If I want to live in Mexico, do I have to become a permanent resident?
Juan Eufracio Marquez Flores - LM&A Immigration and Legal Services
You don’t necessarily have to be a permanent resident to live in Mexico. You can be Residente Temporal but sometimes I’ll advise my clients to get the Permanente. Why? Because they will save money. They won’t have to go through the immigration rules or go to the process of renewing it every year because every year that Residente Temporal is renewed. They are going to charge you. Right now it’s 3,365 pesos (US $82) but every year it increases in the area...
You don’t necessarily have to be a permanent resident to live in Mexico. You can be Residente Temporal but sometimes I’ll advise my clients to get the Permanente. Why? Because they will save money. They won’t have to go through the immigration rules or go to the process of renewing it every year because every year that Residente Temporal is renewed. They are going to charge you. Right now it’s 3,365 pesos (US $82) but every year it increases in the area of 3 to 10%.
With the Permanente, you just get it once. You don’t have to worry about renewing it. The advantage of the Permanente is if the foreigner purchases a property and wants to sell it, if they have a Permanente, they can be free from capital gain taxes resulting from the sale of the property. If a foreigner sells the property under Residente Temporal, they have to pay capital gains taxes.
(American artist Mym Tuma at one time had an artist studio in Lake Chapala, Mexico, pictured.)
Is there religious freedom and religious tolerance in Belize?
Christian Burn
People do whatever religious activities they want here in Belize. We have a mixture of Muslims, Christians, and everybody exists here harmoniously with no problem at all.
The Muslims here are not aggressive. You see women with their choice of scarf. I haven’t seen a Muslim woman wearing an abaya. There are a lot of Lebanese, Syrians, and Jordanians who live here in Central America, in addition to a lot of Chinese, too, so there are Buddhists. Belize is Catholic-based...
People do whatever religious activities they want here in Belize. We have a mixture of Muslims, Christians, and everybody exists here harmoniously with no problem at all.
The Muslims here are not aggressive. You see women with their choice of scarf. I haven’t seen a Muslim woman wearing an abaya. There are a lot of Lebanese, Syrians, and Jordanians who live here in Central America, in addition to a lot of Chinese, too, so there are Buddhists. Belize is Catholic-based because of the way it was set up, but nobody seems to have a problem. We even have the Rastafarian culture, too.
I feel completely safe in every way. That is important because I will be on the beach, sometimes, in a bikini and that might not be consistent with other people's belief as to how a woman should be dressed, but they do not try to impose their beliefs on me, and likewise for me on them. People might be commenting to each other, but they are not commenting on me being out of place. Belize is a beautiful and harmonious place.
The church in the center of the town here in San Pedro and there is a big Roman Catholic Church. That is where the majority of the celebrations are based, like Christmas or Easter. The Seventh Day Adventists here in Belize really dress up for their Saturday affairs. It is around 85 degrees Fahrenheit and about 80 % humidity and they are in their dress shirts with an undershirt and even a tie. The women are all dressed up in heels and a hat. Likewise, on a Sunday, the kids at home will dress up and on a Sunday morning, they go to church. They have the same practice in various parts of the country, from down south to San Ignacio.
Weekends are a time to pay homage to whatever deity that you have in Belize. It is a family affair and they take it very seriously.
Boquete is a small town in the province of Chiriquí, Panama. The closest city to Boquete is the provincial capital of David, which is less than 40 minutes away by car. For serious medical issues, the people in Boquete come to David.
I’m not familiar with the doctors in Boquete, but in reference to the doctors here in David, I can personally say that from the doctors we have used personally, or even the doctors our clients have been attended by have been...
Boquete is a small town in the province of Chiriquí, Panama. The closest city to Boquete is the provincial capital of David, which is less than 40 minutes away by car. For serious medical issues, the people in Boquete come to David.
I’m not familiar with the doctors in Boquete, but in reference to the doctors here in David, I can personally say that from the doctors we have used personally, or even the doctors our clients have been attended by have been very good. Getting an appointment with the doctors here is very easy and you are attended almost immediately. From my experience about the doctors here I can personally say I have had either the doctor call me or even their secretaries have called me to see how I was recuperating. And our clients have experienced the same thing.
Will Portugal make me pay income tax on money I earn outside of Portugal?
Luis Rodrigues - Gouveia Pereira, Costa Freitas & Associates, Law Firm, RL
In accordance to paragraph 6 of article 81º of the personal income tax code, if a non-habitual resident obtains income deriving from pensions in the United States, it is applied to the exemption method provided that the income is not considered obtained in Portugal.
In accordance to paragraph 1 of article20º of the Double Tax Treaty signed between Portugal and the United States, any pensions and other similar remuneration (other than pensions or...
In accordance to paragraph 6 of article 81º of the personal income tax code, if a non-habitual resident obtains income deriving from pensions in the United States, it is applied to the exemption method provided that the income is not considered obtained in Portugal.
In accordance to paragraph 1 of article20º of the Double Tax Treaty signed between Portugal and the United States, any pensions and other similar remuneration (other than pensions or remuneration to which Article 21º applies – Public or Governmental Service) derived and beneficially owned by a resident of a Contracting State (Portugal) in consideration of past employment shall be taxable only in that state (Portugal).
As such, pension income received by a Portuguese non habitual resident that is paid from the United States cannot be taxed in the United States and will be exempt from tax in Portugal.
However, there is an exception for the social security benefits and other public pensions related to Public or Governmental Functions that will still be exempt from tax in Portugal but may be taxed in the United States.
(Discoveries Monument commemorating important people in Portuguese history, Lisbon, Portugal, pictured.)
If you want to travel by any vehicle in the Riviera Maya (Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Akumal, Tulum and everything in between), you’ll have to take the main highway. As in every other place in Mexico we’ve been, this means driving amongst Mexicans who drive way too fast to be safe, and lots of ill-advised passing. In addition, there are “returnos.”
The simplest, most non-threatening definition of a “retorno” is that it is nothing more than...
To take a line from his own newsletter, Nica Nuggets, for and about the expats of Granada, Nicaragua, Darrell Bushnell is as busy as a one-legged rooster in a three-story hen house. Jet Metier talks to the man who mesmerizes her with his tales of his life in the land of fresh water sharks and steaming volcanoes.
Jet Metier: How are you Darrell? How are Amy and the dogs? I like to think of you starting the morning doing something wonderful and unique...