SlimSoft's Costa Rican Blog

Since my last post, we have been busy on 2 fronts. Firstly, we have finally released our new website, including the Careers page I promised in my last post. Secondly, we have been working hard with CINDE and our Costa Rican lawyer to prepare for our business launch in Costa Rica. Things are progressing well, but we have begun to realize that we need more time than we originally thought to get things going.

The main reason for the extended time period is to do with our decision to locate our business in one of the Free Zones in Costa Rica. I haven't talked about the Free Zones yet. This is one of the primary incentives that Costa Rica has to attract foreign investment. There are a number of reasons for locating in a Free Zone. The most notable for us are:

1. 100% income tax exemption for 8 years followed by 50% income tax exemption for 4 years.
2. 100% Repatriated Profit exoneration.
3. 100% Sales or Added Value Tax exemption.
4. Duty Free Import of goods required for business operations.

In exchange for these incentives, we must agree to investing $150,000 in fixed assets within the first 2 years. These assets must be spent after our application for Free Trade Zone status has been approved.

As we have been working through the process, it has become evident that it is unlikely that we will have our application approved before mid January. For this reason, we have concluded that it would be somewhat premature for us to hire until we have received this approval. We have therefore rearranged our plans. We will be travelling to Costa Rica as planned on October 1st. However, instead of a 3 month stay, we will be staying for 3 weeks. During this 3 week period, we will finalize the incorporation of our Costa Rican company and choose which Free Trade Zone to locate our office in. We will return for a 3 month stay for January through to the end of March to officially kick off the company.

While we are disappointed by the delay, we are actually quite excited by the new strategy. We feel that this approach will provide us with an even better foundation to build from. Momentum is building with SlimSoft. Our services are in demand and we are definitely in need of more talent. We are more confident than ever that our Costa Rican operation will be a success and we are therefore planning to hire 5 people in February rather than 3 in October and 2 in March. If you are interested in our job opportunities, please send in your application at your earliest convenience.