This report has been prepared with the essential collaboration of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and the Directorate General of Revenue (DGI) of the Republic of Panama; the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT); the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Department of Inland Revenue – Ministry of Finance – of Bahamas. There were also valuable comments from Raul Gasteazoro, Publio Cortes, Javier Miter, Martín Barciela, Leonardo Costa, Gonzalo Arias and Alberto Barreix.

In this document, the crime of tax fraud has been thoroughly analyzed in its constitutive aspects (deceit as a subjective element, trickery and tax prejudice) and its evolution in contemporary legal systems as a criminal figure that protects the Public Treasury, understood from the double aspects of the financial activity of the State, that is to say, the collection of resources and the capacity of carrying out the public spending, considering also the viability of the tax crime as previous to the crime of money laundering, case in which a categorical affirmative answer has been stated.

For the Panamanian legislation, the tax evasion constitutes a mere “administrative breach” and, therefore, is susceptible only to be sanctioned with an administrative penalty, which is not in accordance with the modern doctrinal and legislative currents that predominate with crystal clarity in Compared Criminal Tax Law.

Presentation of the comparative study on tax crime in Panama and in other countries