Panama: Positive Rating of the OECD Global Forum

Posted on 2017-06-30

Panama received a positive rating in the evaluation of the exchange of fiscal information of the Global Forum on transparency and exchange of tax information from the Organization for cooperation and economic development (OECD) announced so the Panamanian Government.

Forum assigned a temporary grade of "complier greatly" to the country, the second best note which cannot be obtained, explained Publius Cortés, general director of revenue. Should be recalled that Panama, after being late, finally went to the second phase in 2015 and that passing this test is important in issues of international reputation.

Adds the note that the decision was based on the progress made by Panama in the adequacy of their legislative framework, the expansion of partners for the exchange of tax information and the work being done by the DGI to respond to requests for information.

OTO point that was highlighted in the note is that the qualification of the Global Forum is considered in the review process that the issue also carries out the European Union. To draw up their list, the G-20 asked the Global Forum that criteria be established to determine the compliance of countries with the standards of fiscal transparency.

It should be noted that the issue of tax information exchange is an important point in this review as well as other measures taken by the country as the adoption of a series of normas.que, among other developments, allow to identify the beneficiaries of legal persons, is obligated to keep records to offshore companies and give more enforcement powers to the DGI to establish sanctions. In addition ratified, in record time, the Multilateral Convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters that allows exchanging information, upon request, with more than 100 countries.

The evaluation was carried out by an abbreviated process known c omo fast track jurisdictions such as Panama had the opportunity to be reviewed quickly to improve their score.

Source: AN Panama