Initially the ordinary period to declare the beneficial owners of the companies was due on April 30, but the authorities decided to extend the deadline to May 31.
This declaration was to be submitted during the month of April; according to resolution N°DGT-ICD-R-06-2020, however, due to the state of emergency facing the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic, these institutions agreed to extend the deadline, in order to guarantee the fulfillment of this obligation and facilitate voluntary compliance, informed the Ministry of Finance.
In Costa Rica, the Constitutional Chamber ruled in favor of the Observatorio Ciudadano de Transparencia Fiscal, an institution that filed an appeal to obtain information on how many individuals appear as owners of shares.
After the Observatory requested to the Ministry of Finance statistical information that can be obtained from the Registry of Shareholders and Beneficial Owners (RABF), the authorities refused.
Panamanian authorities announced that as of September 2020, it will begin to exchange financial information automatically with the South American country.
Negotiations between the two countries began in 2019 and at the technical meetings they agreed on the mechanisms that will be used to automatically double-track the information.
The Assembly of Panama approved in third debate the draft law that creates the private and unique system of registration of final beneficiaries of legal entities.
Chapter II of the document, on Registration of Resident Agents, stipulates that any lawyer or law firm providing professional services as a resident agent for one or more legal persons, constituted or registered in the country, must register and keep in force their registration with the Superintendency of Non-Financial Subjects, the Legislative Assembly informed.
The Central American country was excluded from Russia's list of nations that do not exchange information for tax purposes, on which it had been on since 2016.
The confirmation announcement was made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov during the presentation of the credentials of Panama's new ambassador to the Russian Federation, Efrain Villarreal, reported the Panamanian Foreign Ministry.
In Costa Rica, the Legislative Assembly approved in first debate a bill to avoid fines for errors in the declaration of the shareholders' registry for two months.
In its first debate, the file 21,758 Law of Moratorium for the Application of Sanctions corresponding to the ordinary declaration of the 2019 period, related to the transparency and final beneficiaries’ registry, provided for in the Law to Improve the Fight against Tax Fraud, was approved. The initiative gives an extension for shareholders of corporations to submit their lists, before applying sanctions, reported the Legislative Assembly.
The French government reported that it removed Guatemala from the list of countries that do not cooperate with the exchange of fiscal information, but kept Panama.
The European country's authorities reported that Guatemala was removed from the list because it ratified the convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The challenge for the relationship between Panama and Europe is to look beyond the issue of fiscal transparency, in order to advance together in commercial, digital and environmental issues.
An agreement was signed to create a working group on fiscal and financial transparency cooperation, with the aim of removing Panama from the French list of non-cooperating countries in tax matters.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance of Panama reported that the working group will contribute to strengthening cooperation, improving the exchange of fiscal information, promoting financial transparency and the fight against money laundering, focusing on finding more efficient mechanisms and practices for the exchange of information for fiscal purposes, within the framework of the provisions of the tax agreements in force between the parties, including all aspects of the process, from the preparation and sending, to the receipt and response of requests for exchange of information.
Arguing that the country "fulfils all its commitments in terms of fiscal cooperation", the European Union decided to remove it from its list of nations and territories considered as non-cooperative.
Albania, Costa Rica, Mauritius, Serbia and Switzerland have implemented, ahead of schedule, all the reforms necessary to comply with the principles of good tax governance of the European Union (EU). These countries will be removed from Annex II of the Conclusions, according to an official statement dated 10 October 2020.
Businessmen ask for an immediate extension in the application of any fines, as many representatives of companies have not yet managed their digital signature and at this time, there is no capacity installed in the authorized posts.
As of September 1, approximately 370,000 legal entities will be required to comply with the Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries, with the legal documents ending in 0 and 1 being the ones that must do so first.
However, as of September 1, 2019, legal entities who prefer it, regardless of the last digit of their identity card, may make their declaration and send it in advance.
Since April 21, the agreement that avoids double taxation and mitigates its effects has been in force, as well as helping to eliminate barriers to trade and prevent tax evasion.
On March 21, Law 9644 was published in La Gaceta, corresponding to the agreement between the Republic of Costa Rica and the United Mexican States, which avoids the double taxation of income and wealth taxes.
During its last visit to Guatemala, the IMF warned that if banking secrecy is not lifted in the country, compliance with "international transparency treaties" could be undermined.
After the last visit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Guatemala, the international organization warned that reversing the decrease in tax collection involves strengthening the control of large taxpayers, improving the use of tax information to reduce non-compliance, reallocating resources to risk-based audits, and reconsidering the lifting of bank secrecy for tax auditing purposes.
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