QCOSTARICA — Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court, popularly known as Sala IV, declared admissible a constitutional action filed by the National Association of Public and Private Employees (ANEP) and annulled the fifth paragraph of Article 18 bis of the Code of Tax Norms and Procedures, which limited public access to the list of tax delinquents.
In its resolution 2025-17051, with a voting date of June 4, 2025, but released this Monday, the Constitutional Court ruled by a majority that this provision was unconstitutional because it made the disclosure of the name and amount of the taxpayer’s debt conditional on the debt being final in the administrative court and not being challenged in the contentious-administrative jurisdiction.
The Court ruled that the ruling has retroactive effect to the effective date of the annulled rule, except with respect to rights acquired in good faith.
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The decision was made with the dissenting votes of Justices Fernando Castillo Víquez, Luis Fernando Salazar Alvarado, and Alternate Justice Ronald Salazar Murillo. The majority were Justices Fernando Cruz Castro, Paul Rueda Leal, Ingrid Hess Herrera, and Jorge Araya García.
The now annulled text established that the names and amounts of debts could only be disclosed if they were final in the administrative court and were not being challenged in court. This, in practice, limited access to this information, even in the case of debts already determined by the Tax Administration.
In its report as an impartial advisory body to the Sala IV, the Attorney General’s Office also recommended that the unconstitutionality action be upheld. The institution held that the challenged paragraph imposed an illegitimate restriction on the right of access to public information, enshrined in Articles 27 and 30 of the Political Constitution.
According to the Attorney General’s Office’s analysis, the information generated by the Tax Administration regarding assessed debts is not protected by tax secrecy, as it does not come directly from the data provided by taxpayers in their tax returns, but rather corresponds to administrative acts of public interest.
Furthermore, the Attorney General’s Office emphasized that administrative or judicial appeals do not suspend the effects of tax assessments, in accordance with the principle of enforceability established in the General Law of Public Administration.
With this ruling, the Ministry of Finance will no longer be able to deny access to the names and amounts of tax debts on the grounds that they are pending administrative or judicial resolution, so anyone can request and access this information.
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The Court ordered that the ruling be published in full in the Judicial Bulletin and that it be reviewed in the Official Gazette (La Gaceta).
The unconstitutionality action was processed under file 19-011237-0007-CO and is pending the full drafting of the ruling.
Following the declaration of unconstitutionality of this paragraph in question, Article 115 of the Code of Tax Norms and Procedures will be applied, which establishes that “information on the names of individuals and legal entities that have tax debts with the Public Treasury and the amount of said debts shall be publicly accessible.”
This article also empowers the Tax Administration to publish lists of individuals in debt to the Public Treasury and the amounts owed, as well as the names of individuals or legal entities that have not filed their tax returns or that carry out economic activities without registering as taxpayers.
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