The Expat Files - Business, Law, Tax - 09/03/12

-Often expats doing business in Latin America come face to face with obvious government corruption and general dishonesty. How do middle-class 1st world expats (who were on the straight and narrow up in Cleveland) handle such things? Expats will confront that stuff in business start-ups and building projects, so get used to it.  “Find me an honest man,” said Greek philosopher Diogenes 2500 years ago.

Things haven’t changed much, have they!

-Your relationship with your Latin lawyer will be much different, strikingly cheaper and surprisingly more fulfilling than the one you have (had) with your stateside shyster.

-It’s common for expats to make their new lawyer’s office a kind of home base and center of operations. As you get your business start-up going and get your feet wet in your newly adopted Latin country, you'll be surprised how accommodating your lawyer will be. And he probably won’t even charge you for the extra favors (when you’re off the tourist trail of course)!

-Bolivia slaps a new tax on all US dollar buy/sell transactions. Will that be a deterrent to expats from doing business there? Is there a way around it?

-The continuing saga of Expat Eddie; this time he gets even with pretentious jerk politicians (in a most ingenious way). Fed up Americans should take note.

-Now you can follow the link on the main page at www.expatwisdom.com to schedule a consultation with me. If you want to discuss the details of living, working, playing, doing business and/or retiring in Latin America, now you and I can talk about your situation one on one.