Yesterday morning October 30th, La Prensa Panama published a news article that the Netherlands 🇳🇱 had just included Panama 🇵🇦 on a “Black List of countries” with low taxes.
Many other news sources in Panama also published about it, following that article (and about the President’s reaction to it). However, it is FAKE NEWS (!). When checking the quoted sources in the article, it is clear that it was news from December 2023, almost a year ago. La Prensa published it as if it just happened. Moreover, there were no Dutch sources that reported on this (because there is no news).
Update 31 Oct 2024: La Prensa modified the article somewhat this morning (modifed article). However, a clear, explanatory rectification clearly admitting the mistake seems to have been much more appropriate, especially considering all the damage the article has already done (more on this below).
Panama’s President Mulino reacted to the fake news on X yesterday rejecting the inclusion of Panama in the Netherlands’ “Black List” and stating that “In the meantime, its companies will not be able to participate in any type of public act or contract”. And many news outlets, even some international ones, published about the statement and its (fake) context.
Remco de Bruijn (Managing Director Digitude Panama): “Excluding EU countries, such as the Netherlands, from government procurement in Panama would go against the Trade Pillar of the EU – Central America Association Agreement. Besides that considering Panama’s current low economic growth, it desperately needs foreign investment and therefore is “shooting itself in the foot”. The Netherlands is a large investor in Panama worldwide (ranking 11th globally, latest FDI stocks by INEC, 2022), thereby contributing to its economy, jobs and tech & knowledge transfer.”
About the “Black List”
The Netherlands “black list” with which countries will be on the list for 2025 has not been published yet. The new list is expected to be published end of December this year.
Together with 24 other countries, Panama is on the 2024 list (but that was news from DECEMBER 2023 (!))
💡The Dutch list of low-tax jurisdictions contains the names of countries with a corporate income tax with a statutory rate of less than 9 percent. The Dutch list is revised each year to reflect the situation as of October 1, and is applicable in the following year.