The government is reviewing the rules on tax information to adapt them to international requirements, trying not to affect the competitiveness of the banking center.
The review will be carried out by the newly created Presidential High Level Committee for the Defense of International and Financial Services (Candsif) which is composed of representatives from the public and private sector and seeks to provide input on the matter without neglecting national interests.
The Panamanian government is giving Colombia a period of 7 days to retract and remove the country from the "gray list" so that it can then negotiate on equal terms.
From a statement issued by the Government of the Republic of Panama:
The Government of the Republic of Panama has given a period of seven days for the Colombian authorities to withdraw the country from the list of "tax havens" and so make way for negotiations between the two nations on equal terms.
The inclusion of Panama in the Colombian government's gray list could mean surcharges on capital repatriation by investors in the country.
"If Panama is included on a (Colombia's) gray list, it will affect the Colombian investments that exist in Panama and which have a strong presence in banking and other industries, because they will pay a surcharge when they repatriate their profits," the outgoing Minister of Economy and Finance in Panama, Frank De Lima, said.
Both governments have agreed to launch negotiations for the South American country to remove Panama from the list of countries with low or no taxation.
From a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Panama:
"As a result of the official visit to Buenos Aires by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fernando Nunez Fabrega, a roadmap has been established that will allow Panama to join the group of countries friendly to Argentina on the issue of fiscal transparency.
The Government will ask Congress to hasten the adoption of a law on bank secrecy, after an unofficial list of tax havens has been released in France which includes Guatemala.
According to President Pérez Molina, the country's inclusion in the French list "is a unilateral decision" of the French Government, because "Guatemala has not approved bank secrecy."
In the new list of countries which France has categorized as tax havens France does not include Panama nor Costa Rica, however Guatemala remains along with seven other jurisdictions.
In updated list of tax havens, which has not been reviewed since 2010 the following countries were excluded: Anguilla, Belize, Costa Rica, Dominica, Grenada, the Cook Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Liberia, Oman, Panama, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
On November 30th Panama will sign a tax agreement with the United States.
The signing is part of a strategy by the country to exclude Panama from the grey-list created by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), informed the minister of Economy and Finance, Frank De Lima.
This is the tenth agreement signed by Panama in its strategy to defend international services and also meet the 12 treaties needed to be excluded from the grey list, said De Lima, and indicated as a benefit that, "Panama is getting the deductibility of conventions for American taxpayers, which will help further promote tourism in our country."