This measure aims to modernize the General Directorate of Revenue by updating the registration mechanism for providing information in the Registry of Taxpayers regarding the identification, location and economic activity of foreign companies acting as legal representatives of Panamanian corporations. Such companies should review the new procedures and requirements and ensure compliance.

Panama's General Directorate of Revenue has established through Resolution 201-3967 of 2020 (the Resolution) an updated registration mechanism within the Registry of Taxpayers (Registro Único de Contribuyentes, or RUC) of the tax platform "e-tax 2.0" for foreign companies that act as representatives of Panamanian corporations (i.e., joint-stock companies).

The Resolution enables the registration of such foreign companies in the e-tax 2.0 system (the Panamanian Tax Authority's online tax information platform) in the "identification type" field, "linked third parties" tab and on the RUC module.

The Resolution also establishes information and documentation filing requirements for the registration of foreign companies that exercise the legal representation of Panamanian corporations before the General Directorate of Revenue. Specifically, the Resolution requires:

• Certificate of incorporation and/or certificate of the validity of the company issued by the country of origin, duly apostilled or legalized as appropriate, indicating the general registration data of the company
• Date of registration of the foreign company
• Information on the legal representative of the foreign company
• Identification documents from the origin country of the legal representative of the foreign company
• Location or domicile of the foreign company

If the abovementioned documents are issued in a language other than Spanish, they must be translated into Spanish by a certified public translator in Panama.

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