Maritime law allows the owner of a ship may be a natural or legal person either Panamanian or foreign, in addition there are no restrictions in terms of tonnage, age of the ship or the services it provides.
Gains arising from maritime operations under Panamanian flag vessels that provide the service at the international level are exempt from paying taxes in Panama in connection with these gains and also provide some additional incentives for the registration of fleets of ships or high draft.
Procedure

The procedure for registering a vessel consists of two (2) steps:

1. Obtaining a provisional license with a Navigation Radio Provisional License, which can be obtained as soon as you complete the application form, we will provide copies of the documents required and cancellation fees.
2. Obtaining Permanent Navigation License along with the Permanent Radio License, and that from the issuing of the provisional license has a term of six (6) months to submit the original duly authenticated documents to obtain valid in a definite period of two (2) to three (3) weeks.

Maritime Dispute

Panama has created a specialized jurisdiction in maritime affairs, which is composed by two high courts at sea, which are responsible for settling all disputes and disputes that have as a Panamanian ship.

The legal disputes in this area of law, is a procedure which differs in some respects with his civilian counterpart, since there is special legislation for these cases, the Law No. 8 of March 30, 1982, which creates maritime courts and sets rules of procedure.