Colon Free Zone
The Colon Free Zone was founded in 1948. Since them, it has acquired an important position in world commerce. Thanks to our geographic position, the facilites that the Panama Canal offers, the existence of various ports in both oceans and the infrastructure which as been created to serve commerce, the Colon Free Zone is a ideal location to establish distribution centers to serve all America and the Caribbean.
The Colon ports, currently privately owned, offer their users an expeditiousness difficultt to match by other ports of the world. Because it is a free zone, you have the facility of keeping an inventory of merchandises inside the free zone without having to pay taxes until they leave the area and enter the Panamanian territory. Likewise, there are not Export taxes.
The Banking Center and Insurance Center allow banking tariffs and insurance premiums to be extremely competitive, thus cooperating with the commercial expeditiousness that benefits the bussinesmen established in the free zone.
At the present time, and since January 1, 1997, there is a tax incentive by which all activities and/or sales carried out abroad, i.e., outside Panama, are assessed with a 0% tax, to wit, free of taxes on income or revenue; but no so, the sales effected towards the Panamanian territory which pay taxes of around 30%.
Another element worth mentioning is the presence of a large quantity of shipping lines, which offer frequent vessels to different world destinations.