A corporation well formed can own and acquire any number of assets, such as: real estate, boats, art, intellectual property, bank accounts and the opportunity to conduct any type of business. It is not mandatory to reveal the identity of the corporation’s owner(s). This is a common practice used by those who want to obtain excellent assets protection.
Trusts in Panama
A trust in Panama is a useful and great offshore tool if it is used jointly with other offshore. Having a foundation, bank account and company in Panama are usually enough, but adding a trust to this combination may be convenient when the purpose is not anonymity, but transparency along with asset protection and asset transferability.
Privacy and Anonymity
In Panama, a corporation can be formed with just three nominee directors. These directors can be residents and nationals of any country in the world, or even another corporation. Their names will appear in the public registry, but they are not necessarily the owners of the corporation and its assets. Panama corporation shares can be issued in bearer form, meaning that the person who has physical possession of the shares is the owner. Bearer shares are completely anonymous, because there are no requirements to register ownership in Panama.
While the corporation is required to keep a stock register, this can be kept anywhere in the world, as provided in the articles of incorporation, and only the number of bearer shares are recorded, not the names of the person(s) who holds them.
The articles of incorporation are meant to state the purpose for which the corporation was formed, and they can be as broad or as specific as you wish. They can set out any number of requirements, dictating when and where shareholder meetings take place (if at all), for example, or how long the corporation will exist, if it was formed for a specific and finite purpose.
While the initial set-up of the corporation may be witnessed by attorneys and others, once the bearer shares have been issued, ownership of the corporation can be transferred simply by handing the bearer shares over to the new owner, without any need for witnesses, notarization or other third-party involvement. This makes the shares themselves extremely valuable, of course (though it is worth noting that lost, stolen or destroyed shares can be replaced), but it also means that the identity of the final owner of the corporation is kept quite anonymous. Ownership can be transferred any number of times, as often as desired – it becomes simply a matter of exchanging the physical shares.
Your legal representative in Panama can help you with the initial set-up, to ensure the original directors of the corporation are in keeping with the degree of privacy and anonymity you require.
Flexible and affordable
A Panama corporation requires no minimum capital to start up, unlike many jurisdictions in the world, and annual fees are just $300. This allows for the creation of multiple corporations where necessary. One use would be for tax minimization: a corporation can be formed solely for the purpose of acquiring a piece of real estate, for example, which can later be transferred to a new owner simply by exchanging the bearer shares of the corporation itself, thereby avoiding any real estate taxes that might come with the ordinary sale of the property. There is no stock sale or transfer tax on a Panama corporation.
There are also no tax reporting requirements for Panama corporations that conduct business outside Panama. There is no income tax for outside earnings, nor is there any capital gains tax on investments made by the corporation. In short, only money made by conducting business in Panama is taxable; all of its foreign affairs and holdings remain completely private, under Panama law.
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