On 15 January, the Director General of the Panamanian tax authority signed the CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (CRS MCAA). Panama is the 98th jurisdiction to join the CRS MCAA, which is the prime international agreement for implementing the automatic exchange of financial account information under the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance.
Panama will begin exchanges of information on 30 September 2018. It is no coincidence that this is the final date by which any unpaid tax liabilities related to offshore assets or structures must be reported to HMRC under the new “Requirement to Correct” legislation. Any unpaid tax liabilities with an offshore connection that are discovered after 30 September 2018 will be dealt with under the “Failure to Correct” legislation, with penalties that can in some circumstances be a multiple of the tax actually due.
If you have any concerns about overseas assets or structures, please contact us.