Panama is an extremely Investor Friendly Country. It's laws and manners of conducting business offer many, many benefts that North Americans are not aware of, or accustomed to. We (North Americans) are accustomed to an invasive and predatory tax system, and many of us are intimimidated by this.
Doing Business in Panama, once you learn how the laws are written, and what the rest of the world is like, will feel like a breat of fresh air for you.
Our small development company, Panama Farms has been developing beautiful projects in the Boquete area for > 7 years. During this time, we have earned an excellent reputation because of our ethical business practices, and excellent customer support. At our small company we always go out of our way to provide our clients with as much help as we can, in transitioning to Panama, and learning about doing business here. We'll help you to find architects, acountants, dentists, recommend all kinds of servives for you, and go out of our way to be helpful.
When we sell a titled property from one of our projects, we always provide the client with a Panama Corporation, which actually owns the land. For free. These corporations are referred to as Anonymous Societies (S.A.'s) in Latin America. They can be truly anonymous, depending on how one sets up his corportaion.
Each time that we create a new lot of land for sale, we also have our attorney create a new Panama Corporation (or S.A. - an anonymous society) in which that land parcel will be held. We then have the attorney place the lot that is being developed fr sale INTO the ownership of the corporation, and generte documents proving that the land is titled, and generate documents that prove that there are no liens on the land OR the corporation.
When a customer buys that land from us, we sell the customer the shares of the corporation WITH THE LAND and our lawyer then files a formal legal document that authorizes the issuance of SHARES of this corporation, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER - to the buyer of the corporation (and property that we are selling to you).
When you decide to buy a land parcel, it is this attorney who helps you - and us - in the next step of the process, which is having you appoint three (3) NEW DIRECTORS for your corporation.
He perfoms many legal tasks that are required by law, to appoint YOUR three (3) directors for the Panama Corporation, and these directors can easily be local peole who have no power at all in this corporation. This is actually very common practice in Panama, as many, many people want no one to know what they own.
There are many, many benefits of having your property owned by a corporation or S.A. No experienced investor that we know of would own property in any other manner (except perhaps in a Panaanian Foundation). Some of the benefits of having your property owned by a corporation are:
- ownership of the land can be completely anonymous, if you use local directors (who have NO POWERS to take any actions for the corporation)
- so no one knows you own the land
- if you sell this property eventually, you would sell the SHARES OF THE CORPORTION, not the land per se. This is a PRIVATE contract, between the parties. The value of the land was established when we, the developers, ORIGINALLY placed the land into the corporation that you purchased. We place low values on the land we sell, for tax purposes - before it has been improved - so the land is usually valued at a figure that is well below the minimum taxable amount of $30,000. This is the normal procedure for managing property ownership in Panama. But he actual selling price is completely between you and the buyer.
- the amount of the sale is private information. The land does not get assiged a new value when it is sold, because only the shares of the corporation have been sold.
- Even if the actual sale amount was declared, capital gains tax rates on the sale of STOCK CERTIFICATES of a corporation or an S.A., is a fraction of the capital gains tax on the sale of "real estate"
Many people decide to name local directors, so that their property ownership remains 100% anonymous. Panama Corporations are referredto as Anonymous Societies (S.A.'s) and this is because the names of the stockholders is NOT public information. If one uses local people as directors, their company's bylaws typically state that "Ony the shareholders have the power to sign documents for, make commitments for, take a mortgage on, buy, sell or sign any contract related to the property or the corporation". The directors have NO powers. The sharholders however (you) CAN grant TEMPORARY power ro an attorney or a director, to open a bank account for your corporation - with YOU as the only signatory. Th power that you grant the attorney expires when teh account is opened, and again, you are the ONLY person authorized to make any decisions, or take any actions on behalf of your S.A. (Anonymous Society) or Panama Corporation.
Our local attorneys are is an important service provider for us. They can perform many services for you as well, when you come to Panama, incuding the following:
- Open Bank accounts for you or your corporatation
- Apply for your Permanent Residency in Panama; the most commmon is the Pensionado Visa as there is NO AGE REQUIREMENT (I got mine at age 51) but there are other forms or residency that he can get for you
- Help you with any type of real estate transactions, business investment contracts or other agreements
- He helps us with all of our lot sales and will help you to appoint you rnew diretors for the corporation that we give to you with your new home site.
If you have questions please also feel free to contact me, at timb88@gmail.com You can also see us at http://www.viviun.com/AD-113144/
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