No the costa rican bank definetely wants me LOL, however I am going to live off of other sources of income while there and I originally wanted to keep the money in my us bank, although I dont think it really matters.



To establish residency i need to prove that I won't be a drag on the system in costa rica, this is done, by either having a pension that pays over $600 per month OR (in my case) having $60,000 to deposit into a costa rican bank, they will then give me 12,000 of it a year over the next 5 years OR have a banking institution outside the us say that they will send me 1,000 per month over the next 5 years.



After 5 I will become a permanent resident and no longer need this deposit. After 7 i will apply for citizenship.



On a side note, I have to get this note for both the house and the residency.



That said, I will stay pay us taxes on any profits i make from investments, i do not plan to evade my us taxes, i want to be able to come and go as i please, i will still have friends and family here and I don't want to and if i were to make any money in costa rica I would pay income tax there as well.



I've never really hated paying my taxes, yea i am a little dissappointed as to where the money is going right now, but we pay taxes for the services we get, etc, etc.....



This move is not anti-american, it has nothing to do with that. The reasons for my move are the overwhelming expenses of living here, healthcare has become unaffordable, we pay almost $600 per month for healthcare, property taxes are $2500 a year and they want to raise them another 4% or some **** in thi county.



All that said, the main reasons are simply that I want to simplify my life, I have a big house, pool, hot tub, 3 cars, boat, motorcycle and I am no happier then I was when amy and i didnt have **** and rented a 1 bedroom apartment.

so why cant you send the costa rican bank money? maybe setup a trust here?



as an aside on of my dads friends paid $75,000 in property taxes last year, he does have 2 houses, but still.....

it doesnt have to be a trust there, it just has to be in an account they have set up for this purpose, however it doesnt fix the issue of re-depositing.

yo .. you need an international bank that can set up a LC to yourself of which you can clear offshore, and then get some sort of portable negotiable instrument (such as cash, bearer bonds, etc) and then you'd have to ability to send it.

now I get it, can you hire a lawyer or a accountant to deposit the money from the US bank there?

Seems less trouble then it going back and forth. Will they accept a letter from a attorney?

US banks are pretty lame when it comes to things like this. They will share your information all day long with US gov agencies and even 3rd party credit agencies all day long, but when it comes to something like this, no way in hell will they give it to you.



Then the 10,000 dollar limit is gay too, I've run into that myself and it took me a week to get the money out.



I do know a few people that run accounts out of the UAE and I know one guy with a swiss account just because he thinks hes a james bond villain. The emirates seems to be the best bet now adays, tax havens, very helpful to its customers, etc... but if you cant get your money down to a costa rican bank, then you'll have some trouble moving it to an emirates bank.



Wont they accept a US bank statement showing your current balance?

i willl prolly be able to get the letter from the bank okaying the transfer, i guess it just has to say that it's in my account or some ****.



This is a us requirement on every dollar that leaves the us over 10,000 costa rica doesnt care where it comes from

Tax dodgers may lose friend in PayPal

Court: IRS can ask company about clients with offshore accounts



Tuesday, April 11, 2006; Posted: 6:07 p.m. EDT (22:07 GMT)







WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service won approval from a federal court to ask PayPal to turn over information about people who might be evading taxes by hiding income in other countries, officials said Tuesday.



A federal court in San Jose, California, gave the IRS permission to ask PayPal Inc. -- a company that enables online money transfers -- for account information for American taxpayers who have bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards issued by financial institutions in more than 30 countries reputed to be tax havens.



PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires said the company just received the summons.



"We're still evaluating our options," she said. "The privacy of our customers' information is something we take really seriously."



PayPal enables individuals and businesses around the globe to send and receive money online. In 2005, users moved $27.5 billion through the money transmitter. The company, owned by eBay Inc., has 100 million account holders globally.



The request for information is an outgrowth of an IRS effort, begun several years ago, to trace money that American taxpayers hold offshore to avoid paying taxes. The IRS said many of those taxpayers access their money through credit and debit cards. The tax collectors have already obtained information from some credit card companies, merchants and payment processors.



"PayPal is another one of the mechanisms by which money stashed overseas might be spent," Eileen O'Connor, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department Tax Division, told reporters.



In some cases, the IRS obtained credit card numbers but could not identify the cardholder. The IRS said PayPal might be able to lead the tax agency to those individuals.



The IRS also hopes PayPal can help them identify currently unknown taxpayers' and their payment cards, as well as offshore bank accounts, that might be evidence of tax evasion.



The request covers transactions occurring from 1999 through 2004.



A 2003 amnesty program netted $170 million in taxes and penalties from income hidden offshore. More than 1,300 taxpayers avoided criminal prosecution by coming forward and revealing the person or company that marketed the offshore arrangement.

Well amy called wachovia and they said no problem, so headache solved w00t!

1,100 go pull out a 100,000 CD 6 months early. Rat bastards.