Chile Forum

"Time" and "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd are also instructive.

MarkF is alive and well.

oregon woodsmoke wrote:[[[.....difficult for me to understand why (US) people even pay (income) tax....]]]]

Because, even though I disapprove of some of the government spending, I actually like a lot of the things I get for my taxes.

Do you really get much for your tax money?

I love the National Parks, National Forest, BLM lands, National Grasslands, National Monuments.

BLM land is managed for private interests. National Park charge admission, etc.

I really like the space program.

Yes and Obama is doing away with it. Going from manned space flight to unmanned exploration and letting commercial interests handle everything else.

I like getting my cell phone, radio, TV, internet, by way of the extensive collection of communication satelites that the USA put into space and maintains-- which incidentily, the citizens of Chile and the rest of the world, are using for free.

Chile has paid for its satelites. Commercial satelites are just that, commercial, built, funded and put into orbit with private money.

I enjoy being able to cross the country on the Interstate hwy system. Ditto for Amtrak. I don't use it, but it carries a lot of goods, which is good for the economy.

Amtrak doesn't carry goods and it is heavily subsidized with tax dollars to the point of it being cheaper to buy every passenger an airplane ticket instead of running the trains.

I appreciate having a strong military.

Why exactly do you appreciate that?

I have no quarrel with the USDA's and FDA's attempts to keep contaminated and untested products out of the USA.

Hmm? Chinese drywall, Chinese pet food, etc, etc. They aren't very effective at doing that.....I think you'd be surprised just how much untested stuff is made right in the good old US of A.

The farm subsidies programs keep American agriculture from disappearing, making the USA totally dependent upon the rest of the world for food. It's bad enough being dependent for oil. Can you imagine if we didn't eat unless someone was willing to sell us food?

These same subsidies mean that products like high fructose corn syrup proliferates in food. You pay for those subsidies in three ways, your health care expenses, your taxes and in higher supermarket prices.

I can't complain about federal assistance to build expensive sewer treatment plants to keep the lakes and rivers clean.

Last I heard, sewer systems were developed by local governments and paid for with property taxes, not federal income tax.

I think that Customs inspections are useful and my only complaint about Border Patrol is that it needs to be beefed up.

It's useful to deny rights to people for a little security?

I appreciate that fishing limits are enforced strictly in US waters. The way the Japanese are killing everything within miles of their boats, the only fish left will be in territorial waters where the Japanese are forced to comply with fishing limits. Ditto for the Marine Mammals Protection Act.

That's because US politicians believe that every animal(and every person) belongs to the federal government.

Hey, I even like having the Smithsonian, the Washington Mall, the 4th of July fireworks, the Washington and Lincioln Monuments, and the Viet Nam Veterans Wall.

Maybe you should just keep to the US where your tax money is so well spent....all I will say is a little phrase that Greg and Judy taught, bread and circuses, bread and circuses.

....Still waiting for John Hyre.... or any other tax lawyers to weigh in.....

specifically on the ramifications of the 30% withholding

Hypothetically - Hank has 100K in the US. He gets residency in Chile and wants to buy a 100K house in a few months. What the %&^# does Hank do?

IRS Launches New Global Program to Target ‘High Wealth Individuals'
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63761

The Internal Revenue Service has launched a new global program to target what it calls “high wealth individuals,” IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Monday.
“Through our new global high wealth operating unit we are taking a unified look at the entire web of business and economic entities controlled by high wealth individuals so we can better assess the risk such arrangements pose to tax compliance,” Shulman said at the National Press Club on Monday.
Shulman said the IRS is using “our robust and evolving enforcement program that ensures that everyone pays what they owe.”
The IRS initiated its Global High Wealth Industry group in the fall. Schulman told an October 26 meeting of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants that it would be part of “the globalization of tax administration,” which he called a “game changing trend” in tax enforcement.

I think this has been discussed on allchile previously, but the

GAME CHANGING TREND

was too much not to quote it.

5 years for dual citizenship. Perhaps we can lobby the Chilean congress for some sort of economic/political refugee status for Americans living in Chile so they can get their citizenship faster.

Do you mean 5 years for permanent residency? Never even heard of dual citizenship offered. Except births abroad.