Costa Rica makes businesses register SINPE Móvil numbers for tax

Costa Rica makes businesses register SINPE Móvil numbers for tax

16 October 2026: Costa Rican taxpayers who take payments through SINPE Móvil, the Central Bank's phone-number transfer service, must now register every phone number linked to those accounts in the national tax register. Executive Decree 45953-H, published in Alcance 139 to La Gaceta on 16 October, takes effect on publication, and failing to register will be penalised under article 83 of the tax code once the deadlines run out.

Not yet independently verified. The dates in the decree run from the general resolution Hacienda has yet to issue, so the registration deadline for existing taxpayers is not yet known. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What the decree changes

The decree adds a third paragraph to article 22 of the tax procedure regulation, the duty to register. Taxpayers who use SINPE Móvil "as a means of payment in their economic activity" must record the linked phone numbers when they register, or through a change of details, under conditions the tax administration will set in a general resolution. The Ministry of Finance says the number is information of tax relevance because it completes the payment-method data already captured on electronic invoices.

The decree is careful about scope. It covers numbers used in a business activity, keeps the information under the tax code's confidentiality rule and the data protection law, and creates no tax on transfers.

The timetable that follows

The decree sets a sequence rather than a date:

• Within three months of the decree taking effect, the tax administration must add the field to the RUT registration and change-of-details forms and issue the general resolution with the registration rules.
• Taxpayers already registered then have twelve months from that resolution to record their numbers.
• After those periods, missing or outdated registrations attract the article 83 penalty.

New registrations will need the numbers as soon as the forms carry the field.

Why Hacienda wants the numbers

The decree's own figures explain the move. It cites Central Bank statistics of 4,801,297 active SINPE Móvil phone subscriptions at the end of May 2026 and ₡12.53 trillion moved through the service in 2025, and says a large share of the activity behind those payments is taxable but not fully declared. Since version 4.4 of the electronic invoice specification took effect on 1 September 2025, invoices must already identify the payment method, SINPE Móvil included. Linking the phone number to the taxpayer lets the tax administration match the two.

For businesses, the practical work is in reconciliation. Point-of-sale and invoicing systems that record SINPE Móvil as the payment method should hold the receiving number as well, and a business that takes payments on staff or family phones will need to register those numbers or move the payments to registered ones. The draft went out for comment in June, and the published text is the final version. Our payment processing category lists 14 products.

Sources

• Imprenta Nacional: Alcance No. 139 to La Gaceta No. 196, Executive Decree No. 45953-H, 16 October 2026
• El Financiero: Hacienda publica decreto que obliga a registrar números de SINPE Móvil, 19 October 2026