A Lazy Week Just Ended

ISSUE #796: Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 2020

2020-02-02

Brian Timmons, Newsletter Author
Brian Timmons

Dear friends,

When I started Residencias Los Jardines, I started writing a weekly newsletter -determined to tell all the good, bad, and the ugly. I knew some readers would be interested in the construction process. I expected others might be interested in the lifestyle of two people who had decided to live outside the box. For others, the adventures of Lita, the parrot and the cat took on an entertainment saga all its own.

Residencias Los Jardines is finished. We periodically have re-sales and rental availability. Some readers may be interested in this information.

Brian Timmons
Developer / Property manager
Residencias Los Jardines

Web: https://www.residenciaslosjardines.com
Emails: info@residenciaslosjardines.com
ResidenciasPropertyManagement@gmail.com

Featured
rentals & sales

Paradisus Condos / Rohrmoser
FOR SALE / RENT
Visit our website

Paradisus Condos - click to visit

Each of the units consists of two bedrooms / two bathrooms, and a large living/dining/kitchen area. The floor plan of each of these units has eliminated the optional "den / office" divider. The result is a larger area offering more flexible furniture arrangements while still maintaining the option of including an office area. At 105m2 plus two parking spots each and storage locker, they offer a great opportunity for someone seeking views, security, central location, and first class, all round living...

PRICE REDUCTION
Semi furnished unit: For sale: $235,000
Fully furnished unit: For sale: $245,000
Floor 12 -west view

Market activity
sales & rentals

Sales: Los Jardines: Units #114, #116 and #124

Rentals:

Paradisus: Nothing available

Los Jardines: Units #106C $975 mo. and #125 $875 mo. / Available immediately

Residencias Los Jardines
property management, rentals & re-sales

FOR SALE
Unit #114: $ 199,000 / See Unit
Unit #116: $ 195,000 $ 189,995 / See Unit
Unit #124: $ 125,000 / See Unit

FOR RENT
Unit #106C: $975 mo. / Available immediately / See Unit
Unit #125: $875 mo. / Available immediately / See Unit

For sale

UNIT #114
FOR SALE
$ 199,000

Total Area (Sq Ft): 1290
Total area (Sq M): 120
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 2
Floor(s): 1
Type: Semi-Attached
Furnished: Yes

This 2 bedroom/2bathroom,1,290 sf single floor end unit home includes a 150 sf front terrace plus parking for one car. This house is fully air conditioned and has recently been professionally decorated by international decorator Alcides Graffe and has undergone a complete renovation—new modern furniture, finishings, window coverings, and art work by Carlos Gambino. It is arguably the nicest furnished unit at Residencias Los Jardines and only steps from the pool

UNIT #116
FOR SALE
$ 195,000 $ 189,995

Total Area (Sq Ft): 1290
Total area (Sq M): 120
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 2
Floor(s): 1
Type: Semi-Attached
Furnished: Yes

This 1,290 sf single floor home includes a 300 sf front terrace plus parking for one car and a separate, secure storage locker. It is and end unit and therefore attached on only one side by a 6 inch cement demising (common) wall, which prevents sound transfer.

UNIT #124
FOR SALE
$135,000 $ 125,000

Total Area (Sq Ft): 662
Total area (Sq M): 61
Bedrooms: 1
Bathrooms: 1
Floor(s): 2nd Floor
Type: Semi-Detached
Furnished: Yes

This 662 sf, + covered parking for one car, is a one bedroom home on the 2nd floor overlooking the large pool. It is ideal for a single person or couple.

For rent

UNIT #106C
FOR RENT
$ 975 mo.
Available immediately

Total Area (Sq Ft): 1250
Total area (Sq M): 120
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 2
Floor(s): 1 Floor
Type: 4-plex
Furnished: Yes

This is a fully furnished 2-bedroom unit situated in a 2-story building, which has two units on the ground floor and two units on the 2nd. floor. Each unit is the same size (1,250sf) divided into 800 sf of interior space and 450 sf of covered front and back terraces. Units 106A and B are on the ground floor; Units 106 C and D are on the 2nd. Floor. The solid masonry demising wall (common wall) as well as the 5” concrete slab prevent sound transference.

UNIT #125
FOR RENT
$ 875 mo.
Available immediately

Total Area (Sq Ft): 662
Total area (Sq M): 60
Bedrooms: 1
Bathrooms: 1
Floor(s): 2nd Floor
Type: Semi-Detached
Furnished: Yes

This 662 sf, (62M2)+ parking for one car and 33sf locker is a one bedroom home on the 2nd floor overlooking the large pool. It is ideal for a single person or couple—or investment property.

New Rental The owner of this unit realized he is not using it enough to justify it sitting vacant. He asked me to market it and manage it. This is not the direction I want to go in... would like to get completely out of the business... but took it on. It is a very nice unit... check out the pics.

Our Lives

What Happened This Week

Weather: Normal... windy, dry, beautiful... actually, we had three cool, overcast days and saw three good showers... garden liked it.

Stories

Security Cameras: Still on my list of "to dos".

Shareholder Registration: We actually completed this but not without a last minute flurry of data gathering from a few owners.

Doneste Administration: Everything sent. no response from anyone.

Foreclosure: I wait

Investment Business: One of the contracts we were waiting on has been awarded. We will have it reviewed and our role will be defined. That will happen this next week.

BAC: The second account took about 2 months from start to finish. Still better than the 3 mo. at Scotia.

Scotiabank: Sent out a customer satisfaction survey form... I completed it giving them a failing grade -same as before. I was contacted by someone calling himself a "director". I gave him multiple examples to support my assessment. I do not expect to see any changes.

A Lazy Week Ends: I just received notice from a recent client. He is moving. Seems he cannot get along with his countryman neighbor... and needs a less expensive place.

Shrimp and PriceSmart: PriceSmart is our poor cousin of COSCO. It is no where equivalent but it is the best alternative we have. They try to promote local products. This story has to do with shrimp. Until a year ago or so, they carried Vietnamese flash frozen shrimp in different sizes. These have now, all disappeared. In their place is a locally caught and process shrimp. While frozen in the bag, they are medium sized shrimp. When cooked, they are less than the size of cocktail shrimp. They have found a way to inflate the size... additional water or ??? who knows. And they have no flavor and the texture is lousy... No more for me... I will buy elsewhere... locally harvested shrimp, o.k. but not the PriceSmart product... something is wrong there.

Garden Pictures: Attached are some garden pictures as of Feb. 1. Additional pictures will be added over the next four newsletters.:

News Items of the Week

COMMENTS

1. Changes in the law: This is a summary of what we have had to adjust to and notice, that in mid December, they added some more requirements.

New Regulations and Fines for Corporations in Costa Rica Take Effect

In a previous article we published on July 5th, 2019 we explained about the creation of a “Registry of Transparency and Final Beneficiaries“, which made becoming necessary to report to the Central Bank of Costa Rica who the stockholders on every corporation existing in Costa Rica are. A calendar was established depending on the last number of Corporate ID number, between September 2019 and January 31st. Later authorities tried to be more flexible by establishing that the final deadline for all corporation to comply with this rule was January 31st, 2020. Failure on the filing will bring fines starting around US$2,300.

The new regulation indicated that the legal representatives e.g.- President on SAs and Manager on Limitadas or LLCS could perform the report as long as it was done online using a digital signature card. That’s similar to a debit or credit card with a chip that can only be given to citizens or legal residents. To perform the report, it is also required to be computer literate and understand Spanish, visiting the website named Central Directo. Because of that, several expats decided to grant a special POA to a law firm or accountants that decide to provide the service.

As informed, the deadline expires this Friday January 31st. Statistics updated at the beginning of this month show that as much as sixty percent of the corporations had not filed the report, which makes it easy to conclude when the final date is reached probably half the corporations will be in default. Consequences for not complying are that Registro Nacional will not issue “personerías” or legal representation certificates, and severe fines will be imposed, to name a couple. In my opinion, the “last minute compliers” might cause the system’s collapse during the week, especially on the last day indicated above.

One interesting fact is that January 22nd in the official Gazette appeared a law project directed to grant some respite. The Congressman behind this project is Pablo Abarca Mora. The project showed to have support of the majority at Congress by granting TWO months extra without consequences and a third month at 50% of the fines. It got approved January 28th during the evening. It certainly will become a life saver for all those corporation owners’ that did not fill this legal obligation on time. The government should make a bigger effort to advertise this requirement all over the country.

Just when many failed to digest and adjust to this change, on December 20, 2019, two new regulations required by the Ministry of Tax appeared in the official Gazette. The publication date is ironic, because that was the day that all government institutions went on vacation, and most of the population was more concerned with Christmas preparations than dealing with legal changes. The logical effect was that these regulations went completely unnoticed. However, it is important to take note to comply with them and avoid further headaches.

The first regulation consists of the obligation for ALL corporations that have inactive status – that is, they do not generate income or have any economic activity – to proceed to register with the General Directorate of Taxation, in order to update the information of the company such as: address, email, legal representative information and the like. For this you must submit a form D-140. Usually Accountants are the best option to submit this type of form. For this, a compliance calendar was again established, which is described as follows:

  • Corporations with last ID number 1 and 2: January 2020
  • Corporations with last ID number 3 and 4: February 2020
  • Corporations with last ID number 5 and 6: March 2020
  • Corporations with last ID number 7 and 8: April 2020
  • Corporations with last ID number 9 and 0: May 2020

Although this can be considered as a new obligation, the truth is that for those corporations with 2 or more years of existence it is not. This is because the Ministry of Finance had already established that requirement for inactive companies when the Corporation Tax Law came into force at the end of 2017. At that time a calendar was established between the end of 2017 and the first months of 2018. Those inactive corporations that at that time complied with the presentation of the D-140 then do not need to do it again in this 2020.

The second obligation must be taken with more care and much more seriousness. It is established that between January and March 2021 the inactive companies must submit a form D 135 disclosing all assets, liabilities and the amount of the capital stock. This is aimed at greater control processes at the tax level. What is the purpose of this? Detect “unjustified increases in patrimony”. This means that if valuable assets are registered in the name of a company that does not generate income, those assets can be considered as a form of taxable income. (Yep you read that right, no more hiding assets in S.A’s)

In order to begin to protect yourself from these changes, it is important to have proper records of the origin of such assets, such as capital contributions made by the partners. It is also important to review the amount of the capital stock of the corporation in comparison with the value of the registered assets. The reality is that most corporations have stock capital composed of amounts ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 colones (between US $ 18 and $ 180) while they have registered assets with tax values of tens of thousands of dollars. It is important to review and adjust the amount of stock capital if necessary.

Again, it is important to check that every corporation complies with the Final Beneficiaries report now that Congress will give an additional respite-. Also verify that any inactive corporation complies with the update of data with the D-140 form – between January and May 2020 if it had not done so between 2017 and 2018 – as well as preparing for the D 135 form required by 2021.

As is usual, we are giving the notice to our readers in advance.

About the Author: Allan Garro was incorporated as a lawyer and public notary in 1996. He specializes in Litigation, Corporate, and Real Estate Law. He has also acted as an external legal consultant to Congress. He has been the author of more than 100 published English Language articles and can be reached at allan@garrolaw.com

FOR RENTAL OR SALES INFORMATION
ON ANY OF THE ABOVE, CONTACT:

Brian C. Timmons
Property Manager RLJ and Newsletter Author

Costa Rica:
Cell: (+506) 8-455-59-35
Land line: (+506) 2282-4142 Ext. 101

Canada:
VOIP: (+416) 461-2203

Web: https://www.residenciaslosjardines.com
Emails: info@residenciaslosjardines.com
ResidenciasPropertyManagement@gmail.com

 
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