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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday,
Aug. 27, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 169
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IRS expands
overseas amnesty programs
By
Randall J. Lindner*
Special to A.M. Costa Rica Many U.S. Citizens who move abroad remain ignorant of their U.S. tax obligations for many years after moving. For those unaware, U.S. citizens are taxed on their worldwide income, no matter where they live when they earn the income. While there are U.S. tax benefits to living abroad, such as the foreign earned income exclusion, there are also some additional filing obligations that may apply to U.S. citizens living abroad. If U.S. citizens have more than $10,000.00 in bank accounts located outside of the United States, they must report these accounts to the government. If U.S. citizens own more than 10 percent of an overseas corporation, they may have to report this to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as well. U.S. citizens must also disclose certain trust activities, and their ownership in certain foreign financial assets. These disclosures apply to U.S. citizens no matter where they live, but are more common among Americans living abroad. The penalty for failing to file the bank account or corporate disclosures or for filing them late can become astronomical. In one case, a Floridian had $1.6 million in overseas accounts that he failed to disclose. The IRS penalized him for more than $2 million. This was a noteworthy case because the IRS doesn't usually come down quite this hard, but fines can still reach tens of thousands of dollars regularly. Referral to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution is also a possibility. Many U.S. citizens residing abroad only realize they need to file these forms many years after the deadlines have passed. The IRS has had programs in place for the last few years to encourage taxpayers to file their disclosure forms, but these programs have often been restrictive and punitive. On July 1, 2014, the IRS updated its two main programs, offering a new way forward for taxpayers with delinquent forms. The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program and its sister program, Streamlined Filing Compliance were both updated. While there are many details to both programs, the main points are this. The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) is for individuals who believe they are at serious risk of criminal prosecution. A person entering the OVDP must pay all penalties, but in return receives amnesty from a potential criminal prosecution. Streamlined Filing Compliance is for the less serious cases. The person using the Streamlined procedures receives no guarantees but is not expected to pay any penalties. Until the new updates, the Streamlined Filing Compliance was much more restrictive. It only applied to Americans living abroad for several years, who owed less than $1,500 in tax, and who had not filed any tax returns for several years. The new updates lift these restrictions and open the program to anyone who fails to make disclosures due to "non-willful" conduct. What does non-willful mean? According to the IRS, non-willful is "conduct that is due to negligence, inadvertence, or mistake or conduct that is the result of a good faith misunderstanding of the requirements of the law." This describes many if not most overseas Americans who fail to make information disclosures. To take part in the Streamlined Filing Compliance program, the taxpayer is asked to file three years worth of tax returns and six years worth of bank account reports. The taxpayer is also asked to sign a certification that the failure to file was non-willful. The catch here is that if the IRS decides the conduct was, in fact, willful, then the IRS will not accept the submission through the streamlined procedures and may refer the case for penalties or prosecution. If the failure to disclose was in fact willful, the OVDP is a safer program. More information regarding these programs is available at the IRS website. As always, contact a professional if you need help with tax compliance. *Randall J. Lindner is a principal in U.S. Tax International. Police report daily average of four arrests By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Police in central San José have arrested nearly 700 people from January to July, according to statistics from Fuerza Pública's intelligence department. This represents a rate of nearly four arrests per day. Of those detentions, 367 were captured on the scene while 318 apprehensions were from judicial orders. Juan Carlos Arias, regional director for Fuerza Pública in San José, said it's difficult to oversee the population of more than 1 million that occupy and pass through the capital daily. Arias said police have begun to put more units in places where criminal incidents seem to be more common. “Being positioned in key zones and carrying out frequent operations in the capital has increased the number of arrest warrant orders and arrest of crimes in the act,” Arias said. Our reader's opinion
He's suspicious of some organic productsDear A.M. Costa Rica: The article Monday referring to the new feria verde at CEMACO said that all products will be organic. I believe that will prove incorrect. All existing feria verdes and organic markets only sell dairy products that are not organic. All livestock producers in Costa Rica buy commercial feed concentrate that primarily contains genetically modified corn and soy, which would prevent the products from being called organic. Additionally, the existing outlets for organic food permit dairy animals to receive pharmaceutical injections that would warrant the milk being taken off the market for at least a month in the U.S. I haven't done quite as much research on the "alternative" egg and meat operations in Costa Rica, but I suspect that you will find most egg producers selling at the existing organic venues, are feeding their chickens genetically modified corn and probably using antibiotics whenever necessary. I have lived in Costa Rica for almost eight years and have yet to find a credible organic livestock operation here, and in the case of the goat milk in particular, the goat milk at the supermarkets is cleaner than that sold at ferias verdes and other green outlets. I have found that many of the claimed organic fruit and vegetable producers in Costa Rica are legitimate however. Albert
Lusk
San Isidro, Heredia
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 169 | |
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 Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo photos
This corn patch is on
former mangrove land, as is this shack, the Tribunal said. |
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| Invasions of mangroves mainly are to create agricultural land |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's environmental police are cracking down hard on invasions of the Puntarenas mangrove protected areas, and this time those facing charges are not foreign developers. All the cases opened by the Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo appear to involve farmers who have moved into the mangroves, destroyed the plants there and put in crops. Of particular concern, said the Tribunal in a statement Tuesday, is what is called Parcel 19. This is about 100 hectares in which the director of Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación has been ordered to immediately destroy the crops that are growing there. The area is about 247 acres. The area is in Pitahaya de Puntarenas, near the mouth of the Río Aranjuez. In all, the Tribunal said it has 28 open cases involving invasion of the mangrove. The Área Silvestre Protegida de Manglar de Puntarenas contains some 5,173 hectares with about 3,678 hectares in mangroves. The |
Tribunal
points out that about 95 percent of the creatures in the Gulf of Nicoya
depend
on mangroves for one reason or another. Many fish species spend
their youth hiding for protection in the submerged roots of plants in
the mangroves. The Tribunal estimates that about 400 hectares have been lost to invasion, mostly by farmers. However, there are some squatters, too. The Tribunal has given the Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación a month to take action to recover the mangroves. Photos released by the Tribunal show corn and other crops growing in what once was mangrove. There also is sugar cane, injuries by heavy machinery and burning. Cases of landowners who have invaded the mangroves will be presented to prosecutors, said José Lino Chaves, president of the Tribunal Ambiental. The bulk of the area where the mangroves have been invaded are along the Ríos Naranjo, Aranjuez, Ciruelas and Seco, the Tribunal said. Mangroves are considered to be national heritage the same way that national parks and reserves are. The Tribunal has been documenting the devastation for the last four years. |
| Firefighters will host new regional center for urban search
and rescue |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Central American countries will gather in Costa Rica Monday for the inauguration of the Central American Academy of Urban Search and Rescue. Geared towards disaster situations in cities and towns, the center will allow authorities from across Central America to prepare and train their search and rescue teams. The headquarters is located inside the Academia de Bomberos de Costa Rica in Desamparados, which has up to 40 rooms available for the rescue workers. There is also a special area where rescuers can simulate situations in which buildings collapse. For rescue organizations across the region, including police and Red Cross outfits, this Costa Rican center should help quicken first response |
times and provide
for higher quality training in rescue teams. A release from the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias said the new academy should immediately boost infrastructure capabilities and allow forces to reach the level of response training outlined by the United Nations' International Search and Rescue Advisory Group. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation contributed $1.3 million to help build the academy, while the Costa Rican government pitched in with $2 million more on the project. Chief sponsorship comes from the Centro de Coordinación para la Prevención de los Desastres Naturales en América Central, which was established in 1988 as a means of having Central American nations join together on natural disaster prevention, response, and mitigation. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 169 | |||||
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| Solís acts to provide funds for creation of works
related to traditions |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Luis Guillermo Solís, along with Elizabeth Fonseca, the culture minister, signed a regulation that aims to develop projects that directly promote artistic creation and learning in local communities through government funding. Called the Fondo de Becas Taller, the "workshop scholarship fund," the financing plan proposes to stimulate the creation of works that tie in with local heritages and stories passed down from generations. “Thanks to the workshop scholarship fund the knowledge our grandfathers and grandmothers had, like traditional cuisine, artisan techniques of yesteryear, and demonstrations so appreciated like masquerades, can now be available for younger generations,” Solís said. “This knowledge not only tells us where we come from, but it's also a starting point for the innovation and reconstruction of our cultural identities that so define us.” A release from the culture ministry lists performers, promoters, researchers, and managers as different types of persons available for the scholarship. The culture minister said these artists provide a great role in boosting community pride throughout the country with their works. “Through this fund people and organizations can finance projects for the safeguarding of many of the customs and expressions that make |
up our cultural
heritage,” Ms. Fonseca said. A culture ministry report further outlined that, in the age of globalization, a connection to a country's roots and history is crucial when creating a personal identity for oneself or one's community. The scholarship fund currently has a budget of 64 million colons, or some $118,000, which will be raised to 100 million colons by 2015 as a result of the regulation revision. Those people and organizations who are interested in applying for the scholarship must meet certain requirements. First, they must define themselves in an artistic classification, such as visual arts, literature, or music. Second, they must make sure their project focus on values that reflect local traditions or stories. Also, all works under the scholarship must follow methods of training, production, cultural management, and research. The regulation says, “To receive funding, presented projects must foster socio-cultural diversity and plurality of identities; be technically viable and done within an established period that produces concrete and verifiable results; provide some mechanism that benefits the population involved; builds awareness, participation and community commitment to ensure its sustainability, and strengthens those actors who stand out in carrying on ideals of cultural heritage.” September is the next submission deadline for applications. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 169 | |||||||
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| American dies fighting in Syria, White House says By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A White House spokeswoman has confirmed the death of an American man believed to be fighting alongside militants in Syria. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement Tuesday that officials had been aware of Douglas McCain's presence in Syria. U.S. officials believe there are dozens of Americans fighting with militants in Syria and Iraq. Ms. Hayden said the government is continuing efforts to "disrupt and dissuade individuals from traveling abroad for violent jihad." An uncle told CNN the 33-year-old McCain converted from Christianity to Islam several years ago. Tuesday, the White House said there were no plans to coordinate with Syria to fight Islamic State militants. Spokesman John Earnest said the United States does not recognize the regime of President Bashar al-Assad as the leader of Syria and has no plans to change that policy. Reports say the Pentagon already has started surveillance flights over Syria to track the movements of the Islamic State, ahead of possible air strikes on the militants. President Barack Obama authorized the flights Monday, but U.S. officials have declined to say whether they have begun. An American writer released this week from two years in the captivity of insurgents in Syria is doing well and is excited to be free, his mother said on Tuesday. Peter Theo Curtis, 45, went missing in 2012 and was held by Nusra Front, al-Qaida's official wing in Syria, whose rivals, the militant group Islamic State, last week killed journalist James Foley. Curtis was released Sunday. “He was so excited,” his mother, Nancy Curtis, told ABC News in an interview taped on Monday. The two spoke briefly after his release, she said, adding that Curtis was staying in a hotel and even having a beer before heading home. Curtis arrived in the United States late Tuesday, U.S. media reported. He landed in Newark on a flight from Tel Aviv and then flew on to Boston, where he was greeted by his mother, The New York Times reported, citing a family statement. After hearing from her son, Ms. Curtis said she immediately wrote to Foley's mother, Diane. Last week, Islamic State released a video showing his beheading and threatening to kill another American journalist being held hostage, Steven Sotloff. “We've been through so much together, and I didn't want her to hear it from the media first,” Ms. Curtis said of her son's release, speaking from Cambridge, Massachusetts, on ABC's “Good Morning America” program. About a month ago, Curtis said the FBI had received a frightening video of her son pleading for his life and saying he had just three days left to live. She has not watched the video, she added. Curtis' father, Michael Padnos, said the search for his son was like “hunting for bats in a dark, black cave” because he could not communicate with him, according to CBS News. “It felt as if there was a huge weight lifted from my shoulders,” he said of his son's release, speaking from France in an interview that aired on “CBS This Morning.” The comments come against the backdrop of efforts to free other U.S. hostages in Syria. On Monday, sources familiar with the matter said Qatar, whose diplomacy helped free Curtis, is working to help free four other Americans held hostage in Syria by various armed groups. Preparation can saves lives in earthquakes, expert says By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake in northern California’s Napa Valley Sunday was the wine country’s most severe quake in 15 years, and while hospitals treated many people, no one was killed. “The magnitude of the earthquake reflects how much of the earth’s crust ruptured. It’s really an expression of the total energy that’s released when a part of the earth’s crust breaks apart," said David Applegate. Applegate is associate director for natural hazards at the U.S. Geological Survey. “We are fortunate that we didn’t see a lot of impacts to water infrastructure… A lot of the losses in earthquakes are from fires often because water mains have been broken, and there’s no way to fight them," he said. Applegate says the timing of the event may have saved a lot of lives. “It happened in the middle of the night. We saw a lot of cases where old brick buildings collapsed onto sidewalks. Those sidewalks were empty," he said. A stroke of good luck, because Applegate says earthquakes are a bit of a surprise. “Short-term prediction is not feasible, but what we do know is where large earthquakes occur," said Applegate. Which means that scientists can predict percentage likelihood that a major quake will hit a given area over the next few decades. When one begins, though, scientists can warn those in its path. “Once an earthquake starts in one place, we can actually get the characteristics of the event and get an alert out ahead of the strong shaking," he said. Applegate says the warning is not too far ahead of the quake, but 10 or 20 seconds may be enough to save lives. “Certainly you can get underneath a sturdy piece of furniture. Drop, cover and hold on," he said. Like anything, he says it’s a good idea to have a plan that includes fresh water and how to find loved ones after the disaster. “Your quality of life after the event is really dependent on what you’ve done to plan before the event," said Applegate. While the people of northern California may have dodged a bullet in what could have been a far more damaging quake... others have cause for celebration, too. It seems that Napa Valley will continue exporting barrels of wine as normal. That’s likely part of the survival plan, too. Hurricane Cristobal moves north along U.S. East Coast By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A tropical storm watch is posted for Bermuda as Hurricane Cristobal moves north after killing at least four people in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Turks and Caicos islands. Forecasters predict Cristobal, a Category One storm with winds of 130 kilometers per hour, will move between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast today, bringing heavy rain and high winds to the popular tourist island. The storm is not expected to threaten the United States, but could cause deadly surf and rip currents from Florida to North Carolina. Obama tells American Legion he will do right for veterans By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama is vowing to do right by the nation's military veterans, calling misconduct uncovered within the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department outrageous and inexcusable. President Obama spoke Tuesday to the American Legion veterans' organization. Former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned in May after reports surfaced of veterans having to wait as long as 90 days to see a doctor. Some vets reportedly died waiting. A number of VA officials were accused of altering paperwork to cover up the long waits and other problems. Congress passed a bill to overhaul the Veterans Administration last month. President Obama says it institutes a new culture of accountability. "And with the new legislation that I signed into law, . . . the VA now has the authority to more quickly remove senior executives who don't meet our high standards," he said. "If you engage in unethical practices or cover up a serious problem, you should be and will be fired." He said those who reveal misconduct by their superiors should be protected, not punished. The administration is also launching new steps to strengthen service members' access to mental health care, improve their transition from active duty to veteran health care and help them financially. World Health seeks controls on use of new e-cigarettes By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The World Health Organization is recommending restrictions on the new electronic cigarettes, whose manufacturers tout them as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco smoke. A new World Health report calls the e-cigarettes part of an evolving frontier filled with promise, but says the new product comes with its own health concerns. It recommends against promoting them to non-smokers and young people, and banning fruit and candy flavors. It would also ban manufacturers from advertising unproven health claims about e-cigarettes. World Health says while it is less likely to be as poisonous as real tobacco, the smoke caused by e-cigarettes still poses a threat to non-smokers, children and fetuses. Its recommendations will be debated at an October conference in Moscow on tobacco control. Instead of tobacco, e-cigarettes use batteries to heat up nicotine-laced liquid. Smokers exhale a vapor instead of highly toxic second-hand smoke, and still get the nicotine they crave. Manufacturers say the device can help smokers quit the habit. But scientists say the devices are too new to draw any firm conclusions about the health risks. Enzyme reported defeating cause of peanut allergies By the A.M. Costa Rica
wire
services
There is promising news for people with peanut allergies: researchers at a U.S. university have found a way to alter the nuts to make them hypoallergenic. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a blog post Tuesday that researchers at North Carolina A&T State University were able to reduce the allergens in peanuts by 98 to 100 percent by treating them with an enzyme. The enzyme targets the proteins that trigger peanut allergies. The USDA says the treatment is effective whether peanuts are whole, broken into pieces or ground into flour. The research also shows promise in wheat. The head of the research team, Jianmei Yu, says it is very important to find a way to make peanuts less or non-allergenic, as it is difficult for those with the allergy to avoid exposure. A director within the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Jan Singleton says the research is also important "because peanuts can be a valuable addition to a healthy diet." The USDA says a peanut allergy is one of the most common causes of food-related anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal reaction. Ebola lab in Sierra Leone shut after staffer infected By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The World Health Organization has shut one of its ebola testing labs in Sierra Leone after a staff member there was infected by the virus. World Health said Tuesday it has withdrawn its staff from the lab in Kailahun — one of only two in Sierra Leone — after a Senegalese epidemiologist was infected with the deadly virus. The move could adversely affect efforts to contain the worst ever outbreak of the disease. Ebola has killed more than 1,400 people and sickened more than 2,600 in West Africa since the outbreak began in March. Among the worst affected countries are Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, where the government has sealed off an entire slum in the capital Monrovia. In Liberia, where the highest number of deaths has been reported, some government officials are fleeing the country or just not reporting for work. The situation drove President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Tuesday to order all ministers to return to work. Liberian officials said several ministers who defied the order had been fired. Tom Frieden, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offered a cautionary assessment of the outbreak while meeting with officials in Liberia. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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Correa's ridicule
of journalist decried
Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Public criticism by Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa of journalist Emilio Palacio is deemed extremely dangerous and reflects an intolerant and obsessive attitude that could incite acts of violence, the Inter American Press Association said Tuesday. During his customary address Saturday, Correa said of Palacio “This psychopath, how is he not going to provoke anger my friends? As a democrat, no matter how tolerant one is, what would you do in my case if you saw such a miserable human being? Wouldn’t you trample on him? …. Don’t you feel like kicking a guy like that?” Correa also discredited former member of Congress Cléver Jiménez. The chairman of the association’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, declared, “It is extremely dangerous and outrageous that the president of a nation promotes potential acts of violence with his outpourings against a journalist or any other citizen.” Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, added, “The courts are there to resolve these disagreements, and the president has previously recurred to them. Correa’s attitude towards this journalist is totally mistaken, intolerant, obsessive and personal.” Correa was reacting to a report published by Palacio in April about a secret trip that the president had taken to New York, information that he denied. For his part Palacio said on his blog www.ubicatv.com that “the president’s tirade is incomprehensible … unless he has something to hide.” Palacio, who left the country in August 2011, because he considered he was being politically persecuted, said that this was not the first time that Correa had “revealed his intention to resort to physical threats to silence me,” and mentioned two other similar occurrences. However, on this occasion the President’s expressions had an echo. The following day a person on Twitter identified as Fausto Zapata offered $100,000 for the journalist’s head; and shortly afterwards another user identified as Bruno Díaz doubled the reward to $200,000, which led the interior minister to announce on Twitter that “we will immediately investigate.” The government newspaper El Telégrafo also joined the campaign to discredit Palacio, headlining its Monday editorial “Emilio Palacio’s infamy is embraced by the local press,” in which it declared that Palacio “lies all the time, slanders, invents, defames….” Palacio wrote in his column that “as a journalist one has to be prepared to be persecuted and threatened. That has happened to me several times. But last week was exceptional for me – in less than seven days an Ecuadorean public prosecutor began to investigate me, the president of the Republic confessed his desire to physically hurt me, and on Twitter they put a price on my head.” In 2011 Correa sued Palacio, former op-ed editor of the Guayaquil newspaper El Universo, and the paper’s executives Carlos, César and Nicolás Pérez, for libel over a column in which Palacio warned the president that he could be put on trial for crimes against humanity for having ordered opening fire on a hospital during a police revolt in September 2010. Palacio and the three executives of the newspaper were sentenced in July 2011 to three years in prison, and the payment of a $40 million fine as indemnity. In February 2012 President Correa decided “to pardon the accused, granting them remission of the sentences that they deservedly received,” he announced. Paolillo also condemned threats made against journalist David Romero Ellner, who reported that since last week he had been the object of persecution, and that he feared for his life and that of his family. He works for Radio Globo and Globo TV in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The association also referred to the Aug.14 murder of journalist Nery Francisco Soto Torres. Soto Torres, 32, hosted a news program on Canal 23 television and was co-producer of the program “Cuarto Poder” broadcast by Radio Full FM. He was killed as he was arriving at his home in Olachito, Yoro province. Two persons were arrested for alleged links to the murder. Paolillo stressed that “the investigation and punishment of those responsible for murders and other attacks on the press is the best way to ensure the protection of journalists.” The Inter American Press Association is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere, including the parent firm of A.M. Costa Rica, and is based in Miami, Florida. |
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| From Page 7: Opportunities in Limón are topic of expo By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Whether it be a new international airport or burgeoning shopping malls, there are many potential investment opportunities in Limón. Each investor has a chance to find his or her next big project at the first ever international investors conference and expo Limón, which will be held Friday and Saturday in Playa Bonita. Through the theme “Caribbean of Costa Rica, Limón: your grand investment,” there will be numerous talks and presentations about local supply chains in the port city, development and corporate banking, and potential investments in Limón tourism operations, among other topics. A section of the conference will also focus on Limon's history and it's contemporary place in Costa Rican economics. President Luis Guillermo Solís is slated to attend the conference on its inaugural day to give a lecture at 2 p.m. that will focus on the government's vision for Limón and the Caribbean as a whole. This will mark the first time that the president will have a chance to talk directly to investors after his much-anticipated 100-day report Thursday. Other government guest speakers include the minister of Turismo, Wilhelm von Breymann, and Alexander Mora, minister of foreign trade. The activity is being organized by local government, small business owners in Limón and the area magazine Limón Roots. On Friday the event will be held at the Sala de Eventos Junito's Hall at 7 a.m. but will move to the Edificio de Correos for Saturday. Some other opportunities for investment that will be discussed are: International distribution, modern cruise terminal, free trade zones and customs procedures, office centers, convention centers, boutique resorts, and private medical centers. |
