When looking for a location to hide their money offshore, people are often referred to Panama these days. What once was mostly the business of the Swiss has now become the Panamanians lifestyle. But how did this happen? The answer is the amount of secrecy laws that Panama has and the fact that they help keep the bank assets of a person more secret than any other nation in the world.

One of these laws is the lack of having a treaty with another country regarding taxes. Most countries have tax treaties where they turnover a certain percentage of a person’s income in their bank accounts to the country in which it was earned. Seems pointless to go to a country that has these laws right? Not only do they take some of your money, they also point out that you have an account there with this much money in it. Panama does not have any tax treaties, not even basic ones that help other countries recover money lost in tax evasion and other disputes. Their main concern is attracting new business and keeping old customers. This is done by maintaining privacy and secrets and tax treaties do not help.

Furthermore, Panama does not help out other governments in legal issues under the MLAT. This treaty argues that a country should help out another nation if it is found that a person is holding funds illegally earned in an offshore account. Panama has very strict regulations on following the MLAT. To begin with, a person must be prosecuted in his home country before they even consider giving out information. This is to prevent governments from fishing for suspects. In addition, a country must prove that they need this evidence to put this person in jail. If it is just to add on another charge, it is unlikely to get through the courts. Finally, a person must have committed a serious offense such as terrorism or drug dealing. Panama does not care about minor disputes such as divorce settlements and tax evasion.

Panama as a whole does not like these requests for information as it hurts their livelihood by ridding the trust their customers have in them to keep secrets. They will usually do their best to get out of helping other nations and giving up private bank accounts. This policy should be very appealing to anyone, as Panama is willing to go the extra mile to keep your secrets intact.

Overall, when it comes to laws Panama shows an emphasis on keeping secrets and that is what makes them such an ideal location for an offshore bank account.