In case you overlooked this – back in June – Panama updated the list of jurisdictions to which it will report according to Common Reporting Standards. You can find out which 74 jurisdictions on this list issued by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It was published as Executive Decree 53 of the 4th of June, 2019.
We originally posted about the automatic exchange of information back in 2018. As mentioned, this followed an agreement with the OECDand FATF that Panama would adopted exchange of financial information. Law 51 paved the way for information exchange. This later changed to automatic information exchange. So, this will occur through Common Reporting Standards (known as CRS).
With these new rules, financial institutions have until the 31st of July (2019) to deliver to the DGI (General Department of Income) client details. These are clients from 74 jurisdictions who held accounts during 2018. Nonetheless, Panamanian financial institutions are not going to automatically exchange the information with other financial institutions – the exchange will have at the level of government offices.
Countries included for 2018
For example, in the Caribbean, the countries include:
- Antigua & Barbuda
- Aruba
- Barbados
- Cayman Islands
- Turks & Caicos
- British Virgin Islands
- St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Additionally, for the Americas, this includes:
- Belize
- Canada
- Mexico
- Argentina
- Costa Rica
- Chile
- Brazil
- Uruguay
In the same way, the following European countries will receive information regarding their citizens:
- Guernsey
- Jersey
- Isle of Man
- Switzerland
- Gibraltar
- Luxembourg
- Liechetenstein
- Malta
- Monaco
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Finland
- Great Britain
- Greenland
- Ireland
- Iceland
- Feroe Islands
- Belgium
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Estonia
- Holland
- Hungary
- Italy
- Lithuania
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovania
- Spain
- Sweden
Other countries include:
- Australia
- UAE
- Israel
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Russia
- New Zealand
- Macao
- Indonesia
- India
- Seychelles
- Mauritius
- Singapore
- South Africa
- Azerbaijan
- South Korea
- Nauru
- Lebanon
- China
- San Marino
Purpose of Common Reporting Standards
As stated, CRS allows tax authorities to obtain a clearer understanding of financial assets held by their residents abroad, for tax purposes.
For more information, contact us.