Offshore Guatemala Bank Account

Introduction – If you are looking for an alternative to Panama Banking we have a solution - Guatemala. Guatemala has excellent large stable banks, a stable democratic government, excellent bank secrecy, a minimum of red tape making it a great jurisdiction for asset protection.

Guatemala Bank Secrecy – Excellent Secrecy Laws. Guatemala is not in any Tax Information Exchange Agreement, Not in the EU Savings Tax Withholding Agreement and is not in any sort of treaty pertaining to taxation and/or exchange of information for a tax matter of any sort on any level of seriousness including criminal cases concerning just taxation. Tax treaties can result in fishing expeditions and the information divulged in these fishing expeditions can wind up in the public domain destroying any privacy or anonymity that you thought you had. Think about how seriously some strange country is going to take your banking information, not very seriously at all. They do not care about you. Guatemala is likely to assist other countries in major crimes that specifically fall into these categories: Murder, Kidnapping, Blackmail, Narcotics Trafficking, Abuse of Children, Genocide, and Terrorism. Guatemala will not respond to or recognize anything coming from any civil court of any other country. They will not honor any civil judgments, subpoenas, or orders from civil judges in other countries. Guatemala is not responsive to fraudulent conveyance civil actions. Guatemala is a safe jurisdiction for asset protection.

Guatemala Judicial Seal on Bank Records – We can have your bank records sealed by a Guatemala Court and the order would be signed by a Guatemala Judge. This would make getting the beneficial owners name for the respective bank account practically impossible. The bank itself would be under court order not to release such information, to any entity irrespective of who they were. If the bank violated this court order they could be held in contempt of court in addition to breaking Guatemalas tough bank secrecy laws and you could sue the bank with their deep pockets for damages. Breaking the judicial seal could probably occur in matters of serious criminality like genocide and terrorism but would require court hearings and such instances of the judicial seal being broken are very rare and anything but common. Please note the bank and their employees would of course need to know the name of the signatory on the account in order to process checks, wires transfer requests etc. The signatory is not the owner of the account and can merely be an employee of the corporation or foundation.

Guatemala Banks – The banks in Guatemala are the same banks found in Panama and other Latin American Countries. They are large, modern banks with substantial assets in the billions. They have multiple branches inside Guatemala and have substantial buildings with their name on them. If the Bank in Guatemala was to get into trouble the banks around the world using the same name would step in and shore things up to save the name and reputation of the banks worldwide. The Guatemala Banks are separate Guatemala Banking Corporations and would not let the banks with the same name in other countries access the computers or records in that this would be a violation of bank secrecy laws. If you want a Guatemala only bank that does not share its name with banks in other countries this too is available.

Guatemala does not have any currency exchange controls, so wires of any size can be sent and received. Accounts can be in Euros, US Dollars or their local currency the Quetzal (The Quetzal is about 7.6 to one USD). The banks have online banking, English speakers, checking, saving and CD accounts. You can get an ATM card from the bank, which will have your name on it. Please do not call us up and ask us the names of the banks we use. When you become a paid client you will be given a list of the banks we use in Guatemala and the pluses and minuses will be explained to you by your Guatemala lawyer and an educated choice will be made by you.

Guatemala Taxation – If your foreign corporation or foundation (Panamanian) is just banking in Guatemala there is no taxation at all. Not an issue. This means that you are not receiving money from within Guatemala so your money is all offshore derived as far as Guatemala is concerned and not taxed.

Using Your Guatemala Bank – Wire transfers can be used to load the bank account. We do not advise bringing large amounts of cash to Guatemala, so please do not do this. Any cash in an amount of $10,000 or more would need to be declared in the departure country and upon arrival in Guatemala. If your business collects checks in US dollars the checks can be prepared for deposit and sent to the Guatemala law firm who will deposit the checks into your account. There is a fee of $150 for each deposit. Most would accumulate the checks and do this one time per month.

Guatemala Bank Account and Your Asset Protection Structure – You can certainly combine the Guatemala Bank Account with a Panama Foundation, Corporation and Panama Bank Accounts for added protection and security. Inquire.

Guatemala Bank Account Opening – You do not need to come to Guatemala BUT feel free to come if you like. We do need a notarized copy of a Passport and a notarized copy of a driver license and these will need to be sent in hard copy form by courier such as DHL, Fed Ex. We would be happy to review scans of any documents before shipping them by courier to make sure they are correct. Basically the notary photocopies the ID documents and stamps them to be true copies of the original and signs it. We do not need to have anything apostilled. We do not need any utility bills. We do not need a bank reference letter. We do not need any professional reference letters. The minimum deposit to get the account open in $5,000. Time is 15 working days after we have received payment and documents. You can NOT get a personal account - corporate or foundation only. You can use a Panama Corporation or a Panama Foundation, which we have formed. This is because we will need our nominees to authorize the bank account opening, sign forms and we do not wish to try to get the cooperation of another law firm in Panama or in another country since this generally becomes a fairly burdensome and a slow process at best in our experience plus the other law firm will bill you for this work and sometimes excessively. You can use a Guatemala Corporation but the cost increases somewhat. We will not open the account with a corporation or a foundation, which is from a country other than Panama or Guatemala, which we did not form.

Attorney Client Privilege – You are dealing with us Panama Legal, a Panama law firm and our associated law firm in Guatemala so there is attorney client privilege all the way through except with the bank and that is covered by Guatemala Bank Secrecy. The attorney client relationship begins with us and then after documents and fees are submitted you begin working with your Guatemala lawyer that is assigned to your case from the Guatemala Law Firm. All lawyers in both countries speak excellent English and Spanish.

Cost – The cost is $3995, which includes either a Panama Corporation or Foundation, your choice (of course we can explain the differences) and a Guatemala Bank Account. If you already have a Panama Corporation or Foundation that we formed the cost for the Guatemala Bank Account opening is $2500. If you wish to use a Guatemala Corporation and have a bank account in Guatemala the cost is $5500.

ATM Card and MasterCard – The bank in Guatemala will provide an ATM card which will have your name on it and usually the cash withdraw limit is $300 a day. Panama has similar low limits by the way. If you would like a MasterCard or Visa that DOES NOT have your name on it (just a corporation name from an anonymous Panama Bearer Share Corporation) with a $5,000 a day cash withdraw limit from ATM machines it is available but it is not tied to your bank account, it is through a special pre-loaded card program in Guatemala. The minimum is $25,000 deposit. A no name ATM machine with a large limit is also available with same minimum deposit. The card is loaded by wire transfer or bank check sent by courier. These special cards are in US Dollars.

Coming to Guatemala – Some of you may want to come to Guatemala to meet the law firm and the bank in person. This is fine. We can assist you with hotel reservations and a driver to meet you at the airport.

Contrary to what you may have heard Guatemala is a reasonably safe country. Guatemala has over 12 million people. They maintain a standing army and have a national police department that is most substantial. Guatemala City is the capital and where you will be. The city is just under one million people and is divided into 25 zones. Some zones are unsafe at times like at night but this is not unlike any large North American City.

You will be in a five star hotel in a very safe zone and should have no worries. The food is excellent in Guatemala. It is like Latin American Food with a Mexican influence. Shopping is cheap. Guatemala is the world’s largest producer of Jade. Guatemalan Jade is harder on the MOHR scale than Chinese jade and is beautiful. You can go to a jade factory store and get a beautiful translucent lavender jade pendant for under two hundred dollars that would cost ten times that in many countries.

Guatemala City is beautiful and surrounded by volcanoes. It is lush and green with daily temperatures ranging from 55 degrees to 75 degrees year round. You would need to be in Guatemala for two working days. You could also stop in Panama. Direct flights between the two countries only take two hours. People from North America and the EU will get a 90-day visa at the airport in Guatemala. If you are interested in Guatemala Immigration give us a call in that the immigration programs there are very easy. A simple residency only takes 3-6 months and allows you to cross without a passport into Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras.