Form 03 — Annual ISR Declaration (DGI)

Form 03 is the annual employment income and income-tax withholding declaration that every Panama employer must file with the Dirección General de Ingresos (DGI). It consolidates the full calendar year of Payroll data into one report — one row per employee — showing gross cotizable salary, CSS deductions, and ISR withheld. CifraHQ generates the file automatically from your closed Payroll periods. You then enter the figures into DGI's e-Tax 2.0 portal and file by May 31 of the following year.

Where to find it

Go to Payroll > Form 03.

Legal context

Under Panama's tax law, employers must report the annual employment income and ISR retained for each employee directly to DGI. The Form 03 declaration matches what each employee will use when filing their personal income tax return — your figures must reconcile with the payslips you issued during the year.

How to download

1. Go to Payroll > Form 03.
2. Select the Year you are declaring (for example, 2025 for the annual declaration due May 31, 2026).
3. Click Download.

CifraHQ generates the file immediately and downloads it as an Excel file (Form03_{year}.xlsx).

The page accepts years from 2020 through the current calendar year. No future-year declarations can be generated.

What the file contains

The export is a single-sheet Excel workbook (Form 03 worksheet). Each row represents one employee who had at least one closed Payroll period in the selected year.

Rows are sorted alphabetically by employee last name.

Where the numbers come from

CifraHQ reads from the Payroll accumulators — the year-to-date totals written when each period is closed. Only closed periods contribute to the accumulators. Periods that are still in Draft or InReview state are not included.

If you close a period after generating the file, the amounts for that period will appear in a fresh download — the file is generated live each time you click Download.

Ingreso Gravable vs. the DGI exemption

Column G (Ingreso Gravable) equals Salario Anual Bruto minus CSS Retenido. This is the taxable base before applying the personal exemption (B/. 800). When you enter data into e-Tax 2.0, the DGI system applies the personal exemption automatically — you do not need to subtract it from the figures in this file.

Employees included

Before you download: prerequisites

The file will be accurate only if all Payroll periods for the year have been closed. Check the following before generating your final declaration:

1. All Payroll periods for the year are Closed — open or draft periods are excluded from the accumulators. Go to Payroll > Periods and confirm every period from January through December shows a state of Closed, CSS Declared, or DGI Declared.
2. December period is Closed — the December period carries the final ISR true-up. If it is still open, the annualized ISR calculation is incomplete.
3. No pending Payroll runs — if a run is in Calculate state but not yet closed, those earnings are not in the accumulators.

After downloading: filing with DGI

CifraHQ does not submit Form 03 to DGI electronically. After downloading the file:

1. Log in to DGI e-Tax 2.0 (etax2.mef.gob.pa).
2. Navigate to the Form 03 (Declaración Jurada de Retención de ISR) section.
3. Enter each employee's data from the CifraHQ export — one row per employee.
4. Verify that the totals match your Payroll records before submitting.
5. Submit and record the DGI confirmation number.

Once you have filed, advance the December Payroll period state to DGI Declared on the period detail page. This records that the annual declaration has been completed and clears the compliance alert.

Compliance alert

The Compliance Calendar at Payroll > Compliance raises a Form 03 due alert in the 30 days approaching May 31 each year. The alert appears regardless of whether you have already filed — it is a calendar-based reminder, not a state check.

Use it as a prompt to confirm that you have:

• Closed all December-year periods
• Downloaded and reviewed the Form 03 export
• Filed in e-Tax 2.0
• Marked the December period as DGI Declared

Tips

• Download a draft early. You can generate the file at any time during the year — for example in January — to verify that the year-to-date figures look correct before year-end. Re-download after closing December to get the final figures.
• Cross-check ISR Retenido against payslips. The total ISR Retenido for each employee should match the sum of ISR lines on their annual payslips. If there is a discrepancy, a period may not have been closed or a concept may have been misconfigured.
• Otras Deducciones is always zero. Voluntary deductions and additional withholdings are not currently exported in column F. Enter any additional deductions manually in e-Tax 2.0 if applicable.
• Column G is pre-exemption taxable income. The B/. 800 personal exemption is applied by e-Tax 2.0, not by CifraHQ. Do not subtract it from the figures before entry.
• File before May 31 — not on May 31. Processing delays in e-Tax 2.0 can cause last-minute submissions to fail. Allow at least a week buffer.
• Keep the DGI confirmation number. Record the confirmation number from e-Tax 2.0 as a note on the December period or in your Accounting records — it is your proof of timely filing.

Related: Payroll Periods and Runs · Compliance Calendar · Tax Payments · Employees