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Costa Rica
A 90% VAT refund worth roughly 11.7% of local spend, uncapped, paid within 90 days — backed by rainforest, volcanoes and two coastlines inside a two-hour drive.
Costa Rica Film Incentive Overview
- ~11.7% effective cash back
- 90% of VAT refunded
- US$500,000 minimum spend
- No cap · 90-day payout
The Costa Rica film incentive works differently from almost every scheme it competes with. The Costa Rica film incentive carries no percentage rebate on qualifying spend and no transferable tax credit. Instead, the country refunds 90% of the VAT a production pays on local goods and services, which translates to roughly 11.7% of total local investment returned in cash within 90 days — the terms are published in full by the Costa Rica Film Commission. The mechanism sits under the Ley de Atracción de Inversiones Fílmicas (Law 10071), signed by President Carlos Alvarado in November 2021 after passing second debate in the Legislative Assembly on 12 October, and is administered by the Film Commission within PROCOMER, the national trade promotion agency.
That 11.7% is not a headline rate designed to win a comparison table, and Costa Rica has never pretended otherwise. What the country sells alongside it is location density — cloud forest, active volcanoes, Pacific and Caribbean coastlines, and dry tropical savannah, most of it reachable inside a single travel day — plus a customs and immigration regime built specifically to get foreign crews and kit in and out without friction. Our production support team in Costa Rica handles that side end to end.
A note on the law, because the record has been muddied. Some incentive trackers have attributed a recent expansion of the Costa Rica film incentive to Law 10657. That is a different statute: the national cinematography and audiovisual law, which restructured the Consejo de Cinematografía and, for the first time, gave representation to digital animation, video games and performers. It governs domestic film policy and the Fondo El Fauno, not foreign production incentives, and its implementing regulation had still not been finalised as of mid-2026. The terms below reflect Law 10071, which is what a foreign production actually claims under.
How the VAT refund works
Costa Rica levies VAT at 13%. The incentive returns 90% of the VAT a production has actually paid on qualifying local purchases, which is where the 11.7% figure comes from — 13% multiplied by 90%. It is a cash refund from the Ministry of Finance, not a credit, so there is no buyer to find, no discount to absorb and no monetisation risk. That makes it structurally simpler than the Dominican Republic’s transferable tax credit, if considerably smaller.
The critical nuance, and the one that catches producers who budget from the headline number: services that are VAT-free do not qualify for the return. If a meaningful share of a production’s local spend sits in zero-rated or exempt categories, the effective return drops below 11.7% — sometimes well below. The refund tracks tax paid, not money spent, and a Costa Rica film incentive model built on gross local spend rather than VAT-bearing local spend will overstate the benefit every time.
Two structural features work in the production’s favour:
- There is no cap on the refund, and all formats are included — scripted and unscripted alike
- One registered company can run multiple audiovisual projects over a period of up to twelve months without applying separately for each, which suits commercial rosters, series slates and production companies with recurring Costa Rican work
Eligible expenditure covers accommodation, local hires, transportation and services contracted within Costa Rica.
Eligibility and minimum spend
The threshold is US$500,000 of qualifying spend in Costa Rica, and the statute frames it as purchases of goods and services directly related to the project exceeding that amount. Below it, the refund is not available at all.
Format eligibility is unusually wide. Short and feature films, series, reality, music videos, commercials, telenovelas, documentaries, animation, and post-production carried out partly or wholly in Costa Rica all qualify — commercials in particular, which most European schemes exclude outright.
Beyond the refund itself, Law 10071 carries a package of exemptions that matter as much as the cash for shorter shoots: exemption from income tax on dependent personal work, suspension of duties on the temporary import of equipment and spares, exemption from duties on baggage including props, wardrobe, make-up and set dressing, and exemption from duties on imported film supplies. Foreign crew and talent are fully exempt from local income tax, and there are no taxes on equipment imported for production. The implementing regulation also sets out immigration facilities for approved projects.
Application process
- Obtain a Temporary Tax ID (NITE). Start the paperwork at least 30 days before spending begins. The Film Commission assists with this directly, and the NITE is what makes the production a recognised taxpayer capable of reclaiming VAT
- Engage a local accountant with Costa Rican tax expertise. This is not optional in practice — the refund is administered through the tax system, not a film fund
- File monthly spending reports to the Ministry of Finance throughout the production period
- Close the production and submit the accounting review, providing all invoices and audited financial documentation
- Final verification. The Costa Rica Film Commission and PROCOMER confirm compliance within 30 days, after which the refund is paid — the law commits to repayment within 90 days
Separate application tracks run in parallel for the film permit itself, for temporary equipment imports and crew entry lists, and for filming authorisation inside protected national park areas, each with its own form set held by the Film Commission.
Locations and infrastructure
Costa Rica’s argument has always been density. Arenal’s volcanic cone and lava fields, Monteverde’s cloud forest, the Osa Peninsula and Corcovado for genuine primary rainforest, Tortuguero’s canal system, Guanacaste’s dry forest and Pacific beaches, and the Caribbean coast around Puerto Viejo with a wholly different cultural and architectural register — all inside a country smaller than Denmark. The country holds around 6% of the world’s total biodiversity, which is why natural-history and adventure commissioners return repeatedly.
The Film Commission has built regional Film Friendly Zones across most of the country to pre-clear permitting pathways with local authorities, and it coordinates permits for public areas, national parks and aerial work directly. Two international airports, widespread USD acceptance, a stable democracy with no standing army, and short-haul flight times from US hubs make the logistics unusually straightforward for the region.
The honest limitation is depth of scripted infrastructure. There are no soundstages of the kind Lantica offers in the Dominican Republic, and for large scripted productions the crew base is thinner than Mexico’s or Colombia’s, which means more heads of department travelling in. For unscripted, commercials, documentary and natural history — the bulk of what actually shoots there — the local base is experienced and sufficient.
Weighing the trade-offs
- 11.7% is low against the regional field. The Dominican Republic offers 25%, Colombia up to 40%, Puerto Rico up to 40%, and Mexico up to 30%. Costa Rica competes on locations and logistics, with the refund as a margin improver rather than the reason to go
- The refund tracks VAT paid, not spend. Zero-rated and exempt services return nothing, so the effective rate is always somewhat under 11.7%
- US$500,000 is a real floor — below it the mechanism simply does not apply, though the twelve-month multi-project window helps companies with recurring work clear it
- Administrative overhead is continuous, not one-off. Monthly reporting to the Ministry of Finance runs for the life of the production, and a local accountant is a budget line from day one
- The NITE has a 30-day lead time before any qualifying spend, which needs to sit in the prep calendar
- National park permits carry their own document set and lead time, and a large share of Costa Rica’s signature locations are inside protected areas
- Green season runs roughly May to November, with implications for scheduling exteriors
Hoodlum’s team can model the real net position on a Costa Rica film incentive claim — separating VAT-bearing from VAT-free spend before you commit to the territory rather than after. Compare it against every other territory we track before you decide.
Who the Costa Rica film incentive is right for
Commercials and branded content are the natural fit. The format is eligible, the shoot lengths suit the customs exemptions, the locations deliver production value quickly, and the twelve-month multi-project structure lets an agency roster or production company clear the US$500,000 threshold across several jobs rather than straining to reach it on one.
Unscripted and natural history are the second clear fit, and the commissioning record reflects it — National Geographic, Amazon, Hulu, Discovery, Netflix, HBO and Disney have all shot in Costa Rica, alongside television for the BBC, PBS, NBC and CBC.
Mid-budget features that need rainforest, volcano or coastal exteriors and can carry a travelling crew will find the country workable, particularly where the locations themselves are the reason for going. Productions chasing the highest available return, or needing standing sets, soundstages and a deep local scripted crew, are better served elsewhere in the region — and Hoodlum will say so.
Notable productions in Costa Rica
Costa Rica’s screen history runs well ahead of its incentive. After Earth (2013), starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith, was shot in the country, with the La Fortuna area featuring heavily. Congo (1995) filmed at San Carlos; Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) used Manuel Antonio National Park and Arenal Volcano; The Blue Butterfly (2004) shot partly at Puerto Viejo in Limón; and Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) staged Columbus’s landfall in Costa Rica.
More recently the pipeline has been dominated by premium unscripted and features with international festival reach — Todd Robinson’s The Last Full Measure, Amazon’s adventure series The Pack, Netflix’s Restaurants on the Edge, and Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s Clara Sola, which took five prizes at the 2021 Swedish Guldbagge Awards including best picture and best director.
One correction worth making, because it appears on almost every listicle: Jurassic Park is routinely credited to Costa Rica because Isla Nublar is fictionally located off its coast. The film’s island exteriors were shot in Hawaii. Don’t budget a location scout around it.
In 2025, Costa Rica received more than US$11 million in investment tied to international audiovisual productions — modest by regional standards, and an accurate measure of where the country currently sits.
Productions spending at least US$500,000 receive up to 90% of VAT back within 90 days — around US$58,500 on that first half-million, with no cap and every format eligible, scripted and unscripted.
— Costa Rica Film Commission
Frequently asked questions
Neither, strictly. It is a refund of VAT already paid — 90% of it — returned in cash by the Ministry of Finance. There is no credit to sell and no percentage rebate on gross spend.
Around 11.7% of local investment, derived from 13% VAT at a 90% refund rate. The real figure is slightly lower where local spend includes VAT-free services, which do not generate a refund.
US$500,000 in qualifying Costa Rican purchases. One company can accumulate this across multiple projects within a twelve-month window rather than meeting it on a single production.
No. The refund is uncapped per project and all formats qualify, scripted and unscripted.
The Film Commission and PROCOMER verify compliance within 30 days of the accounting review, and the law commits to repayment within 90 days.
Yes. Commercials, music videos, telenovelas, reality, documentary, animation and post-production all fall inside the eligible formats — a wider definition than most European schemes allow.
Foreign cast and crew are exempt from Costa Rican income tax on the production, and equipment brought in temporarily is exempt from import duties.
The Temporary Tax ID (NITE) should be underway at least 30 days before any qualifying spend begins. Monthly reporting to the Ministry of Finance then runs for the life of the production.
Talk to our incentives team about structuring your Costa Rica shoot around the Costa Rica film incentive.