Panama VAT registration threshold

What this value means

PERIOD BASIS: the PREVIOUS year, on a dual cumulative test — average monthly gross income ≤ B/.3,000 AND annual gross income ≤ B/.36,000 (balboa at par and interchangeable with USD). Exceeding EITHER limb in a year makes the person a contribuyente for the FOLLOWING year: registration, 7% ITBMS on invoices, and the monthly declaración jurada (form 430) with payment by the 15th of the following month. 'Ingreso bruto' is TOTAL income, not taxable income — exempt turnover counts toward both limbs. Suppliers below the line can obtain a Certificado de No-Contribuyente (procedure of Resolución 201-1181 de 9-4-2008) so business customers do not withhold ITBMS from them. One of the few genuine VAT thresholds in Central America. NON-ESTABLISHED SUPPLIERS: nil threshold, enforced by withholding rather than registration. Under the ITBMS retención regime (Decreto Ejecutivo 84 de 2005 as extended in 2015-2016; DGI form-433 guidance), whoever pays 'retribuciones por operaciones gravadas realizadas por personas naturales domiciliadas o entidades constituidas en el exterior' without a Panamanian branch, agency or establishment must withhold 100% of the ITBMS: the invoiced price is deemed tax-inclusive, the tax computed with the 7/107 coefficient, and remitted to the DGI within ten days of the retention. The B/.36,000 small-taxpayer exemption never protects a non-domiciled supplier, and there is no registration mechanism for one. IMPORTED DIGITAL SERVICES: no non-resident digital regime as of 2026-08 — no registration, platform rules or card-issuer collection. B2B payments abroad for digital/remote services used in Panama fall under the 100% withholding above; B2C purchases by Panamanian consumers from foreign platforms go uncollected in practice (recurrent bills to tax foreign platforms have not been enacted). Traps: (1) TWO cumulative limbs on last year's figures — a trader can clear B/.36,000 annually yet have breached the B/.3,000 monthly average (or vice-versa); test both. (2) Gross, not net or taxable: exempt sales count toward the limits. (3) The exemption removes contribuyente status for domestic supplies only — the same small trader still pays ITBMS at customs on imports of goods. (4) effective_from 1-7-2010 is the entry into force of Ley 8 de 2010's ITBMS package (the last substantive rewrite of art. 1057-V, which also brought professional services into scope — pre-2010 guidance excluding professionals is stale); the B/.36,000 figure itself originates in Ley 6 de 2005, whose precise commencement day was not pinned this session. (5) Do not conflate the NON-DOMICILED 100% withholding with the separate 50% withholding that the State and designated large purchasers/card processors apply to domestic suppliers' invoiced ITBMS. (6) An exempt small supplier who invoices ITBMS anyway owes what it charged — the certificate matters.

Get it programmatically

curl https://latamref.dev/v1/pa/vat-registration-threshold
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://latamref.dev/v1/pa/vat-registration-threshold/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://latamref.dev/provenance/pa/vat-registration-threshold

Other Panama series: Monetary policy rate · ITBMS (VAT) standard rate · Minimum wage (lowest general statutory floor) · National public holidays · CPI inflation (year-over-year) · Corporate income tax (ISR personas jurídicas) · Withholding tax rates · Statutory legal interest (interés legal) · Personal income tax (ISR personas naturales) · Statutory social-insurance contributions

The same figure elsewhere: Paraguay · Peru · Trinidad and Tobago · Uruguay · Argentina · all 22