In the middle of a wave of levies on OTT firms in Latin America, Costa Rica has announced a plan to land a 15% tax on video-on-demand (VOD) and online video-based services.
According to Fernando Rodríguez, Costa Rica’s vice-minister of Finance, the Government is planning to add a 15% VAT for every subscription-based streaming TV service. The move would not aim to equal competition in the video market but to increase tax income from a growing industry.“We are preparing a reform to change VAT regulations son we start taxing Internet-based services which usually compete against local companies,” said Rodríguez. “It’s a debate we are having on an international level, inside the OECD.”
Costa Rica’s announcement comes after a year during which different reforms have been sanctioned in Latin America in order to tax over-the-top services.
Starting by Colombia, Argentina and Brazil are also debating a special regulation for OTT services and Uruguay is considering legislative changes to start charging services like Netflix.
