Real estate taxes are paid quarterly in Panama and in order to pay them a Tax ID needs to be assigned. The tax ID is referred to as a RUC which stands for Registro Unico de Contribuyente, or Unique Taxpayer Registry. Every person, corporation and property in Panama needs this ID assigned in order to get credit for their corresponding tax payments. In the case of foreigners, for the sole purpose of selling real estate or paying real estate taxes, the tax ID is referred to as an NT number.
Property tax payments are made payable to the Tesoro Nacional (National Treasury) and must be in the form of either cash or certified check from a bank of locality.
Panama Realtor can aid you in the process of getting your property taxes paid, as well as help you with the assignment of your RUC or NT number. We charge 50 dollars for the service, plus expenses and ITBMS (7% sales tax) . In the event that the NT number must be assigned we charge an additional 1 time fee of 10 USD for assignment of this tax ID. Included with our service is the following:
- Confirmation of the amount of property taxes owed
- Assignment of RUC or NT Tax ID, this is a one time assignment and brings an additional fee of 10 USD.
- Assignment of NIT and password for on-line access to tax department of the Ministry of Economy y Finance
- Payment of property taxes with copy of receipts for said payments
- We can offer escrow service to receive payment for property tax as well as confection of cashiers checks for tax payments. We charge bank costs for these services.