Abstract

On December 4, 2018, the Legislative Decree No. 9635, entitled Strengthening of Public Finances was published in La Gaceta de Costa Rica; in its title No. 1, it carries out a comprehensive reform of Law No. 6826 (General Sales Tax Law) from November 8, 1982. This reform transforms the General Sales Tax (GST) into a Value Added Tax (VAT), establishing different tax rates for different subgroups of goods and services. The objective of this research is to present the results of the analysis carried out on the impact of the implementation of VAT on the different income deciles in the country (each decile is composed of 10% of households). It is determined that although the highest monetary contribution (tax collection) would be made by the households from the highest deciles, it is the households of the lower deciles that would be most affected in relation to their level of income, since, -according to the National Income and Expenditure Survey of 2013- the first three deciles spend more than they earn. This means that the payment of more taxes will significantly affect their consumption capacity, which will require State support to counteract the effect.

Keywords: Tax reform; value added tax; consumption; Law on Strengthening Public Finance