-Published: Monday, October 21, 2019-
Letters From Readers
The people's voice is an important part of strengthening our democracy and contributing to the public debate on important matters. A.M. Costa Rica encourages readers to send letters to the editor and comment on relevant topics of the day.
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My thoughts on Shareholder Registry
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
“Active” means the corporation is engaged in some kind of money-earning business. "Inactive" means a corporation is not doing anything to try to earn money. The Registro de Accionistas (Registry of Shareholders) applies to all corporations, active or inactive.
I have two inactive corporations that I use to hold personal property, not to do business. One owns my house; the other owns my car. As owner and president of both corporations, I have to access the registro at the Banco Central de Costa Rica (central bank) and report myself as the sole shareholder.
The only people who can access the registro are the president of the corporation or a notary (lawyer) who must be granted a special power of attorney to do it on behalf of the president. This might not be so bad if it was a one-time thing and only needed to be repeated if there was a change of shareholders. But it is not a one-time thing. It must be repeated every year, forever.
The only way to access the registro is with a firma digital (digital signature), which is not simply a username and password. The firma digital is a physical device that you plug into your computer’s USB port. To acquire a device, you must apply to one of the banks that issue them. Apparently, it costs about $60 to acquire one, which isn’t bad, because once you have it you can keep using it year after year. But there are a very limited number of banks in Costa Rica that issue the firma digital. We live in Jacó and bank with BCR, and the closest bank where I can get a firma digital is a Banco Nacional (BN) in Puntarenas, which is nearly an hour's drive from here.
In Garland Baker’s article, he mentioned a woman who had to make multiple trips to the bank to comply with the various requirements to acquire a firma digital. Instead of trying my luck with multiple trips to Puntarenas, I gave my lawyer (who already has a firma digital) the special power of attorney he needs to register on my behalf. We will repeat this process every year from now on, and I will pay my lawyer every year for doing it.
It’s a bad system with very difficult access for owners of corporations. The registro should be a one-time thing to report the corporate shareholders. The central bank will then have a permanent electronic record of who owns every CR corporation.
If I sell a corporation and the new owner becomes president, then the new owner will have to report the change of shareholders. I have no intention of ever selling the corporations. My kids will inherit them when I die, hopefully, a few decades from now. But every year I have to report that, yes, I still own the corporations.
There are 100s of 1000s of corporations like mine in CR, that people use to hold their personal property or to do their business. Almost none of the presidents has a firma digital. So to access the registro to avoid the hefty fines for failing to report on time, all these people have to acquire the devices or hire lawyers to access the registro for them.
I don’t think the handful of CR banks that issue the firma digital devices can handle the load of 100s of 1000s of new applications to acquire them. So yes, I think the deadlines should be extended.
But more importantly, I think the requirement of annual reporting should be struck down, and replaced with a simple requirement to report changes to corporate shareholders, not report “no changes” year after year. We already pay the annual corporation tax to prove we still exist and still own the corporations. Having to report “no change” every year to the central bank is a needless and wasteful exercise in redundancy.
Derryl Hermanutz,
Jacó, Puntarenas.
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On Juan Santamaría airport improvements
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
I’ve got to agree that the airport is great and getting better all the time. Except for the people who greet arriving passengers.
As year after year goes by, we can only count ourselves lucky to have (mostly) a roof over our heads as we wait outdoors for our arrivals, crammed waiting between the roped off passenger exit and the busy street.
No seating area of any kind, not even for the handicapped. No orderly system for professional drivers to meet their clients. No place to get so much as a drink of water. No “cell phone waiting area” where one can wait in one’s car for a word that their arrival is waiting at the curb for pickup. Nothing.
It’s a totally forgotten aspect of the airport. I wish the developers would give us at least some slight consideration.
We’ve been waiting for many years.
Erich Strebe,
Heredia.
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More jobs in Costa Rica
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
What can the government do to increase the number of jobs available to Costa Ricans? How about getting the hell put of the way?
Seriously, do you really think that this economy can grow under Big Brother?
Let’s see how this can work: We’re going to tax and regulate businesses, especially small businesses, to the point where they have to cut staff to make ends meet. We’re going to tax and regulate consumers to the point where they can't hire an extra gardener, hire a contractor for household improvements, buy treats at the local vet (who is also being squeezed by the aforementioned taxes and regulations on small business), and we’re also going to raise prices on consumer goods, yet we’re also going to somehow hope that these small businesses are going to hire more people and in general the economy and the people who move it through working, earning and spending is going to somehow grow under the guidelines of our fiscal reform. Fat Chance.
By curtailing individuals income, regulating their activities and increasing their cost of living, the people will respond by cutting back on consumer spending and putting less and less money into the active economy. Producers will stop producing or take their activities elsewhere or underground. Most people are willing to pay their fair share in taxes, but when government becomes too heavy-handed and authoritarian then people will respond by evasion and avoidance of participation, and rightly so. Only when people are able to keep their earnings and maintain their holdings without undue tax burdens and intrusive government control will the economy flourish.
This administration is straight out of the pages of “Atlas Shrugged.”
Cyrus Lemmon,
Puerto Viejo, Limon.
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My opinion on cannabis
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
Imagine if the government moved into the present time, like so many states in the U.S. and countries across the globe, and legalized cannabis medically and recreationally.
Tourism would skyrocket because adventure-minded people are already naturally drawn to the mystique of Costa Rica.
Tax revenues would go through the roof, abating much of the country's VERY deep financial woes. We could even afford to build jails for real criminals who are now basically arrested and turned loose on the same day even if they have extensive histories of violent crimes.
Plus, the criminal element would be removed and a lot of jobs created. Look at the crime stats for where it is legal in the U.S. Employment and tax revenues are way up and crime is down.
But no, let's lock up the marijuaneros (8-15 years!), send armies of policía to arrest them while people in Desamparados, Pavas, Alajuelita, and sooo many other barrios are afraid to venture outside their fortified homes because of a lack of police protection and crime deterrent. Wake up and smell the flowers,
Costa Rica! Imagine.
Karlos Horn,
Carillo, Guanacaste.
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Blackhawk Down
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
Why yes, we have noticed UH-60 Blackhawks from Honduras passing overhead on an almost daily mission to guard the safety of a hospital ship far from where we live.
And we did notice as Costa Rica allowed Russian tanks to offload in Limón a year or so ago… and illegally moved to Nicaragua.
Some of us noticed as first a socialist president was placed in office here, then a president who appears to have bought the whole package of Global Warming (a provable lie), extra bathrooms for undecided kiddies and Keynesian economics on steroids; yes and with a tax package guaranteed to make jobs disappear and put people out of work.
Us chickens have noticed the free patrol boats, the training of police in the U.S. and its incursion into every aspect of Tico culture. Why the sudden inoculation of our children, women and old folks? What’s in them? Who’s behind that?
Why… it almost seems like we already have a one-world government.
Paul Furlong,
Atenas, Alajuela.
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Easier solution on Dengue
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
Having lived 15 years in Costa Rica I found early on an insect repellent that was effective against all insects, except the common housefly (of which it is much less effective).
I attempted many times to bring this to attention to anyone who was willing to listen to me.
In spite of the continual whining by the CAJA concerning their costs for treatment of dengue, this solution has been completely ignored!!
The solution can be bought in any mercado, most pulperias, etc.- the cost is minimal, maybe about a Rojo!!
Like Franklin Chang Diaz, who attempted to supply all government vehicles with hydrogen (for less pollution), I refuse to continue spouting the solution!
Figure it out on your own, and save millions of dollars a year!!
Paul P. Meister,
Papillion, Nebraska. U.S.A.
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Blindness due to Cataracts
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
The Oct. 10 article about the worldwide problem of blindness and vision impairment really hit home. For several years, we have been financial supporters of the Himalayan Cataract Project which was originated by two ophthalmologists, one from Nepal and the other from the United States.
The Project has received worldwide acclaim for its pioneering work in providing low-cost cataract surgery to thousands of blind people in a Second- and Third-World countries. In the process, they have trained numerous surgeons in their unique surgical procedures and they have developed low-cost replacement lenses that they produce. A cataract surgery provided by the project usually takes fewer than five minutes and the patient's sight is restored when the bandages are removed the next day.
While the Himalayan Cataract provides many free surgeries, those who have the means to pay are charged about US $25. That's right. 25 U.S. dollars to restore vision to a blind person!
More information about the Himalayan Cataract Project is available on the website CureBlindness.org.
Readers could do well to consider that $25 a month could restore someone's sight.
David C. Murray,
El Cajon de Grecia, Alajuela.
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Racism against Hispanic immigrants- myth, not fact
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
I deeply disagree with every point made by the author of the letter titled "Racism against Hispanic Immigrants- Myth, not fact."
Indeed, having been a U.S. citizen and a "loyal American" all 70 years of my life (and yes, also blonde and blue-eyed), I chose to move to Costa Rica in February of this year in part because of the painfulness of living in the U.S. at this time.
My heart hurt every day seeing and hearing what the person occupying the position of president of the U.S. was saying and doing, as well as what the people he appointed to fulfill his intentions were doing.
What I had experienced over and over since he was "elected" is the opposite of the respect for all, the personal responsibility, the integrity, the honoring of differences, and the rule of law that I thought were the ideals of the U.S. I now live in a community in Costa Rica where those ideals are lived and I am grateful for every moment.
I hope that my native land will wake up again.
Judith Haldeman,
Atenas, Alajuela.
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Law 9416 unfair to non-residents
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
I was advised in September about the Law 9416 requirements and got a notice from my attorney about the same time.
The attorneys want a sizable amount of money and a limited power of attorney to perform the task since I cannot be in Costa Rica in time to do it myself.
On top of this, I find an $800 fine will be imposed if not done by the deadline indicated by the last number of your corporate ID.
For people like me with a corporation for virtually everything we own in Costa Rica as recommended by attorneys that I worked within 2000-2005 I wound up with five corporations, and all end in 0 or 1.
The fee's to take care of all of these in the limited time allowed, by Oct. 1st, would have exceeded $3,000 if all were done in time and no fines.
This is a ridiculous amount of money that people not living there full time are looking at and it is totally unfair.
Were we given six months, it would be no problem to go and do all this ourselves.
What is going on in Costa Rica, a racket by the government to keep attorneys wealthy??
Jim Day,
Playa del Coco and Michigan, U.S.A.
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CCSS and the good bad and ugly
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
We are American citizens with permanent residency and use the public health system whenever it's possible, reasonable and timely. At the local clinic level, Guanacaste still suffers from a dire lack of basic resources.
Examples include wooden benches with broken, rickety seats in hospital waiting areas in Liberia to one obsolete, slow printer at the Sardinal EBAIS. The one clinic in Coco was scheduled to be remodeled and expanded since March of 2008, replacing the single-wide trailer-size clinic in a muddy field with no parking.
Nothing has transpired except press releases.
My husband was suffering from a large, inguinal hernia and two years after his private surgery, he was called for a pre-op exam to the public hospital. Two years later he desperately needed a hip replacement and the orthopedic doctor at the hospital agreed. We are still waiting for a call.
On the bright side, our prescriptions are free, the doctors and nurses are dedicated, caring, smart and take as much time as you need. The administrators are entrenched bureaucrats with too many self-entitled perks, bonuses and new vehicles that the country can ill afford. Striking and causing patients anxiety, discomfort, delay, and inconvenience tells you their priorities. The union blackmail has to end.
Maybe then the areas outside the GAM will receive the funds and resources to put the entire populace on the same, modern and efficient footing. Vamos a ver!
Hara Maderich,
Altos Los Robles Community,
Sardinal, Guanacaste.
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Costa Rica has lost its soul. Period.
Dear A.M. Costa Rica readers:
It used to be such a humane place. People put being people before being the hats they wear. Now it’s a place of financial inhumane fines for not disclosing ownership? Cruel exorbitant fines.
Costa Rica has become a financially cruel place. Fallen to the God of “More” without ever thinking about what it can maintain.
What about the person who incorporated for reasons of passing on their financial legacy probate free, or to protect themselves from lawsuits? They make no income off their corporations. They are actually liabilities because of corporate tax that must be paid.
Owners have left no penalty-free way out of a corporation they used to shelter real estate only. The only way out is to pay exorbitant transfer tax and now capital gains tax - just to exit something from which they do not gain.
Taxed for selling your property to yourself then taxed on any profit from selling to themselves? Seriously?
Costa Rica should be ashamed for the financial inhumanity it is perpetrating because It cannot maintain what it has promised. Why? Because come Monday morning the line at the clinic is 300 people long waiting to be declared “incapacitado” - incapacitated so they can collect payment for not working.
What’s worse is the government seeks to build and fund more projects they can’t afford – let alone maintain.
People should be given a chance to transfer their assets out of their corporation penalty-free and close them.
Phil Baker.
Bahia Herradura,
Pacific Coast.
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