Panama
Accounting Requirements
Annual filings now legally required

All Panamanian entities, be they corporations, limited liability companies or private interest foundations, registered before November 12, 2021, they must now prepare and send us the accounting records and supporting documentation or a copy thereof, within a period of six months, counted from November 12, 2021.

This procedure must be fulfilled on an annual basis.

Panama Accounting Requirements
Holding Companies Legal Obligations

In the case of legal entities that are dedicated exclusively to holding assets, be they movable property, real estate, shares in other legal entities, bank accounts, investment accounts, among others, they must only provide information that demonstrates the value of the assets held, the income received from those assets and the liabilities relating to those assets.

It is worth mentioning that as resident agents, the law requires us to submit a sworn statement to the Ministry of Economy and Finance no later than 30 days after the expiration of the six-month period mentioned above. Said report must include only the name of the company, the registration number and whether or not it delivered the accounting records within the term of six months.

Those legal entities that do not comply may be sanctioned with fines ranging from USD 5,000 to USD 1,000,000, considering the seriousness of the fault, the recurrence and the magnitude of the year. On the other hand, the legal entity that fails to deliver information will also suffer the suspension of corporate rights in the public registry, with which no type of act, document, agreements can be registered, nor can certifications related to such a legal person be issued.

It is worth mentioning that there are a number of situations that the authorities of the Republic of Panama must regulate, in order to make them very clear for all the actors. However, while we wait for this to happen, we urge all our clients, if they have not already done so, to start keeping accounts of all their transactions and those clients whose entities are exclusively dedicated to being asset holders, to carry out a evaluation through an accountant and that the latter issues a certification detailing the information required by law.

If you do not already have an accountant, we will be happy to refer your case to an accountant in Panama to prepare accounting records.

We ask that you send us the accounting records and supporting documents or a copy of them, or you can contact us to request access to a special form to send us the information electronically.

Any consult or doubt, we are at your service.

Kind Regards
TBA Business Development Team