I think that in every real estate transaction that I have been involved in here in Costa Rica, the buyer has opted to use a Costa Rica corporation to purchase the property. I have explained the pros and cons various ways when asked, but I don’t think that I have ever put it as well as an e-mail that I was just copied on from one of the San Buenas Golf Resort partners. I include it here for the benefit of readers of this blog.
The bottom line is you should always conduct business in CR via a corporation. There are definite tax and liability implications. Canadian residents are lucky…any income earned outside of Canada is not taxed by Canada. The US is different, all income, regardless of where it is earned, is taxed. CR and the US do not have a tax treaty, so you will pay the CR government 30% and the US government 35% if the shares are in your name.