Archive for expat
Democrats Target Expats
Posted by: | CommentsJackie Bugnion is an American citizen who has lived in Switzerland for 45 years. She had two securities accounts in her adopted country but in the spring she was told that she should find another home for her money. This summer those accounts were moved into SEC-regulated subsidiaries. “I call them the ‘American ghettos’,” she says. These subsidiaries are subject to higher fees and higher minimum investments than normal accounts. “It makes you feel toxic when this happens to you after you have been the client of a bank for years,” says Ms. Bugnion
The U.S. government – under a new law incorporated in the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act signed by President Barack Obama on 18 March 2010 – is demanding that international financial institutions reveal which of their clients are U.S. citizens with accounts of more than $50,000. Foreign banks are, in effect, being asked to act as the international enforcement arms of the Internal Revenue Service. Those banks that don’t comply will be subject to a 30% withholding tax on all payments made to them in the U.S. Many banks and wealth managers have decided it is far easier to politely show their U.S. clients the door.
Earlier this month, the law firm Withers conducted a survey of bankers, accountants, independent financial advisers, trust companies and other private client advisors to analyze the impact of the HIRE Act. Over half said they have seen instances where Americans were denied investment and banking services in the last two years. And 95% expect this to increase as a result of the HIRE Act.
David Treitel, a tax director, at U.S. Tax & Financial Services, said that at least 20% of the American customers serviced by his company’s London and Swiss offices have had their bank accounts closed over the past year.
The Hire Act is only the latest in a raft of different laws aimed at American expats, American residents with off-shore accounts and the institutions that service both groups. Jay Krause, a partner at the law firm Withers, says: “The difficulties that American expats face predates the HIRE Act. But the new law will take it to a whole new level. I think that it is the most remarkable piece of tax legislation ever enacted.”
The U.S. government already taxes expatriate citizens on their worldwide income regardless of where it is earned or where they live, making them the only people in the developed world who are taxed in both their country of citizenship and country of residence. Many expats complain that these rules are getting tougher and the penalties more draconian by the year.
Another Expat Full of Hate and Contempt
Posted by: | CommentsMan, they’re everywhere. For example, here’s an expat living as much like a local (or is it ‘servant‘?) as anyone I know, and yet even she can’t overcome the racist tendencies instilled in her by her native cracker culture:
Three guys show up. One of them, the main guy, I haven’t even seen today, though supposedly he is off wiring some hierro or rebar together. The other two are grunt labor . . . they’re supposed to be digging the zanja or trench for the base.It goes something like this. The one guy uses the pickaxe to break up the dirt . . . 3-4 strokes. Then he sits down on the edge of the trench and starts talking. The other guy, in his own trench, a few feet away, scrapes his own dirt a bit with the shovel. Maybe two or three scrapes, then he leans on his shovel adn they talk for 7-10 min. Then the first guy shovels two shovelfuls of dirt out of the trench and sits down to fan himself with his hat, chattering away. The other guy does pretty much the same, minus the hat.
I should mention that they are doing this RIGHT outside my window. I now know that the short, young guy has two kids, one of whom was up with nightmares all night long and the other who should be in school, but he feels his wife is babying the boy too much by keeping him home too long. I know that the other guy has worked with every abañil who has screwed us over. They’ve also discussed what they had for dinner last night, how annoying their wives are, how annoying their children are, how annoying the other abañiles are . . . oh, and how hot it is. They also talked about the upcoming feriado (public holiday) and their plans to get away and drink some beer. I guess they don’t think I can understand Spanish or else they don’t think I have any power to do anything about their inability to work more than 30 seconds at a time!
I get that it’s hot . . . but this is their job. I wouldn’t mind if they had a break from time to time, but seriously . . . 2 shovelfuls per 15 min. of work? Uh, not gonna cut it boys.
Poor Genesis just doesn’t get it. Doesn’t she realize she’s the problem?
LOL Watch this Newbie
Posted by: | CommentsRemember some of my adventures with the electric company? Sit back and laugh with me as Kara tries to adjust:
On 5th Ave I ask a few people on the street where they pay their electricity and they point towards the Banco Industrial hole in the wall entrance that only has an ATM and tunnel like passage with a defunct metal detector and a security guard with a an AK47. I tell him I am here to pay my “power” and not electricity (after being corrected a few times) and he scoots me over to one line. The line moves fast for the people with their paper bills, but I do not have one, I am paying our landlady’s bill and she lost her paper trail. I tell them her address and all the identifying info for her and they smile and shake their heads. “Disculpe, solo podemos utilizar el contador.” We can only use the meter number to identify her house and the bill. I point at their computers and ask if they can’t find her in the database. No, they tell me, those are only for keeping meters and costs incurred by meter numbers. “But numbers are made of people,” I tell them and ask is there no way to connect her to her address? Well, maybe they tell me, but I have to go to the BIG Banco Industrial and the MAIN Empresa Electrica. At this point Brad is about to take a Tuk Tuk home, but I ask him to go along with me so we can figure out how things are connected.At the BIG bank we move through line quickly and we get to the teller and ask to pay the bill. “Do you have the meter number?” She asks. I sigh. “I had a feeling you’d ask me that.” She sends me upstairs, but before I go up we ask about where we can pay online so we don’t have to go through this again. She doesn’t have the Web address, but she informs us that as long as we have a Banco Industrial account, we can pay online. But what if you don’t I ask? She shrugs, we move upstairs as the storm breaks and the skies weep from the weight of it. Upstairs at the BIG Empresa Electrica, I expect a computer-lined hallway with massive databases. A security guard, also with a gun, greets me and so I tell him we need to connect a person to her address to get her meter number and then pay her bill. She walks me over a few inches to the phone next to him and dials customer support for the National Empresa Electrica. Brad sits down and watches the rain come down. I wait and wait and go through two attempts to connect her name to her address to her meter. “Favor de asegurar que ese es el nombre del la dueña.” But that is her name and that is her house and everything is under her name, I inform the representative. Well, I’m sorry, he tells me, but she does not exist in his system. I tell him, just try one more time, but just by street to find her name. “I’m sorry, señorita, but then you would get someone else’s bill and that’s private information.” Now, I tell him, do you think I would really pay someone else’s bill if you pulled it up and that didn’t match her name? I tell him to look one more time but just by her street name. He refuses. I ask him if he likes baseball. He says, yes, of course. Then strike me out, I tell him, give me three chances and if on the third try nothing comes out then I hang up the phone. Silence. “I’m sorry, I looked under her street name, and she is not in my system. I guess that means you’re out, too.” Yes, I tell him, fair is fair.
I promise you, deep down she has unresolved feelings of contempt and disdain for the (that would be ‘her’) Guatemalan people, they just haven’t come out yet. Stay tuned…
As Long as You Spell My (Domain) Name Right
Posted by: | CommentsYears ago when I had the opportunity to work with a master PR guy on an acquisition, (he had just left a job as a top strategist for the RNC, but was then working in the private sector), he told me that all press was basically good, as long as “they spell your name right”.
Clearly not everyone would agree with this opinion, but I guess if you’re of the mindset that selling things is what matters, or getting votes is what matters (after all, there is no ‘intensity button’ on the voting machine) and you don’t really care what people think, well, I guess it works.
Perhaps that’s unwittingly what I’ve done here at GuateLiving. I wouldn’t want to see the results of an intensity vote; I’m pretty sure the hatred level would set new records, but with every new ‘truth at all costs’ posts the blog grows in fame…or maybe it’s infamy. You decide:
Yet over at Guate Living — el termómetro en el trasero de la vida gringa en la Antigua — we have been shocked to find the suggestion that meticulous locals will take their ceviche with a prophylactic of antibiotics, and that manitas shucas (almost exlusively of the Guatemalan kind) are the root cause of the regular unscheduled trips to the crapper that appear to afflict the more delicate members of the ex-pat community.
Whilst the occasional intestinal storm is almost unavoidable for those of us bearing bacteria in our gut that — however friendly — have yet to master the local lingo, we have found that we rarely suffer from the runs when we prepare our own comida at home.
We recommend that concerned readers kit out each of the maids preparing their gringo grub with PVC gloves, face masks and hair nets, if not indeed a sealed head-to-toe anti-microbial body suit. (NB: The mask is to prevent them from spitting in your soup.
The Expat Transformation
Posted by: | CommentsGuest Post
When I first arrived in Guatemala, I was pretty fresh from Canada, though I’d come through Mexico by bus. I had the typical attitudes that most foreigners have and never imagined how much things would change in 7 years. To give you a glimpse, here are a few before and afters . . .
Before: I nearly had a heart attack when coming around a corner and bumping into an armed guard.
Now: I find it odd if a store doesn’t have a guard and shotguns don’t phase me at all.
Before: I couldn’t IMAGINE driving in Guatemalan traffic.
Now: My husband and I are seriously looking at buying a car . . . which I would drive . . . and the thought doesn’t phase me a bit.
Before: If you’d told me I could survive more than two days without a shower, much less water, I’d have laughed in your face.
Now: I’ve successfully survived up to 15 days without running water.
Before: I felt sorry for the children begging in restaurants and bars.
Now: I’ve seen those same kids in their private school uniforms on the bus.
Before: I’d never spent a night in a hospital.
Now: I’ve spent several days and nights in the public hospital here.
Before: I paid whatever they told me in the market because I felt embarrassed to try and knock the price down.
Now: I never accept the first price given and I’m pretty good at negotiating for my potatoes and tomatoes.
Before: My Spanish teacher told me I was too stupid to learn the language in 3 weeks of lessons. I could still barely count in Spanish.
Now: I’m fluent. Unless you ask my mother-in-law, who will promptly tell you I speak no Spanish at all. 
Before: I was going places, no interest in ever settling down with a guy, and thought only about kids in the distant future.
Now: Here I am, with a house! And a guy! And TWO kids. 
And you know what? It’s not so bad at all.
Yup, things sure do change!
Genesis is a freelance writer and lives with her husband and two sons just outside of Antigua. She blogs at Expat Mom.
Expat Wants FoxNews…and Local Cable Co Delivers!
Posted by: | CommentsIf you had asked me what the odds were of getting a local cable company to add a channel at the request of a expat/missionary, I would have given you about 100:1 odds. After all, I can’t even get Telgua to activate cable at my home, which has resulted in no TV since January. The kids protested they would ‘die’ without it; fortunately the mortality rate has, thus far, been zero.
Anyway, go read this extraordinary story of how two missionaries asked for, and got FoxNews added by their local cable company in Coban.
Another Internet Option in Guate
Posted by: | CommentsReaders know from past articles that one of my frustrations here has been the huge technological gap between technology in the US and here. Almost anything is available here, but the quality of the products and services and the pricing are another matter altogether.
Although high-speed internet is widely available, frequent power outages and other infrastructure failures lead to frequent downtime. If you work online or homeschool and rely on high-speed internet for your daily life, this can be frustrating. I use and recommend Veridas, a local WIFI solution, because installation is available within a few days, prices are reasonable, there are no contracts and the company is owned and managed by expats. Other options can include long-term contracts and the notoriously bad customer service.
I’ve been considering an option that I thought I would share with you. Several companies now offer 3G wireless connections here in Guatemala. That means you should be able to get your iPhone or Blackberry to work here (cracking/unlocking it, if necessary, will cost you 100-400Q). It also means that high-speed wireless internet should be available wherever there is a cell phone tower.
Claro and Tigo both offer this service, and I’ve been told Movistar does as well. Tigo offers a plan that I’m really interested in; 1.5MB speed with no contract, no download limits and approximately $50 a month. Friends tell me it works in Xela, Rio Dulce, Atitlan, Coban and even Tikal. Pretty impressive for a third-world country, eh?
If you’re interested in this kind of service, you’ll want to stop by a local technology blogger here. There are a series of reviews on this very service, with some good insights into what you’re likely to expect (for example, don’t be surprised if you get only 512k or 256k download speeds as they appear to have oversold capacity). But, as the blogger mentions, if you’re looking for a country-wide mobile option and will use it as a supplement or backup to a primary connection, it sounds pretty good.
H/T: Antigua Daily Photo
A Day in the Life of an Expat in Guate
Posted by: | CommentsStories like this are so common…things just don’t work like we expats think they will/should. It can crush you, if you’re not ready, not prepared, not committed to growing and learning through the pain. Someone once told me upon my arrival that if I made it six months and didn’t hate the place, I’d make it.
Reading the story below and reflecting on some of our own adventures (many not yet published), I recall the old saying, “If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger”.
Or is it, “If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stranger?”
Anyway, a story from some Pennsylvania missonaries here in Guate:
Those are strong words…”I hated today.”
But I did.
I’m back in Guatemala now, and that’s a good thing. But it was difficult traveling with 4-year old twins, a pregnant wife, a small dog, and 6 pieces of luggage to a foreign country. And then we waited at the not-so-safe airport for our mechanic to pick us up in our own car.
(Sidenote) Yes, we finally spent money on a car. Here in Guatemala, a 1996 Toyota 4-Runner cost us about $8,000. I know it’s outrageous, but it is what it is.
(Back to my story) I wanted a few things done on the car while I was in the States just to be extra safe. New shocks, brakes checked, lights checked, oil change, etc. It was in great shape, but I just wanted to be sure. I arrived in Guatemala and was handed a bill for 12,000 Quetzals! We paid the bill and went on our way. Remember, it is what it is.When we were a good 45 minutes out of the city, my car practically blew up. It started dragging like it was in a low 4-wheel gear. I slowed down, and did my best to mess with the 4-wheel drive gear shift….but to no avail. It suddenly siezed up and yanked us to a stop as if we had hit a cement wall.
Now, mind you. We were in the middle of a ton of traffic, in a third-world country, with a smoking, busted car. I didn’t know what to do, except get my kids over to the side of the road (yes, those twins), along with my wife (yes, that beautiful pregnant one) and my dog (yes, that poor Yorkie) where everyone would be safe.
But we weren’t safe. We were soooo not safe.
To read the conclusion, visit their blog here.
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