Guatemala Banking

Guatemala Bank Accounts – Guatemala is a great place to bank in. We can assist you with opening bank accounts in Guatemala with quality banks without having to come to Guatemala. We are a Guatemala Law Firm and you have complete attorney client privilege in all your dealings and transactions with us. Any transactions and dealing with a Guatemala bank would be covered by strong Guatemala Bank Secrecy Laws.

Why Use Guatemala – Guatemala is the largest nation in Central America having about 14 million people. It has the largest economy in Central America coming in at 33 Billion dollars. Guatemala has an extensive tourism industry. Guatemala receives about 125 cruise ships each year. It offers Mayan ruins, rain forests, volcanoes, volcanic lakes, beaches on the Caribbean and Pacific oceans and the ancient city of Antigua with its cobblestone streets and 300-year-old buildings. Guatemala is easily accessed from North America and Central America.

There is a modern airport that even has direct nonstop flights to Europe. Guatemala City has 19 shopping malls and 12 Universities. We have hundreds of restaurants and the food is fantastic. A full steak dinner in a five star restaurant is about $20. We have VIP movie theatres, Imax theatre and other large screen and 3D theatres. We have plays, theatre, museums and championship sport fishing on both the Pacific and Caribbean. There is a lot of manufacturing in Guatemala with most of the business being small to medium size. Guatemala is independent of other nations and quite able to sustain itself.

Bank Secrecy in Guatemala – Guatemala has tight banking secrecy laws in place calling for criminal and civil penalties for any disclosure of banking information. When we say tight we mean tight. If an operative from a foreign government was trying to corrupt a Guatemala bank employee to reveal information about bank accounts it could be considered treason and spying carrying a 30-year jail sentence.

Guatemala Tax Treaties – Guatemala has no tax treaty with any other nation at this time. No tax information sharing. Guatemala will not share tax information even if the tax offense is declared criminal. No tax information sharing, period. Panama will share information for taxes if the offense is alleged to be criminal under their MLAT agreement with the USA and other nations.

Guatemala Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties – Guatemala has no Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with USA or EU countries. Combining this fact with the lack of tax treaties makes Guatemala an excellent jurisdictional choice for privacy and security.

Bank Account Opening Requirements – We only require a notarized copy of a passport and driver license. This can be sent to us in email as a file attachment. Please try to send as a 300 dpi jpeg or jpg file. The email address is staff@panamalegal.org. There is no bank reference letter required. These bank reference letters leave telltale trails from the home country bank to the new bank. Some countries treat these bank reference letters as a suspicious transaction requiring a report to be made to the banking authorities. No bank reference letter required which is a good thing.

Types of Guatemala Bank Accounts

Guatemala Corporate Trust Agreement Banking – This is where the law firm forms an anonymous Guatemala corporation for you. The law firm signs on the bank account. The bank does not know who you are and has no ID documents on you. The bank cannot give over any information regarding you since they have none. You can access the bank account using online banking and obtain an anonymous no name Visa card from a different bank. The startup fee is $8000 and the law firm deducts 5% of all the incoming funds one time only, nothing on outgoing funds. The time frame to get the corporate bank account open is about 1 week. This is an excellent solution if you need to be receiving funds from customers, clients etc. The only documents required are a notarized copy of passport and driver license. No bank reference letters. No lawyer reference letters. No apostille is needed. This is the most secure form of banking that exists today.

Guatemala Trust Agreement Banking – This is similar to the corporate trust agreement banking but there is no corporation being formed for you. You would be using one of the law firm’s bank accounts. The law firm assigns a banking representative to you who will answer questions about balance, history, incoming wires, and they will also send wires out for you. You will be assigned a secure encrypted email address on one of our serves to communicate with the banking representative. The email never leaves the server. The startup fee is $2000. There is a one-time fee of 5% of the incoming money. There is no online banking with this solution. This form of banking is extremely secure since the bank does not know who you are and cannot turn over any information regarding you for this reason. If you are receiving funds from clients or customers the above solution using the corporation is better since the bank account receiving the funds would be in the name of your corporation.

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International Trust Agreement Banking

Asset Endangerment & Distress Clause – The Trustee may or may not be authorized to take protective measures in the event that your assets become endangered or at risk. The risk factors can be specifically detailed in the Trust Agreement. The protective measures the Trustee is authorized to take can also be specifically detailed in the Trust Agreement. A number of different protective scenarios can be accomplished depending on the potential risk factors and potential financial enemies. Such an asset endangerment clause may read as follows:

The Trustor specifically agrees that in the event that possible legal problems may occur that the Trustee may do any and all legal acts to protect and secure the Trustor’s Asset and Person. The Trustee specifically agrees to immediately notify the Trustor of any and all such bank account and or assets jurisdictional and or location transfer and all details as may be required by the Trustor.

If you are under duress the Trustee may be directed in the Trust Agreement to take protective measure to secure your assets until you are out of duress. The definition of duress can be spelled out to include things like lawsuits, bankruptcies, divorce and other events. The documentation of such events can be detailed in the agreement as well as the documentation required for the distress even to be considered to be over.

Taxes in Guatemala - There is no offshore-derived income taxation in Guatemala. Guatemala does tax capital gains.

Time Frame – From start to completion including a corporation and bank account can be accomplished in one week to two weeks. We can allow one to wire money into our attorney client trust account in as little as 24 hours. Then the money will be moved over to your corporate bank account when ready. We also have corporations with bank accounts open where the law firm is listed as the signatory on the account ready to go.

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