Less Freedom.
More Taxes.
Less Money.
At least according to a young man named David Krug, who has a huge website retire.com.mx, to which you can subscribe and download the first chapter of his book, then purchase your own copy. Any of us who have scoured the internet for information on this topic are well aware of the preponderance of sites devoted to expatriation. Another blogger I discovered, Steve Schwab (any relation to 'Chuck' ?), reports that in the next 15 years upwards of 6,000,000 baby boomers will have settled in Mexico. Thankfully, they will be scattered throughout the entire country and not just in Yucatán. Schwab states "Do the math on 6,000,000 people buying a $300,000 house or condo and you will understand why the U.S. Government is trying to tax this massive shift of money to Mexico through H.R. 3056. The U.S. Government calls this 'The Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007'. Those who will have to pay are calling this the EXIT TAX". Well, this certainly caught my attention. How could I have missed something this big and costly? I immediately googled H.R 3056 and found that the bill was introduced and sponsored in 2007 by Rep. Charles Rangel (D) NY (who was censured by the House this year for ethics violations). The bill passed the House but never made it out of committee to the Senate, so it has effectively been killed. Good. That would have eliminated Krug's 'More Taxes' from the list of the cost of NOT living in Mexico. And it might have stopped our Mexico retirement plans dead in the tracks. |
| One of the most photographed buildings (j&a 01/11) |
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| You rarely see this building in photos of Mérida, but I actually like it. (j&a 01/11) |
At one point I figured out that to stay in my Midwestern town, it would cost me $7700-12700 a year more than having a similar standard of living in Merida. And those figures assume that I don't have any major medical expenses, which could add $6k to the US cost.
ReplyDeleteOne question I asked myself was, "Is my Midwestern town so great that I would be willing to pay $12000 extra a year just to live there?" Um, no.
What is that second building? Is that the one on the paseo de montejo? The building next to it regularly posts a huge sign scrawled with a protest regarding that property. There must be an interesting story behind it.
ReplyDeleteYucatango,
ReplyDeleteAnd when you figure in the incredible history to explore, not to mention the beautiful Mayan culture and the wonderful entertainment ( much of it free), it's pretty much a no-brainer.
Lee,
ReplyDeleteYes, that is the building on Montejo. I assume that it is a hotel. It looks like '60's post-modern Spanish to me, but I'm no expert on architecture. Hopefully someone can enlighten us. It sort of sticks out like a sore thumb, and that makes it all the more interesting to me.
You're right! I scanned Panoramio and found that it's the Hotel Montejo Palace. Doesn't really look like a hotel to me, but I'm not sure WHAT it looks like.
ReplyDeleteYes the building is the Hotel Montejo Palce... in its day "quite the place" Airline crews used to stay there as well as many of the large escorted tours. The outdoor restaurant in front was a popular spot in the evenings and of course, the "best club in town" occupied the whole top floor of the building. The Aloha. When I first moved to Merida in the 1970s, I loved the place... very Copacabana-ish - dimly lit,fake palms, a house band, an MC/bad comedian, the headliner, cigarette girls and coochie.coochie dancers. Of all things, I saw the "Irish Rovers" there! Too bad the old place has slid into such decline (same fate as one of the other old beauties - The Hotel Merida on 60th Street)
ReplyDeleteJoanna, thanks for the information on Hotel Montejo Palace. Sounds like it was a fun place in its day. Cigarette girls are definitely a thing of the past. Now it is pole dancers rather than coochie-coochie.
ReplyDelete