• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result

Doing Business In Panama

Lief Simon by Lief Simon
Dec 27, 2011
in Employment, Retirement/Living
0
Panama Market Watch For Real Estate
210
SHARES
3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Why We Continue To Choose Panama

When looking around the world in search of a place to base your business, these are the factors to consider:

  1. Corporate tax rates
  2. Availability of qualified labor
  3. Import and export duties
  4. Infrastructure (including options for air and/or sea transportation, internal roads, and telecommunications)

Each of these factors will be more or less important depending on the business you want to operate.

Taking a very big-picture perspective, considering all these criteria, Panama comes out on top in Latin America. That’s why we chose Panama, four years ago, as the place to base our Internet publishing business, and it’s why many, many other businesses, including many very big international operations, are also choosing to settle in this country.

Infrastructure is of critical importance for any business, whether it’s the Internet that moves your goods (as in our case) or, say, ships. As the Hub of the Americas, Panama boasts the best infrastructure in Central America and is close to being on par with the best of South America. Telecom cables connecting east and west, north and south run through and by Panama, allowing the country to plug into high-speed telecommunications. Local Internet companies continue to upgrade the available speeds they offer, and, for companies that need it, getting a dedicated trunk link isn’t complicated or expensive.

Panama’s Copa Airlines serves 59 destinations in the Americas and is expanding its routes regularly. Further, Copa is affiliated with Continental/United, so options for connecting around the world from Panama are good. This means that, if you’re shipping goods by air or need to travel for consulting or other in-person business agendas, you have easy access from this base.

The downside is that Copa doesn’t have a lot of competition, so fares for flights around the region aren’t cheap. With no discount carrier like Ryan Air or Southwest to keep prices down, the hour flight from Panama to Medellin (a flight Kathleen and I have been taking often lately) costs about US$600 round-trip, including taxes and fuel surcharges. You can fly to the States (minimum 2 1/2;-hour flight) for less much of the time.

The other hub of activity in this country revolves around the Canal. Container ships come through by the thousands every year, meaning the options for receiving and sending sea freight are plenty.

If your business involves physical goods and you aren’t selling to the local Panama market, then you could locate in Panama’s duty-free or free-trade zone for added tax benefits. Many countries have these zones available to allow international businesses to operate without being taxed locally.

Panama doesn’t tax people or corporations that don’t earn money in Panama, but the free-trade zone allows businesses to conduct activity in the country and then to ship the resulting goods back out without paying Panama income tax on the associated profits.

You could, for example, buy and import leather from Argentina and use it to manufacture gloves in Panama and pay no income tax in Panama on the profits from the sale of the finished goods to a wholesaler in the United States…as long as you operate in Panama’s duty-free zone.

If you run a business in Panama that sells to the local population, the corporate tax rate is 25%, which is an average rate on a global scale. However, again, the only way you’d incur this tax would be by operating and selling locally. Run a virtual business in Panama (base yourself here as a consultant, for example), and you’d have no local tax liability whatsoever as long as your clients are all outside this country.

Panama also offers a well-educated, English-speaking labor force if you need it. This is an important reason why many big international call centers are locating themselves in this country. Dell, for example, has more than 2,000 call center employees in Panama City, and several outsourcing call centers (centers that do work for small- to medium-sized businesses that don’t have enough demand to run a call center of their own) have as many as 3,000 employees handling both English and Spanish inbound and outbound calls.

Lief Simon

Comments

Tags: 'doing business in panama''Offshore Business Centers''Simon Letter'Lief Simon
Share84Tweet53
Previous Post

How To Close On A Property Purchase Overseas

Next Post

Christmas In Stowe, Vermont

Lief Simon

Lief Simon

Lief Simon has lived and worked on five continents and traveled to more than 60 countries. In his long career as a global property investor, Lief has also managed multimillion-dollar portfolios of rental properties, for others and for himself. He offers advice on international diversification in his twice-weekly Offshore Living Letter and monthly Simon Letter dispatches.

Related Posts

Cinta Costera, Panama City, Panama
Retirement/Living

How To Move Abroad: The #1 Tip To Start Your New Life Overseas

by Kathleen Peddicord
April 18, 2021
0

The key to finding the right fit for your new life overseas is having a clear picture in your mind...

Read more
Grilled sardines with salad, bread and potato, Portugal.

Food, Wine, Customs, And Culture In The Algarve, Portugal

April 16, 2021
Toledo, Spain.

Why You Shouldn’t Retire Overseas

April 11, 2021
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Where Are The Cheapest Places In The World

April 9, 2021
Doi Inthanon National Park when sunset, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The Top 10 Best Places To Live In Asia For Retirees

April 8, 2021
San Pedro Beach, Belize

What I’ve Learned From Living 6 Years In Corozal Town, Belize

April 7, 2021
The Marble Temple, Wat Benchamabopit Dusitvanaram at sunset in Bangkok, Thailand.

Culture Shock In Asia

April 6, 2021
Next Post
red star ornaments on a christmas tree

Christmas In Stowe, Vermont

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

how to retire overseas

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2021

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

WANT TO RETIRE OVERSEAS?

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll immediately send you a free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE in style overseas. Each day you’ll learn about the best opportunities for international living, retiring overseas, offshore diversification and asset protection, and investing in real estate around the world.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.