As per the legislation of many jurisdictions, online gambling relates to illegal commercial activities. If you intend to do business in this industry, if you possess the required knowledge and assets, but are willing to do it legally, we recommend that you focus on jurisdictions where the gambling online is permitted by law.
Currently, there are many countries where bookmaker agency and online casino registration is not considered to violate the law. Costa Rica is ranked special among such jurisdictions. And moreover, a license is not required to perform activities related to online gambling of companies registered within Costa Rica. The only requirement set by the governmental authority is the prohibition to accept bets from citizens of the same state.
Taxation
The activities undertaken by a company in the field of online gambling, registered on the territory of the country is not taxed. The so-called corporate tax should be only paid once a year.
Specificity of the registering
Laws that regulate commercial activities in the country are specified back in 1964 in the special Commercial Code. In terms of registration forms, foreign investors may create the corporate business within the country area. Creation of the corporate business involves a range of requirements:
At least, one shareholder who is an individual and one shareholder who is a legal person should be the the company member at the time of establishment;
Meetings of shareholders should be held at least once a year as per the charter, and not necessarily on the territory of Costa Rica;
Preferential shares are allowed but bearer shares and no-par value shares are not allowed;
The corporate business should enter: a fiscal representative, the resident’s agent and the treasurer, secretary and president (three managers).
The laws of the Commercial Code does not impose any strict requirements regarding the minimum amount of the authorized capital. The only important aspect to consider is at least 25% of the authorized capital should be paid at the time of the corporation registration. A bank account may be opened with any foreign bank with no restrictions.
The legal field of Costa Rica provide certain requirements for companies registered within the country in respect of their legal address. This requirement is normally easy to meet using lease services; there is no need in purchase of the real estate to get a legal address there. To confirm the legal address, a standard rental contract is enough.
Term of registering
In Costa Rica, the process of company registration takes no more than 50-60 days. If these companies refer to nominal service offered by the Private Financial Services, the terms of registration can be advanced twice. We count from the time when the local registrar is provided with the package of required documentation.
Registrations fee
The cost of registration procedure for the owner of online business associated with gaming is 2 850 Euro. Besides, a reference should be there with any European company to open the merchant in the EU of the average cost of about $1,350 USD. The price of registration includes the basic package of documents and legal address for the period of 365 days.
Also, it is worth considering the cost of the following services:
Treasurer, Secretary and President (three managers as per the Costa Rican law) – 2400 Euro;
One nominee Director – 800 Euro;
Annual support, starting from the second year – 2500 Euro;
Opening a company account in Costa Rica (amount depends on the selected banking facility);
Merchant account opening is 700 Euro.
Documentation
package
Certificate of registration (original);
Decision on appointment of the first Director (original);
Constituent paper (original);
Company seal.
Thanks to good practices, experience gained, qualified theoretical knowledge, the experts employed by the Private Financial Services will quickly and qualitatively help to open and register the business activity in Costa Rica.