If you are buying a home, condo or small hotel in Costa Rica to rent to tourists, a bill filed on 13 November matters to you: it would tax what platforms such as Airbnb earn from their commissions, force owners to register with the tourism institute, and let municipalities cap how many rentals a neighbourhood can hold. It is only a proposal today, but it is a useful excuse to stress-test the rental income you are paying for.
Key takeaways
- The bill would put a 10% tax on platform commissions, not on your rent, so the hit to a host depends on who ends up bearing it.
- The part that can change a purchase price is not the tax but the possible municipal cap on how many rentals a community allows.
- Do not pay for rental income that only works with no new tax, no cap and no registration; underwrite a downside case and put the rental rights in the contract.
What happened
- On 13 November 2026, Costa Rican media reported that deputies of the Frente Amplio faction filed a bill to regulate short-term tourist lodging offered through digital platforms; one outlet gives the file number as 25.910 (CRC 891, Monumental).
- It would levy 10% on the income platforms earn from commissions and service fees. Proceeds would be split 50% to municipalities, 30% to the housing mortgage bank (Banhvi) and 20% to the tourism institute (ICT).
- Platforms would register with the tax authority (Tributación), and owners of non-traditional lodging would register with the ICT. The reports say sanctions would apply to owners and platforms that break the rules but give no amounts.
- Municipalities could limit the number and concentration of tourist lodgings in given communities, neighbourhoods or residential buildings, after technical studies and community input.
- Nothing takes effect unless the Assembly passes it. The reports we read give no committee assignment, vote date or government position, and we have not seen the bill text.
What This Means If You Are Buying
This is mainly a question for expat and foreign buyers of homes and condos used as rentals, owners of a few villas, and small-hotel buyers who rely on platform bookings. Start with the arithmetic, because the headline invites a misreading. A 10% tax on a platform’s commission is 10% of the commission, not 10% of your nightly rate. As an illustration of our own, not a verified fee: if a platform kept 15% of a booking, a 10% tax on that commission would be 1.5% of the booking value. Whether the platform absorbs it, raises its fees or lets hosts and guests bear it is the open question, and the bill reports we read do not settle it.
Separately, the tax authority’s director of taxation said in 2025 that hosts renting through platforms could owe about 12.75% of income received, expected around the end of 2026 (Amelia Rueda; the page date reads ambiguously, most likely July 2025). That is an official estimate, not an enacted rate, and it sits on a different base from the bill: host income rather than platform commissions. The same article notes that a 13% value-added tax (IVA) already applies to platforms’ service fees for Costa Rican users, according to Airbnb’s own site.
| Measure | Status | Base | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frente Amplio bill (file 25.910 per one outlet) | Proposal, filed 13 Nov 2026 | Platform commissions and service fees | 10% |
| Tax authority estimate for hosts | Estimate, expected around end-2026 | Host income received | 12.75% |
| IVA on platform service fees | Existing, per Airbnb as cited | Platform service fees | 13% |
The value risk is different from the tax risk. If a municipality caps rentals in your building or beach town, an apartment bought at a price that assumes unlimited short-term use could be worth closer to its long-term-rental value. The same logic applies to a hotel that depends on a few platform channels.
What Could Go Wrong
- The pass-through is unknown: platforms could raise fees, cutting your bookings or your net rate.
- A cap on rentals could be applied by building or neighbourhood, and the reports give no grandfathering rule for existing owners.
- Registration with the ICT and Tributación may bring back-tax questions for past unreported income; a seller’s rental history deserves a hard look.
- The 12.75% and the 10% could stack with existing IVA and income tax; we cannot tell from public reports how they interact.
- Sellers’ occupancy and revenue figures are self-reported and unverified; ask for platform statements and tax filings.
The upside case: the bill may be amended heavily or stall, as many filed bills do, and a registration regime could formalise the market and push unlicensed competitors out. That would help compliant owners. Evidence for it would be a committee text that grandfathers existing registered rentals and leaves the tax on the platform side.
Your Next Steps
- Expat buyers of a rental home or condo: ask your Costa Rican attorney or notary to check the building’s rules on short-term rentals and whether the seller’s rental is registered and declared; make that a condition of the deal.
- Small-hotel buyers: rebuild the income model with platform fees up and occupancy down, and see whether the price still works; our read, not a forecast, is that a deal needing no new cost to pay back is too tight.
- Owners thinking of selling: gather platform payout statements, tax filings and registrations now, because buyers will ask for them.
- Local and resident investors: check which of your rentals sit in dense tourist buildings where a municipal cap would bite first.
What to watch next: the Assembly’s assignment of the bill to a committee and the published text, and the tax authority’s end-2026 target for collecting platform data (an estimate, not a fixed date).
Resumen en español
- El 13 de noviembre de 2026 se presentó un proyecto del Frente Amplio que cobraría 10% sobre las comisiones de plataformas como Airbnb, exigiría registro ante el ICT y Tributación y permitiría a las municipalidades limitar la cantidad de alojamientos; aún es solo una propuesta.
- El 10% se aplica a la comisión de la plataforma, no al alquiler; además, Tributación estimó en 2025 una carga de 12,75% sobre ingresos de anfitriones hacia finales de 2026, una estimación y no una tasa vigente.
- Si compra un alquiler, calcule un escenario con comisiones más altas y un posible límite municipal, y consulte a un abogado o notario costarricense. Por vigilar: asignación a comisión y texto del proyecto.
Related reading: New e-invoice codes for rental and company buyers, the strong colón and dollar-earning rentals, and our Buyer Guides. New to the market? Start at Start Here. Always take advice from a Costa Rican attorney or notary on your own transaction.
Data as of 14 November 2026. Figures marked preliminary will be revised. This is general market commentary, not investment advice.
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