An Honest Assessment of What Awaits in Panama

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 | leave a comment

I have a new friend, Marcus, to thank for the following blog article. He is an American who moved his family to Panama. He is honest and open about the good and the bad in Panama and says that despite its flaws, Panama works for him and his family. In this post, I’ll share the negative. Then I’ll follow up with a positive view of things in a later blog.

Many expats that move here, really can’t afford to and need to offset their income, that is really hard to do here. The labor laws are all in favor of them and you can find yourself in hot water very fast. You pay them x amount, then x amount you have to pay to their s.s. fund. Then they get bonus pay three times a year, then they get one month off with pay each year. If you hire a young lady and she gets pregnant then you will have to pay her while she if off, around 3 to 4 months.

Again you can own a company here but you are not allowed to work in it. You can oversee it, but not do any of the work. My friend and his wife own a bistro/ bar; they both hired people to work there, but they also work there. The law has come in there many times and have warned them if they are caught working there they will be fined, maybe even shut down. And I have seen the law come in there time after time and check everything, which they don’t do for the rest of the places here.

What I dislike about this country is the paperwork. You can never seem to get things done. No fault of you but on their part. Like the ATTT card for my truck . This is a card that has all the information about your car on it with a photo and every car has to have one. I have two commercial trucks which need them each year. This year I paid for them and had to come back three weeks later to pick up the cards. They had only one of the cards. They gave me a letter that stated it was ok for me to drive the truck without the card, but it was only good for one month. I have made 5 trips down there to their office in Panama City. Still no card.

Now this is how they think.. I stopped going to get a new letter for 30 days. but my truck has to stop at the scales. The attt men told my driver that the letter was outdated, and if he didn’t get another one next time he came through there they were going to ticket him. Now think about that. I paid the fees, did all I have to do, and it’s att’s problem they don’t have my card. Yet they want to ticket me for not having the card they don’t have!!!!!

These are just a few things you will have to deal with in this country. If it’s ABC and you hand them ACB they are lost and have no clue what to do, and can not look outside the box.

Please watch this,,,