by prensa.com
Panama has the race to sign 12 treaties as soon as possible to avoid double taxation (DTT) may not be sufficient to overcome the “gray list” of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
In the OECD what matters is that Panama has signed agreements of Tax Information Exchange (TIEA, for its acronym in English) and does know the latest report issued last October 4, noting that the case review Panama did not merit discussion, because no change in this direction.
“As Panama does not have any agreements for the exchange of information with international standards in force, any discussion in this first phase (which took place earlier this month) would be very early,” says the report.
Although the strategy is to sign DTT, Panama has not said no to the possibility of negotiating TIEA, while the OECD warns that several member countries have approached Global Forum for this purpose without success. That is why after the evaluation of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Tax Information, Panama remained in the “gray list” of the OECD and the next assessment is scheduled for the second half of 2012.
The OECD also refers to the commitment made by the Panamanian government to make changes in laws and negotiating the signing of 12 treaties that the body requires at least to stop considering a tax haven Panama. However, this does not seem enough.
The economy minister, Alberto Vallarino, is convinced that the strategy is correct. “We can not pretend aside on the international context, and to this end have been defined very concrete actions that promote greater transparency and integrity in its international service offerings.”