Panama Private Foundation

If you are interested to establish an offshore foundation, which may hold your properties, patents, bank accounts and other assents and keep your identity confidential, you should consider Panama Private Foundationst.

Panama Foundations, as a separate legal entity, has the capacity to execute rights and acquire obligations. ThePrivate Foundation does not have shareholders or members.

It is created by a declaration of the Founder and generally has as purpose the preservations of assets for benefit of the Founder or Beneficiaries. The Founder and the Beneficiary may be the same person. Assets transferred to the Foundation become out of the reach of creditors after three years. Thus, creditors’ claims of fraudulent transfer must be made within three years.

Pros of a Panama Foundation

Exemption from all Panamanian taxes for income generated outside of Panama

• – Inexpensive annual support
• – Separate legal entity with capacity to execute rights and acquire obligations
• – No shareholders, members, directors and officers are required
• – Any person (individual or company) may establish it for benefit of any third party
• – Assets transferred to Foundation are out of reach of creditors
• – No foreign exchange control

Legislation

Panamanian private foundation was established under the the Private Interest Foundation Law of 1995.

Foundation Name

The name of the foundation can be written in any language with characters of the Latin alphabet, but must contain the term “Foundation” as part of the title to indicate that the entity is in fact a foundation structure.

The name shell not be the same or similar to already existing names of Panama foundations.

Primary Purposes of Foundation

According to Private Interest Foundation Law of Panama (Law No 25 of June 12, 1995) private foundations shell not be profit oriented. However, foundations could still be involved in commercial activities on a non-regular basis to exercise the rights deriving form holding of shares and interest of business companies if such activities directed toward foundation purposes.

The Most Common Purposes

• – Holding – to hold shares and interest in private and public companies, hold patents, collect royalties, hold trademark and business name rights, etc.
• – Asset protection – to hold assets of individuals and legal entities providing protection against creditors claims, family members claims, over taxation, local political instability, etc.
• – Financial – invest in different financial instruments such as bonds, mutual funds, etc.

Our office drafts the Foundation Charter and Private Document for each foundation in accordance with the needs of our clients.

Founder

A resident of any country individual or legal entity (such as corporation, LLC, trust, etc.) may create a private foundation. Such person is called Founder.

A minimum number of founders is one. Founder may be also a member of the Foundation Council or beneficiary or both.

Foundation Council

Each Panamanian private foundation should have a Foundation Council, which is responsible for carrying out the purposes of the foundation.

The number of members of the Foundation Council should not be less than three individuals or one legal entity. Residents of any country may be appointed as council members.

Protector

This position is optional. A protector may be appointed by the founder or majority of founders to oversight managerial actions of the Foundation Council.

A resident of any country individual or legal entity may be appointed as a protector.

Beneficiaries

A beneficiary is a person who benefits from existence of your private foundation. Your children, other members of your family, you or any other individuals or legal entities (business companies) could be beneficiaries.

When you place your order, you should indicate who you would like to be beneficiaries of your private foundation. We will prepare a private document indicating names of the beneficiaries of your foundation.

Information about beneficiaries is not filed with the Panamanian government and available to the public.

Initial Capital

The initial capital of the foundation, expressed in any currency must be not less that US$10,000. It may be transferred to the foundation in cash, property, patents, etc. Such transfer does not need to be done immediately following establishment. Founder may decide, when he would like to transfer assets to his foundation at his discretion.

Foundation assets may be increased by additional contributions of the founder or third parties at any time.

Taxes

If a Panama Foundation receives its income outside of Panama, it is exempt from all local taxes including income tax and capital gain tax.

Public Records

Founders names and addresses are listed in the Foundation Charter. The Foundation Charter is filed with the Public Registry Office and available for the public.

Names and addresses of the members of the Foundation Council are also included in the Foundation Charter, filed with the Public Registry Office and available for the public.

Protector, if required is appointed by the foundation Private Document. The document is not filed with any government organization. Therefore, information about protector is not available to the public.

Beneficiaries of the private foundation are appointed by the Private Document, which is not filed with the government. As a result, information about beneficiaries is closed to the public.

If you have any questions,
please feel free to contact
me at mario@gdeplaw.com.