У нас пошли вопросы о новом налоге на недвижимость в Панаме.
Вот даю ответ на английском языке.

Tuesday, May 04 2010

Last year the Panamanian government changed the law which dictates how property taxes are paid for apartment owners. The law went into affect this year, and the first installment was due to be paid no later than last Friday, 30 April 2010. Of course most people basically ignored this thing until the deadline was right in our face, and once I learned of the long lines of people waiting to pay at the last minute I decided it would be more cost effective to just wait a few weeks for the rush to pass, then go in and pay the tax that's due along with any late fees or fines.

What Changed? First of all you need to understand how apartments are taxed in the Republic of Panama. The government divides the property into two parts - the land under the building and the "improvements" - meaning the building or the structure itself. As you probably know new apartments built in Panama are tax exempt for the first 20 years. That law has not changed, and the tax exempt status on your apartment is still valid. What has changed, however, is the way the land under the apartment building is taxed. Each apartment owner is assigned a percentage of the total land under the building. Just to make the math simple for an easy example, if there are 50 apartments in a building then each apartment owner basically "owns" 1/50th of the land under the building. For the sake of our example, let's say the land under the building has a tax value of $500,000 dollars. Therefore, if you divide $500,000 dollars by 50 owners - the value of the land under your apartment is $10,000 dollars. With me so far?

Before - Up To $30,000 Was Exempt: The new law that was passed is called Law Number 49 of 17 September 2009, and it went into affect on 1 January 2010. Before this new law was passed, apartment owners didn't have to pay any tax on the property (land part) of their apartment if the value of the land was less than $30,000 dollars. So, in our example if your land value was $10,000 dollars, then you were tax exempt. However with the new law that exemption has been eliminated. Everyone has to pay taxes on the land, no matter how low the value. There is a graduated scale and the more your land is worth, the more you have to pay as a percentage;
LAND VALUE - RATE
$0-$20,000 - 1.40%
$20,000-$50,000 - 1.75%
$50,000-$75,000 - 1.95%
Over $75,000 - 2.10%

The Lowest Bracket: Therefore, in our example of a land value at $10,000 dollars, your total annual property tax bill would be $140 dollars. At this point you have a choice. You are required by law to make three payments - one every four months. The first installment is due on 30 April, the next on 31 August, and the last on 31 December of each year. There is a provision on the law for a 10% discount if you make one single payment for the whole year in January.

No Changes For Houses: This new tax scheme only applies to apartments, and the new law did not modify or change property (land) tax as applied to single family houses or duplexes.

Insider's Tips: It is possible to go to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and obtain a login and password to see the tax assessment for your property on-line. According to people who went there last week it reportedly takes a week to ten days in order to get the login and password, so that doesn't work if you're in a hurry to make a last minute payment. You have to go to the MEF to get your tax assessment, and then you have to make that payment at the Banco Nacional to be deposited into a government account. Obviously keep and safeguard your receipts and documentation to prove that you have, in face, made the payments. And I can only assume that your payment history will be reflected in the MEF's computer system.

Get The Right Information: According to Chris, you need a finca number that starts with the letter "F" - apparently some people had the wrong number from the wrong computer system, so they waited in line for hours only to have their paperwork rejected when they finally got to the head of the line.

Where To Pay: Apparently you can pay the tax either at the MEF or at the Banco Nacional. Apparently the MEF won't take payments in cash of more than $100 dollars, so if your tax bill is larger than that and if you're going to pay in cash, then you have to go to the bank to make your payment. I also think that after you make your payment, you will then have to return to the MEF with your receipts in order to have your account credited.

Take The Easy Way Out: Don't want to stand in line? I would like to remind you that M&M Administrative Services is one of our sponsors. Handling this kind of stuff is exactly what they do. You might want to give them a call and hand this (and a bunch of other headaches) over to them to handle for you.