The General Directorate of Revenue (DGI) since the implementation of Electronic Invoicing, has raised US$405 million and there is an 85% compliance among taxpayers who are obliged to invoice electronically, as stated by the director of the institution, Publio De Gracia.

According to De Gracia, in 2022 what was collected in 2019 was already exceeded, which shows that the Panamanian economy returned to the results recorded before the pandemic, so the tax collection exceeds the previous periods.

De Gracia added that, although in the first months of 2021 there was a decrease in collections, he maintained that this was due to the extension granted to taxpayers for the payment of taxes, in addition to the fact that the events of 2022 such as the war in Ukraine and the protests in July had a negative impact on the collections.

“There were more legal and natural persons taxing, but there was a lower statement regarding the amount declared as a result of the events of 2022,” De Gracia said.

He reiterated that tax collection is eroded by many situations such as benefits, exemptions, incentives and others that impact the collection and fewer people pay taxes in Panama as a result of that.

He assured that there are many benefits, exemptions and incentives, which are not only the free zones, but also the benefits that the taxpayers themselves have, what must be established is that those incentives have a fixed period of time.