The Congress of Costa Rica has been inspired by the famous tango Cambalache and now those who "work day and night like an ox are the same as those who live off other people, those who kill are the same as those who cure, or those who live outside the law..."
EDITORIAL
The Costa Rican Legislative Assembly has given final approval to a bill that clears the records of crimes committed by people after they have served their sentences. Until now, criminal records have only been "cleaned" after 10 years have passed since the sentence was carried out.
Legal tax engineering is a mandatory business practice for anyone who wants to be competitive in today's globalized world, and only those who are not entrepreneurs can afford to refuse to acknowledge this fact.
EDITORIAL
With the same firmness that we criticize businesspeople who evade taxes or bribe officials to get a contract, we must defend every business practice which is framed within the law to pursue the best use of available resources to generate wealth through the production of goods and services, which is what businesses do.
This is the aim of the bill that would expunge ex-convict's criminal records so that they can find work without their potential employers knowing about their criminal past.
EDITORIAL
The vast majority of people resolve their economic and existential problems without resorting to crime. They are obliged to act this way because of the education they received in their homes, where they were taught not only be honest and law-abiding, but also to distrust those who are not. From children we learn to discriminate between bad and good, an essential life skill. We need to distinguish between food that is good and food that is harmful to our health. We must be able to distinguish between an honest business and one that is not. That's life, continuous decision making based on our knowledge and values which is what also should govern conduct in society.
A correction to the Act 47 of 2013 enables corporations to continue to issue bearer shares.
By Alvaro Aguilar, partner at Lombardi Aguilar Group
The Government of Panama has issued a correction of Act 47 of 2013 so that corporations can continue to issue bearer shares. The law adopts a correction to the custody arrangement of bearer shares and the Government has enacted a law that seeks to preserve the image of Panama as a collaborating country in the fight against the abuse of its financial services, and which brings the nation up to date with trends in international law.
From January 2013 financial institutions outside the U.S. will have to report on the accounts of citizens from that country, for tax purposes.
An analysis of the issue in an article in Capital.com focuses on Panama and risk management, but can be extrapolated to the entire Central American region.
“January 1 2013 will see the start of registration of agreements for compliance with FATCA for all entities in the financial sector, including insurance companies, brokerage houses, banks, credit unions and mutual funds that have U.S. customers, who must act accordingly. '
There is still uncertainty among U.S. citizens and companies abroad, regarding the effects of this law’s extraterritorial reach.
The start of registration stipulated by FATCA law (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) of the United States is January 1st, 2013, with enforcement beginning on 1st July of that year. However, many questions remain in several sectors such as insurance, securities and pensions, and even the regulators don’t have a clear idea of the effects of the law.
Legally registered companies must also report to the tax authorities of the U.S.
This new measure will be taken to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Law (FATCA, for short), which requires information disclosure by companies where a U.S. citizen is involved.
In addition, banks who hold deposits belonging to North American clients must also report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and entities that do not will be subject to a retention of 30% on the interest and dividends generated.
BCIE (Central American Bank for Economic Integration) and the British brokerage firm ICAP will create a joint venture company BCIE-ICAP Capital Markets based in Mexico City.
The objective of BCIE-ICAP Capital Markets is to provide an electronic platform so that Central American companies can sell their financial products and overcome credit limitations affecting the region due to the financial crisis.