President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela signed into law today the implementation of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC), which allows for sharing tax information multilaterally on request with the 107 jurisdictions that are part of the convention and provides a common legal basis for cooperation on tax matters. In implementing the MAC, Panama officially joins all countries from the G20, BRIICS, OECD, and other major financial centers, as well as an increasing number of developing countries as members to the convention.
“The signature of the MAC into law today is one more step to modernizing and transforming Panama’s financial and services platform, as it establishes the framework for the implementation of international transparency and cooperation initiatives,” said Luis Miguel Hincapie, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, who added, “Starting today, the 107 tax jurisdiction cosignatories to the MAC can request information from Panama without having to negotiate a bilateral treaty.”
The mechanism enables several channels for administrative cooperation between the jurisdictions, while also permitting reservation on specific tax categories, including real estate, vehicle, consumption, inheritance, social security, and donation taxes.
Signing the new law is yet another milestone of the ambitious legislative package that President Varela’s administration has presented to Panama’s National Assembly to meet international expectations on financial transparency. In recent months, Panama also joined the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Initiative of the OECD, and has actively participated in international forums that discuss tax matters.