Today was the last day for corporations and partnerships registered in Costa Rica to pay the new corporate tax as outlined on Law number 9024, Taxation on Business Entities, which was published by La Gaceta on December 27^th, 2011. True to our idiosyncrasy, thousands of Ticos scrambled to make last-minute online payments on Banco de Costa Rica’s (BCR) Internet platform especially designed for that purpose.

Alejandro Acon, Director of the Retail Division of BCR explained to Radio Reloj earlier today that the bank’s network could not handle the onslaught of eleventh hour activity and unceremoniously crashed. Branch offices also reported a flurry of activity, which was exacerbated by the fact that it was payday for many Ticos in light of tomorrow’s holiday. The procrastinators stood in line along with wage earners anxious to deposit their paychecks and make payments.

As of 4:30 pm, the bank’s system was still down, which prevented BCR from offering a glimpse into how many business entities were able to pay the tax on the last possible day. Until last Friday, about 62,000 payments had been made, from more than 500,000 that the Treasury estimated would be obligated to pay.

When the law was proposed it was going to be part of the Fiscal Reform Plan, although legislators were able to separate the two. The corporate tax thus survived the stalling of the Fiscal Reform Plan, which did not make it past Constitutional Hall on procedural grounds.

All businesses entities must pay this tax, whether their status is active or inactive. Only business entities that were formally dissolved more than 90 days ago, and those micro companies defined by Decree 26426 of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC), are exempt from payment.

Payments received after today will be penalized at the rate of 50 colones per day for active entities and 25 colones per day for inactive entities. There was some confusion on this fine, which the National Registry was not able to clear up until earlier today. Most people who rushed to make last-minute payments thought they would be penalized by a full month’s median salary.