Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules require platform operators like Expedia Group (EG) to collect and report the data of lodging Suppliers who earn income through our websites.

The information is reported to Costa Rica’s government and may be used by tax authorities to assess income tax, value-added tax (VAT), or other taxes, as well as to increase tax compliance and prevent the risk of tax fraud. It may also be used to pre-populate a supplier’s tax return or to support tax audits of suppliers.

As a lodging Supplier, you are considered within scope of Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules if:

  • You are a resident of Costa Rica; or
  • You have properties in Costa Rica (regardless of your country of residence).

Exclusions from the reporting scope:

  • Supplier who is a government entity
  • Supplier who is a publicly traded company
  • Supplier who has more than 2000 transactions a year

Note for Integrated Property Managers (IPMs): EG does not share Vrbo IPMs’ supplier data as Vrbo does not handle the transactional IPM data. IPMs listed on Vrbo are requested to comply with their reporting obligations and share their own transactional data with the relevant tax authority.

 

Data collection

Your obligations

Expedia Group will send you communications and emails asking you to provide the required data in Vrbo.

  • If you are a resident of Costa Rica, the data must be provided for all your listed properties.
  • If you are not a resident of Costa Rica, you must provide information related only to properties located in Costa Rica.
  • Provide data on all listings, even if they’re no longer available for bookings (in case you make the listing available again).
  • If you are not the property owner but manage properties through an EG account on behalf of the property owner, you need to provide your information and the information for each property.
  • If you have the same property listed on Expedia and Vrbo, you will need to add the information on both platforms.
To add or update your property’s required data: 
  1. Sign in to your Vrbo Owner Dashboard.
  2. If you manage more than one property, select the property you want to update.
  3. In the menu, select Local Laws.
  4. In the Regulatory requirements section, review and enter the required information.
  5. Repeat these steps for every property you manage.

The tax authority may contact you directly if they have questions regarding the information provided.

Note:

  • Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules do not affect your tax obligations. Even if you’re already sharing some of the requested data with the local tax authorities, you still need to provide the data to us. Your tax obligations depend on your individual circumstances. We recommend contacting a tax advisor for questions related to your tax obligations.
  • The Costa Rica Regulatory requirement report is generated based on the primary account holder information in Expedia Group Partner Central. To ensure accurate tax reporting, only the property owner or the legal entity responsible for the property's income should be listed as the primary account holder. Consultants should not be listed in this role to prevent potential misattribution of income by tax authorities.

Vrbo obligations

Where legally required, we will provide the Tax Authorities with the information available in our systems that you have provided to us. If part of this information is incorrect or outdated, please update the required data by completing the steps in the previous section.

If you do not provide the information requested, we will share all the relevant information that we have, to the extent required by Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules.

Information for cancelled bookings is not shared; only amounts already paid to you are reported.

If you deactivate your account, your information will be shared if you rented a property or earned income from any activities on our platforms during the reportable period. For example, if you accept one booking for March 2024 and deactivate your account afterwards, in 2025 the platform will report your 2024 income up until the point of deactivation.

Information shared

The distinction between a private and a professional host is based on the partner's declaration during the onboarding process. For details, including how to update this declaration in your Vrbo account, see About regulatory and data-sharing requirements for fraud prevention.

Note: A professional host is defined as a legal person or a legal arrangement, such as a corporation (for example: GmbH, Limited) partnership, trust or foundation. An private host is defined as a single, private, or natural person as distinguished from a partnership, corporation, or association.

The following information will be shared with Costa Rica’s tax authorities:

For both private and professional hosts

  • Primary address of the Supplier
  • All Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) including, as applicable:
    • A social insurance number (SIN) for individuals,
    • A business number (BN) for entities,
    • An account number issued to a trust; and
    • A taxpayer identification number, including a VAT/GST/HST ID or equivalent
  • Bank Account Details (for example: BIC, IBAN), if available
  • Name on the bank account (if different from the name/legal name provided)
  • The total amount earned via EG by the Supplier each quarter and the number of bookings
  • Any fees, commissions or taxes withheld or charged by EG during each quarter of the Reportable Period
  • The address of each property listed on our site

For private hosts only

  • First and last name
  • Date of birth

For professional hosts only

  • Legal name

Multiple owners

For properties with multiple owners, add a single TIN that you would like us to report to the tax authorities and under which you would like the income to be declared for this property.

Multiple properties

If a host has multiple properties and more than one tax identification number (such as TAX ID, VAT, GST, or HST), only one of these numbers will be used for reporting purposes.

Find your VAT/GST/HST ID

You will have a VAT(GST/HST) ID if you have applied to be registered for VAT/GST/HST with a Tax Authority. The VAT/GST/HST ID is issued by the Tax Authorities and may be found on letters from the Tax Authorities, VAT(GST/HST) return forms, or a VAT/GST/HST registration certificate.

Find your TIN

Most countries issue a TIN to their residents/citizens and companies. The TIN can differ per country and may be found on income tax forms, ID cards, or letters from the Tax Authorities. See information on the TIN per country gathered by the OECD.

 

Data reporting

Timelines

In March of each year, Expedia Group is required to share all the previous year’s relevant income and Supplier information with tax authorities:

  • The first data sharing for new Suppliers on the platform as of January 1st, 2025, will occur by March 31st, 2026.
  • For Suppliers on the platform before January 1st, 2025, the first data sharing will occur by March 31st, 2027.

Information reported

If you do not provide the information requested, further guidance will be issued specifically in respect of the penalties that might be applied for breaches of Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules, which may include withholding payments and removal of listings.

 

Data protection and privacy

Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules place a legal obligation on Expedia Group to share its Supplier data with the Tax Authority of Costa Rica. Therefore, in accordance with applicable data protection laws, our lawful basis for collecting and sharing Supplier data is the fulfillment of a legal obligation. EG will retain your Supplier data for as long as it may be necessary to fulfill the purposes of complying with Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules and any other applicable laws.

In accordance with applicable data protection laws, you may have the following rights regarding your Supplier data processed in the context of Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules:

Note: Deleting your account may not mean that we will delete your Supplier data, as we may still be required to retain it for other legal purposes and share it with the Tax Authorities per Costa Rica’s Data Sharing Rules. For further information on how EG processes personal information, read our Privacy Statement.

If you have any questions or concerns, contact customer support.