The Cabinet Council is supporting a bill to approve an Agreement between the Republic of Panama and the Czech Republic for the avoidance of double taxation and to prevent tax evasion with respect to taxes on income and its protocol.
From a press release from the Presidency of Panama:
Cabinet approves agreement for double taxation and preventing tax evasion number 14
In Costa Rica an agreement with the United Mexican States on the Exchange of Information in Tax Matters is in force.
From la Gaceta 101 of 25 May 2012:
PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF AGREEMENT
The competent authorities of the Contracting Parties will provide assistance through exchange of information that is foreseeably relevant to the administration and enforcement of domestic law with respect to taxes or tariffs covered by this Agreement.
The French government has reported that Costa Rica will no longer appear in its list of states and territories who are non cooperative with regards to taxation.
A statement from the Presidency reads:
- Decision conducive to investment climate in the country.
- New information exchange agreements will be signed in the next few days
The Finance Minister of Costa Rica, Fernando Herrero, said Costa Rica was excluded from the list of tax havens drawn up by France in early 2010.
In January, the first Convention of Tax Information Exchange could be signed with Australia.
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).
If Panama does not efficiently and effectively provide the information required by foreign authorities, it will worsen the current perception of non-cooperation.
An analysis of this thorny issue made by Carlos Barsallo, president of the National Securities Commission, makes clear that since 1949, the adoption of Act 62 of 1938, Resolution 38 October 1949 and the reform of the Tax Code 1957 and subsequent regulations, have the clear purpose of turning Panama into an offshore financial services center (commonly known as a tax haven).
When signed on September, it will become the seventh double taxation agreement with OECD nations.
Prensa.com reported that the country has already signed and ratified the same agreement with Mexico, it plans to sign it with Barbados on June 21, and dates still must be set for doing the same with Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Qatar and Spain”.
In order to remove the country from a list of tax-havens, OECD requires the offender to sign at least 12 double taxation agreements with its member nations.
This is the latest double taxation agreement signed by Panama; it has recently done the same with Belgium, Italy, Holland, Barbados, Spain and Mexico.
Economy Minister Frank de Lima stated that in May they will negotiate two additional agreements with France and Luxembourg.
From Qatar, the ministry told newspaper La Estrella: “with this we make 7 signed treaties, and we plan more, in order to take Panama out of the OECD’s tax haven gray-lists once and for all” (OECD is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).
The country penned a double taxation agreement with Spain; it had already done so with Holland, Italy, Mexico, Belgium and Barbados.
Economy vice minister Frank de Lima explained that the country had set the objective of signing 12 of these agreements in 2010, and that they have already achieved half of it.
He added that the agreement was initially discussed by Ricardo Martinelli and Spanish president José Luis Zapatero, when the former visited Spain in 2009.
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.
Ricardo Barrientos, Finance vice minister, remarked that efforts are being done to get out of the tax-haven gray list.
Panama now has also signed double taxation agreements with Italy, Mexico, Belgium and Barbados.
Economy Minister Frank de Lima explained that these agreements are part of the government’s policies to make the financial services sector more competitive.
“This is another step in the process to remove the country from the discriminatory lists maintained by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)”, he said.
Panama concluded negotiations for a double taxation agreement with Italy.
The agreement between both countries will be signed very soon, stated Frank de Lima, Panamanian vice minister of Economy.
"So far, there have been three negotiating rounds between delegations from both countries. The last was held yesterday in Milan. ... Panama is currently negotiating double taxation agreements with France, Mexico and Spain", reported Pa-digital.com.pa.