Opacidad y secreto financiero en Panamá: entendiendo sus impactos sobre la estabilidad fiscal y social en Colombia[Opacity and financial secrecy in Panama: understanding its impacts on fiscal and social stability in Colombia]

'The objective of this document is to provide the reader with an introduction to the nature of Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) and to give clarity on how countries like Colombia are affected by operations of opacity and financial secrecy in international banking centers such as Panama. What is innovative about this work is that it seeks to frame the problem by combining two perspectives through which IFFs have been addressed. The first perspective is that of the socalled ‘gray literature’, the reports of multilateral agencies that attempt to assess the dynamics of IFFs to make policy recommendations. The second perspective is that of the academic literature on the role of Panama in the dynamics of global financial secrecy and its impact on the welfare and fiscal sustainability of other countries such as Colombia. It is identified that both Colombia and Panama have flaws in their legislation, their control systems over IFF and on commercial operations related to fraudulent billing. In this sense, it was found that leaks such as the Pandora Papers, although they provide incomplete and heterogeneous information, constitute inputs for the initiation of judicial, academic and journalist investigations that allow identifying tax evasion and money laundering schemes. Finally, it was found that the academic literature supports the adoption of mechanisms for the voluntary disclosure of hidden wealth. These schemes tend to increase tax collection, save State resources in terms of prosecuting evaders, and discourage subsequent tax evasion or avoidance.'