Guatemala To Sign its First Double Taxation Treaty
In January, the first Convention of Tax Information Exchange could be signed with Australia.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
In order for this convention, and others are under negotiation, to be implemented, Congress needs to approve the banking secrecy law, which would allow access to accounts relating to tax matters, a requirement of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Manfredo Chocano, planning manager of the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT), also said they intend to complete negotiations with the Nordic countries by the end of January.
"The outstanding issue is removing bank secrecy so that the government can access information when necessary.
This initiative has stalled in Congress, as representatives are trying to include modifications to the original proposal and dictate that a judge should decide whether the information should be provided by banks to the SAT.
"This is not about eliminating bank secrecy, what is sought is an exception to provide the country with a basic tool for implementing controls to the tax system," said Chocano", in an article in Prensalibre.com.
At the moment, of the OECD requirements, Guatemala has already approved the law that eliminates shares from shareholders in companies and established the use of international accounting and auditing.
Before April 2012 the country will negotiate double taxation agreements with the UAE and Hungary.
The announcement was made by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Frank de Lima, during the opening of the new ordinary session of the Legislature.
"The head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance stressed the importance of the ratification by the French legislature of the double taxation agreement with Panama signed last December and its departure from the "gray list " collated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He said that the move by France means that later this month, when France makes its list of countries with uncooperative tax policies, Panama should be left out of this category", reported Prensa.com.
The French government has approved a bill to formalize the double taxation agreement with Panama.
The French government issued a statement after the Council of Ministers meeting which says, "The French government today approved the bill to formalize the agreement on double taxation with Panama, whose final adoption should allow the Central American country to be removed from the French list of tax havens."
The Panama Banking Association has asked the government to respond to statements made by the French president and claim compensation for damage caused to the country.
Mario de Diego, executive vice president of the Panama Banking Association (ABP), said that if the concern of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), "is that the Panamanian banking system is safeguarding funds originating from these countries, statistics show the opposite."
The country has exchanged texts with seven countries to sign double taxation agreements.
Additionally, the Public Finances Ministry has invited Pascal Saint-Amans, head of the Tax Transparency Forum at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), to visit the country.
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