German citizien, currently expat in Hungary, will maybe move to C.R.

Dear All,

first of all thank you for spend some time, reading my questions and inputs. I just registerd here and first of all I want to tell you some more details about my person. My Name is Markus from Germany and I am currently living in Hungary, Budapest, working as an expat for a german company since 2011.
The reason why I want to contact some of you guys here is the fact, that my company wants to do some expansions in Costa Rica and I would be one of the candidates to go there. Most probably we will settle down round about San Jose (maybe Alajueres) Area.

As I have heard some negative stories of one of my colleagues and friends, going to the US as an expat, negotiating the salary and find out some "tax suprises" only after, I really want to do some proactive investigations on that.

Important to know is also, that my wife has the hungarian citizienship and of course want to come with me to Costa Rica.

I now have summarized some questions and would be really thankful, to discuss with you all about it. In reverse I promise, to give you a regulary update, once I would start to work in Costa Rica. Furthermore I will share my experiences in Hungary within others groups in this blog.

1) Would my wife get a working visa in connection with my Visa? (like in the US)
2) Income Tax is 15% (earning more the 929k Colons) right? Would this be also valid for me?
3) I have heard that I have to pay also for health insurance, even if my company would pay for a private health insurance in Europe?
4) As Germany and Costa Rica signed a "Double Taxation Agreement" I could stay in the german social system, only paying income tax, right? refering to question3 also
5) Do I have to pay tax also for my company car and the flat in which I am living it (payed from the company)
6) I Hungary I pay my income tax every quarter by myself, would this be also possible in Costa Rica?

For the moment this would be everything which I want to know. Hope some of you guys could help me, hopefully we have a lot of conversations in near future ;-)

Thank / Danke / Köszönöm szépen
MARKUS

Hi and welcome to Expat.com Markus !

I hope the forum will be able to help you out.

Regards
Armand

Markus,

These are very specific questions about tax laws in Costa Rica. I suggest reaching a tax lawyer and immigration lawyer. I know outlierlegal.com does immigration and business. I am not sure about taxes. But it would be a good place to inquire about this issues.

3) I have heard that I have to pay also for health insurance, even if my company would pay for a private health insurance in Europe?


Yes, you will have to pay public health insurance.

5) Do I have to pay tax also for my company car and the flat in which I am living it (payed from the company)


The company or you will have to pay tax and insurance for the car. You don't have to pay any tax for a rented flat. The owner of the flat will pay the tax.


What business are you in?