Remember what I said a coupla days ago about how doing something right included moving to Costa Rica? Scratch that. I moved here just in time to discover Costa Rica planning to tax the bejesus out of foreign residents (is "foreign residents" an oxymoron?)
Read the cheery news here*. AM Costa Rica has a contributor who is actually reading the new 400+ page tax overhaul… the news is not good for newbies. We recently applied for residency because it’s cheaper than leaving the country every 3 months which you have to do on a tourist visa. Plus, wouldn’t it be way cool to have a Costa Rican cedula [SAY-do-lah, I.D.] to flash? A quick call to our residency experts this morning and those plans were canceled.
Our residency status would have been rentista [wren-TEE-stah, like renting residency] which requires a new resident to store $60,000 in a bank for 5 years, taking out $1,000 per month in colones [ko-LOAN-ace, the local currency which evaporates before your eyes). We applied for residency practically upon arrival in Costa Rica because this August, that stored amount TRIPLES to $180,000. Another new tax law. I’m starting to feel unwanted. Will Key West take me back?
The view from my desk (Hal took this photo) is remarkable. This vista tells the tale of what we love about being here. But Costa Rica’s new tax laws are eerily familiar. I already belong to an over-reaching expansive pay-me-to-be-your-buddy government. The only one in the world that taxes you on your income no matter where you live and no matter where you made that money… I’m certainly not joining another one!
Besides, I already have an I.D. from the original Big Brother: my passport. Which I have to flash on demand here. That’s coming in the states. Unless you take the option of having your own unique VeriChip embedded in your body somewhere. What is the world coming to? I need to lay down. Oh vey.