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Hello everyone This morning in AM Costa Rica I red this headline “Arias administration pushes forward luxury home tax bill” There is no doubt that it is a good cause. I would like to read members opinions of how they feel about it and whether or not it will or should be passed.
I have written about this previously and recommended that the property taxes on luxury homes should be doubled at least. Even if they double it, it will still be half of what people are accustomed to paying ‘back home.’
How they will ensure buyers & sellers report the real sales price and enforce it will be another matter … Who gets that money and how it’s invested is another…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.com
Author of ‘How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate…’I think it is a good idea, but like all taxes it must be well thought out. You don’t want discourage the “wealthy” from buying or unjustly tax someone just because they have some money. Here in Manhattan we have the “mansion” tax; any purchase over one million you pay 1% of the total purchase price in an additional tax.
I bought a $425K home in Grand Cayman in 1997 (I think it was) and had the ‘privilege’ of paying a 9% stamp duty.
So not only did you need the money or the mortgage to buy the home, but you needed close to $40,000 in cash to pay the government in addition to those monies…
There is also a sliding scale stamp duty in Scotland …
We are so lucky here.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comThe simple solution, and I’m sure there are no simple solutions, is to state the real value of your property and pay the tax. It is still a huge bargain compared to the USA’s real estate taxes.
Until Costa Rica uses assessed valuation on properties, this problem will continue.
All of us rich, or middle income, should pay what Costa Rica determines is our fair share.Hi there….Terry Cook….nothing like Socialism…take from the rich and give to the poor….Sure meets my idea of Democracy. Soon the no tax on inheridece taxes will expire and then go back to some small sum and then the Share the Wealth program will be in full swing and Hillary (left that she is) will gladly lead the way. Of course those on the very top will find ways to get around these things but for the rest it will be full blown Socialism. If the U.S would get rid of all the Huge government (us vote to reduce size of government by 50% and stop all this foolish waste of give-away programs to the world and keep our money at home and spend it on the infrostructure/medical and all other things the Government would not have to figure out how to take from the rich or for that matter anyone as there would be enough money for all. That too is included in the elimination of the current Rip off to maintain the government (income tax) program. Self-funding to continue more waste not FOR the people but BUY the people…and of course that is not a mis-spell although my spelling has little to be desired.
I for one want to end forever the horrible term Silent Majority and get everyone to change this to Vocal Majority and lets have a TEA PARTY that will finally bring an end to all this nonsence for once…Enough is enough…..and to tie to Costa Rica Discussion Why not GIG the rich Americans and other foreigners after all they are only one of the largest income and business Costa Rica has….makes sense to me ??Terry Cook
Terry, Socialism is alive and well here in the USA already. And we all want a little piece of it. If we cut government by 50%, and spend the money on infrastructure and medical, and I assume you mean healthcare, those are every bit a social program as any other. We all benefit from social programs to some extent, and as much as we like to think this is a pure capitalist nation, it isn’t.
This is why there is no one way to govern, and some people are always going to think they are getting shortchanged. Taxes are a necessary evil. The redistribution of wealth has gone on since the beginning of time. It would only be nice if more of us could enjoy the benefits.
A flat tax is what would be at least closer to fair for the rich and poor. It will never happen in our lifetime! Too many people would be on the unemployment line with a flat tax and the IRS would be one of the hardest hit. Not to mention accountants and tax lawyers.
The inheritance tax to me is a load of bull. Paying taxes on money that has been already taxed seems unAmerican. So, we can rant and rave, call for the stoppage of wasteful overseas spending all we want. New ways to spend our treasury will come along, and then we will have something else new to complain about.
Nobody is ever truly free in a democracy as well as a dictatorship.The whole point of this discussion brought up by Lotus was about the real estate taxes in Costa Rica. I know I will pay whatever they tell me I have to pay if I want to live there. It is their country, and I will abide by its laws. It just seems like the right thing to do.
Alfred…you are correct Socialism is live and ¨well?¨in the U.S.A. But I do not consider paying taxes and then getting it back in the form of backed programs WE hae Paid for Socialism I consider it like a bank account we pay into and then get paid for the investments we have made. The untold Billions of Wasted dollars by the U.S. government is unsurpassed by any government in history. If someone could figure out how to reinvest the monies we pay to the government (eliminate the huge waste) and invest the rest in US not a huge garbage disposal ie the largest U.S. Embassy and most costly ever in Bagdad at A Billion Dollars a year plus give away programs of 10 or even 100´ of billions of dollars a year to try to buy Democracy in the rest of the world. Yes a flat tax or something similar to that is one move in the right direction. But C.R. did not come up wih the idea of Taxing the rich WE have taught them that idea as a part of how Democracy works??? did I just say that?….It is US who will lead them down the primrose path of charge the big guy to pay for the rest.
Costa Rica is doing just fine with out such programs as CAFTA. They are the winners with no Military, No huge Government and everyone lives (yes with socialism) but not the government forcing them how to live but the people voting with results to control how they will live. I certainly do not have the answere to this puzzle but with the few years I have left I am going to do all I can to not pay the U.S. government my few dollars left to throw them away and then let me live in poverty U.S form….just got told to stop email as time to rant and rave is up so so long for now…
Terry Cookterry, any argument will be senseless, since we are all posting for self-validation and changing no minds, at least in the present. facts are always manipulable however, philosophically speaking, the operative word here is SOCIAL. your only rational option is to move to an isolated retreat all by yourself and completely disconnect from all socially generated or facilited services. do it on your own FOR REAL. surely you can find a place to live your philosophy FOR REAL. sorry if that sounds like love it or leave it but….. viva meeism. the liberal says the glass is half full, the conservative says who the hell stole half MY glass.
furthermore, my wife passed away in 1984 and my mother passed recently. the only tax i pay on my modest inheritance is on money that was tax privileged during their lifetimes (namely tax deferred income) and income generated from previously taxed monies. hopefully you can enlighten me as to ways i can avoid even this. i’m not an expert on all these laws, and it appears that those who are wealthy are advised on ways to avoid the taxes rest of us pay. well doesn’t that tend to prove an obvious point about the wealthy? i refer you to the famous stanford study re: people assigned as guards in a faux prison in a basement in the U. and the result abuses generated by the conditions. in other words, a mileu that induced otherwise DECENT persons to become monsters (ABU GRAIB). well obviously the poor are lazy, inferior beings that don’t any rewards due to their self-generated poverty. hell, if they were any good they’d be wealthy. hey, maybe sink or swim will certainly produce some swimmers but…i’m not a member of any religous institution, but jesus would certainly say,” let “em starve, then they’ll learn.” this is the logical extension of the philosophy of every person for themselves. ALOHA.
We all have a duty to ourselves. That duty is a good nights sleep. Most posts on this discussion seem to endorse the good little follower syndrome. If England was full of the same, I am sure there would have never been an exodus to the new world.
You can be a cow, bull or maverick. A cow follows the lead bull, a maverick strays from the heard. There are very few mavericks – but these are the ones that have freedom. Terry you can’t change the cows. You can hope to influence the bulls. But we have a duty to ourselves and our nation to be mavericks. One, it allows us to sleep at night as the government official may be trying to imprison us because an illegal agency (IRS) is trying to extort money for unjust causes and with no legal authority to do so, BUT we know what is right in our heart, therefore we sleep. Dam the torpedoes.
As for the cows they sleep well too – all the way to the slaughter house – which in this case is the destruction of their souls, their ability to feel free, as they are always in a perpetual state of despair because they accept being pushed around. They reason that “everybody gets pushed around by the government” so its okay, but deep down inside as they lay in bed at night looking at the ceiling wishing they were free – they resent being worked by the government, but do nothing … ah wanabe patriots.
That goes for you wanaabe mavericks – the bulls who like to think they are free leaders. There have been a lot of bulls spouting the “pay whatever the goverment wants” spiel, but they do not have the cajones to be Mavericks. Mavericks are unuttered and some of the bulls cannot fathom and despise Mavericks because they do not have the cajones, they have been neutered by the system – by the fear of being jailed.
Mavericks are very special (but the cows and bulls are very jealous of them) and it was boat loads of Mavericks that formed this once great country. Once great before the “temporary 10% income tax” was approved and then never repealed…
You go Terry and to the person that said find yourself an inland to be free on – do it. Let them stay up at night a fret about their lack of manhood and how the government has made women out of them. Big Brother and Big Mother have emotionally whipped them into submission. They are slaves to the mindset that government is the answer. Unfortunately now they are pouring into Costa Rica and bringing their lack of backbone with them. A bunch of good little spineless complainers that do nothing.
PS – Lotus, praising your mansion tax was pitiful – I am ashamed for you and your posiyion here. I thought at the very least you were a bull, but maybe you are a cow in Bull’s clothing. Step up and dare to be free. I know you have it in you. Stop just yearning.
Scott
“Who gets that money and how it’s invested is another…”
This contradicts the begining of your post …. Thus it speaks for itself – y tu Brute?
I don’t see a contradiction at all… At this stage nobody can tell us which entity will benefit from any increased property taxes and how that will be invested.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comJust for the record D I was not praising it just pointing it out, certainly the tax situation here in NYC is pathetic. And as usual your posts are quite interesting and cause me to think. I don’t think your hierarchy of species is my cup of tea, but I am interested in freedoom and all it’s implications for body and soul. You my amigo are a maverick and I thank you for that….
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