Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Again, to Elizabeth’s point . . . Indeed, the import cost for a computer is 13% according to Aerocasillas’ chart. That’s the national sales tax rate and nothing more. Whether you buy a computer at retail here or order it in the States and import it formally (via Aerocasillas or the like), either way the sales tax is in the price.
Elizabeth, if you buy a Dell online, you have the same opportunity to see it in the flesh as if you buy it here, also online. What’s the difference?
And, by the way, the last Dell I bought (online, but while I was in the States) was sold to me by a Costa Rican woman who was sitting in a Dell call center in San Jose. So the experience either way probably wouldn’t be too much different.
[quote=”jmcbuilder”]It takes 12 years from taking SS at 62 before there is a wash from taking at full retirement age. To me it seems taking early is a better way to go. Also there is the devaluation of the dollar that seems to be a long term trend.[/quote]
I don’t know about the long term devaluation of the dollar, but it seems to me to make sense for a lot of folks to take the money as soon as possible. First, it’s a bird in the hand. You’re guaranteed to have it. Second, what if you postpone your payout ’til (say) age 67 and die at age 68?
Whether you’re a U.S. citizen or not, if you qualify for a Social Security Pension, you have a right to it. While SS will not electronically deposit your benefit outside the U.S., it can be deposited in Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica, or (maybe) ScotiaBank via an intermediary. You can also have it deposited in a U.S, bank and move it to Costa Rica by ATM withdrawal, by wire transfer, or by writing a check on the U.S. bank account.
The math . . . You can opt for a reduced SS benefit at age 62 or you can wait and take the full benefit at age 66 or 67. If you take the benefit at 62, your total net income from SS will even out at about age 74. If you can live without it, and if you expect to live much past 74, it makes sense to wait as long as you can. You can also take the SS benefit at any age between 62 and 67 (or whenever the benefit is maximized.
The first critical question you must always answer is, “Where are you located?” No one company covers the entire country.
If you’re in an area that’s served only by ICE and their Internet service, that’s one set of issues. If you’re where you can be served by one of the private companies, that’s another.
So, where are you located?
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]One vaccine isn’t the world.
[/quote]
Victoria, you haven’t been around WLCR.com long enough to know that a single instance of any event proves the case for all of time. In the case of vaccines, a single adverse event purportedly caused by the vaccine according to any source whatsoever proves the case for eternity.
So indeed, in WLCR.com-reality, one vaccine [u]is[/u] the world.
It’s easy to get a prepaid cell account with ICE. You just walk up to the kiosk in the airport and buy it, or you can go to any of about a zillion retail outlets. Since you only pay for what you use, it should be cheaper than maintaining a postpaid account and you can dissolve the corporation and avoid the annual coropration tax. There will, of course, be costs involved in that dissolution.
If your prepaid account goes dormant for a while, ICE may close it. Maybe you could just add a few colones to the account from time to time via online banking. Or maybe whenever you retun to Costa Rica you could just get a new prepaid account with a new number.
Yeah, every time we return from the States, we bring a load of expensive things back with us in our luggage. We never declare anything on the Customs form and we go through Customs’ “Nothing to Declare” line. As long as everything’s intended for personal use, there should be no problems bringing in things like electronics.
[quote=”barbara ann”]my husband renews this year, but we became residents since we obtained our first costa rica license, I don’t know what that changes for us.[/quote]
Your current license probably does not have your [i]cedula[/i] number on it. When you go to renew, you’ll need to ask them to change it to your [i]cedula[/i] number. The rumor is that the change can only be made at COSEVI on [i]Paso Ancho[/i] in San Jose, but [u]that is not correct[/u]. You should be able to have the number changed at any of the outlying offices. Our numbers were updated in San Ramon in October. In fact, we’ve had them changed in San Ramon twice.
It has been reported elsewhere that, if you already have a Costa Rican driver’s license, you will be able to renew it without any problems.
You should also be aware that there are other driver’s license offices than La Uruca scattered around the country. One of them may be much more convenient for you.
I’m pretty sure that many of the consumer electronics sold in the U.S. are imported under international trade agreements that provide for little or nothing in the way of import duties. That’s not true for those same products imported to Costa Rica.
What’s more, anything imported through formal channels is also subject to Costa Rica’s thirteen percent national sales tax. When you buy something from an online retailer in the U.S., you often pay no state sales tax whatsoever.
And it’s my guess that, on principle, Costa Rica’s government regards consumer electronics as luxuries which are bought mostly by those who can afford to pay what is tacitly a luxury tax.
We shop for produce in the farmers’ market in Grecia and not at Walmart, so I can’t say about prices.
By a wide margin, the people we see in the Walmart stores where we shop, in Alajuela and Escazu, are Costa Ricans.
Walmart’s prices are competitive with those of other local stores. You don’t think the world’s largest retailer would price itself out of the market, do you? Hate ’em if you wish, but you have to acknowledge their business acumen.
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]”Coincidence is not causality” Try to remember that. [/quote]
It’s an uphill battle, Victoria.
[quote=”orcas0606″]David, I may be wrong but I always heard that for the customs exemption the time period was 6mos and the visa renewal was 72hrs but hardly ever enforced???? If you are correct it certainly makes it much easier for those expats in this situation.[/quote]
Here and elsewhere, folks have talked about renewing their Customs duty exemption privilege with a 72-hour absence from Costa Rica, whereas just hopping across the border and back doesn’t accomplish that renewal but will get you a new tourist visa.
There are three possibilities and I’m not sure which one is correct:
One possibility is that you can cross the border and return [u]as a tourist[/u], get a new tourist visa, [u]and[/u] get a new Customs duty exemption just like anyone entering the country on a tourist visa.
The second possibility is that [u]as a tourist[/u] you must be absent from Costa Rica for 72 hours [u]and also[/u] must not have used your Customs duty exemption in the past six months. My understanding is that Customs will stamp your passport when you use the duty exemption, so there is a way for them to know.
And the third possibility is that, [u]as a legal resident[/u], you can be absent from the country for 72 hours and qualify for a new Customs duty exemption sooner than six months since you last used it. That seems unlikely to me, but what do I know?
As a Permanent Resident, I don’t know which one applies. Nor do I much care. And having used the Customs duty exemption once, we decided that it wasn’t worth the bureaucratic hassle. Remember, if you use the duty exemption, you’re still liable for the sales tax.
