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Author Topic: My retirement blog.  (Read 401087 times)

gcr

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #315 on: December 05, 2017, 11:10:53 pm »
Glad to see you got out of a rather deep hole 8)
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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #316 on: April 24, 2018, 08:56:27 pm »
Well now. It has been many months of fighting with the Portugal IRS about the base cost of my shares as they will not accept the "Exit Tax" that reset it to new values. I have been paying SARS R10k pm as the tax is R58k.

 I eventually sold all but as Portugal is not accepting the above they have billed me for R200K odd. This differs to my previous posts due to FX rates. I probably would have got off without paying the exit tax but I chose to do so due to the large diffs in tax between the countries.

A flat rate of 28% in Portugal for Capital gains is severe compared to SA where it is about 13%.

The reason why I am not getting anywhere with the IRS here is that they keep sending me letters to provide proof to my local tax office and when I do go there they do not even look at the docs and cannot speak a single word of English so resort to waving of hands and shouting of what sounds like profanities and I leave there with no knowledge with what to do but wait for the next letter.

You will now ask why my accountant does not do it for me. The answer is simple. She lives in Lisbon and that is a long way from here. There are no local accountants that speak English that could accompany me to my local IRS. I live in a city but it is in the far north so not a tourist area so not many locals have exposure to the English language as they do in the south.

As to my stocks.... down about 30%. A catastrophe seems to be playing out but we will prevail. 

 



 

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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #317 on: April 24, 2018, 09:04:03 pm »
Just got back from Wales. Snow and more snow.
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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #318 on: April 24, 2018, 09:08:31 pm »
My daughters home on the first pic and her walking to work on the next. The following one was a mistake but I will leave it there.
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Mr_Dividend

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #319 on: April 26, 2018, 07:27:55 pm »
Cheers for the update Orca. Will also be visiting family in the Uk in the next couple of months - I am not expecting snow, but being the UK, who knows!

On your move to Portugal ( now with added hindsight), what would you have done differently?

BTW - my portfolio also hasn't been great - but am slowing regigging it to be anchored by ETFs
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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #320 on: April 27, 2018, 10:06:06 am »
I did research for many months before I chose Portugal and the area in it to live so I was pretty much prepared.
What I should have done is arrive in winter and not mid summer. Finding long term rentals in summer is almost impossible. All available long term rentals become holiday rentals as the tourists pour in and grab whatever is available for 4 times more than long term rentals. The landlords greed wanes in winter and will often offer long term rentals.
 
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Patrick

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #321 on: April 30, 2018, 08:29:10 am »
Have you thought of doing an ebook on the whole process Orca? I know a few people making fairly good money selling them on a variety of topics. I imagine something like "How to move to Portugal and escape tax for 10 years" or something like that could do quite well.
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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #322 on: April 30, 2018, 10:47:47 am »
That's a very good idea. I will start looking into it. Thanks P.
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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #323 on: May 21, 2018, 07:32:35 pm »
No one seems to be working in SA anymore. Things have slowly deteriorated since we left 4 years ago.

Requested a money transfer from my broker account to my FNB account. Money left but 10 days later still not showing up in my FNB account. After a squabble between my broker and FNB the money eventually showed up. Not sure what happened but I did smell a con.

My SA accountant sent me an inflated bill for filing my Exit Tax. I did all the calculations and she only had to enter the "Purchase and Sale" amounts. Two figures for her bill of around R14k!!! The SARS system auto calculates the CGT. The only thing that seems to work well.

I then query the fact that she never sent me a bill with the VAT and other itemized figures on her company letterhead. Just a plain email with the amount. She never replied and does not answer my emails anymore. I have not paid her and it has been about 4 months. I smelt a rat when I saw her religious signature on her emails.

This accountant had an agent from SARS assigned to me and he corresponded with me as to the Exit Tax. He gave FNB a reference number for payments. The payments were made and the money disappeared from my FNB account.

Then lo and behold. All the emails from the SARS agent disappeared or self destructed from my email account. Now the SARS website shows no payments were made and nothing owing.  :wtf:

Two weeks ago I requested a money transfer from FNB to me in Portugal but nothing kept happening. I then resent the request with nothing happening again. Each time I got an automated response.

Posted on hellopeter and got a response and a reference number ON A SATURDAY. Today the manager at the nonres center sent me an email saying that no requests for the money transfers were made.

I forwarded her the 2 auto responses that proved the requests were made. Now it is being escalated.

WTF is going on here? 
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BussoV6

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #324 on: May 22, 2018, 08:37:10 am »
Quote from: Orca on April 24, 2018, 08:56:27 pm

The reason why I am not getting anywhere with the IRS here is that they keep sending me letters to provide proof to my local tax office and when I do go there they do not even look at the docs and cannot speak a single word of English so resort to waving of hands and shouting of what sounds like profanities and I leave there with no knowledge with what to do but wait for the next letter.

You will now ask why my accountant does not do it for me. The answer is simple. She lives in Lisbon and that is a long way from here. There are no local accountants that speak English that could accompany me to my local IRS. I live in a city but it is in the far north so not a tourist area so not many locals have exposure to the English language as they do in the south.

Why can't you arrange with your Lisbon accountant to be available by phone for when you visit the local tax office? Then just hand the phone over to the shouting tax staff. 
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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #325 on: May 22, 2018, 09:56:45 am »
That's exactly what we did. Had it on speaker phone and the 2 of them had a 40 minute shouting match. Nothing came of it.
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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #326 on: May 24, 2018, 08:10:54 pm »
What spurred me on was this SA guy that I have been following for years. Only wish I had done so when I was younger.
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yozzi

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #327 on: August 14, 2018, 11:32:31 am »
Hi Orca,

Hope all is well with you as we haven't heard from you for a long time on your blog? How are you or how have you coped with the heatwave there? Can't imagine how hot it must have been because my family in the UK said it was unbearable there at times this summer so Portugal must have been hell!

I'm looking to do an initial 3 month stay in Spain/Portugal next year and slowly make it a 6 month residency in years to come as I hit retirement age later this year so planning this now but it could be a disaster if it is as hot again! Would think coastal areas would be better in this regard rather than inland.

Anyway, let us know how it's going and that life is still treating you well in Portugal!
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Orca

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #328 on: August 14, 2018, 10:41:03 pm »
Thanks for asking yozzi. Thought there was an "ignore" button here.

Yes. It was rather hot here and all time records were broken especially down in the Algarve. I pity the firemen with all the fires there.

We are more lucky up here in the north and on the coast so the 35 C was not too bad compared to the 47 C down south. I am used to Fish Hoek that is typically 10 C lower than CT center.

I am still having tax issues here and cannot find any help as to language. No tax assistant has any knowledge of English here. This is not the Algarve. I will have to wait for the tax court or tribunal. At least then they would have to appoint a translator for me.

The last time I went to see them I experience the following.

There was this really BIG guy before me that banged his fist on the desk so hard that the computer leapt a foot into the air and started shouting at the scrawny little bookkeeper who's eyes were as wide as saucers. His thunderous voice must have echoed across the whole town and he carried on for what felt like a full 5 minutes. He then stormed out slamming the doors while still shouting and could still be heard streets away.
This scrawny guy's day was ruined and I was his next client so he took it out on me knowing I could not shout at him in Portuguese.

So that is as far as I got in 5 years.Maybe I they should learn Americanish.



 


 
« Last Edit: August 14, 2018, 10:57:23 pm by Orca »
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yozzi

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Re: My retirement blog.
« Reply #329 on: August 21, 2018, 01:11:00 pm »
Good to hear Orca and looks like you'll have to do the same as that guy did but shout in Afrikaans that would totally bamboozle them!

Have a look at this site - expatforum.com and use the Portugal tab and/or South Africa tab as all sorts of queries are asked daily although most are related to UK expats living in foreign countries but if you post a tax query you just might have a solution on your doorstep you never know or at least someone may point you in the right direction with an English speaking tax consultant that you could correspond with? Even if they were based in the Algarve may be worth the phone call?

Also, living where you are and if you want UK TV try tvmucho.com even if you don't buy a subscription which is around 4euros/month they give you one hour per day free for life! I've watched plenty of UK series on it here in SA. All you need is a decent internet connection.

Are you still living in the Porto area? I've been watching a UK mini series on the '10k Holiday home' where a woman presenter bought a fixer upper in Portugal think it was near Castello Branco but very much inland in a small village but quite interesting. Shows that it can be done and might be an option going forward?
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