Best Places In The World To Retire

If you have a house in Mexico, you’ll have to pay the predial, which is the annual taxes on your house. It’s similar to the property taxes you pay in the US or Canada. Typically the amount is very low.

 

There is also an annual fee called refrendo if you own a car in Mexico. Some states also have another annual fee for casr called tenencia and paid for the first 10 years of the car’s life.

 

As noted above, there...

If you have a house in Mexico, you’ll have to pay the predial, which is the annual taxes on your house. It’s similar to the property taxes you pay in the US or Canada. Typically the amount is very low.

 

There is also an annual fee called refrendo if you own a car in Mexico. Some states also have another annual fee for casr called tenencia and paid for the first 10 years of the car’s life.

 

As noted above, there are taxes to pay when you sell your house here in Mexico, but it is not the same as the capital gains tax you know. If you have a tourist visa, you have to pay 30% of the total value of the house.

 

If you have temporary or permanent visa and sold your house for approximately 4 million pesos or less (around US $185,000.), there are no taxes. If it is sold for more than 4 million pesos, only the amount over 4 million pesos is taxed. If your spouse or another person is on the title and that person also has a temporary or permanent resdent visa, the taxes would not start unless the value is approximately 8 million pesos.

 

(Pictured: View of central San Miguel de Allende from hillside.)

 

I don’t think the rules of etiquette in Panama are different from the how it is anywhere else. People tend to be the same no matter where you are. They are looking for respect and of course, since we are in their country it is reasonable for us to yield to them. We should learn to speak their language, embrace their culture, etc. Since you’re not in the United States, you adapt wherever you are. 

 

I think that we Americans in particular,...

I don’t think the rules of etiquette in Panama are different from the how it is anywhere else. People tend to be the same no matter where you are. They are looking for respect and of course, since we are in their country it is reasonable for us to yield to them. We should learn to speak their language, embrace their culture, etc. Since you’re not in the United States, you adapt wherever you are. 

 

I think that we Americans in particular, when things are different from what we are used to, tend to think others are less intelligent than us when they act in a way we’re unaccustomed to because we don’t understand. The common mistake is not to be patient and understanding of the people who are in the country that’s hosting us. A big mistake and a big faux pas would be to be critical and impatient with Panamanians and Panamanian culture, which is definitely much more laid back and slower paced than what we are accustomed to. Many expats get frustrated with that. I find that if you’re a type A, and you’re in a great big hurry all the time, and everything has to be perfect, you either have to make an adjustment to your thought process or perhaps you’d be angry and disappointed all the time. If don’t adapt then you won’t be happy. You’ll always be upset. There are many people who come here who are always angry. They say Panamanians are stupid, this is stupid, that’s stupid, and why do they do it this way, etc. Those people don’t last very long.

 

(Panama Canal engineer and marine, Panama,pictured.)

The main highways in Portugal are very good and you pay for them because they have tolls. The secondary roads and the country roads are not as good and that’s where you will definitely need a 4 x 4. Generally, you can drive on regularly paved roads around Lisbon. It’s only when you get to the villages that the roads may be unpaved.

 

(The single track dirt road to the lighthouse of Ponta dos Rosais, Portugal, pictured.)

The main highways in Portugal are very good and you pay for them because they have tolls. The secondary roads and the country roads are not as good and that’s where you will definitely need a 4 x 4. Generally, you can drive on regularly paved roads around Lisbon. It’s only when you get to the villages that the roads may be unpaved.

 

(The single track dirt road to the lighthouse of Ponta dos Rosais, Portugal, pictured.)