U.S. Government Applauds Accomplishments of Panamanian President Varela's Administration in Improving Financial Transparency

PANAMA CITY, March 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambassador of the United States to Panama, John D. Feely commended the accomplishments of Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela's administration to improve financial transparency in the country. In a letter addressed to Publio Cortes, Director of Panama's Tax Agency, Ambassador Feely highlighted the actions taken by Panama to continue to uphold international standards in tax transparency.

"Almost a year ago, on April 27, 2016, our countries signed the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). In the signing ceremony, Minister Dulcidio de la Guardia said that the agreement was a sign that Panama continued making progress in financial transparency… I agree that the signature was indeed a sign of Panama's progress, but there have been many more advances since," Ambassador Feely said in his letter.

He also commended the Government on passing several legislative initiatives to strengthen laws against tax evasion, Panama's adherence to the Mutual Administrative Convention (MAC) of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the adoption and integration of a state of the art IT system to comply with FATCA, and the efforts made by Panama's Tax Agency to bring up to date over 3 years of information requests by the United States.

"We are very grateful that our many efforts are recognized by the international community and particularly by the Embassy of the United States," said Ricardo Zubieta, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. "Panama will continue to work tirelessly to fulfill international expectations in financial transparency."

Note to Editors: To request a copy of the full letter to the Panamanian government, please email [email protected]

SOURCE Government of Panama