Monday, January 4, 2010

Why Mexico over traditional Florida?

Barnstable property tax bills will be mailed this month. Happy New Year. On average, it takes us about three minutes to transact our roughly $1,500 semi-annual property levy at the efficient and courteous Barnstable Town Hall collector’s cage, but it took us nearly two hours to pay a $1,697 real estate tax in Mexico two weeks ago. 

So which transaction is more satisfying?

Despite the long line snaking around the pay windows testing our patience outside the “Palacio Municipal,” or City Hall, in Playa del Carmen, we choose Mexico for a mostly pecuniary considerations. (Imagine our town hall being called a municipal palace? King Klimm? The Royal Council holding court for the unwashed masses?)

We prefer Mexico tax-wise because the levy, for 18 months, was $1,697 Mexican pesos (MN) for our 2-bed, 2-bath 1,039 sq. ft. condo a block from the beach, on the golf course, with a 90-foot lap pool outside the door. That amount, even at a declining exchange rate of 12.85 pesos per U.S. dollar, represents only $132 U.S. And that was for 18 months!

What I decipher from the paid bill sitting innocently next to my laptop is that our annual tax is $1,164 MN, or, $90.53 USD. I’ll guess the reason the line was so long around the McDonald’s-type outdoor walk-up collectors’ cages at the palace was that if you paid your real estate tax between Dec. 1 and 18, you got a 25 percent discount. Now there’s a fat-chance idea we’d like Barnstable’s councilors to consider.

Posted via web from Cancun Mexico News

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