(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama) Foreigners legally residing in Panama are welcome to participate. The Tax Lottery is the government's initiative to encourage tax collection, primarily the ITBMS (Tax on Property, Equipment, and Services), and to enable consumers to request their tax receipts every time they purchase goods and services. Authorities from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the General Directorate of Revenue hope that the recently launched Tax Lottery will help recover between $50 and $100 million in revenue from the consumption tax (ITBMS), one of the areas with the highest levels of tax evasion in the country.

This was announced by Deputy Minister of Finance Fausto Fernández, during the official presentation of the program. He emphasized that this type of initiative has already demonstrated successful results in countries such as Brazil, Chile, and Asian nation, where tax compliance levels have increased by 10% to 20% following the implementation of similar programs. He also noted that this initiative had already been implemented in Panama in the 1990s. “We are roughly estimating that this could bring in between $50 and $100 million in ITBMS revenue,” Fernández said.

He said the goal is to combat tax evasion, which has been estimated to represent 3.6% of Panama's GDP in 2023 alone, equivalent to approximately 3 billion balboas that did not enter the state. “These are resources that are needed today for hospitals, schools, roads, and social programs,” he said. Between July 2024 and May 2025, inspection operations revealed that 83% of businesses visited failed to issue tax invoices. However, thanks to new measures, noncompliance has been reduced to 58% in just one year of operation.

Camilo Valdés, director of the General Directorate of Revenue, reported that since his administration began in July 2024, more than 4,000 visits have been made to businesses across the country, from various economic sectors. “At the beginning, the non-compliance rate for issuing tax invoices was around 80%, as the deputy minister mentioned. As of July of this year, we have managed to reduce that percentage to between 58% and 60%, which represents a significant improvement of approximately 20%,” Valdés explained.

According to the director of the DGI, this reflects greater citizen awareness:“People are starting to ask for their invoices, and that, forces businesses to fulfill their duty. With the Tax Lottery, every citizen becomes an ally and an informal inspector for the DGI. Simply collecting five invoices is enough to have the chance to win up to $10,000.” Valdés also emphasized that, despite the economic difficulties, the results have been positive.

“In the first six months of this year, tax collection increased by 10.8% compared to the same period in 2024. And if we consider total revenue-tax and non-tax-growth has been 11.6%.” He revealed that as part of the oversight effort, the DGI has imposed nearly $4 million in fines on businesses that fail to issue invoices or do so only partially.“All of this is part of a team effort, led by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, to ensure compliance with the obligations established by law and the Constitution.”

This is How You Can Participate in the Fiscal Lottery

Any natural person residing in Panama can participate easily:

Gather 5 valid tax invoices (of any amount)

• Put them in an envelope

The following information must be written on the outside of the envelope:

• Full name
• ID number
• Phone number
• Email
• Residential address
• Drawing month (e.g.,“August 2025 Drawing”)

People must deposit the envelopes in the official ballot boxes located in Apacecom shopping centers or in regional offices of the DGI.

The first drawing will be held on August 28, 2025, and for now the frequency will be bimonthly (every two months), with prizes of up to $10,000 per participant.

Panamanians and foreigners legally residing in the country are welcome to participate. They can include all invoices they have from July 1st until the day before the first raffle, in this case, August 28th.

Participants can enter for 10 prizes of $1,000, 10 prizes of $5,000, and five prizes of $10,000 each. A total of $110,000 in prizes will be available in each drawing.

What must an invoice contain to be valid for the tax lottery?

• Name or business name of the company
• RUC (Single Taxpayer Registry) number
• Check digit
• Description of the good or service
• Exact amount and breakdown of consumption tax (ITBMS)
• QR code if it is an auxiliary or electronic tax invoice

Accepted:

• Electronic invoice
• Invoice with QR (issued by fiscal machines)
• Conventional invoice (paper)

Bank vouchers (for card payments) are not accepted.

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