🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Net salary in Costa Rica: salary tax and CCSS
Costa Rica: 5 income tax brackets from 0% to 25% in 2026. The EXPATRIATION.IO calculator turns gross salary into net take-home pay using the official scale and employee social contributions.
Article 34 of law 7092 grants the credit for a child who is a minor, or unable to provide for themselves through physical or mental incapacity, or in higher education and not over 25. Where both spouses are taxpayers, each child may be claimed by only one of them.
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Tax breakdown by bracket
| Bracket | Rate | Amount | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 ₡ – 11,016,000 ₡ | 0.0% | 11,016,000 ₡ | 0 ₡ |
| 11,016,000 ₡ – 16,164,000 ₡ | 10.0% | 4,984,000 ₡ | 498,400 ₡ |
| Income tax | 498,400 ₡ | ||
Social contributions breakdown
Employer contributions
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Computed for your profile: 13,768,800 ₡ net in Costa Rica.
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This is an estimate for informational purposes. Actual taxes vary based on individual circumstances. Verify with local tax authorities for accurate calculations.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Costa Rica taxes employment income on a monthly scale set by decree every year and applied by the employer as a withholding. For 2026, executive decree 45333-H of 10 November 2025, published in La Gaceta 229 of 5 December 2025, exempts the first 918,000 colones a month, then charges 10% up to 1,347,000, 15% up to 2,364,000, 20% up to 4,727,000 and 25% above, the bands having moved by -0.38% against 2025 to follow the consumer price index as the last paragraph of article 33 of law 7092 requires. The base is the whole monthly pay: title II of that law opens no deduction, so social security contributions are not taken off before the scale. Two monthly credits come off the tax itself under article 34, 1,710 colones per child and 2,590 for a spouse. The employee contributes 10.83% of pay in 2026: 5.50% to the CCSS health insurance, 4.33% to its disability, old age and death scheme, and 1% to the Banco Popular, that last line being compulsory saving credited to a personal account in the worker’s name rather than a tax. The pension rate rises every three years under transitional provision XI of the scheme’s regulation and reaches 4.50% on 1 January 2029. The employer adds 26.83%, spread over the same two CCSS schemes and six further statutory charges, plus an occupational risk premium that varies by activity. A thirteenth payment, the aguinaldo of law 2412, is compulsory in the first twenty days of December at one month of average pay, and it carries neither income tax nor any social security contribution.
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What the calculation reproduces, what it does not model
The calculation models the twelve ordinary monthly salaries of a resident employee, on a salary assumed constant through the year. The scale of article 33 of law 7092 is monthly, and the engine works in annual terms: each threshold is multiplied by twelve, which is exact for a constant monthly salary and only for that, because the tax is settled month by month. It does NOT include the aguinaldo, the thirteenth payment that article 1 of law 2412 makes compulsory in the first twenty days of December and that its article 2 sets at the average of the ordinary and extraordinary salaries of the twelve months before 1 December: article 9 of that law exempts the thirteenth month from income tax, article 35 b) of law 7092 repeats the exemption up to one twelfth of the salaries earned in the year, and article 7 of law 2412 keeps it out of the CCSS contribution base, in terms that name that institution and no other, so a Costa Rican year carries a thirteenth payment that reaches the employee whole, and annualising a monthly salary by thirteen here would tax and charge it twice. The spouse credit of article 34, 2,590 colones a month, is not applied: the engine has no tax credit conditioned on a married household, and rather than divert a field the amount is stated here. The child credit is applied at 20,520 colones a year each, and article 34 grants it only for a child who is a minor, or unable to provide for themselves through physical or mental incapacity, or in higher education and not over 25; where both spouses are taxpayers, each child may be counted by only one of them. Contributions are charged on the whole salary with no upper limit, the regulations setting only a minimum contribution base near the minimum wage, which is not modelled. The 1% withheld for the Banco Popular is compulsory saving, not a tax: article 8 of law 4351 registers it in a personal account owned by the worker, who may withdraw it each calendar year from 1 July of the following year, and article 13 a) of law 7983 moves it to the complementary pension scheme after eighteen months. Not modelled: the salario escolar, which article 35 f) of law 7092 puts outside income tax in full and which this calculation does not add to gross pay; the occupational risk premium the employer pays to the INS, which varies by activity and by firm and is therefore absent from the employer cost line; and the statutory exceptions that relieve some employers of part of the charges shown, among them the FODESAF exemption for the branches of the State, for public education and for very small payrolls, and the INA charge, which private employers owe at 1.5% once they keep five permanent workers, agricultural employers at 0.50% above ten, and autonomous institutions and State enterprises at 1.5% with no headcount condition at all. The model is a resident: article 32 of law 7092 reserves this tax to individuals domiciled in the country, and a salary paid to someone domiciled abroad falls under title IV, where article 59 b) sets a flat 10% on the whole amount remitted, which the calculator does not offer as an option. The 2026 bands apply until the annual indexation decree replaces them: decree 45333-H sets a start date and no end date, exactly as the decree it repealed did.
Tax system in Costa Rica
Costa Rica charges employment income on a MONTHLY scale that the executive re-indexes by decree every year: for 2026, decree 45333-H exempts the first 918,000 colones a month, then takes 10% up to 1,347,000, 15% up to 2,364,000, 20% up to 4,727,000 and 25% above. The base is the whole monthly pay, with no deduction for contributions: title II of law 7092 opens none. Two credits come off the tax itself instead, 1,710 colones a month per child and 2,590 for a spouse. The employee contributes 10.83% in 2026: 5.50% to the CCSS health insurance, 4.33% to its disability, old age and death scheme, and 1% to the Banco Popular, that last line being compulsory saving credited to the worker's own account. The pension rate steps up every three years and reaches 4.50% on 1 January 2029. The aguinaldo, the thirteenth payment made in December, carries neither tax nor contribution. On 2,000,000 colones gross a month, a single person keeps 1,642,550 CRC net a month.
Income tax scale 2026
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| ₡0 – ₡11,016,000 | 0% |
| ₡11,016,000 – ₡16,164,000 | 10% |
| ₡16,164,000 – ₡28,368,000 | 15% |
| ₡28,368,000 – ₡56,724,000 | 20% |
| ₡56,724,000 and above | 25% |
Employee social contributions
| Contribution | Rate | Annual cap |
|---|---|---|
| Health insurance SEM (5.50%) | 5.5% | No cap |
| Pension IVM (4.33%) | 4.33% | No cap |
| Banco Popular compulsory saving (1%) | 1% | No cap |
Gross to net for common salaries (2026)
Single filer without children, standard scale and employee contributions. Estimates for planning, identical to the calculator above.
| Gross per month (over 12) | Gross per year | Net per year | Net per month (over 12) | Employer cost per year | Total deductions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ₡500,000 | ₡6,000,000 | ₡5,350,200 | ₡445,850 | ₡7,609,800 | 10.8% |
| ₡750,000 | ₡9,000,000 | ₡8,025,300 | ₡668,775 | ₡11,414,700 | 10.8% |
| ₡1,000,000 | ₡12,000,000 | ₡10,602,000 | ₡883,500 | ₡15,219,600 | 11.7% |
| ₡1,500,000 | ₡18,000,000 | ₡15,260,400 | ₡1,271,700 | ₡22,829,400 | 15.2% |
| ₡2,000,000 | ₡24,000,000 | ₡19,710,600 | ₡1,642,550 | ₡30,439,200 | 17.9% |
| ₡3,000,000 | ₡36,000,000 | ₡28,229,400 | ₡2,352,450 | ₡45,658,800 | 21.6% |
| ₡4,000,000 | ₡48,000,000 | ₡36,529,800 | ₡3,044,150 | ₡60,878,400 | 23.9% |
| ₡5,000,000 | ₡60,000,000 | ₡44,666,400 | ₡3,722,200 | ₡76,098,000 | 25.6% |
| ₡7,500,000 | ₡90,000,000 | ₡63,917,400 | ₡5,326,450 | ₡114,147,000 | 29% |
A monthly scale, re-indexed by decree every year
Costa Rican salary tax is not an annual tax settled once. Article 33 of law 7092 has the employer withhold it "sobre la renta total percibida mensualmente por el trabajador", month by month, and the same article closes by requiring the executive to move the exempt minimum and every threshold each year on the consumer price index published by the INEC. For 2026 that was done by executive decree 45333-H of 10 November 2025, published in La Gaceta 229 of 5 December 2025, which moved the bands by -0.38% and repealed the 2025 decree: nothing up to 918,000 colones a month, then 10% to 1,347,000, 15% to 2,364,000, 20% to 4,727,000 and 25% above.
This calculator works in annual terms and multiplies each threshold by twelve, which gives 11,016,000, 16,164,000, 28,368,000 and 56,724,000 colones. That is exact for a salary that stays the same every month, and only for that: a year with a large bonus in one month, or with months worked in part, is settled month by month and will not land on the same figure.
One practical consequence is that every figure on this page carries a year. The 2025 scale, which still circulates widely, exempted 922,000 colones a month and set its other thresholds at 1,352,000, 2,373,000 and 4,745,000; the 2026 decree moved each of them down by 0.38%. The executive must move them again for 2027 under the same article 33 mechanism, which requires an annual update and names no month.
Sources: Decreto Ejecutivo 45333-H · Ley 7092, arts. 32 a 35
What the CCSS withholds, and the 1% that is not a tax
Three contribution lines come off a Costa Rican payslip, 10.83% of gross in 2026, beside the salary tax itself. The health insurance takes 5.50% under article 62 of the CCSS health regulation, which also charges the employer 9.25% and the State 0.25%. The disability, old age and death scheme takes 4.33%. The Banco Popular takes 1% under article 5 b) of law 4351.
The 4.33% is the 2026 step of a staged rate, which is why 10.83% appears elsewhere as 10.67%. Article 33 of the pension regulation states the final rates, a tripartite 12.16% of which the employee bears 4.50%, and its transitional provision XI phases them in by steps of half a point. Since a 2019 reform those steps fall every three years instead of every five: the employee was on 4.17% from 2023 to 2025, moves to 4.33% for 2026 to 2028, and reaches 4.50% on 1 January 2029. The employer follows the same path, 5.42% then 5.58% then 5.75%.
The last line is not a tax at all. Article 5 b) of law 4351 has the employer withhold 1% of pay for the Banco Popular, and article 8 of the same law registers it in a personal account owned by the worker, who may withdraw it each calendar year from 1 July of the following year; article 13 a) of the law on worker protection then moves it to the complementary pension scheme after eighteen months. It reduces take-home pay, which is why it is shown here, but it comes back.
Sources: Reglamento del Seguro de Salud de la CCSS, art. 62 · Reglamento del Seguro de IVM, art. 33 y transitorio XI · Alcance 191 a La Gaceta 161 de 28/08/2019 · Ley 4351, arts. 5 y 8
The aguinaldo, a thirteenth payment that reaches the employee whole
Article 1 of law 2412 obliges every private employer to pay an annual bonus equal to a month of salary, and article 2 computes it on the average of the ordinary and extraordinary salaries of the twelve months before 1 December. Article 4 fixes payment in the first twenty days of December.
What makes it unusual is that it escapes both levies at once. Article 9 of that law places the sum received as a thirteenth month outside income tax, and article 35 b) of law 7092 repeats the exemption up to one twelfth of the salaries earned in the year, which is exactly what the statutory aguinaldo is; article 32 a) makes an aguinaldo taxable only for what exceeds that twelfth, so an employer paying more than the legal minimum has the excess taxed. Article 7 of law 2412 then keeps the whole payment out of the CCSS contribution base, and names only that: the charges that fund FODESAF, the IMAS, the INA and the two schemes of the worker protection law are not CCSS quotas and that article says nothing about them.
This calculator models the twelve ordinary monthly salaries. Entering a monthly figure multiplied by thirteen would make the engine tax and charge a payment that bears neither, so a Costa Rican annual package is larger than the figures above by close to a full month of gross.
Sources: Ley 2412, arts. 1, 2, 4, 7 y 9 · Ley 7092, arts. 32 y 35
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Source: sinalevi.go.cr (Decreto Ejecutivo 45333-H) · Tax year 2026 · Last updated September 2026