We know that one of the main doubts at the moment of opening a company in Panama is to know if what my advisors are charging me is legally correct or if, on the contrary, they are taking advantage of my lack of knowledge of the market to charge me much more than the price established in the free game of supply and demand.
Definitely, in the game of supply and demand, each firm or law firm can establish the price it considers fair for its services. However, what we do consider important is to establish clarity at the moment of offering the service. For this reason, one of the elements that differentiates us from our competitors is the establishment of closed prices, that is, with Legal Solutions Panama the invoice will never be a surprise. For this reason and with the purpose of letting our clients and interested parties know what is involved in opening a company in Panama, we are going to detail in each step what are the costs that must be taken into consideration when starting a business in Panama.
Constitution of Social Pact Panama (Pacto Social Panamá)
As we detail in our web the cost of incorporation of the Articles of Incorporation for the registration of a corporation in Panama, we establish it at $1,722.80 (one thousand seven hundred and twenty two dollars and eighty cents) including the ITBMS (which is the tax of transfer of movable goods, which is equivalent to 7%) for offshore corporation, and $2,078.55 (two thousand seventy eight dollars and fifty five cents) for operational corporation. This cost includes:
- Notary and registration fees.
- Authorized capital of $10,000.00 (minimum authorized capital). If a larger amount of capital is desired, it must be taken into account that the registration expenses will increase and therefore there will be an additional cost.
- Obtaining the Single Taxpayer Registry (RUC) before the General Revenue Directorate (Dirección General de Ingresos Panamá).
- Our first year's fees as Resident Agents of your company. (take into consideration that the following year the same concept will be charged $ 300.00).
- Payment of the Annual Corporate Tax. The first year of incorporation for $250.00. The following year, the same amount must be paid as the Company's Annual Fee.
- For Operational corporation will include commercial license and inscription before the Municipality of Panama.
Within the framework of the incorporation of a corporation we offer the following additional services:
- Nominee Directors Service.The Panamanian Corporations Law requires that all corporations be formed by a minimum of three directors (President, Secretary and Treasurer). These directors can be defined or appointed by the client, they can be of any nationality and of legal age with a current passport. However, in order to achieve greater privacy, Legal Solutions Panama offers the service of appointing a maximum of two (2) nominee directors required by law. The additional cost for this service is $ 700.00 + ITBMS for each Director to be appointed per year. In other words, requesting the appointment of the two (2) directors would add a total of $1,400.00 + ITBMS to the original budget.
- General Nominative Power of Attorney: In cases where the Nominee Directors are proposed by Legal Solutions Panama, we recommend our clients to issue a General Power of Attorney by means of a private document in the name of the client so that he/she can represent and act on behalf of the Company. Such power of attorney must be issued in a private document, authenticated and duly apostilled. This document has an additional cost of $ 250.00 (two hundred and fifty U.S. dollars).
- Bank account opening: We offer this service to help our clients organize all the necessary documentation for the opening of the account, from introduction with collaborating bank agents, to the presentation of documentation. This process is taking at least one (1) month. And the opening of the account usually requires the presence of the person responsible for the account in Panama to sign the documents. In the event that this person was unable to travel, we would make arrangements to see how this could be temporarily resolved. However, much depends on the bank. Currently and depending on the circumstances this service costs between $ 1,000.00 - $ 1,500.00.
- Procurement of accounting equipment. In Panama a fiscal equipment is required to issue invoices, we provide the equipment at cost price (fiscal printer).
- Accounting services. Panamanian legislation since 2016 obliges the Resident Agents of the created Company (our lawyers) to have full control over the accounting records of the Company. The Panamanian Tax Authorities (Dirección General de Ingresos or DGI) may request tax reports at any time and the Resident Agent must be able to deliver them. Therefore, it is a necessary service that we also provide to our customers. The cost of the service will depend on the level of invoicing or accounting entries generated by the company. At first we establish a base rate ($ 250.00) which is then modified according to the above.
Our company offers various means of payment, in order to make it easier for the client to contract the mentioned services. Among the payment methods we have available are: payment by credit card (through email payment or virtual tpv), payment in cash, payment by bank transfer.
If you have any questions regarding the cost of our services, please contact us.
