PANAMA

On November 8, the General Revenue Directorate (DGI in Spanish) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance published, through the Official Gazette, the resolution that establishes the requirements of the procedures that companies operating in the Panama-Pacific Special Economic Area must follow in order to obtain the tax benefits of the Tax Regime of the mentioned zone, as established in Law 41. The regulation is already in force.

The resolution establishes that those taxpayers who wish to access the tax exemptions must present a set of documents before the DGI. Among them are the request to the Director of the DGI detailing the taxes from which they request to be exempted, the legal arguments of such request, the certification of the operation as an Agency of the Panama-Pacific Area, where they have to specify the registration of the company in such area.

The companies residing in the Area must follow the requirements mentioned in the resolution in order to have access to different tax exemptions. It is worth mentioning that among these are the exemption from import duties on merchandise introduced into the Panama-Pacific Area, the exemption from the Tax on the Transfer of Movable Goods and the Rendering of Services (ITBMS in Spanish) on all kinds of products and the exemption from the Tax on the Transfer of Real Estate.