How much should be paid in benefits such as bonuses and incentives to part-time workers is one of the doubts that arise among employers after the new regulation enters into force.
According to the authorities of the Ministry of Labor, in the case of the payment of bonus 14 and incentive, the companies must make a disbursement proportional to the salary earned by the part-time worker.
The Panamanian business sector assures that the efforts and results that have been achieved in such a short time have not been recognized by the FATF, which decided to put the country back on its gray list.
Although at the beginning of the year efforts were made in the country to improve controls in relation to tax evasion, as in the case of the approval by the National Assembly of the bill criminalizing tax evasion, when the amount defrauded in a fiscal period of one year is equal to or greater than $300,000, it was not enough for the country to return to the FATF grey list.
In Panama, a list of Panamanians convicted of money laundering, as well as lists issued by the US, Canada and the United Kingdom, will start to be compiled and published.
With the aim of preventing money laundering and terrorism, the National Commission against Money Laundering, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of Weapons of Mass Destruction (Cnbc) issued two resolutions.
Among the activities susceptible to laundering are sales of gold and vehicles, the purchase and sale of real estate and electronic money transfers.
From a report entitled "Mutual Evaluation of Nicaragua October 2017", by the Financial Action Group of Latin America (Gafilat):
Key findings
Nicaragua has legal and regulatory provisions, as well as an institutional framework allowing combating, at a certain level, Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorist Financing (TF). The current legal framework in force has some deficiencies that limit the general system effectiveness.
Free zone companies, lawyers, real estate companies and car dealers are among those who have time until September 29 to present the information form on their company, under the law to prevent money laundering.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Economy and Finance:
This Friday, September 29, 2017, the deadline for the submission of the Extra Situ Assessment Form, which must be submitted by non-financial obligors, to the Intendance Supervision and Regulation of Non-Financial Subjects, is due.
The country will have until October to finish preparing for the evaluation of fiscal transparency to be carried out by the Financial Action Task Force.
From a statement issued by the President of Costa Rica: The International Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has agreed to postpone the decision on Costa Rica for the next plenary session in October. The decision was taken today in the plenary that takes place in Valencia, Spain, where the evaluation guidelines that will be applied to Costa Rica and all other countries from now on are approved. For this reason, the body ordered that the evaluators review the country's progress again in the light of these new provisions and that they submit their criteria at the next plenary session. The Minister of the Presidency, Sergio Alfaro, as well as representatives from the Costa Rican Institute on Drugs (ICD) in Spain, were pleased with this decision that gives greater clarity to the rules of the process and the country gains some additional time to intensify its efforts.
The US Bureau of Foreign Assets has extended once again, this time until April 28, the license which allows Soho Mall Panama to keep looking for a potential buyer for the mall.
The new extension is a sign that the process of selling the mall has not yet been completed, a process for which a trust was created in December last year to which the assets of the company owned by Waked were transferred.To be sold, the buyer of mall must prove that it does not have any links with the Waked companies.
A law has entered into force which facilitates access to individuals and companies' bank information with a court order at the request of tax authorities.
Francisco Solorzano, chief of the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT), noted that"... 'this tool will only be used when there is reasonable doubt about the results of the processes or execution of plans and mass selective control'."
On January 1st the decree signed by the French government in April 2016 to include Panama in the list of countries considered to be tax havens came into force.
According to the French government the scope of the agreement signed in October by Panama for the automatic exchange of bilateral tax information with OECD countries, was not clear and the decree signed in April, which included Panama on the list from January of this year, was not repealed.
Gafilat has identified the outstanding tasks needed to bring up to date matters relating to financing terrorism, control of casinos and the inclusion of lawyers in the Mandated Persons category.
The ruling was made by the Financial Action Task Force for Latin America (Gafilat), who released the Mutual Evaluation Report, up to the date of the in situ visit made between November 23 and December 4, 2015.
The Committee of Independent Experts from which Joseph Stiglitz and Mark Pieth resigned early on, has presented its findings and recommendations for Panama to achieve financial transparency as requested by the international community.
The Committee of Independent Experts was appointed by the Varela administration in April this year, after the commotioncaused by the revelation of the so- called Panama Papers, which reported the existence of a complex system of offshore companies focused around the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, apparently used to conceal assets belonging to public figures.The Panama Papers scandal was the culmination of a process that has taken several years, in which Panama has been systematically attacked by the international financial community, led by the OECD, pointing to the opacity of its financial system, which lends itself to tax evasion activities to the detriment of other countries and possibly also money laundering.
Memorandum on "Rights of taxpayers' payment schedule and liabilities for October 2016.
From a Memorandum sent by Tezó and Associates:
Rights of taxpayers
Article 50 of Decree No. 37-2016 added Article 21 "A" to the Tax Code, establishing that taxpayers rights, be they acting by themselves, through a legal representative or an authorized third party, among others established by law, are the following:
The OECD report describes the country's compliance between July 2012 and June 2015 as "unsatisfactory", but highlights progress made in recent months.
From a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
As part of the annual meeting of the Global Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the report on Panama regarding the implementation of standards for transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes was approved and recognition given to the significant progress made by the country in recent months, highlighting the commitment to automatic exchange of information, updating the legal framework to facilitate international cooperation and the recent accession to the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC, for short).
Memorandum on "Taxpayer Obligations' payment schedule and liabilities for September 2016.
From a Memorandum sent by Tezó and Associates:
Obligation of taxpayers
Article 51 of Decree No. 37-2016 added Article 21 "B" to the Tax Code, which states that obligations of taxpayers, whether they are subject to taxation or not, constitute among other things, as stated in paragraph 1 "Submission of declarations, notifications , self-assessments and other documents required by the tax legislation and tax administration for the performance of their duties." This obligation, in our opinion, when it comes to self - assessments, gives way to the procedure followed by the SAT to request correction of "inconsistencies", presenting rectifications to declarations and paying tax, which often is not omitted, but we pay in order to settle the case and not spend any more time on it. In these cases we must be sure that the right of defense has not been eliminated, instead of rectifying statements, we can request that we be granted Evacuation of a Hearing in order to start a defense process.
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