April 8, 2010
Béarn, France
PLUS:
- "Does Ecuador Also Tax Residents On Worldwide Income?"...
- Low-Cost, Easy-Access Mountain Escape Just Outside Panama City...
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The Perks, Privileges, And Peace Of Mind Of
Retirement Overseas
The trouble with some Paradises is that they make it difficult for foreign residents to enjoy what they have to offer...
While others roll out the welcome mat, offering benefits, discounts, and other perks for foreign residents. Some countries are even competing to get your attention, offering tremendous advantages and benefits for you...
Whether you're moving for a better life...a lower cost of living...or a chance to keep more of what you earn and pay less in taxes...
This is the Next Step Guide you need to make your dreams of a new life overseas come true.
Go Here Now For More Details
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Dear Live and Invest Overseas Reader,
"My garden is a mass of primroses, daffodils, violets, tulips, fruit blossoms, and camellias," writes
France Correspondent Lucy Culpepper from the Béarn region in the southwest of that country.
"In the distance, I can see a tractor plowing the deliciously rich, chocolate-brown soil in preparation for the coming maize season. A woodpecker is tapping away at a hollow tree in the woods behind the house, and a hoard of garden birds is busy chasing the emerging gnats to feed to their young.
"Spring has arrived in the Béarn!
"The distant Pyrenean ski resorts are all but closed and will be tidied up over the next month in preparation for walkers, cyclists, and water-sport enthusiasts. Our thoughts are turning away from the mountains toward the ocean and the beautiful Atlantic beaches; already surfers are braving the waves and the frigid water temperatures of the 'hot' surf spots on the Basque coastline.
"This weekend, we'll be joining our neighbors at the village
vide grenier (which means 'empty attic') to sell unwanted stuff that we have accumulated over the last year. The
vide grenier is an institution in France; it's like a mass yard sale with food and drinks sold alongside and often includes an organized family walk or bicycle ride.
"One of the great attractions of the Béarn is that there is something for everyone to appreciate with every season..."
Reading Lucy's note from southwest France this morning, I nearly ached with longing to be where she is right now. The truth is, from a pure quality of life point of view, nowhere on earth compares with France.
Lucy realized this after spending two years on the road in a focused search for the best place in the world to settle with her young family, and I'm delighted to say that Lucy will be bringing all her French Country Living experience with her when she joins us in Paris this July for our
Live & Invest in France Conference.
Many other friends in this country will be joining us, as well, for a How To Make Your Dreams Of A New Life In France program that I'm keenly looking forward to.
More details soon. Meantime,
you can get your name on the list for special pre-registration discounts here now.
Kathleen Peddicord
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Reef, Ruins, Rivers, and Rain Forest...
Plus Easy Residency and Tax-Free Living
Belize is home to the world's biggest concentration of Mayan sites. Two of the most spectacular are Lamanaii, the largest continually occupied city in the Maya world, and ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal), to the west, in the Cayo District. To reach it, you travel through a forest and then swim through a cave...
Belize has also the second largest barrier reef in the world. It's world-class snorkeling and scuba diving and a fisherman's paradise. Not to mention the island nightlife scene, complete with frozen cocktails and live music...
Belize is rain forest tours, horseback riding in the mountains, hikes to the 1,000 Foot Falls (one of the largest in Central America), and pristine rivers cascading into shallow pools perfect for an afternoon swim...
This little paradise on the Caribbean also happens to have one of the world's easiest residency and tax advantage programs in the world.
Continue Reading Here
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While it's springtime in France, here in
Panama, where the seasons are the reverse, it's not fall, exactly, but the transition time between the dry (summer) and the rainy (winter) seasons.
We've had intermittent showers over the past couple of weeks, but the rains should begin falling daily within the next month. Meantime, we're eight days into the hottest month of the year...and counting down every one remaining until May and the cooling rains...
"Kathleen, thank you for noting that Mexico taxes the worldwide income of residents. Does
Ecuador do this as well? If so, does Ecuador have a tax treaty with the United States?
"Thank you for the light you bring to this topic."
-- Joan H., United States
Yes, Ecuador is another country that taxes its residents on their worldwide income...
unless that income was subject to tax elsewhere.
On the face of it, this can be interpreted to mean that a U.S. citizen would not be liable for income tax in Ecuador, as his worldwide income is already liable for tax in the United States.
Say he's living in Ecuador but earning income outside Ecuador that would be taxable in the States. However, he's exempt from U.S. tax on the first US$91,500 of that earned income, thanks for the Federal Earned Income Exclusion. As this income is not subject to tax in the States...it could, in theory, be subject to tax in Ecuador. I'm trying to find someone I trust to confirm this point one way or the other and will report back when I do.
That's the theory.
However, because this is Ecuador (a country where the formal requirements for something like taxation can differ dramatically from the reality of how you deal with your local tax situation), we asked an American friend who lived for several years in Cuenca, Ecuador, for his take on all this.
"The reality when I was there," he replied, "was that tax laws were not enforced, or enforceable, except to do with local income. That may have changed..."
Here's the most important thing to understand about all this international tax stuff: It gets real complicated real fast, especially if you're an American. That's why I make the point again and again that one of the first things you should do once you've focused your live, invest, or retire overseas plans on a particular jurisdiction is to seek expert tax help, both in that new foreign country and in your home country. You need two advisors, as it is unrealistic to expect an international tax expert in the States, for example, to be able to counsel you expertly on your tax obligations and liabilities in any other jurisdiction.
"Ms. Peddicord, my wife and I are English expats living in France at the moment. I would like to move to Panama. There was an American gated community high in the mountains outside Panama City called
Altos del Maria that I researched some years ago. Do you know this place? Would you have any comment on it?"
-- Mike S., France
Altos del Maria and Cerro Azul (another similar development in the mountains outside Panama City by the same developer--who is Panamanian, not American) are private communities with three big advantages: a much more pleasant climate than that in Panama City (lower temperatures and less humidity); quick, easy access to the capital (you can visit for a day, and certainly these are both easily accessible weekend getaway spots); and low prices (you can buy a lot for as little as US$25,000, and developer financing is available).
One big disadvantage is that, in either of these places, there's little to do. If you build a house with a pool, you could spend your afternoons in it. Or hiking, for example. Both communities represent real escape, which has its pluses and its minuses.
The other disadvantage I see is that both these communities have developed over many years (Cerro Azul over 30 years), with virtually no enforced zoning or planning. I'm told that Altos del Maria is making an effort now to impose building standards, but my reaction to both places when I've visited has been...what a shame. Nice settings in both cases...that have been littered with random structures of every size, shape, description, and color. A McMansion might sit alongside a tiny local-style house painted purple or even a camping set-up. The overall effect, again, is disappointing.
Still, as pleasant-climate, low-budget options within easy access of Panama City, both communities are worth a look.
