Legal Service

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As investors or for retirement, our clients invest, sell or rent properties in Panama. Also, they can apply for a residence permit and visas. No matter what your purpose is, you can enjoy all the benefits of what Panama has to offer.

Flat Fee Realty offers Panama Legal Services to our clients through partnerships with a law firms specialized in Panama Real Estate that can be consulted at anytime.

The firms offer the following services:

• Property Title Search in Panama
• Review of Promise to Sell Contract, Purchase Contract, and Lease Contract
• Closing and Registration of the Deed
  Advice regarding Rights of Possession
• Panama Residence Permits, Immigration and Retirement Visas
• Panama Corporations and Private Interest Foundations

 

The firms have expertise in the fields mentioned above. In addition, they offer personal attention to their clients responding to questions and comments.

General Information About Panama Corporations

Panama offers the most favorable and most flexible incorporation laws available in the world. Individuals from all over the globe who are interested in asset protection, tax minimization, privacy, investment diversification, affordability and convenience use Panama corporations.

Panama corporations can be used for international trade, to settle trusts or foundations, to establish and own bank or brokerage accounts or hold ownership of real estate or any other type of asset.

In some cases, Panama corporations are formed for very private and confidential business transactions such as the protection of the assets.

Panama offers the strictest corporate book and banking secrecy laws available in the world, therefore providing legal protection to your assets and your identity through the confidentiality of corporate business and banking transactions.

Most other offshore jurisdictions, such as the British influenced countries, have bowed down to recent legislation that has begun the removal of bank secrecy in those British colonies around the globe. Panama is a totally sovereign nation, not governed or controlled by any other country in the world.

Panama Corporation Facts:

• Second Most Popular Jurisdiction in the World. Panama is the registered domicile for over 400,000 corporations & foundations, second to Hong Kong.


• No Reporting Requirements or Taxes: Panama does not impose any reporting requirements or taxes for non-resident Panamanian corporations.


• No Piercing the Corporate Veil: Panama does not allow "piercing the corporate veil", so your corporate books are maintained 100% private and confidential by law.


• Anonymous Ownership: Panama corporations share certificates can be issued in Nominative or Bearer form (Bearer Shares are an anonymous form of ownership), with or without par value. Neither the directors nor the officers of Panama corporations need to be shareholders.


• No Capital Requirements: Panama corporations do not require Paid-In Capital, nor is there a time limit in which authorized capital must be fully paid.


• Directors: Every Panama corporation requires 3 directors/officers (President, Secretary and Treasurer). The directors/officers can be either individuals or entities. Panama Corporation’s directors, officers and shareholders may be of any nationality and resident of any country. The director’s names and identifications must be presented in the public registry when the corporation is formed.


• Nominee Directors: Most law firms offer clients the optional service of using "Nominee Directors" for their corporation(s). For purposes of confidentiality, most clients prefer to use nominee directors/officers for their corporations. When a law firm appoints nominee directors for the entities that they have establish for their clients, they should always provide clients with pre-signed, undated letters of resignation from the directors so that their clients can replace those directors at any time.


• Directors or Shareholders Meetings: Annual general meetings of either shareholders or directors of the corporation are not mandated or required. However, if meetings are held, they can take place anywhere in the world by proxy - via telephone, email or other electronic means. Any resolutions passed are valid regardless of whether they are signed on different dates or in different jurisdictions.


• Corporate Books: The Registered Agent is not required to keep any records for the corporation, however, every corporation should maintain a minute book and stock register, which can be held anywhere in the world.


• Subscribers: Panama corporations must have two subscribers present at the public registry in order to be incorporated. The subscribers are the individuals from a law firm that appear at the Public Registry with the articles of incorporation to incorporate the corporation. By law, the subscribers have a right to own one (1) share of the corporation. As soon as the corporation is established, the subscribers sign a document where by they resign their rights to one (1) share of the corporation.


• Business License Requirement: Non-resident Panama corporations do not require a commercial business license to operate business internationally.


• Re-Domiciliation: Corporations from other jurisdictions may be "re-domiciled" to Panama, and vice-versa. Many people who have corporations in jurisdictions such as the Bahamas and other British territories, are currently re-domiciling their corporations to more private and secure jurisdictions such as Panama.


• Corporate Seal: A corporate seal is optional.


• Legal Address: When registering a new Panama corporation, it must have a legal physical address that is included in the articles of incorporation.

Panama Corporation Tax Facts

Non-resident Panama corporations offer the following tax advantages:

• No tax reporting requirements
• No income tax
• No capital gains tax
• No interest income tax
• No sales tax
• No tax on issuance of corporate shares
• No tax to shareholders
• No stock sale or transfer tax
• No capital stock tax
• No property tax
• No estate tax
• No gift tax
• No stamp tax
• No succession tax
• No inventory tax

Flat Annual Corporate Franchise Tax The only tax paid by Panama Corporations (or Foundations) is the flat annual corporate franchise tax of US$300.

Panama Private Foundations

Panama Private Interest Foundations may be established for the benefit of a person or persons, a family, or a specific social purpose.

In general, people who wish to control and maintain ownership of foreign corporations use Panama Private Interest Foundations, however, they do not wish to own their corporations themselves directly. Instead of holding the corporations' shares in their personal name or in bearer form, they establish a Private Interest Foundation in Panama that holds or owns the shares of their foreign corporation(s).

Hence, the advantage of using the Foundation as a shareholder for their corporation is to remove ownership from one's personal name (or through a Bearer Share arrangement), and transfer ownership to the name of a foreign entity which does not have owners, rather has privately appointed beneficiaries, which are anonymous. In this way, there is no question as to who owns the company, since the company's shares are issued to the Foundations' name.

The Panama Foundation provides additional advantages other than just ownership. For example they are use to give educational or special grants to their children, grandchildren, or any one else they choose.

In general, Private Interest Foundations may not engage in habitual profit-making commercial activities as a corporation can. Nevertheless, they may carry out commercial activities from time to time, as long as the profits of those activities are used for the objectives of the foundation.

For example, a Private Interest Foundation may engage in banking or investment activities, such as investing in bank time deposits (Certificates of Deposit - CD's), stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, money markets, etc. so long as the proceeds from these investment activities are for the benefit of the beneficiaries of the Foundation.

Elements of a Panama Private Interest Foundation
The Foundation has a Founder, a Council, a Protector, and Beneficiaries.

Panama Foundation Tax Information
Panama Foundations offer the following tax advantages:

• No tax reporting requirements.
• No income tax.
• No capital gains tax.
• No interest income tax.
• No sales tax.
• No tax to beneficiaries.
• No beneficiary transfer tax.
• No capital tax.
• No property tax (for non-Panamanian property).
• No estate tax.
• No gift tax.
• No inheritance tax.
• No stamp tax.
• No succession tax.
• No inventory tax