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SlingBox has just announced a new and updated version of its high-definition product. Here’s a link:
Having dealt with the others, I can tell you that if it is DishNetwork you want, Don Paul (Dr. Dish) is the class act among the options here. You can reach him via e-mail at:
or
(Maybe address your e-mail to both.)
The programming offerings of DishNetwork are far superior to what Sky TV offers, but both of them are subject to “rain-outs” when the weather’s bad.
An alternative worth considering, if you have reasonably fast and reliable Internet access, is to buy a SlingBox from Amazon.com or BestBuy.com.
To use a Slingbox, you install it in the home of someone you know who has dish or cable TV service in the U.S. The Slingbox attaches to their incoming signal source (coax cable, that is) and to their Internet service and sends everything that comes in on their cable to you over the Internet.
Their service is not affected. The SlingBox passes all the incoming programs on to their TV.
You get a program guide just as if you were watching TV in their living room. If your computer here can output to a television set, you can watch TV that way.
Other than the initial cost of the SlingBox (you can look it up), there is no ongoing cost for this service. The folks up north pay for their TV service just as they always have.
Atlas is, indeed, a Costa Rican manufacturer of at least some large kitchen appliances — refrigerators and ranges. I don’t know what the sources of their components are, and I don’t think I’ve seen any freezers, dishwashers or countertop appliances.
Given my limited exposure to Atlas appliances, I’m underimpressed.
Furniture is an entirely different matter.
[quote=”costaricabill”]looks like Scott or one of his “monitors” [emphasis added] . . .
[/quote]The proper term, Bill, is “enforcer” although that, “henchman” and “thug” are used interchangeably.
[quote=”camby”]that 93K limit though is fairly good, considering investment and would be under that…..[/quote]
But you understand, do you not, that the $93k exemption is for EARNED INCOME DERIVED FROM YOUR OWN WORK — YOUR OWN LABOR, not from rental or other non-earned income. It has nothing to do with any investment.
Cemaco is a chain of housewares stores in the MultiPlaza in Escazu, Alajuela, east of the U.S. Embassy and elsewhere. There are also several appliance chains that may have what you need — Casa Blanca, Importadora Monge, Gallo, Play and others — scattered about.
If you can, you’ll be better off buying in the U.S. online and bringing them with you. Anything imported here will be pricey.
Under the IRS Code, all U.S. citizens are subject to U.S. taxation regardless where they live or where the income is earned. So the answer to your question about rent income, investment income, dividend and interest income and all other forms of income is that all that income is, indeed, fully taxable as if it had been earned in the U.S.
Earned income, derived from your actual work, is also subject to U.S. taxation, so if you come to Costa Rica and sell real etate, run a business, teach English or whatever, the income from that work must also be reported and tax must be paid. Unlike other forms of income, however, there is an annual exemption of about $93,000US from taxation for legitimate earned income.
There may also be exemptions to take into account taxes paid to foreign governments. Does anybody know for sure?
[quote=”loraine”]
I looked at the forms, and they don’t look too bad. What happens, though, if one shareholder of the inactive corp has less than 10% ownership? I think I read somewhere, that if one holds less than 10% of that corp, then that person does not have to file the form. Is that correct?[/quote]I certainly have no idea, loraine. Have you read the actual IRS instructions? That’d be my source.
John, for a corporation with no financial activity, the form is really pretty simple to complete. All you need to do is identify it, identify yourself and maybe the other officers with authority to act on the corporation’s behalf, and write something like “Information Only. Inactive corporation” across the top of the form.
In fact, we did that a year or so ago and haven’t filed it since (or won’t next year) because the fact of the corporation is meaningless to IRS.
The bank account form is similarly simple.
Remember, you’re only reporting activity related to your foreign corporations and accounts and not on everything in your financial picture.
There’s almost nothing to these two common reporting requirements.
The first is if you have ownership or control over a foreign corporation such as the one that holds your lot in Ojochal you must report it. You [u]personally[/u] might be exempt because your 401k owns the corporation, but you own the 401k. Better to report it and be safe.
And, by the way, there’s almost nothing to it.
The second common reporting requirement is if you own or control a foreign bank account which, at any moment during the tax year, has a balance of $10,000US or the equivalent you must report that. It doesn’t matter whose money it actually is or for how long the money was in the account. You must still report it.
And, by the way, there’s almost nothing to it.
[quote=”hakesp”]Where is it “posed” that delinquency, default, foreclosure or short sale will be criminalized? [/quote]
Actually, this has already begun and it’s been reported in the popular press.
In Illinois (I think), debtors in default are being sued in court for collection, but they are not being effectively notified of the suits, so they don’t appear. In the absence of the defendant, a judgement is entered against them. Then the debtor sues to collect, the defendant is again not effectively notified and doesn’t appear, and a criminal warrant is issued.
In effect, the debtor is being jailed for non-payment of a judgement of which s/he was not even aware.
(By the way, this same tactic has been used for years, in Michigan and elsewhere, against parents who are delinquent in their child support payments.)
[quote=”hakesp”]
I believe . . . can be done in the US.
[/quote]
Omigawd! A voice of reason. Where have you been hiding?
[quote=”sprite”]
As far as waiting is concerned, I am pretty sure it is nothing like the long waiting for anything in Costa Rica.[/quote]So what’s the litany of long waits you’ve personally experienced in Costa Rica, sprite?
Every time we’ve been issued cedulas, we were in and out in under half an hour. Last week when we went to renew our driver’s licenses, they had to change the numbers to our new cedula numbers. The entire process took forty minutes including the wait time and going across the street to pay. We routinely walk right into the local GP’s office without an appointment. And two passes through the teller windows at Banco HSBC in Grecia took less than five minutes.
Yes, our lives are ebbing away just standing in lines.
