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ShelfCompanies24 has been forming Panamanian companies for international clients since 1995. Our Panama City abogado partners handle every step of company formation in Panama on a single fixed-price contract — from picking the right legal form through Registro Público registration, three-director arrangement, RUC tax registration, BO filing and your first Panama bank account. Most clients are trading inside 1–3 weeks, or in 3–7 working days via a ready-made off-the-shelf Panama S.A..
Single payment covers Registro Público filings, three-director nominee arrangement, registered agent and our service fee.
Panama S.A. + registered agent + banking introduction + ongoing compliance under one roof.
Standard formation 1–3 weeks. Spanish/English-speaking case manager.
No physical presence required.
We draft Articles of Incorporation, file Registro Público, register RUC, file BO.
The S.A. is Panama’s dominant corporate form, the workhorse of Panama-incorporated international structures. Governed by Law 32 of 1927 (as amended).
| Form | Min. capital | Formation time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panama S.A. | US$10,000 authorised | 1–3 weeks | Default — international holding, trade |
| Panama SRL | None statutory | 1–3 weeks | JV / member-driven structures |
| Panama Foundation | None | 2–4 weeks | Private wealth, succession |
| Off-the-shelf S.A. | US$10,000 authorised | 3–7 days | Need immediate trading |
Confirm legal form, shareholder structure, business purpose, three-director arrangement.
Apply via the registered agent.
Drafted by our Panama abogado in Spanish (with English translation).
Articles notarised by Panamanian notario público and filed with Registro Público de Panamá. Registro Público issues the company’s cédula juridical and the company appears in the public register typically within 5–10 working days.
The S.A. registers with DGI (Dirección General de Ingresos) for RUC (Registro Único de Contribuyente).
BO Register filing per the 2020 framework.
Panama hosts ~70 banks. Banking onboarding requires comprehensive KYC.
Standard S.A.: 1–3 weeks. Off-the-shelf transfer: 3–7 working days.
Panama taxes only income derived from Panamanian sources. Foreign-source income earned by a Panama S.A. — foreign trading, foreign IP licensing, foreign investment returns — is not subject to Panamanian corporate tax. This is the structural foundation of Panama’s offshore-financial-services industry.
No. Registered agent must be Panamanian; we provide. Three-director nominee arrangement also provided.
RUC tax registration, BO Register filing, bank account opening, ongoing registered-agent service.
Ready to register your Panama S.A.? Contact our Panama desk.
Forming a Panamanian SA through ShelfCompanies24 follows a defined sequence. Knowing what happens at each stage helps you prepare documentation and avoid surprises:
The fixed fee for a new Panamanian SA formation through ShelfCompanies24 starts at EUR 2,200. This single invoice covers:
Optional add-ons priced separately: virtual office, mail forwarding, accountant retainer, payroll setup, sector-specific licences. Specialised structures (foundations, partnership variants) are quoted individually after the consultation.
Modern offshore practice has shifted substantially since 2019. Panama, like most international financial centres, requires entities engaged in ‘relevant activities’ (banking, insurance, fund management, financing & leasing, headquarters, distribution & service centre, holding-company business, IP, shipping) to demonstrate economic substance — adequate staff, premises, and management presence in Panama commensurate with the activity carried on. Pure passive holding companies face a reduced substance test; active income-generating activities face the full test.
Panama-resident corporates are also subject to FATCA and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) automatic exchange of financial-account information with US IRS and OECD partner jurisdictions respectively. We brief every client on these obligations during scoping; they are not deal-breakers but they materially shape how the SA should be structured and where the beneficial owner sits for tax-residency purposes. Our consultant helps you build a structure that is both efficient and demonstrably compliant — Google’s E-E-A-T standards, OECD pressure, and your home jurisdiction’s controlled-foreign-company rules all push in the same direction: substance matters more than ever.
Headline Panama corporate tax in 2026: 0% on foreign-source.
0% on foreign-source (territorial); USD legal tender; Foundation structure for asset protection; SA only with registered shares since 2015.
Annual obligations after incorporation typically include RP confirmation/return filings, beneficial-owner-register updates whenever ownership changes, and corporate-tax filings on the company’s financial year. Where VAT/sales-tax registration applies, periodic VAT returns are filed on calendar-quarter or monthly cadence depending on turnover. Our retainer-based bookkeeping and tax-compliance service handles the entire annual cycle for a fixed fee — typically EUR 1,500-4,500 per year for a non-trading SA and EUR 4,000-12,000 for an actively trading one.
The right bank for a Panamanian SA depends on what you’ll actually do with the company. Operating-account-only with low transaction volume is straightforward. International EUR/USD multi-currency with high-volume B2B transfers requires a different banking partner. E-commerce processing has yet another set of requirements.
For Panama entities specifically, we work with relationship managers at international banks that accept panama-domiciled corporate structures — a noticeably narrower set than for onshore EU companies. The banks that do accept offshore entities focus on substance evidence, beneficial-owner CV, and source-of-funds documentation rather than just incorporation paperwork. Our consultant pre-positions your application against the bank’s specific scoring model so the application clears on first submission.
Operators evaluating Panama for a formation project frequently also look at:
Each of those jurisdictions has its own trade-off matrix on tax, banking, substance, and operational practicalities. If you’re early in your evaluation, your consultant will walk you through the comparison in the first call — we are deliberately jurisdiction-agnostic about which structure fits your business best.
Most Panama corporate structures do not require a local-resident director — you and your appointed directors can be resident anywhere. A few jurisdictions, and certain regulated activities, do require local-substance directors or a registered local agent. Your consultant confirms the exact requirement for your structure in the initial call.
A Panamanian SA can be wound up voluntarily through a RP dissolution procedure (typical timeline 6-12 months including the statutory creditor-notice period). It can also be sold — the share-purchase mechanism is the same one we use to transfer shelf companies, just operating in reverse. We handle both routes; clients often resell a no-longer-needed SA as a shelf entity to recover part of the original investment.
Some activities require sector-specific licences in Panama — banking, insurance, investment services, crypto-asset services, gambling, and others depending on your business model. The standard SA we form is suitable for non-regulated commercial activity; licensing is layered on afterwards where needed. Your consultant confirms the licence position for your specific activity during the initial scoping call.
A Panamanian SA can hold subsidiaries, branches, or contractual relationships in other jurisdictions. The optimal multi-country structure depends on tax-residency rules, treaty access, transfer pricing, and beneficial-owner reporting in each country. ShelfCompanies24 covers 56 jurisdictions across our network, so we can implement a multi-country structure end-to-end without you needing separate providers in each country.
Send us a short message with your country preference (or that you’re undecided), the activity you have in mind, and whether you’d prefer a pre-formed shelf SA ready in 48 hours (from EUR 4,000) or a fresh formation taking 3 days (from EUR 2,200). We respond within one working day with a fixed-fee proposal tailored to your situation. The first consultation is free and covers structure, tax, banking, and timelines — no obligation.
Our retainer-based ongoing service covers the full annual lifecycle of a Panamanian SA: registered office and mail handling, accounting and bookkeeping, periodic VAT/sales-tax filings (where applicable), payroll for any employed staff, beneficial-owner-register maintenance, RP confirmation/return filings, and the year-end financial statements plus corporate-tax return. We also provide a dedicated point of contact who knows your file and signs off every filing — no rotating-account-manager experience. Specialised work (transfer-pricing studies, restructurings, M&A on the SA, or sector-specific licensing) is quoted separately. Most clients find the predictable annual fixed fee far easier to budget than buying piecemeal services from local accountants and lawyers, especially when starting out in Panama.
You have three practical options. Voluntary dissolution through a RP winding-up is the cleanest route — fixed-fee handled by us, typically completed inside 6-12 months including the statutory creditor-notice period. Sale of the SA as a shelf entity to another buyer is sometimes possible — especially if it has clean trading history and a recognisable name; we evaluate this on a case-by-case basis. Mothballing via reduced-cost dormant filings keeps the SA alive at minimal annual cost (registered office plus nil filings, typically EUR 1,200-1,800 per year) for the day you might want to use it again. Your consultant walks you through trade-offs before you commit either way.