Panama can be remarkably good at receiving wealth. It is much less obviously good at creating tax-free active income, and your age on arrival decides how much of the healthcare advantage is still available to you.
A Canadian retiree living in Panama on a portfolio built abroad may find that Panama barely taxes the income paying for the lifestyle. His 35-year-old daughter can move into the same building, work remotely for Canadian clients, and face a very different tax question.
Same country. Same territorial tax system. Very different result.
That gap is the real subject of this article.
Panama does have meaningful advantages for a Canadian: a US dollar economy, one of the busiest air and shipping hubs in the Americas, residence programmes with paths to permanent status, private hospitals with international affiliations, and a tropical location outside the main Caribbean hurricane belt.
Continue reading