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Intercasa

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  1. Well if you have a cardiac emergency and go to a good hospital and get 3 stents and are there about 5 days which is a quick recovery the bill usually runs $1,000,000 pesos, if you need cardiac ablation and are there 2 days the bill runs $2,000,000 pesos.
  2. New Jalisco 2023 Law Regulating Real Estate Professionals Up until now there has been no government regulation of real estate professionals in Jalisco. It was simply a matter of printing a business card, hanging out a shingle and bam! you are in business. No licensing, no regulation and little to no recourse against bad agents and companies except time consuming and expensive criminal or civil legal actions. Today, on August 5, 2023 the State of Jalisco published a law to establish the State Registry of Providers of Real Estate Services (Registro Estatal de Prestadores de Servicios Inmobiliarios). The law will take effect in 200 days and the Regulations for said law must be issued within 180 days. Real estate professionals and agencies will have one year from now to start all applications and procedures necessary to be registered, with penalties and fees to be collected starting next year. Accredited Real Estate Agencies will have the following obligations: 1) To comply with and make their agents that are part of their company comply with the requirements and obligations established by the Law; 2) Inform the Secretary of all changes or modifications to the information contained in their accreditation, as well as and changes of agent employment. 3) To have in a visible place their proof of accreditation as well as those of their agents that work there. 4) To only use contracts of adhesion approved by PROFECO (the vast majority of the real estate companies and agents have been using illegal contracts for years that favor them and not the consumer). In order for real estate professionals to be accredited, they will need the following (abbreviated list here): 1) Proof of real estate classes authorized by the commission (foreigners better start brushing up on your Spanish!) 2) Prove that the contracts they use are legal and approved by PROFECO. 3) Agree to comply with the continuing educational requirements which are mandatory for renewal of their accreditation. 4) Pass a criminal record background check. 5) For foreigners be legally in the country with work permission authorized by Immigration. Accreditations will be valid for 3 years from the date of issuance. Price to be determined. A database will be created to check status and to see if there has been any disciplinary action taken. People falsely saying they are accredited are subject to fines of 50 to 150 UMAs and those who are working without the accreditation may be subject to criminal charges. Those working with an expired one, fail to post visibly their accreditation and registration or advertise in violation of the rules are subject to punishment. This is a good start but there are still things that need to be addressed such as ethic, ethics violations, agency and dual agency, and its disclosure and the existence of any fiduciary duty, if any, as well as any disclosures of conflicts of interest as well as teaching agents how to determine these circumstances and duties. Full original government publication of the law in Spanish here: https://apiperiodico.jalisco.gob.mx/api/newspaper/getAsset?q=newspaper/21021/newspaper230804092205.pdf By Lic. Spencer Richard Mc Mullen, litigating attorney and official state and federal court translator, who has postgraduate degrees in Contract Law, Condominium Law and Notarial law, among others and who has prepared, reviewed and translated hundreds of property deeds. Office Chapala 376-765-7553 / 376-765-6900 / US 805-683-4848 – Guadalajara 33-1592-3801 / 33-1592-3792 / USD 805-563-3300
  3. You usually need a password, many are selling fake constancias so use a QR code reader to see if your is real, its usually not instant to get it.
  4. We can help you with RFC and SAT stuff, been doing it for years.
  5. Its worth getting the RFC and digital signature, more stuff is going online and if you are able and healthy today you may not be in a year or two when you really need it. We are helping everybody get it done, have it down to a science, even bought signing tablets so for the password we can get it done in Chapala and your signature will match your ID.
  6. Yes it can be done, we need to get permission from the Mexican FDA and have that permission copy included in shipment and original handy for when it arrives, best to send by a courier service that sends to Guadalajara directly and not Mexico City that way we can help.
  7. Solar is getting cheap and 6 580w panels can run most homes and you have a break even point after 3-5 years for most people and also the benefit of no brown outs and being able to generously use the heat and A/C those very cold and hot days
  8. We can help make appointment and review documents, renewals 300 pesos not too much
  9. Supposed to be 9am but with COVID 10, call them as they will know more than someone here
  10. Ive used https://www.worldnomads.com/
  11. I break more people out of hospitals than jail. Hospitals cannot hold people hostage and it is a game we need to play to get people out but some abuse foreigners and others have been stiffed by foreigners. An easy way to avoid hassles is to get international travel health insurance. I buy it for the US if I go for a week, it is cheap like $40US and avoids problems.
  12. Get a foot long masonry bit and look into cat6 or cat7 too
  13. Used Movistar years back and it worked as it is part of a Spanish telecom company
  14. Air quality was good last year and this year more than normal due to many things being shut down but now with much opening up it will be back to business as usual
  15. Ask, office in Chapala in the plaza does not do certification if apostille or legalization is required. FGR formerly PGR does do federal in Guadalajara but only if there is a consulate request.
  16. People fake deeds and forge documents, they trick notaries and other notaries do not catch the mistakes, notaries who make mistakes never own up to it and you are forced to sue the people involved and need evidence.
  17. Keep all receipts, more likely to need them if someone tries to steal your property than exempt capital gains.
  18. Or you can get an account online and then download statements and keep on cloud, computer or email
  19. A good fire extinguisher will spray them with chemical powder and you can be a good distance off and in the end hit them with it if they want more
  20. Now generally this has only been for cars driving in Guadalajara but... it is complicated, the smog check needs to be done to drive in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area which includes many municipalities including Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos AND with the inauguration of the new smog check center in Ocotlan they are saying it is required in Chapala although their main web page does not list Chapala and they have not changed the law but may do so soon so beware!
  21. Foreigners duped by fake smog stickers risk jail time and car impounded Today I was able to save a lady from going to jail and having her car impounded. What was her crime? Not wanting to take her car to Guadalajara for a smog check and sticker. She entrusted someone locally in the Chapala area and the car never went to Guadalajara for the smog check. She was sold a fake sticker. Falsification of official documents is a crime punishable under the Jalisco state Penal Code by a 2-6 year prison sentence and impounding of the vehicle. The mere display of the sticker is a crime. How do you know if you have a fake sticker? If you did not have your car taken to Guadalajara then you probably have a fake sticker (the closest inspection stations to Chapala are in Guadalajara and Ocotlan). Also many fake stickers and paperwork have a date of July, 2021, the program started in August so it is impossible to have stickers with a July date on them. How can you verify if your sticker is fake? If you are not sure if your car was actually taken to Guadalajara for testing and you have a date of August or after, you can verify the payment receipt for the smog test and if still unsure and you still suspect, you can try to request a reprint online of the documents at: https://emisiones.jalisco.gob.mx:4443/tramites/#/reimpresion_distintivo If you do have a fake sticker then remove it immediately as right now there are no penalties for no sticker at this time but a fake one subjects you to arrest, jail and having your car impounded.
  22. I live in both, Chapala has little to do midweek after 7pm whereas in Guadalajara my only problem is choosing where to eat and lobster or steak or Japanese or fusion or Italian, etc. I can bike to my office 10 minute or 5 minute drive, little smog and live in a secure high rise. Chapala is great for working as all is close but for museums, malls, places to eat, lots of gyms to choose from, the city offers much more but to live in both is divine.
  23. Mexico Tax and Financial Reforms 2022, the good, the bad and the ugly… The economic reform packages have been made official and were published in the Federal Register (Diario Oficial de la Federacion) on November 12, 2021 with additions, deletions and modifications to the tax laws to take effect in 2022. Reduction of confiscatory tax withholding Mexico has always had a sort of ridiculous tax well actually a tax withholding on savings, it really amounted to robbery at its highest level in 2020 at 1.45%. The withholding is on the principal balance without regard to how much you actually earned! So if you had a savings account paying 0.5% interest you would lose almost 1%, kind of a disincentive to savings and the only way to get the money back would be to file a tax return which many low income people are not obligated to do and which can have costs that would not justify the benefit of getting part of the withholding back. The tax withholding for 2022 will lower to 0.08% down from 0.97% in 2021, now the modest income savers may actually see a few pesos in interest payments without having to file a tax return to get part of an exaggerated withholding back. This we can file under something positive… Implementation of a flat tax system….. Mexico has always played a cat and mouse game with taxpayers who have been very creative with their write-offs in attempts to avoid the draconian tax rates where the IVA (VAT or GST for some countries) sales tax on goods and services is 16% and where the income tax rate is 35% so essentially you are giving over half your income (51%) to the Mexican government. The simplest tax system to date was the REPECO which was morphed years back (2013) into the Regimen de Incorporación Fiscal which was introduced to invite taxpayers to become part of the formal tax paying system with a 10 year phase in period with a 100% tax forgiveness the first year then 90% the second year and so on. Also there were bimonthly tax filings and no annual returns simple enough to do without an accountant. Taxpayers who did not issue facturas and had low incomes would be exempted 100% of the IVA tax for future years. This simplified tax system had a limit of $2,000,000 of gross receipts and people with a professional license like doctors and attorneys or real estate agents were not able to use the system. The new tax reforms are abolishing the old Regimen de Incorporación Fiscal and creating a new system called Regimen Simplificado de Confianza (RESICO). This new system looks good as it will not exclude professionals and is for people that earn $3,500,000 pesos gross or less. The tax rates are from 1% up to $300,000 pesos, 1.1% up to $600,000 pesos and the highest tax rate is 2.5% for those earning 2,500,000 to $3,500,000. This is a flat tax on earnings with no deductions so for those with few deductions, they will pay less tax, the government will not need to audit as there are no deductions and can focus on larger earners who try to evade taxes. Assume that under present system you earn $1,500,000 pesos gross and write off $500,00 so net income of $1,000,000 you would have a combined tax rate of 30% so pay $300,000 pesos in taxes on the $1,000,000 net. Under the new system you would pay 1.5% on the $1,500,000 or $22,500 pesos, saving over $277,000 in taxes. This ignores IVA as most pay it anyways so no change. The only problem here is that this new tax structure assumes that everybody gives out facturas to people or entities but those under the present Regimen de Incorporación Fiscal will pay higher taxes as they have not fixed a loophole which will hurt the lowest income taxpayers as the new law has no provision for an exemption of the IVA sales tax, so you have people who were previously in Regimen de Incorporación Fiscal with a blended tax rate of 11% for the ISR or income tax but no IVA sales tax of 16% assuming $300,000 pesos of income. Under the new system their ISR income tax will go down to 1% but now they will pay the 16% IVA sales tax for a total tax of 17% instead of 11% and that also assumes that they were finished with the 10 year period where they received tax breaks. People in the first few years of the Regimen de Incorporación Fiscal will see huge tax hikes as they may be only paying an effective tax rate of 2-3% now but come next year will be paying 17-19%, a large hike for people who entered a program to help them. Now the government may find that with nobody writing anything off then nobody will ask for facturas as nobody will need them and that could cause some reduction in tax revenue. This new part is a sort of wobbler, good for many but also the lowest income will be hit hard unless they amend the law and exempt IVA for the lower earners who do not issue facturas to others who write it off. Professionals who already pay the IVA tax and who do not have large expenses or write offs will see a large tax savings under this program such as doctors, real estate agents, attorneys, accountants, architects, engineers, etc. New AGAPE regimen where farmers, fisherman, livestock ranchers and similar can earn up to $900,000 pesos a year tax free. This seems to be great, help those in the food supply chain. SAT mandatory tax ID number for all adults Now it is the law that all people over 18 must have a tax ID number. Ok, well they seem to ask for it when opening bank accounts, buying vehicles so seems like no big deal. With the pandemic it has been hard to get appointments at a SAT office and each year they make it harder to do things online. Up until about 2 weeks ago in November, 2021 we could go online and sign people up to have them issued an RFC number (tax ID number) and get them a password and then they wouldn´t have to worry about driving into Guadalajara to the SAT tax office well if there were any appointments available. Now all adults need an RFC number and there are no appointments and no ability to get the number online. There is already gridlock and reports of corruption with people paying $3,000 pesos or more to get an appointment at SAT, it is poor planning to eliminate the online system to assign a tax ID number with an already overburdened system. Minimum wage rise and consequences… The good news for the poorest people is that the minimum wage for 2022 will go up a whopping 22% to rise from 141.70 pesos to 172.87 pesos in 2022. The bad new will be for people moving to Mexico. Even though a federal decree has substituted the new UMA (Unidad de Medida y Actualización) for the old minimum wage (salario minimo), the consulates outside Mexico still insist on using the minimum wage index. With the 22% rise in the minimum wage that means a 22% rise in the qualifications to get a temporary visa. With today´s (December 1, 2021) exchange rate being 21.27 pesos to the US Dollar, to qualify for a temporary visa you will need monthly income of 300 times minimum wage or $51,861 pesos per month or $2,438US. This is a rise of about $440USD needed to qualify. If you want to qualify by having investments / savings / assets the amount is $5,000 times the minimum wage or $40,637US minimum balance over the past 12 months. This is a rise of about $7,327USD needed to qualify. The consulates outside Mexico are still not operating at full capacity and the online appointment system is broken more often than working, more people are being vaccinated and starting at looking to move to Mexico. Beg, borrow or rob or find a way to get a consular appointment this month (consulates do not take the 2-3 weeks vacation like office inside Mexico) if the increases will hurt your qualifications. Mexico is becoming a residence destination for the rich, just a few years back $2,500US was sufficient for permanent residency. When the immigration law came out in 2011 and implemented in 2012 they had set unreal and high standards for the temporary visa qualifications which they lowered in October 2014, hopefully they mandate the consulates use the UMA index or people will find another warm and inexpensive place to live or retire. Lic. Spencer Richard Mc Mullen is an attorney and official court translator with offices in Chapala and Guadalajara, Jalisco serving the entire country of Mexico and helping people abroad.
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