Digital Nomad Taxes in Costa Rica

The threshold is ‘more than 183 days’ within the same fiscal period, which now runs on the calendar year. It's an aggregate count, so ten separate three-week stays add up the same as one long one, and border days count.

Crossing the line converts you from non-resident (subject only to flat withholding taxes on local income) to resident (subject to the progressive scale on local income).

Either way, income from foreign sources is untaxed under Costa Rica's territorial system — the day count changes how local income is taxed, not whether foreign income is.

Costa Rica has one of the thinnest treaty networks of any nomad destination: just 4 comprehensive income tax treaties in force — Germany, Mexico, Spain, and the UAE (as of July 2026).

In practice the territorial system does the work a treaty network would: foreign-source income simply isn't taxed, so double taxation of remote-work income is rare. But if your home country claims you as resident, there is usually no treaty tie-breaker to invoke — you'll need to break residency under its domestic rules.

Costa Rica's digital nomad law (Law 10008, regulated in 2022) is one of the cleanest tax deals available: qualify with USD 3,000/month of foreign income (USD 4,000 with family) and the law grants a full income-tax exemption on your remote earnings, plus duty-free import of your work equipment.

The statute goes further than most rivals — it declares that visa holders are never considered habitual tax residents and that their foreign pay is not Costa Rican-source income, removing the usual 183-day anxiety entirely.

The permit runs one year and can be extended for a second. Only money you earn from Costa Rican sources — local clients, local rental income — would ever be taxed locally, under the normal territorial rules.