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on new U.S. tax system By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The Bush Administration might be getting ready to change a system that taxes U.S. companies and individuals no matter where they earn money. "There are many reasons to believe that the principles that guided tax policy adequately in the past should be reconsidered in today's highly competitive, knowledge-driven economy," said the U.S. Treasury Department's international tax counsel. The counsel is Barbara Angus, and she was speaking Thursday before a U.S. congressional subcommittee. The existing complex system distorts investment decisions and often disadvantages U.S. companies in international competition, she said. Ms. Angus did not say so but the U.S. system has caused some large firms to reincorporate offshore, principally in the Bahamas, to avoid U.S. tax on earnings elsewhere in the world. Unlike Canadians, U.S. citizens and companies are taxed on all income earned in the United States and anywhere else in the world. The United States allows a limited foreign tax credit to offset part of taxation on the same income in foreign countries. Under the territorial tax system employed by other countries, residents and corporations pay taxes only on income earned domestically. Angus said that differences between the two systems could hurt a U.S.-based multinational corporation competing with a foreign-based multinational for sales in a foreign market. U.S. citizens living abroad have an annual increasing exemption from income earned abroad. That exemption is about $76,000 this year. But they are supposed to pay taxes on earned income above that amount and on any unearned income, like interest and rents. In addition to Canada, Germany, France, and the Netherlands do not tax their citizens’ foreign earnings. But Japan and the United Kingdom do, according to Ms. Angus. But the Treasury Department is just not going to just give up on collecting tax money. ". . . some consideration might be given to alternative tax bases other than income, said Ms. Angus. She pointed to other countries that typically use a value-added tax to raise nearly five times the amount of revenue as does the U.S. corporate income tax . Escazú man's skull
By the A. M. Costa Rica staff Robbers fractured the skull of an Escazú man, identified as Robert Semple, 72, according to investigators. Not much is known about the incident because the man is reported in delicate condition at San Juan de Dios Hospital, and agents have not been able to interview him. However, preliminary reports suggest that he was attacked by robbers when he arrived at his home sometime Tuesday. Agents of the Judicial Investigating Organization said that Semple was from Puerto Rica. Meanwhile, agents are seeking four men who stuck up a liquor store in La Puebla de San Pablo de Heredia about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The owner of the store, Eduardo Mejía Salas, 48, pulled his own gun and engaged the men in a shootout, investigators said. But Mejía took a bullet in the stomach and died a short time later. The bandits got 30,000 colons or about $84. In yet another murder, Juan Rafael Ruíz Solorzano, 34, died early Tuesday in La Tigra de Cuatro Bocas de Upala when he was involved in a fight with another man who had a knife. And in Linda Vista de Patarrá workers found the body of a woman that had been hidden in a water tank that was used for fumigation. The body had been there for several months, investigators said. |
Going There vs. Getting There Sunday morning is a favorite time of mine. I watch C-Span early in the morning and find out what Americans living in the States think. Later, there are some more interesting programs that I can watch while I do my ironing. American writers are being featured, and this week it has been Jack Kerouac, most famous of the Beat Generation writers. People were calling in to tell of their experiences involving Kerouac or other "Beat" writers of the time. I was tempted to call and tell them of my own experience. I was living in Los Angeles in a large old house with my husband and daughter. We shared the house with my brother-in-law (who owned it), and two writer friends. The three of them were publishing "Coastlines", an avant-garde "little magazine." Meetings of interesting people were always happening. This particular evening a group of about 25 people had gathered downstairs in the living room, sitting on the floor and passing a jug of red wine. We were upstairs in our bedroom. A skinny young poet in blue jeans began to read his poem, and I wanted to hear it, so I went down and sat on the stairs where I couldn’t see but I could hear. I was absolutely blown away by his new poem which was entitled "Howl," and I ran upstairs to tell my husband to come listen because Allen Ginsberg had to be the Walt Whitman of our day. When he finished his reading, someone acused Ginsberg of not being "sincere." He replied, "I’ll show you I’m sincere." And then proceeded to take off his clothes until, I suppose, he was naked before them. During this performance, most of the women ran out of the living room, and there was general mayhem. I went back upstairs wondering what the world was coming to. It was 1956. Kerouac’s "On the Road" is classified as a "road’ book (no surprise there). Road books are different from travel or guide books in that they are more about the trip than they are about the destination. They include vignettes of the people one meets on the journey and observations of the customs, culture and idiosyncracies of the people in the different stops along the way. (A.M. Costa Rica’s Patricia Martin manages to combine some of both in her articles). Travelers have been writing road books since the Greek geographer Strabo. In the 14th century, Ibn Battutah wrote about his travels in Africa, Asia Minor, the Maldives and India. His observations have been an important source for historians writing about the social and cultural life of those places. Its wonderful title "The Gift of the Beholders on the Peculiarities of the Regions and the Marvels of Journeys." Sort of says it all. There seem to be two kinds of people in the world. Those who enjoy the journey and those who want to "get to" wherever they have decided to go. (Although I fall into the first category, some of my best friends are the destination types.) With today’s air travel in the States, it is understandable that people are just anxious to "get there." — especially if their destination is Costa Rica. It is really a pity that train and ship travel has become so limited. One of my favorite memories when I first visited Costa Rica was the train trip from San Jose to Limon. We didn’t go all the way to Limon. I can’t even remember whether we got off in Guapiles or went all the way to Siquirres because we rushed to get the last bus back to San José. Whatever our destination, it was the ride that I remember. Even the ride on the packed bus back to San José was memorable for the people on it. The train took us through countrysides and mountains, over rivers and parts of the country where there are not even backroads. As we all know (and often forget) it is, after all, the journey in life not the destination that is important. It is the people we meet "on the road" and the experiences we have that make up the stories of our lives. More Jo Stuart HERE! |
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