The Dirección Nacional de Tributación (National Directorate of Taxation) shut down last week, 18 retail business located in different parts of the country, for breach of their tax obligations.
The closures were for problems with late payment of taxes, not issuing proper invoices and/or billing practices and errors in declarations on tax statements.
Carlos Vargas, director of Tributación, explained that when dealing only with invoicing/billing problems, they only close the offending location, but when lateness and other irregularities are added, all the retail locations of a business are shut down.
Closed last week were: Obras de Madera Bieanz S.A. (Escazú), Bisutería Mari (Hatillo), Amadeus Global Travel Distributions (San José), Barro Barroco S.A., Bar y Restaurante Country (Desamparados) and Supermercado 24/7 (La Merced), among others.
The closures are part of “tax control activities” carried out by the Ministerio de Hacienda (ministry of Finance), with the objective of imporoving taxpayer compliance, explained Vargas