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[quote=”elindermuller”]The government has been pretty creative lately by finding ways to take peoples money. First the corp.tax, then the Marchamo-ripoff, then the license plates, now they want to tax investment money coming in from other countries……..
But, people are creative too and will find their ways around some of those payments. Corporations without assets are left dumped, people buy cheaper cars, money exchange for property purchase can be done in the U.S. etc.I have a policeman-friend who told me not to hurry. I had to buy new plates 18 months ago for RITEVE because the old ones were faded, short time later they invented the ones with the flag on it. So I will wait as long as possible and maybe they find a better way to obtain the plate, not having people 5 days without their cars. Or maybe they do this on purpose, catching people driving without plates and charge them a nice fine.
And those who think now they will buy an oxcart or a horse, I am sure the government will put marchamos on horses and other animals soon.
The end of the story will be that foreigners will invest in other countries and Costa Rica will go back to the 19th century.
[/quote]
unfortunetly your correct on all counts 😀
I just renewed my cedula.. and i was charged $126 bucks and its only for 2 years
do you know that [b]TICO’s [/b] get’s to renew thier cedula for [b]FREE!!![/b] :shock::shock::shock:
there is NO cost to them plus they get 7 years or something. this really pisses me off and I see this as a form of exploitation.
I am working right now to get my tico cedula and passport..
the writing is on the wall so thinking ahead for the next 5 to 8 years. now is the time to evaluate the whole picture
i have a trip early march to Ecuador
and later this year chile
sole exploration expeditions:D:D:D
there is a large middle class here so we shall see what the threshold will be.
still oddly enough
I don’t see any benefits in terms of value added government services. .
the roads still suck
crime is the same if not worse
the only improvments are private industry
I just came back from the new mall lincoln mall
I tell you.. these people sure can build malls here.. they are just as good if not better than back in the U.S.
I am still shocked at the high level stores like hugo boss, calven clien.. never see any customers in them bujt they stay open
must laundry money :roll::roll::roll:
[quote=”barbara ann”]we dont know. we have a golf cart for town. that has to have new plates too..we just accidentally found out about the plates from the librarian here, she had hers sunday when we went to atenas and left her car sit for five days, I would think you could copy your plate and keep the paperwork from the post office, but who knows..no one tells you anything. you just run into it along the way.[/quote]
Barbara
thanks for the update. :D:D:D:D
amazing..
so this year we paid
marchamo almost 45% more since it went up
retieve
corporation taxnow another taxd on getting new plates based on the value of teh car
man I am going to go buy a YUGO
yep
exactly!!!
[quote=”waggoner41″][quote=”Scott”]A businessman and resident of San Miguel de Santo Domingo, [url=http://www.nacion.com/2013-01-31/ElPais/demarcacion–con-todo-y-cadaver.aspx]criticized the line painting work[/url] performed by Conavi on Route 32, which leads to Guápiles.
A dog had been run over 100 meters east of the Riteve vehicle inspection station however, instead of removing the carcas the work crews simply painted yellow stripes on top of what was left of the dead dog…
[img]https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/images/Dogs_Body_Road_2.jpg[/img]
Is this how they do it in your home town?
Jee! Jee![/quote]
It is typical of how everything is done in Costa Rica. “It’s not my job.” to remove the carcass![/quote]
Scott
it’s probably a new smaller testing U.S. Drone protecting the lands from all evil doers.
I am getting one myself 😀
[quote=”Scott”]Do you believe in UFOs?
Footage captured by a pilot over costa rico appears to show an unidentified flying object. The footage corresponds to a flight on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
In the video we see a rapidly moving object below the aircraft.
The video was captured by the commercial pilot Joseph Daniel Araya, who has more than 500 flight hours. Araya says he was recording with his cell phone when suddenly the camera screen saw the object moving, When he looked out of the aircraft there was nothing, said the pilot,
To find an answer to what happened we went to Jose Alberto Villalobos, astronomer and UFO researcher Alexis Astua.
Villalobos estimated that the object on the screen could have a length between 7 and 10 meters. Its speed could reach 3600 kilometers per hour, seven times more than the ship from which the footage was captured,
Meanwhile Astua does not rule out a UFO but also a secondary reflection theory. The sighting in the South is not strange, since in this region there are constant reports.
Do you believe in UFOs?
[/quote][quote=”VictoriaLST”]Doesn’t it take twice that long for the environmental impact study? And then the groundwater survey. Analysis of traffic patterns? Etc, etc, etc?[/quote]
money talks :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
[quote=”rosiemaji”]Costa Rican banks are closing all accounts of foreign expats unless the account is tied to the information on a residency card. All of our accounts were closed while we were gone to the states. When we returned to Costa Rica in December, I had to reactivate my accounts using my DIMEX residency card. Formerly, the accounts were tied to our passport numbers. At one bank, CoopAgri, my husband and I both had accounts. They would not allow him to reopen his accounts because he does not have residency. They did give him the money that was in his accounts at the time the bank closed the accounts. I was the only one who could reopen my accounts because I do have residency. The net effect of this is that anyone who does not have a current residency card can not open or continue to have a bank account in Costa Rica. The banks told me that this is a new law in Costa Rica. This was the first time that I had heard anything about this. I had heard about Costa Rica not giving a driver’s license to people without residency but not about the banks closing accounts that were tied to passport numbers.[/quote]
unfortunetly I am having to agree with costa rica’s strategy.
the U.S. has become such a bully that its not worth the hassle of keeping american accounts open.
best to get your residency and go through the legal way.
thats Odd
this will be my 4th permanent renewal.. and It has always been for 2 years.
maybe this has changed
scott how long is your renewal been???
thanks
[quote=”jmcbuilder”]With the Aguinaldo does that also include paying into Costa Rica’s pension an additional 13th payment?[/quote]
jmcbuilder
do you have my aguinaldo ready???:D:D:D
[quote=”Scott”][quote=”DavidCMurray”]You’re certainly correct that Costa Rica cannot rely forever on the inflow of foreign capital. On the other hand, at the risk of becoming a client state, it does appear that China (an up and coming player on the world stage) is very interested in shoring up this little corner of the world.
Of course, nothin’s free. The Chinese, like the Americans, are looking for something in return. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. As Americans, with our genetic skepticism of anything communist, we are wary of the Chinese, but who knows? They may turn out to be the good guys after all. [/quote]
Nah! Don’t worry about China David!
In a brilliant “diplomatic” move…. “The right to a preemptive nuclear strike against China is now part of US law – thanks to the National Defense Authorization Act…
The Pentagon’s also ordered a thorough review of when, and how, America could strike at the network of tunnels believed to hold Beijing’s atomic arsenals.”
After that kind of a “nuclear strike” who cares about “rights?” The whole planet would be unliveable…
And haven’t you always wondered about the concept of a “preemptive” strike?
Surely if the U./S. has the “right” to a “preemptive” strike against China then China surely has the “right” to a “pre-preemptive” strike against the U.S., no?
[/quote]Scott
[b]No.[/b][size=200][/size]
why??
because the U.S is the force for good 😀
because the U.S. has the inalienable right to do whatever it wants. that’s the American way 8)8)8)
because the U.S. is indeed the U.S. the most free democratic developed society in the world. :?:?:?:?
how dare you insinuate that China.. Iran or any other country has the right to defend itself. :?:?
shame on you for bringing this up. :?:?:?
[quote=”kwhite1″][quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”kwhite1″][quote=”VictoriaLST”]Kwhite has a good question. What is the colon tied to?[/quote]
I did a search and my computer did nada. Could not find any info it only exchange rates against the soon to be worthless USD.[/quote]
How soon will the U.S. dollar be worthless? A month? Two? You seem pretty sure about this, so give us a date and we’ll see if you’re right. I’ll put it on my calendar.
[/quote]David, the USD index decline from 121.02 (2001) to 70.83 (2008), a 48% decline. In 2008 we had 10 trillion in debt compared to 16 trillion in debt today. Not a good ratio my friend. If you cannot see the path we are on then I am not sure you should be in charge of the money in your pocket.
If you ran a business this way you would soon find yourself on food stamps.
The USD has been the reserve currency for 65 years, that means all oil trade has been in USD. Iran, China, and Russia have begun trading outside of the USD for oil for about 12 months now. That is catastrophic to the USD. The USD did not become a true fiat currency until Nixon in 1971 separated gold from the USD. With a fiat currency and debt to GDP ratio at 10x debt to GDP, it doesn’t take a rocket engineer to figure that out. I guess we can just keep taxing big, bad corporations to pay for it? I doubt they will keep going, the stock holders and CEO’s will just bail out.
I’ll trade you every USD I have for silver/gold at spot price today, I’ll win that exchange soon. Want to take me up on that?
To answer your question, if I knew the exact date of the decline of the USD I would be a zillionaire, but I suspect that we will see a major decline in 3 years or less. Again, is the colon backed by anything or is it a fiat currency?[/quote]
kwhite
no need to waste your energy on the ignorant masses my friend. 🙂
these kinds of conversations should be at a PM level with like minded individuals. and then strategies could be discussed and deployed to diversify risk.
I spoke with an attorney the other day and it seems that the colon is indeed another fiat currency.
but there are major differences.. like at least attempting fiscal responsibility. costa rica does not just print funny money at will.. weeeee!!!!!
the recent move with the new tax on spec dollars is a recent example of attempting to protect costa rica from the influx and outgoing of large spec investments.
I believe you will start to see more and more people like yourself kwhite that will be looking for outside investment opportunities and since this country is small its economy is much more delicate so a large influx or movement of Dollars can do some damage.
scott is better equipt to explain this since I am not an expert.. just a layman in observation.
anybody who has a mortgage here can also attest to how much more difficult the process here to get credit to buy a house compare this to the last years back in the U.S. which caused so many problems. costs rica fared pretty well in comparison.
and think about this.
the people of costa rica are still very much self reliant people (although this is changing for the next generation.)
they do NOT depend on government handouts or are there destructive social programs here. and this is only because they do NOT have the resources.
but think about this scary thought
can you imagine if social programs like welfare and food stamps were introduced here in costa rica. :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
it would destroy this country because soon enough and at a quicker pace you would have the balance of takers vs producers change dramatically.
people here now need to be somewhat creative and need a social network friends and family, churches, etc that help each other. as the way it should be.
they dont go to the gov and expect them to support them.
also the people here have some very good basic skill sets.. like growing food, . etc.
food and fresh is still very abundant and cheap again this may change in the future.
now compare this to the U.S. and how its changing. heck I used to be part of that 15 years ago living in a city all my life.
I never knew how to do anything except just go out to the stores and buy solutions. moving here has been a very life changing but rewarding experience for me.
heck I am even building my very own underground well that will be powered by a solar pump.!!
building an aquaponics system and installing a windturbine solar hybrid system.
:D:D:D:D:D:D
anyway enough of my rant before the mods delete my posts again.:?:?:?:?:?:?
Scott
I was just going to ask you about this…hmmmm.. are they doing this to protect or at least try and protect costa rica against the influx of dollars????
is this a good thing or a bad thing??? obviously this will hurt some aspect in some verticals but will this help at all from your point of view???
sadly costa rica is like a child and the U.S. is its overweight drunken irresponsible father.
I see no coincidence arriving at this magic 30% number just like I see none with new gun laws that dona laura wants to implement
like all legal gun owners needing to spend even more money on a separate policy
ok
in the next 5 to 10 years some of us may be migrating again :D:D:D:D:D:D:D
I am liking
Ecuador and chile
by the way.. all these laws are targeted towards large sums of money
in my opinion one of the best hedges is to start generating a monthly cashflow
using the internet
like publishing books on amazons kindle
or setting up Adsense like our buddy scott oliver
I would bet he generates at least $1000 per month from this site in adsense income
look at insidecostarica.com enrico something some itlian guy who I have met and I don’t like him.:D:D
but he is smart guy
he started inside costa rica and sold it and started another site
http://qcostarica.com/edition/he makes all of his money in adversting
or create info products and sell them
there are a whole lot of ways to generate cashflow
and this is something governments will never be able to take away because
your an entrepreneur 🙂
[quote=”jds6958″]The problem is that you have about 1.14 quadrilian dollars of OTC derivatives floating in the markets, that are really only worth about 9 cents on the dollar.
The only country that fared well was Iceland when it all began to blow up…because they bailed out the people and put the bankers in jail.
The rest of the world bails out the bankers.
[/quote]
never knew that information thank you.
FYI
http://www.disinfo.com/2012/07/iceland-jails-bankers-erases-citizens-debt-recovers-strongly/
[quote=”Scott”]”Not so long ago, Costa Rica was a backpacker’s game.
Other than a few business-class hotels in the capital of San José and a handful of isolated luxury properties scattered about the scenic hinterlands, travelers could expect little in the way of genuine comfort while exploring one of the most beautiful and eco-conscious countries on the planet.
Over the past decade, however, Costa Rica’s fastest-growing crop has been a collection of opulent hotels and resort communities, complemented by marinas, golf courses, gourmet restaurants, hot springs and other world-class facilities.”
See it on the CNN website…
[url=http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/16/travel/costa-rica-luxury-travel/]Living large in Costa Rica[/url]
[/quote]
love to see our little country shwoing up on main stream media. maybe we will get more americans moving down here:roll::roll::roll:
[quote=”costaricabill”][quote=”Scott”][quote=”costaricabill”]I entered all the information exactly as 3 years ago (except that the house is 3 years older and I “got the benefit” of 3 additional years depreciation!) and the tax went from $915 to $1,405, more than 50% increase!
[/quote]Just as a matter of interest, how much would you pay in property taxes on a similar ocean view luxury home in the U.S.? Do you know?[/quote]
Hi Scott – I can’t answer the precise question you asked, but I can tell you that before moving to Samara we had a nice home on the waterfront of Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida. We had lived there for over 15 years, and we were “grandfathered in” on the local real estate tax so it could not increase more than 3% per year as long as we owned the home. Our tax was about $4,600USD per year when we sold – BUT (and here is the kicker) the real estate tax for the buyer of our home, not being grandfathered, immediately increased to over $24,000USD per year.
Our home here is much newer (we finished it in 2008, versus 1948 for the Tampa home), a bit smaller in size, with a much better view (my “profile picture” is from our back porch). There aren’t many homes in Florida that sit on the side of a mountain and overlook the ocean, so probably something in California would be more germaine to your question.[/quote]
I think Scott may have alluded to the fact that its still a heck of alot cheaper than the U.S.
I wonder if there are any studies done just these past 3 years with all the changes and price increases in all areas
what %% of increase is it revealing.
think about
luxury tax
corporation tax
higher valuation taxes on properties
water prices increasing
electric prices
cable
marchamo
insurance
transit taxes- increase in ticket prices for infractions
caja increase
etc[b]I would love to see a condensed spreadsheet of just the past 3 years compared to all the years before[/b]
heck there is even a new tax to fund the elimination of sportshunting that will be in the marchamo
what else????
curious to see some observations in the field regarding correlating improvments in areas
I see things the same way as before. the roads suck LOL
still using baily temp bridges :D:D
if there were vast improvments in many areas than I can say
look ma.. better infrastructure 😀
maybe its getting better in other areas besides where I live and work
I should have mentioned I do some improvment BUT these are more in the private sector.
comparable malls are sprouting up, pricesmart will be opening more locations, more walmarts
😯
[quote=”Scott”]I am reliably informed that Howard Brody who was doing the marketing for Hacienda Matapalo is now working for Meyer Godur at [url=http://www.mycostaricaproperty.com/]Pacific Estates[/url]
Their most recent “Press Release” [url=http://www.prweb.com/releases/costaricaproperty/costaricarealestate/prweb10296611.htm]can be seen here.[/url]
Marcy Seay and Joy Schupnik also worked at Hacienda Matapalo and I am told that they too are now working at Pacific Estates.
Related Articles:
[url=https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/Hacienda-Matapalo-CEO-Replies-To-Our-Article-Regarding-Their-Bankruptcy.cfm]Hacienda Matapalo CEO Replies To Our Article Regarding Their Bankruptcy.[/url]
[url=https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/3490.cfm]Hacienda Matapalo’s Parent Company Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Then Withdraws It![/url]
I would remind our VIP Members that there is no shortage of beautiful land for sale in Costa Rica and whatever you are consider, never, ever, ever, send money to anybody, anywhere to buy land in any country without visiting it, walking on it and without having your own attorney – not the developer’s attorney – look into all the details.
Scott
[/quote]
no truer words were ever spoken
