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Just my 2 cents to add.
We Bought a house in Atenas in Feb. in a gated community, 2 weeks later the Pool pump and hot water heater was stolen. Of course when we came down to Costa Rica crime was a major issue and the biggest negative for us as far as Costa Rica goes. When we settled into our gated community, everyone we met said they had either been robbed or knew someone was that was robbed. Actually the vast majority of people we met had said sooner or later you will get robbed and expect it. I disagree with one poster here that says something alone the lines that there is crime thorough out the US too, I took out of what he was writing that there is no difference. I assure everyone here that there are places in the US that crime is basically nonexistent. I don’t lock my house in the states when I leave and never lock my car even when there is stuff in there. Don’t know if such a place exists in CR.
In any event, Americans, Europeans etc. will always be a target in CR. It has nothing to do with race. Its math, If someone is going to rob someone they want to make it worth there time. Who would you rob a local that Probably only makes 800-1000 colonies an hour or a visitor that is sure to have some form of wealth on them?
The solution…..I never like to bitch about something without as least making a suggestion or two. If folks really complain about this crime issue and this issue becomes known to other so called “investors” The CR government would more likely act to increase funding for security forces. After all they want our Gringo money here.
Of course, a Charles Bronson or Bernard gets type would greatly help the situation. Just for the record I’m not the type.
One thing that can be done now is with Scott and this website, We always here about the great things about living in CR but here very little about crime. Perhaps there should be more articles about it or even a warning, like Scots warning about realtors on the top of the site home page.
I will say this and this is not to put anyone down. When we bought our house here, we specifically asked about crime in Atenas, We were told by the realtors (both recommended from this site) that they have never been robbed and have never heard of anyone being robbed in Atenas . Of course, most of the Gringos we met know those realtors and some have even been clients, they were clearly dishonest with us. Of course they are motivated not to tell the whole truth. (We didn’t believe it anyway as we had spoken to folks before we bought and found out there was a crime issue (even in Atenas) but it did lose our faith in those two realtors and we will be cautious about recommendations from this site). Personally in the future, we plan on doing more investments we will not be using them again. I will say I did like one of them and did find him to be good overall, The other realtor, However….well that is a totally different story.
Crime in general:
one it comes down to it your going to be robbed one way or the other either by the American Government or the local criminals. I’ll take my chances with the locals. But everyone should be aware!Perhaps this could be seen as a scare technique by Paul to get Americans to buy in. On the other hand, I have to agree with a lot of what he is saying including the tax rate of 60-70%. But I do think that there will be some kind of loop hole some where, The rich corporate holders want to invest outside the US just as much as we do and have course they write the laws.
However this also brings up some interesting questions for those of us that already own property in central America.
Are we going to get hit by a 30% tax if we sell the current property we own and buy another in the same foreign country?
In theory, if the IRS wants to know about our assets at some point they may want to know about our Real Estate holdings are they going to put a tax on those. Such as a luxury tax or something every year?
It just seems to be very unclear at the moment about what the future will bring.
In any event, with inflation being low and interest rates extremely low, it doesn’t hurt to slowly transfer money (less then $10,000) into CR every time you or a family member flies in. Just put your doe in a secure place and not open or have a bank account in CR with more then $10,000. This way you can have for example a $100,000 in a safety deposit box without the IRS every knowing. Another possibility is bring in $10,000 worth of gold each time, and just covert a little bit at a time when you need it. As gold should hold its value with inflation. I myself don’t know much about Gold but will look more into it.
I don’t believe that any of the above suggested is illegal or against the IRS tax code. There are probably many that don’t trust the banking system etc. in the US that simply just put their money “under their mattress”, they don’t earn anything on it. (what is the real earnings anyway? typical money markets in the US gets you 1.0% but after the IRS gets its share, is it worth it?). This is doing the same thing just in another country. The main reason we stash our money in a secure place is not to avoid any tax, its because we feel more comfortable with securing our own money then having it secured in a bank.
8)We are not really concerned about the size more about the quality.
With that being said. My wife and I only eat chicken once a month and I eat beef perhaps once every two weeks (need the protein). In the US there is a huge difference in taste between organic chicken and “Walmart” Chicken which is loaded with hormones, Antibiotics and fed GMO corn. Beef has similar issues I only eat Charolais beef, It’s probably double the price but again there is a big taste difference, at least to me. We can also taste a small difference with fruits and vegetables. However, when we are in Costa Rica, we find no taste difference between our Organic vegetables in the US and the regular vegetables you find in the market. We actually thought at first that all the vegetables in Costa Rica were Organic. We have not tried organic vegetables in CR yet but will when we arrive next week. In any event, even if there was no taste difference, we are willing to pay extra to have chemical, drug and GMO free food. At worst we wasted a few dollars. I will say that since we have been on this basic organic diet (about 4 years now) we have not gotten sick once. This is amazing for me as I normally have alleges bad during the spring and fall. Just the money I saved on drugs takes care of the additional price of the food. Logically speaking if allergies are seasonal, food should not be a factor. but for some odd reason there is a difference in my case.
[quote=”Scott”]
PS. As an ex Royal Marine Commando[/quote]Hey can we hire you to take care of some Commando business. NO NO this is just a joke please don’t send the FBI to my door LOL
[quote=”grb1063″]Michael Moore is a leftist idiot and we might all be goosestepping in the near future.
[/quote]I assure you Michael Moore is miss labeled, many leftist do think he is an “idiot” including Ralph Nader and while his movies at times make great points, they also don’t tell the total truth. A left government probably wouldn’t bail out those that took out loans that they couldn’t afford and wouldn’t do the many things that Michael Moore would have you think.
In any event, Micheal Moore would not have anyone “goosestepping” thats more likely with a far right government. I believe historically you will find that Nazi Germany was as far away from the Left as possible. They started from the right and just kept on going in that direction.
There are obviously many different political views in here. However my views of what is “left” and what is “right” is quite different.
If we really did have a “left” US government:
We would have centralized medicine (no private insurer could profit on you health or make decisions on your health based on their bottom line.
The corporate bail out would never have happened. The Tarp funds were created under the right sided bush admin.
We would not have been in this situation to begin with as banking regulation wouldn’t have been deleted from the books.There would be no patriot act or this new proposed police state act, (again these all were created by the bush admin or proposed by a republican (the far right))
Taxes, well yes we would have them but would get a lot more for our money and the corporate subsidies, tax breaks etc. would be gone. Medical and Education for all.
there would be very limited pork projects as the corporate lobby would not exist.
Gay and Lesbian rights…..they would have the same rights as everyone else.
No wasting billions on fences on the Mexican boarder. The Left would just heavily fine those companies that hire illegals (this doesn’t happen now) eliminating the motive for these aliens to cross into the country.
There would be no military forces in Iraq, afgan etc, no gitmo. We may actually be a neutral country.
Better homeland security the money may be spend on better x-ray machines at airports and increased security at our boarders.
The list goes on and on but I think you get the point. sounds more like Costa Rica then a police state….doesn’t it?
Folks should not think of someone based on a label….Democrat/Republican. Right now we are in an extreme right society. Obama for the most part is following the bush lead and yes is a righty, the reason there is dissent in congress is more to vote against the other party then for the the actually principle, sort of like in some of these forums. It should also be noted that its the people that choice their representatives, its the people that want this right sided government. Us “left folks” on principle didn’t vote for Obama, most probably voted for Nader (sought of our leftist spokes person). Howard Dean, a democrat isn’t too bad either.
The attack on the World trade center was a big success according to Bin-ladin. Look at our country in 2001 and look at it now. We live in a “right” country that continues to move to the right regardless if the Government is controlled by those labeled R or D. Folks are scared and allowing the government to spend anything they want to protect them, they will even let them take and spend their rights away. Its the American people that have the power to change this, but this can only happen if they educate themselves become independent thinkers and are not afraid to swim against the flow.
[quote=”Scott”]This is a Discussion forum where our VIP Members have the freedom to discuss whatever they wish whether it affects them personally or not …
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.com[/quote]Agreed….. However, perhaps there may be an individual or two that likes to stir things up in the forums. Not because they have a different view on things or for that matter any view or really care enough about the topic to look more closely in to it. It may be just to get the attention focused on themselves, typically these characters won’t stop the blogging until they have the last word. Once you get to know who they are, they are much easier to deal with or for that matter not deal with. While am relatively new on the forum, I have found the vast majority of folks friendly, knowledgeable and positive.
Thanks
[quote=”kimball”][quote=”sueandchris”]Kimball:
Dont tell me about your taxes. I paid 70K in fed taxes alone last year. But at least i can somewhat reap the rewards of those taxes in good roads, schools etc.. What is the US gov doing for me in CR ? Nothing.
Im not running from anything…. I just want them off my back. If i turn a profit in CR then the CR gov should get my bread. Period.[/quote]
Well Said!
If you already paid your taxes, why should the US government get another 30% because you chose to move it out of the country? Well lets do the math, for those of you in the high tax bracket….(of course these are rough estimates)Federal 36%, State and local 10%, Sales tax, capital gains tax, impact tax, they even tax our dogs here (its called a pet tax). Add it up and your paying over 50% tax and now they want another 30%. Yeah, I be in line to pay that one. Many times there are legal loop holes with laws like this, of course we will try to find one. My motto is: Let the other guy pay for that new Navy Nuclear sub.
Of course as with any discussion there are those that will swim with the flow, and those that will swim against the flow. Independent thinkers might find they are swimming more often against the flow. I guess the goal at the end of the day is not to drown in the flow or you may actually see that Navy Sub you just bought.
[quote=”twinzor1″][i]”Interesting that the focus of this thread is on the revenue side wthout a hint of its anticipated benefits within the employment mandate. [/quote]
As an Employer, (our company in the US pays 6 figure tax bills yearly), I can assure you that the so called “employment mandate” is not going to motivate us to hire anyone for what amounts to a less then a 1% tax cut (after all the tax implications of the bill are added up) per new hire based on their yearly salary. However if we layoff our employees for 30 days (during a slow time)and then rehire then we now get the tiny tax advantage. Yes, you may say then our unemployment tax goes up…..not really, in our state the companies that do well have to pay for those that are laying off workers. Even though we have never had a lay-off, our unemployment tax doubled this year.
So when I hear “anticipated benefits within the employment mandate” I just got to giggle about it.”
…and as far as the new health care bill, this will increase the dollar amounts in which we pay for policies. The Health care insurers seem to have written this bill, boy are they going to rake it in. Just in the past 52 weeks when this bill was rumored their stock prices just about doubled while bringing their PE ratios to single digits (all in anticipation of the big profits coming their way). Couples making over $250,000 are paying the bulk of this. However in reality its going to be the working class paying for this as the expense will be passed on to them in the form of few raises or even pay cuts.
Of course I don’t like bringing out the evil side of this without suggesting a solution:
My solution is centralized health care, cut out the insurance companies completely, those huge profits will help pay for all health care. and yes Medicare works and is a very successful program. Besides do you really want companies that make a profit off you deciding on your medical treatment. Does anyone see an conflict of interest here?
Sorry this is off topic and another one of my rants but I just couldn’t help myself.
…..and for the record we are not Republicans or Democrats. We supported Ralph Nader.
Hopefully I won’t get a knock on my door after this post from the insurance companies or the Obama admin. LOL
Would this really effect folks in Costa Rica as you can open up a corp account (not using your name)?, thus the IRS would never know a US citizen owns the account. You could transfer funds from the US to this account.
At worst, every time you or a family member comes into the country bring in the $10,000 (max allowable) per member. The IRS will only know it was withdrawn from your account in the US, for all they know you sleep with the doe under your pillow (talk about pillow talk). You can then put it in your corp bank account in Costa Rica when you arrive.
I don’t think Switzerland would abide by any US law when it comes to banking. At least historically they have not yielded to foreign law.
The only thing I can see happening is when you wire money from a us bank over sees the IRS could nab 30% of it. but again you could always carry the max allowable into CR.
Perhaps I am way off on this? but I’m sure there gotta be some way to get around it.
I believe that this has been a very useful tread. There are obvious several members of the forums that share the same “scientific facts” not that there is a difference in scientific facts. In any event, the original purpose of this tread was to discuss the availability of Organic products in Costa Rica. Perhaps if you know of an Organic entity, whether its a farm or bakery etc. you can post it here. Many in the forums may be interested. Thanks, George
Since I started this tread I have found an Organic Coop in Atenas. Information posted below. My wife and I will be in Atenas in a couple of weeks for about a month and plan on checking it out more closely.
“CAOA, the organic cooperative of Atenas, has found a new home. After having used the Red Cross building at its beginning and then the Spanish/English Fun porch, the members of the coop now receive their goods at the house of Genevieve and Alex, two new Atenas inhabitants. Their home is located 150 meters south of the Red Cross, in the Oasis, straight up the hill on the right hand side. It is currently run by Chiqui Fonseca and Genevieve Codere, with lots of help from Melanie LeSuer, the wonderful baker.
“But what exactly is CAOA? It’s an organization that permits its members to receive or-ganic goods produced in Costa Rica. Anyone can become a member. Each week, mem-bers place their orders at the coop. Then, the organization places orders with the different producers or distributors. We try to use as many local products as possible and we order everything that cannot be found locally through a distributor coming from the organic farms in Zarcero. A wide variety of products can be ordered, from fruits and veggies to chicken, goat cheese and goodies like homemade pastas and German breads and pastries, these last two items baked fresh by Melanie.
Each Friday, between 10 and 12 noon, the goods are distributed to each member and after paying for your weekly products, an invoice is given to each to show how af-fordable the prices are. Genevieve has done some comparison shopping at the public market and found cilantro, for instance, at the same price as the CAOA sells organic ci-lantro. Jean has found that pound for pound the whole chickens are slightly more expensive than chickens in the public market, but the organic chickens are larger, averaging 2.1k, compared to the normal 1.5k chicken. And the taste of organic, free-range poultry is wonderful. And the organic eggs – the yolks are more yellow, the whites firmer, the shells are harder – there really is a difference! And the papaya – we who have become used to the organic papaya say there is none sweeter.
New members are always welcomed. We are poised to grow and the more orders we have for these products the more we help grow the market for organic, thus showing the far-mers that they can make money at it. If you are interested, you can call Genevieve (Gen) at 2446-5768, write her at genevieve@micasamicostarica.com, or show up on Friday morning to have a look at what it feels to be part of a group who cares about the food they give to their families, and the environment in which that food is grown..
We are always interested in meeting new producers also. If you have organic products, you can contact Gen to propose them. She speaks French, Spanish and English.”
[quote=”jdocop”]wow………you guys are so busy defending your position that you don’t even read for content…..your attitude is that if one is not with you, then one is against you……..You claim to have done research, and to have information that you think is not readily available to anyone else, and just because their conclusions do not agree with yours, you decide that you must lash out. [/quote]
“You claim to have done research, and to have information that you think is not readily available to anyone else”,
No one in here as stated we have done research that is not readily available to anyone else.” The research is there for all to see. Have you checked out any of the movies suggested? These movies not only spell out the issues but they supply information where to find more research and facts. I suggest these movies because they are full of information and the quickest and easiest way to learn about GMO’s. Posting one link here isn’t going to help with the issue, you need to get a general overview which takes a little time. Just get yourself una cervesa (beer), a bag of GMO free popcorn (LOL) and enjoy the movie. “Try it you may like it”.
“your attitude is that if one is not with you, then one is against you”
this is not about being with you or against you it’s about education and being able to make an informed decision. It makes no difference to me or probably anyone in the forum if you think GMO’s are great and go on a 100% GMO diet. It may save you some bucks after all, but then again maybe not.Organics also mean chemical, Hormone and Antibiotic free. We prefer leaving those out of our diet.
Thanks awilson1333 you seem to be much knowledgeable on this subject. I heard about the movie, the world according to monsanto, ironically when we were in Costa Rica but being in the US, we have not be able to get a copy of it.
One it comes down to it, Most people are unaware of what GMO’s are as Monsanto has done a great job there. However it never amazes me how some folks are willing to debate on a topic they admittedly and obviously know nothing about. We can only steer folks in the right direction, they have to be willing to spend the time to get educated on the subject. With that being said, if our information is flawed we are just spending a little extra cash on food. If the research and information we have is correct then The GMO eaters could possible be really sick and unhealthy in the years to come. Which side would you want to be on?
I read the blog again and I want to respond to some questions that were put out there: just a disclaimer here, I am not an expert on this subject but I have done my research and you should too.
Two more questions arise: First, why would someone want to propagate a genetically modified strain? [b]MONEY[/b]
Increased yield would be one good reason ACTUALLY IT HAS BEEN SHOWN TO DECREASE YIELD.
Improved disease resistance would be another, NOPE ACTUALLY DISEASE HAS INCREASED AS THE RESISTANCE TO GROUND UP GROWS.
Enhanced nutritional value of the resulting food product might be a third, WRONG AGAIN ITS ACTUALLY LESS
Second, why would someone wish to eat a genetically modified food? THEY WOULD NOT EAT IT IF THEY WERE INFORMED. IN MOST CASES, THUS THE STRONG LOBBY TO NOT LABEL IT IN THE US. HOW MANY AMERICANS EVEN KNOW WHAT A GMO IS?
Well, decreased cost due to higher yields or lower losses to disease, deterioration in storage or predation might be one reason. ACTUALLY THE COST HAS ACTUALLY GONE UP IN GREATER RATE THEN OTHER FOOD PRODUCTS, LOOK INTO THE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES.
AFTER SEEING THE MOVIES AND TAKING A LOOK AT THE STUDIES AND INTERNET LINKS PROVIDED BY THEM, YOU WILL BE CERTAINLY ABLE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS AND IF YOU HAD CHILDREN, YOU CERTAINLY WON’T LET THEM EAT GMO’s
