunately the project was interrupted. Right now we are doing an assessment of the work performed and the scope left. If any lot owner wants to join us on visits to the site (while in Costa Rica) or wants more information, please feel free to call us at 1-305-396-4058."

Costa Rica's Telecom Market Now Officially Competitive

Movistar opened its doors on Tuesday, Claro is doing business on the hush hush until Friday From:  http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2011/november/09/costarica11110902.htm The start of operations of Movistar and Claro this week ends the monopoly in cellular telecommunications held by the state telecom, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). Although Spain's Movistar opened its doors to the public on Tuesday, signing up customers for prepaid and postpaid cellular service, Mexico's Claro is doing business on the hush hush and behind closed doors, at least until Friday when it opens its doors officially. At Multiplaza the storefront windows to Claro are still boarded up with a hostess at the door allowing in only a select number of people. Inside, potential customers are greeted by a large selection of cellular telephones and plans and pricing, customers still have to take a number in an virtually empty store to be served. At Movistar a photo captures the irony of the situation, no matter what one still need ICE. The photo posted on Facebook shows a Movistar display with a ICE sign of pending service connection. To be fair, the service request is for fixed line telecommunications, which still ICE is the only service provider. The question is why would a cellular telecom like Movistar need a fixed line? Don't they have 1 million lines available and quite sure some locked up in the back room for their own use? And if for a credit card processing machine, there are now wireless units that use a cellular chip. Didn't anyone tell Movistar "Who's your daddy", Movistar? For the most part, the major complaint of the new customers of the new operators is coverage and connection. For instance, Inside Costa Rica purchased a data SIM chip from Claro, but will not send or receive text messages to and from numbers of other operators. Works great within the Claro network, so does the data connection of 1.5 mbps we tried. Claro, like Movistar are offering voice and date packages to suit all types of needs, both in prepaid and postpaid (subscription) services. The prepaid services can be recharged with as little as ¢100 colones and each operator offers bonus recharges for customers, depending on the amount of the recharge. Postpaid services include plans with cellular phones are reduced prices and even free, for units like Blackberry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia, to name a few. Although anyone can obtain prepaid service, only nationals and legal residents (residency cedula required) can subscribe to the postpaid and obtain plan packages with telephones. It is expected that in the coming weeks both Movistar and Claro will sort out their start of operations problems and give ICE some serious competition. Jorge Abadía, the Telefonica (parent company of Movistar) spokesman, stated that "Movistar is proud to be the first private operator to begin operations in Costa Rica. We are proud of our phone selection, and are in negotiations with Apple to offer their phones, we should have news within the next few weeks. We have a technologically advanced network, which is completely backwards compatible, so 2G (GSM) and 3G users may use our network, which offers data speeds of up to 1 megabyte per second. We will differentiate ourselves through customer service and technical support." Another market Movistar is seeking to please is the small and medium business market. Movistar will give special rates on regular calls and long distance calls. In addition they offer a cost control system, which means that companies may give their employees a phone with a preset limit. If the employee goes over the limit, the phone converts to post-pay mode and the employee may reload it at one of the service points throughout the country. Commentary: With the opening of the telecom sector, foreigners who are not "legal" residents (ie. tourists, visitors, etc) in Costa Rica can now obtain cellular service and purchase technology (a cellular phone, smartphone, tab, etc) from operators, including ICE, without the residency requirements. BUT this applies only to PREPAID and CASH purchases. For postpaid (subscription) and finances packages, ie equipment and a minutes plan, residency is still required. Don't believe anything to the contrary.