Panama Tax Authority establishes procedure for closing commercial establishments that fail to comply with obligation to issue and/or keep invoices or receipts

• A Resolution issued by the Panama Tax Authority establishes the procedure for applying penalties that lead to the temporary closure of commercial establishments that fail to comply with the obligation to issue and/or keep invoices or receipts.
  
  
• The new procedure aims to generate greater transparency in the processes of tax compliance control.
   

The Panama Tax Authority issued Resolution No. 201-4983 on 2 June 2023, implementing a procedure for applying penalties for failure to comply with obligations to issue, demand and/or keep invoices or receipts, based on the paragraph 3 of article 11 of Law No. 76 of 1976.

In applicable cases, the Tax Authority will issue a resolution to impose an economic penalty on the taxpayer based on the law and will order the temporary closure of the commercial establishment in which the taxpayer incurred the infractions.

For the temporary closure of the establishment, the Tax Authority staff will personally notify the taxpayer or the person in charge of the commercial establishment where the services are provided or where the products are sold and will proceed to close the establishment. For this purpose, a seal and/or tape will be placed at the entries of the establishment to ensure its closure.

Notwithstanding any appeal that the taxpayer could file contesting the resolution that orders the closure, the temporary closure of the commercial establishment will cease once the taxpayer corrects the irregularities established in the sanctioning resolution and pays the corresponding fines.

If temporary closure of a commercial establishment was ordered and the taxpayer nonetheless continues to operate, the taxpayer's actions will be understood to be a second-time offense, which will lead to the imposition of a fine ranging from USD10,000 to USD25,000 and the temporary closure of the commercial establishment.
 

For additional information with respect to this Alert, please contact the following:

Ernst & Young, Panamá
 

• Rafael Sayagués
  
  
• Luis Ocando
  
  
• Carlos Márquez
  
  
• Ana Clement
  
  
• Meitner González

Published by NTD’s Tax Technical Knowledge Services group; Carolyn Wright, legal editor

For a full listing of contacts and email addresses, please click on the Tax News Update: Global Edition (GTNU) version of this Alert.