Crypto license in Panama
Separate licence
Отдельная лицензия
not in force
не введена
Annual tasa unica
Ежегодная tasa unica
B/.300
300 бальбоа
Owners on registry
Бенефициары в реестр
15 working days
15 рабочих дней
Records due
Учётные записи
30 April each year
до 30 апреля
When you look for a VASP license in Panama
You were promised a Panama licence
Panama has no separate licence for virtual asset business. What you register is a company, and what follows are corporate and record-keeping duties with real deadlines.
Your bank asks who supervises you
There is no supervisor to name for virtual asset services. Counterparties look at the company file instead: resident agent, beneficial owners on the registry, accounting records.
You want low running costs
A Panamanian company pays an annual tasa unica of B/.300 and no licence fees, because there is no licence to pay for. What remains is documentary work.
Your company slipped out of good standing
An unpaid tasa unica or missing records let the tax authority suspend corporate rights, and while that lasts nothing about the company can be recorded.
Your owners or directors change
A change of beneficial owner has to reach the resident agent within fifteen working days, and the agent then updates the private registry within five.
What you get
- A Panamanian company in good standing
- Beneficial owners on the private registry
- Accounting records with your resident agent
- A written position for banks and partners
- A calendar of the dates that bind you
What is required for a crypto company in Panama
Why there is no CASP license in Panama
A bill on virtual assets and their service providers passed the National Assembly in October 2022. The Supreme Court declared the whole of it unconstitutional, and the ruling was published in the Official Gazette on 7 September 2023.
Nothing replaced it. Law 23 of 2015 on money laundering does not use the words virtual asset or crypto anywhere, and the list of supervised non-financial businesses in Law 124 of 2020 does not include them either. So no Panamanian authority licenses or supervises virtual asset services as such.
What actually gets registered
- The company itself, at the Public Registry of Panama, through a resident agent who must be a Panamanian lawyer or law firm.
- Your beneficial owners, in the Private and Unique Registry of Beneficial Owners, filed by that resident agent.
- Accounting records and supporting documents: a company that does not operate inside Panama, or only holds assets, hands them to the agent yearly and keeps them five years.
- The annual tasa unica, paid through the legal representative or the resident agent.
Deadlines the law actually sets
| Obligation | Deadline or amount |
|---|---|
| Beneficial owners filed on the registry | 15 working days from incorporation |
| Change of beneficial owner reported to the agent | 15 working days |
| Agent updates the registry after being told | 5 working days |
| Accounting records to the resident agent | by 30 April each year |
| Records and supporting documents kept for | 5 years |
| Annual tasa unica | B/.300 |
| Due date, companies registered January to June | 15 July |
| Due date, companies registered July to December | 15 January |
| Surcharge for paying late | B/.50 a year or part year |
| Reactivation after suspension | B/.1,000 |
What getting it wrong costs
- A resident agent faces B/.1,000 to B/.50,000 for each company whose beneficial owner data is missing, plus B/.500 for every day it stays missing, for up to six months.
- A company that fails to hand over its accounting records faces B/.5,000 to B/.1,000,000 from the tax authority.
- The tax authority can order the Public Registry to suspend corporate rights. While the suspension stands, no act or agreement can be recorded and no certificates are issued.
When a licence is the point
If a licence number is what your payment providers or investors want to see, the choice is a country that issues one. We set out what each route asks on our licensing and compliance pages and on the crypto and fintech licensing page.
Panama against a licensed route
Panama as it stands
No application, no licence fee and no regulatory capital, because there is no licence. The cost is documentary and the risk is a suspension you did not see coming.
A country that licenses
An application, a capital requirement and a named regulator, in exchange for a licence number your counterparties can verify themselves against a public register.
Sources: Law 129 of 2020, Official Gazette 28985-C, arts. 11, 12 and 23 as amended by Law 254 of 2021; Law 52 of 2016, art. 1 and art. 7, and art. 318-A of the Fiscal Code as amended by its art. 9; Law 23 of 2015 and Law 124 of 2020, art. 40; dgi.mef.gob.pa on the tasa unica.
Stages of work
Resident agent and structure
We settle who will act as your resident agent, how the ownership is built, and who your beneficial owners are for registry purposes before anything is filed.
Name and constitutive documents
The company name is cleared and the articles are drafted, including the directors and officers a Panamanian company has to have on paper.
Registration at the Public Registry
The articles are recorded at the Public Registry. The first tasa unica is paid at that moment, together with the registration duties.
Beneficial owners filed, 15 working days
The resident agent files the company and its beneficial owners on the private registry. The registry issues a certificate that stays in the agent's file.
Tax number and banking file
The company is registered with the tax authority, and we assemble the file a bank or payment provider will ask for in the absence of a licence.
Records set up, delivered by 30 April
Accounting records and supporting documentation are organised so that each year's set reaches the resident agent by the April deadline.
Annual calendar
We hand you the dates that bind the company: the tasa unica due date for your registration month, the records deadline and the reporting duty on ownership changes.
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