Panama and Types of Visas

Panama Expat — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:36:41 +0000

So you are looking to start that new life in Panama and you want to make it permanent. The only thing is you are not sure what to do and how to go about it. Well, we are glad you came to us with that question, because we have the answer right here for you and we are more than glad to share it! If you read below, we’ll provide you with what you have to know to make this dream of yours come true for you, so let’s begin, shall we?

In accordance to the laws of immigration in Panama, there are different types of visas out there that enable aliens to live in Panama, as long as they meet the prerequisites. Person Of Means Visa: This is the visa for those that are not working or getting ready to start a business.

These are folks that are living via their own personal funds. What’s required is a one year certificate of deposit in any Panamanian bank and the minimum must be $250,000. When the time comes to apply for renewal, the minimum time of renewal must be one more year.

Tourist Pensioner Visa: For those that are the recipients of a pension from a government job or private company. The amount for the pension must be $1,000 and up.

Investor Visa: This visa was made for those that want to start a business in the nation of Panama. A minimum amount of money to invest will be $250,000 for the startup. Also your employment staff must have a minimum
of at least three permanent individuals who are Panamanian.

Private Income Retiree Visa: This visa is for people that although don’t have a monthly pension, are individuals that are indeed retired and are in receipt of a lump sum retirement benefit. This said benefit may then be
deposited into a certificate of deposit that lasts a term of five years. This certificate must be with the National Bank of Panama and yield a $1,000 monthly minimum.

For those looking to put together paperwork for a visa, it is obvious to see that the nation of Panama has tailored several different options for several types of people. So if one category is not met, there are others
where you may be able to more than likely luck out in your pursuit of acquiring a Panamanian visa.So in closing fine readers, that’s the run down of what you need to know about getting a visa.

Like always, we are more than glad to be your first in call to provide you with any and all information that you have the right to know, after all, we’re in servitude to giving you the best darn knowledge that we can. We feel, it’s owed to you and if we weren’t do that that then we’re not doing our job at all! So dear reader, if you are looking to make Panama a new home, we’ve been more than glad to help you get off to a great start in doing so!

Periodically, laws change, so check with your attorney.

Panama Anonymous Bearer Share Corporations

Panama Expat — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:07:02 +0000

Panama Bearer Share Corporation Advantages:

Panama is the only place in the world where you can form a truly anonymous bearer share corporation. Under Panama law a bearer share corporation can be formed that is owned by the possessor of the physical certificates of stock with no recorded owner on record anywhere. This is a bearer share corporation. They have mostly been eliminated in the world since 9-11. In Panama there is just plain and simple no registry with any ownership records for a bearer share corporation, so no one can access something that does not exist. True the lawyer could be contacted who formed the corporation in Panama but this would require a serious court proceeding to violate attorney client privilege, with lots of cause required and of course the attorney would be duty bound to oppose such a court order. Violating attorney client privilege is a far more serious matter in the eyes of any court than requiring client records from a corporate registration agent so be careful to not trust your privacy to other than a law firm. Panama has 400,000 corporations registered, most of which will quickly leave if the see the courts violate privacy. Each corporation pays $300 a year in tax, which totals $120,000,000 and this, is for a country with 2.9 million people. The Panama Canal only nets Panama about $335,000,000 and requires 9,000 employees. How many people are required to run a corporate filing dept., maybe 200? Panama is a country very unlikely to violate corporate privacy.

No Corporation Ownership Registry in Panama

The lawyer in Panama may only have knowledge of the person who formed the company but not knowledge of others he or she may have transferred the corporation to since formation. Such transfers need not be reported and the new owner(s) need not be on file anywhere they just need to have the shares of the corporation physically. The transfer process could be completed in minutes if not seconds. The new owner(s) may reside outside of Panama, the new owners could be a corporation, foundation or be a trust in another country, etc. making any trails extremely difficult, time consuming, expensive and in general for most people not feasible to follow especially when you consider that no one really knows how many times the ownership may have been transferred. There is no ownership database for anyone to snoop into, period. Thus the possibility of a fishing expedition is non-existent. The nominee Directors can be appointed and thus are not owners and their names are recorded publicly. We provide the three required directors for you complete with signed undated letters of resignation and they do not know who you are. You can effectively transfer the stock certificates privately with no record of the sale appearing anywhere. The new owner can replace the directors with his own directors at will. We can provide a blank bill of sale for the corporation signed by the nominee directors as an optional extra service, see our price list. You will have resignation letters signed by the nominee directors but not dated. If you do not wish to have nominee directors on your corporation we can use three different anonymous Panama Bearer share Corporations instead of nominee directors which makes for a more confusing harder to follow trail.

Anonymous Corporate Ownership of Assets

A Panama bearer share corporation can own bank accounts, real estate, boats, planes, cars, art, jewelry, businesses, and other valuable assets all without revealing the actual natural persons who own the corporation. Additional complex strategies can be employed using the lawyer to perform certain functions for the corporation. You could have a Panama Foundation own the shares of the Panama Corporation so you do not own the corporation. The Foundation can be formed by an entity we provide, it can have nominee council members or a corporation in place of nominee council members, and you can not even be a beneficiary if you so desire. Now we can even have the foundation not have a bank account. Now we add in a formal contract making you the protector of the corporation which is not recorded publicly anywhere, most private. Then we add in a formal agreement making to the investment manager or real estate manager, etc for the corporation and foundation including terms of compensation and expense reimbursement all signed and notarized by the nominee directors or council members. In Panama there is strong privileged communication between the attorney and the client. To learn more about these strategies go to:

http://www.panamalaw.org/panama_foundations.html

http://www.panamalaw.org/foundation_protectors.html

http://www.panamalaw.org/bullet_proof_asset_protection.html

https://www.panamalaw.org/order.php

Panama Corporation Banking

A bank anywhere in the civilized world will require a beneficial owner for any bank account and will also require identity documents for that person so the bearer share Corporation may not be able to conduct banking matters completely anonymously. In Panama there is serious bank secrecy laws in place providing for criminal and civil penalties. The Panama Bank Secrecy Laws combined with the Bearer Share Corporation formed in Panama using a world class Panama Bank provides the most secure and private asset protection scenario currently available in the world.

Let us do a quick analysis on the privacy provided to you under this scenario. You would have the same privacy if you used a Panama Anonymous Bearer Share Corporation or a Panama Private Interest Foundation. Wires come and go from the corporate account. Today in the post 9/11 world many governments and other entities monitor wire transfers. No one can tell who the natural persons are that own the corporation when a Panama Bearer Share Corporation is used. If you were using a corporation from another country all they would need to do is open another computer screen and look up who the owners are. This does not work in Panama because there is no recording of owners. This in essence provides the privacy of the old Swiss Numbered Bank Account in that it can not be traced to any persons. Welcome to Panama.

Attorney Services

Your attorney may act as your agent and collect rents on an apartment building or office building your Panama Bearer Share Corporation owns to keep the ownership of the property concealed from the tenants and others. The attorney merely forwards the rent proceeds to you or wires them to your bank account anywhere in the world. This is perfectly lawful in Panama. Your attorney could handle an auction where your corporation sells its art collection. The attorney collects the auction proceeds and forwards them to your bank anywhere in the world. Your attorney can buy or sell a yacht for your bearer share Corporation, handle the yacht registration in Panama and you can go sail around the world with your corporate stock certificates locked up in a vault box in your Panama bank.

Panama bearer share corporations can be completed in 2-3 business days after all the information is submitted.

Panama Corporation Unique Tax Benefits

One benefit is there is no tax imposed by Panama on any offshore derived income and there is not even a need to file any tax returns for the corporation if all the income was offshore derived. If you maintain an office in Panama, have a phone in Panama, have a Panama Corporation, and even have a bank account for the corporation in a Panama Bank yet there is still no need to pay taxes or even file tax returns if all the income is offshore sourced, in other words your income comes from payments made to you in Panama from entities not in Panama. For example if you decide to open a hot dog stand in Panama then you would need to pay taxes on this income since it would be derived from within Panama. If you sold goods to customers who were not in Panama and they wired you money into your Panama bank account from outside of Panama this would be offshore derived non-taxable income.

Panama Corporation Privacy

There is no registry in which to record owners of Panama Bearer Share Corporations. There is also no registry to record transfer of the corporation ownership. Even if one had a court order or subpoena from a Panama Court there is no registry to serve the court order on. To transfer the ownership of the Bearer share Corporation one need only hand the new owner the stock certificate. You could transfer ownership 12 times a day if you wanted to without reporting it anywhere or to anyone in the world.

Panama Corporation and Real Estate Ownership

Anonymous Panama Corporations may own property anywhere in the world. To sell the property one merely transfers the shares of the corporation along with a bill of sale signed by the nominee directors who don’t know who you are (we can as your law firm and corporate resident agent assist with such agreements at your request). This could reduce taxes resulting from the sale of the property, since the property is not really being sold it is the corporation that owns the property that is being sold, the property is still owned by the same corporation. Remember there is no reportage of the sale of the corporation required in Panama. A Panama Corporation (or Foundation) can own real estate anywhere in the world and this makes the ownership anonymous. You can transfer real estate (or a car, boat, plane, art collection etc.) to the Panama Corporation in return for an annuity and we can supply you with such an agreement signed by the nominee directors. You could also arrange for your Panama corporation to make a loan against the real estate (or boat, plane, art collection etc.) thus removing the equity in the property sheltering it from potential financial enemies. You could even do this with a line of credit secured by a mortgage for the line of credit which you need not ever draw on. The Panama Corporation can own income producing property anywhere in the world and could collect rents (if the property is not in Panama would be tax free income to the corporation), hire property managers, etc. For more on these asset protection strategies see our section on real estate asset protection and in our price section we list some of these formal agreements we can supply to help you document the transactions formally.

Panama Company used to Trade or Hold Stocks, Bonds, Forex, Mutuals, etc.

A Panama Corporation can invest anywhere in the world. Panama has no capital gains taxation. A Panama Corporation can also get a CD in a Panama Bank with up to 8% interest rates for 5 years, again no taxation imposed by Panama. We can assist you in the opening of a Panama Stock Brokerage account where you can invest in 30 markets around the world and of course there is online access. We can also get you a stock brokerage account within a savings account in a Panama Savings and Loan which has Panama Bank Secrecy that would cover your stock trading account. There are many possibilities.

Be a Consultant for your Panama Corporation

Let us say you are a highly paid sales representative, broker, consultant, software developer etc. who works for entities around the world, not just in your home country. Well form an anonymous Panama Corporation and work for the corporation. Your clients would now pay the corporation directly and in turn the corporation pays you according to your wishes. There are no rules for a Panama Corporation in terms of expenses. This means the corporation can pay all of your medical expenses (self-insure) including elective health care like Plastic Surgery, Cosmetic Dentistry, etc. The corporation directly from its Panama bank account pays the health care provider by wire transfer for your elective procedures. The corporation can own your auto, boat, plane etc. used for company business. If you go to Nassau on business frequently the corporation in its overall wisdom may decide it is more advantageous to purchase a condo in Nassau rather than incur hotel expenses. The corporation may determine it is best for you to fly first class on business trips and pay for your tickets directly from its bank account by wiring funds to the travel agent directly. The corporation in its overall wisdom may decide to pay for your legal services as a bonus and pay lawyers representing you directly from its bank account by wire transfer. It is always best to have a tax lawyer in your own jurisdiction advise you on any tax questions.

Panama Corporation as a Holding Company for Intellectual Property, Copyrights, Patents or Royalties

The Panama Corporation can purchase or own these rights to use or sell licenses to this property. You could transfer these rights to the Panama Corporation in return for an annuity or other property the corporation may transfer. This could have tremendous asset protection value since the assets of the corporation belong to the corporation, not you.

http://www.panamalaw.org/bearer_share_corperation.html

For more information, please visit:

http://www.panamalaw.org

email at: panamalegal@hush.com

Simply Panama » Panama Law

Panama and Types of Visas

Panama Anonymous Bearer Share Corporations