BajaNomad

First FEMALE, CLIMATE SCIENTIST president

mtgoat666 - 6-3-2024 at 05:58 AM

Lady is in charge! Scientist is in charge! :bounce::thumbup:

chippy - 6-3-2024 at 06:58 AM

No Goat, unfortunately the "narcos" are still in charge. :light:

oxxo - 6-3-2024 at 07:22 AM

Quote: Originally posted by chippy  
No Goat, unfortunately the "narcos" are still in charge. :light:


Who knows, maybe the narcos believe in global warming :light: It is rumored that the chief "architect" of the Sinaloa cartel in Los Cabos is driving a Tesla model S :light: Afterall, they do need to protect their thriving business interests, supported by the demand north of the border :light: Maybe it just makes economic sense to them :light: ALL options are open at this point, until the options aren't open :light:

Tioloco - 6-3-2024 at 07:38 AM

The narcos are definitely in control.
34 political candidates assassinated this election cycle.
That is a staggering number.
And it looks like there will be a continuation of "Hugs not Bullets"

surabi - 6-3-2024 at 08:37 AM

She has garnered praise for her approach to and reduction of crime as mayor of Mexico City. Remains to be seen if she can come up with an effective approach to cartel violence. Pretty hard to turn around such an entrenched situation, though.

And no, her approach was not "hugs not bullets".

"Mexico City's homicide rate fell 50% between December 2018, when Sheinbaum was inaugurated as mayor, and June 2023, when she stepped aside to begin her presidential campaign, a drop she attributes to effective security policies that improved police work and coordination with prosecutors."

Tioloco - 6-3-2024 at 08:58 AM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi  


And no, her approach was not "hugs not bullets".



She is supposed to be AMLO's protege. He has literally said "Hugs not Bullets" is his strategy toward the cartels.

I hope she starts dealing with the narco violence head on or there wont be anything to save for future generations of Mexicans. The death grip that the cartel has been allowed to achieve is killing Mexico.

thebajarunner - 6-3-2024 at 09:37 AM

"The more things change
The more they remain the same"


Cartels win again

surabi - 6-3-2024 at 09:40 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Tioloco  


She is supposed to be AMLO's protege. He has literally said "Hugs not Bullets" is his strategy toward the cartels.



I am well aware of that.

That doesn't mean she will have the same approach. She completely bucked Obrador's lackadaisical and idiotic approach (he actually said his talismans would protect him from Covid) to the Covid pandemic, increasing testing and vaccination sites and mandating mask wearing in Mexico City.

Just because someone is a protege of another doesn't mean they agree with or will follow all of their mentor's policies.

BeachSeeker - 6-3-2024 at 10:32 AM

Sheinbaum and the Morena party was who the cartels wanted to be elected. She will follow in AMLO's footsteps. Mexico's corruption, unfortunately, will remain status quo.

surabi - 6-3-2024 at 11:19 AM

The woman just got elected and all you folks already know exactly how she will govern, even though she has not announced anything concrete yet as to how she plans to deal with cartel violence.
Guess you all have magical powers of prognostication and aren't willing to give her the chance anyone deserves.

[Edited on 6-3-2024 by surabi]

oxxo - 6-3-2024 at 11:24 AM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi  
The woman just got elected and all you folks already know exactly how she will govern, even though she has not announced anything concrete yet as to how she plans to deal with cartel violence.
Guess you all have magical powers of prognostication and aren't willing to give her the chance anyone deserves.

[Edited on 6-3-2024 by surabi]


:thumbup:

RFClark - 6-3-2024 at 06:00 PM

The question should be if the President of Mexico goes head to head with the endemic corruption in Mexico’s Federal and State Governments how bad will that be for the President’s “Health”?

Gender will not be an issue as no quarter will be offered if the intrenched interest’s “rice bowl” is threatened. Based on past performance it seems likely that no quarter will be asked either!

That said think 1994 and Luis Donaldo Colosio here!

Lee - 6-4-2024 at 10:08 AM

Quote: Originally posted by RFClark  
The question should be if the President of Mexico goes head to head with the endemic corruption in Mexico’s Federal and State Governments how bad will that be for the President’s “Health”?


Bad boys love hugs. Nothing is going to change. Wonder if family has gone underground?

RFClark - 6-4-2024 at 10:12 AM

From your mouth to God’s ear!

pacificobob - 6-4-2024 at 02:27 PM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  
Lady is in charge! Scientist is in charge! :bounce::thumbup:



A nobel laureate to boot.

SFandH - 6-4-2024 at 04:12 PM

Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob  
Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  
Lady is in charge! Scientist is in charge! :bounce::thumbup:



A nobel laureate to boot.


And a Jew in a heavily Catholic country.

A Mexican president named Sheinbaum. Who woulda thought?

She takes office October 1st.

Good luck Claudia!!


stillnbaja - 6-4-2024 at 04:21 PM

Quote: Originally posted by SFandH  
Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob  
Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  
Lady is in charge! Scientist is in charge! :bounce::thumbup:



A nobel laureate to boot.


And a Jew in a heavily Catholic country.

A Mexican president named Sheinbaum. Who woulda thought?

She takes office October 1st.

Good luck Claudia!!




"this is Ahchoo"

"a jew? here?

"no no, not a jew. Ahchoo"

SFandH - 6-4-2024 at 04:24 PM

gesundheit

cupcake - 6-4-2024 at 05:07 PM

This might only be a knee-jerk reaction, time will tell.

Mexican peso, stocks tumble on fears of ruling coalition super-majority in Congress
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/mexican-peso-stocks-...

Tioloco - 6-4-2024 at 07:50 PM

Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob  
Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  
Lady is in charge! Scientist is in charge! :bounce::thumbup:



A nobel laureate to boot.


Such a meaningful title now... not political at all.. ;)

BeachSeeker - 6-5-2024 at 11:22 AM

Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob  

A nobel laureate to boot.


Sheinbaum is not a Nobel Laureate. The IPCC is a Nobel Laureate. Sheinbaum was one of thousands of contributing scientists from around the world working with the IPCC.

surabi - 6-5-2024 at 03:34 PM

Nevertheless, she has a PhD in energy engineering. She is far more educated than most world leaders.

surabi - 6-5-2024 at 04:46 PM

There are lots of people with PhDs. But very few world leaders.
And if you knew anything about her, you would know she was brought up in a secular household, as was I.
Someone's ethnicity, race, or gender is irrelevant to their suitability as a politician, aside from it being encouraging when traditional biases don't play a part in who gets elected.

You have zero idea how I feel, you don't know me. I'm not the one who got elected, and there is no reason for me to feel "proud". I'm not responsible for her accomplishments, she is.

[Edited on 6-5-2024 by surabi]

surabi - 6-11-2024 at 10:37 AM

And of course, the anti-semites rear their ugly heads.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/06/11/cla...

RFClark - 6-18-2024 at 07:36 AM

There are polls and opinions, but the thing that affects people the most is what is their money worth today?

That “poll” has $18.46 Pesos to the dollar today! Up from the mid $16s before the election!

JDCanuck - 6-18-2024 at 07:53 AM

Imagine what 20 pesos to the dollar looked like before the minimum wage was boosted by over 100% to those that worked for that rate or close to it. No wonder the masses of poor people like this party.
The biggest issue our Mexican friends have is the explosive cost of real estate, and that's not anything the government has much control over as its driven primarily by wealthy immigrants being willing to pay ever increasing prices.
They could, I suppose, put higher real estate purchase taxes on foreigners to slow it down as we have in Canada, but it really seems to have little effect.

[Edited on 6-18-2024 by JDCanuck]

oxxo - 6-18-2024 at 08:21 AM

Quote: Originally posted by RFClark  
There are polls and opinions, but the thing that affects people the most is what is their money worth today?


So much of the Mexican economy is driven by Mexican's preference for American goods (and probably not in their best interest). There was an article recently in the Gringo Gazette about the "gentrification" of Mexican culture by primarily residents from the US and Canada. The conclusion of the G.G. was, "Gringos come here and spend a lot of money and then go back home right away." But I do think that to some extent, the influx of foreign currency into the Baja economy, in particular, has given Mexican's an opportunity to live and have a more 1st world, gringo experience that some Mexicans seem to prefer.

It is a complicated issue and I have oversimplified it's meaning to the Mexican people. But from my personal experience, Mexico (Baja) is no longer as "Mexican" as it was 30-40-60 years ago. I liked it better back then. !Que lastima!

JDCanuck - 6-18-2024 at 09:04 AM

No doubt a huge amount of money is added to the Mexican economy by foreigners either visiting or building there. I estimate over 20% of our building costs eventually went to the Mexican Government, once you included the 35% capital gains they unfairly applied on a property we actually sold at a loss. How much of that actually goes into infrastructure to build up the country is dependent on the corruption levels in the bureaucracy.

Also in that magazine was an article decrying the extra costs to the businesses because they were forced to pay higher labor costs. I really didn't see many hotels that were suffering and they passed on the additional labor costs with many multiples to the new vacationers. The same could be said for the building contractors, in my experience

JDCanuck - 6-18-2024 at 09:20 AM

Here is a (I hope) fairly unbiased account of Ms Sheinbaum's history in politics. There is a lot of hopeful feeling out there based on the locals I talk to, for several reasons, some of which are displayed in this history. I think the most encouraging sign is the results of her influence on violent crime in Mexico City:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Sheinbaum

[Edited on 6-18-2024 by JDCanuck]

surabi - 6-18-2024 at 09:56 AM

Mexicans wanting a more upscale lifestyle isn't just influenced by seeing how gringoes live. We live in the age of global media- Mexicans and those from other developing nations can easily see what others have and how they live, all around the world.

It has always been the case, everywhere, that most people aspire to to have more, live more comfortably, etc. It's human nature.

As far as the high cost of real estate driven by foreigners willing to pay increasing prices- no one is forcing Mexicans to sell their land to foreigners. I have watched large pieces of land in my area, that belonged to locals, that had been in their family for generations, subdivided and sold off as lots. That's their choice- I don't think you can blame it all on foreigners being willing to pay inflated prices.

It happens all over the world- locals see there's money to be made in selling their land, and real estate becomes more valuable, and rents get higher, pricing locals out of the market.

[Edited on 6-18-2024 by surabi]

[Edited on 6-18-2024 by surabi]

RFClark - 6-18-2024 at 01:29 PM

lencho,

The capital gains on property sales are calculated on the sale price minus the cost. If you buy a property and improve it you need factoras to establish the cost of the improvements made. The Hacienda can also require an appraisal of the value of the property. If you sell below the “appraised value” you pay capital gains on the difference.

Which Notary you use when you sell makes a big difference in how much you can keep.

JDCanuck - 6-18-2024 at 02:04 PM

Lencho:

In our case, the facturas generated were properly listing our residence as what the RFC agents had stated it was along with our tax numbers (a descriptive address, and my wife was stated as living 8km from me). When we did notice this on the facturas we received they flatly refused to change the address to the Fideicomiso address. The property address on the fideicomiso, being rural with no street and no fixed address had a long fixed address that the RFC agents refused to use when we received our immigration. So the government then decides they were two different places and we owed capital gains taxes on any expenses that did not use the fideicomiso address. Amounted to about 20 percent of our building costs not claimable as part of our final costs to build, but we had paid the IVA 16% tax on all those costs, so we ended up owing a total of 51% taxes on 20% of the building costs that were not initially claimable.

But wait...there's more. Now you hire a tax adjustment lawyer who makes those previously unusable facturas usable, or at least most of them and for this you pay them a fee, reducing the total gains taxes you would have paid by 2/3 including the fee to the lawyer.

Of course any small contractors you hired that refused to give you a factura and demanded cash payments only so they would not be required to pay their taxes are not claimable, and you know this up front. This is far more common than we would have liked, but at least the work got done.

[Edited on 6-18-2024 by JDCanuck]

oxxo - 6-18-2024 at 06:33 PM

Quote: Originally posted by JDCanuck  
I estimate over 20% of our building costs eventually went to the Mexican Government, once you included the 35% capital gains they unfairly applied on a property we actually sold at a loss.


The reason how that happens is a actuarial calculation. Gringos like me think in the value of a property in US or Canadian Dollars - what you purchased for in dollars and what you sold it for in dollars minus expenses. When I purchased my humble abode twenty years ago, the peso was 10 : 1 to the dollar. My Fideicomiso clearly states what I paid in PESOS even though I think in dollars. Today, a few months ago, the peso was 20 : 1 to the dollar. That means the PESO has doubled value, 100%, compared to 20 years ago, compared to the US dollar. So that means my condo DOUBLED in value in PESOS if I sold it for exactly the same price I purchased it for 20 years ago in dollars. If i sell my place for less than double the price in dollars, I would be "upside down" in the house in terms of dollars even though there might be a 50% gain in terms of the peso value. And even though I might sell at a loss in the dollar conversion, I would still owe 35% Capital Gains tax on the gain in PESOS from when I purchased it!

I talked to a Mexican national tax attorney about this very subject a month ago in Los Cabos. I wanted information about getting dual citizenship so as a Mexican National, I would be exempt from the Mexican Capital Gain tax of 35% of the gain. She said, "No Way, Jose", Mexican nationals have to pay the same Capital Gain rate as non-nationals!!! She said there are local tax attorneys in the Los Cabos area who specialize in reducing the Capital Gain with some "creative" tax accounting. HOWEVER, she strongly recommended that I NOT reduce my gain to nothing, because that would call unwanted attention from the taxing authority and would cause me all kinds of problems including a possible criminal indictment. She recommended that I might be able to reduce my gain to 5% - 10% through "accounting" and pay 35% Tax on that, to keep everyone happy, including those in government who were pocketing the money. Everyone should do their own "due diligence" on this issue and NOT take my experience as the gospel.

I plan on starting a new thread on my experience with getting dual citizenship, when I get the time.

JDCanuck - 6-18-2024 at 06:54 PM

I think you misread my post. It had nothing to do with the CAD/MXN exchanges. All the facturas were in pesos. Our contractor had initially stated he would combine all the construction costs whether we paid them on his behalf or he did directly. He did not so when they calculated the final assessed value of the property all those costs he had me pay directly were not included when he filed it (the manifestation) with the municipality. Consequently our house was valued at over 1.3 million pesos less than our cost to build at that point, and we had other expenses to improvements after he had finished. The facturas issued from third parties were not acceptable because they were either the wrong legal address as per the taxing authority, or in quite a few cases, our name was misspelled on the factura. The very few that matched were acceptable. This is where the false capital gains on our sale came in.

In other countries, you just keep receipts to build, have an accountant total them and that becomes your cost basis. If you sell after legal and realtor costs for the sale and still make a profit, you have a capital gain. Very simple...in Mexico not so simple

To sum up...whatever is on your Fideicomiso is the overriding address and name spelling. Any factura that does not match is useless. If the SAT assigns you an address that differs from that on your Fideicomiso (Even if you give them your Fideicomiso as a reference as we did) when you receive your tax number you will have problems. We had 90% of our facturas issued with some error...either in address or in spelling of our name, and if we caught them early enough they generally corrected them to match the Fideicomiso. This is all part of the multilevel bureaucracy that exists in Mexico. If you purchase an existing property this would not be an issue, but do check the spelling of your names and all other info is correct because if not it will come back to bite you.

[Edited on 6-19-2024 by JDCanuck]

surabi - 6-18-2024 at 07:06 PM

If you are a Mexican resident, and the property you are selling is your primary residence, there is a one time, flat rate exemption for capital gains, currently approx. $315,000 US (calculated on the Mexican UDI and of course currency exchange) There are a few other qualifications to claim this exemption, like the area of the property not exceeding 3 times the area of the construction, and there are also many things which can be deducted from the profit.

It's worthwhile for sellers to inform themselves about all of this, rather than simply trust that the notary is getting you all possible deductions and the exemption, if you qualify for it.

oxxo - 6-18-2024 at 07:28 PM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi  
If you are a Mexican resident, and the property you are selling is your primary residence, there is a one time, flat rate exemption for capital gains, currently approx. $315,000 US (calculated on the Mexican UDI and of course currency exchange)


Interesting! I told the Mexican attorney that I had a Residente Permanente visa for over 10 years and showed her proof. She said there was no exemption for a primary residence in Mexico and she wouldn't be eligible for one either. Maybe I misunderstood.

I guess it all depends on who you talk to.

surabi - 6-18-2024 at 07:45 PM

Attorneys don't handle real estate sales in Mexico, notaries do. The lawyer is misinformed. There is definitely a primary residence exemption. Research this online- there is plenty of info on this. And I'd ditch that lawyer.