Great Business Opportunity

This is a great business opportunity, become a reseller of GoDaddy products.  The world is your market and you can provide to anyone who wants to build a website.  You can resell GoDaddy products such domain names, hosting plans, and more.  With this business opportunity you can set your own hours and price with an unlimited earning potential.  This is a great business opportunity for expat's.

You can even open an online store with GoDaddy.

Great Savings on Hotels, Tours, and More

We have added a section on the website with some great savings.  We have hotels, tours, and more with more savings to come.  We are adding new savings everyday, now it is mostly travel related but we do want to expand.  We are offering these savings only available through Living in Costa Rica Today for a small service fee for the discount coupons.
The savings are a lot more than the cost of the coupon.  Here are some examples of your savings:

Villas Serendipity

• Villas Serendipity – Regular price for a 1 bedroom villa $100.00 discount price $70.00, this is a savings of $30.00 per night cost of coupon $5.00.  The savings on 1 night is $30.00 – $5.00 = $25.00, the savings on 3 nights would be 3 nights X $30.00 = $90.00 – $5.00 = $85.00
• Iguana Tours Savegre River Rafting – Regular price from Manuel Antonio $95.00 20% savings for a single traveler and 25% savings for 2-4 travelers.  The single travelers savings is $19.00 – $5.00 coupon = $14.00 total savings.  The savings for 2 travelers is $47.50 – $10.00 coupon = $37.50 total savings.  The savings for 4 travelers is $95.00 – $10.00 coupon = $85.00 total savings.

  

  Rafting on the Savegre River

These are really some great savings, so check the prices, compare, and save.

http://livingincostaricatoday.com

Starbucks in Escazú, Costa Rica at Avenida Escazú

Starbucks in Escazú, Costa Rica

My wife and I paid a visit to Starbucks in Escazú, Costa Rica on Friday at about 11:00 in the morning.  Being a gringo expat here in Costa Rica I had to go visit the new Starbucks, this is the first Starbucks in Costa Rica.......To read more

Spanish Classes

Central Valley Spanish School has 2 new web sites My Personal Spanish Tutor, on this web site they focus on their online classes in their virtual classroom with a live tutor.  These classes have a very reasonably priced package (5 hours of class $60.00 or 10 hours of class $120.00 usd).  They also have some free lessons available online along with learning activities.

There other new web site is Learn Spanish and More, on this site they also focus on their online classes along with some other programs.

Spanish and Coffee which is geared toward those who live in Costa Rica.  The classes are held in a local coffee shop, soda, library, or another quiet location.  They also customize this program to meet the needs of the student.  These classes are a minimum of 2 hours per class and you are able to have classes Monday thru Friday once or twice a week or more if you choose.  These classes are also available to those visiting Costa Rica which is great as it gives you a flexible schedule.  The cost is $14.00 usd per hour and these classes are for no more than 3 students per class but these generally are with individuals.  This is a great value as you are paying for a small group class and are going to probably have a private class.

The are also offering customized group classes which are also geared to those who live in Costa Rica or visiting for an extended period.  These group classes are usually held once a week and they customize these classes for people needs for everyday use.

Visit My New Web Site

If you enjoy this web site be sure to visit Living in Costa Rica Today , it has information about Costa Rica and more.  It includes a business directory and an added social aspect for social interaction.  I will be adding material to this site on a regular basis.

So visit the site join the site and interact with others living in Costa Rica or those thinking of moving to Costa Rica.  Share information such as a good mechanic, handyman, your favorite restaurant or soda, a good church, etc.

Over 50% of Costa Ricans Reuse Containers and Plastic Bags

Packs that once contained rice and grains, containers from the pantry, and grocery bags that once covered the landfills are now being reused.  Over 50% of Ticos reuse commercial packaging that comes from purchases.

This was released a Unimer survey, requested by La Nacion, whose objective was to measure some "green practices" of Costa Ricans.
 

In this sense, the survey highlighted that 64% of people reuse shopping bags and 53% do the same with the plastic containers.

 

Compared to 2010 this year and more people opt for reuse. People who reuse shopping bags went from 49% in 2010 to 64% in 2012, while those who re-use plastic containers went from 40% in 2010 to become 53% in 2012.

 

Reuse is the step prior to recycling the waste management process.

 

Find out more about this survey and other related topics tomorrow in a special issue of La Nacion on the occasion of Environment Day.

Visit our new web site

Visit our new and improved web site.  It will have lots of information about Costa Rica at your finger tips plus a social aspect to it to interact with others in the community.  The social aspect will allow you to gain information from others about Costa Rica.

To fully enjoy all the benefits of the social part of the site please sign up and log in. 

Living in Costa Rica Today

Meat Products Escape New 13% Food Tax

Most cuts of beef, almost 95 percent, will not have the 13 percent sales tax levied upon them. This was agreed by the Finance Ministry after discussions with the livestock sector in the country.

Products such as ground beef, steaks, liver, beef, tongue, palette post, among other popular choices for consumers will remain free of this new tax making them still affordable for the poorer class of the country.
“This decision gives back to the middle class consumer and lowers the possibility of consuming less beef products” said Enaldo Miranda , executive director of the Livestock Development Corporation (CORFOGA).
The cuts that are going to pay taxes like the tenderloin steaks and beef tenderloin, along with their derivatives: T-Bone, Porter House, New York Steak, Delmonico, sirloin, sea meat (breaded or marinated) and tenderized meat .

Enaldo Miranda said, when it published the first decree (which provided the products to be paying the tax), consumption of meat had decreased by more than 40 percent, according to monitoring done in butcher shops and supermarkets.

We try to negotiate with the Ministry of Finance, showing the errors that the decree had produced and in this way facilitated the negotiations. They had a lot of disorder and now we are clear. Now only 4 or 5 percent of meat is taxed while the rest remains untaxed. ” he said.

Conversations between the Ministry of Finance and other sectors such as pigfarmers, beekeeping and fishing, also had positive results.

The natural bee honey and fish for public consumption like the baby shrimp and tilapia were exempt from the tax this week.

For these changes, others were made that allowed tax free products such as bread and milk.

Costa Rica Banks Buckle Down On Foreigners

Foreigners who have a checking or savings account in the country will need to fill out an immigration identification document for foreigners (Dimex) to avoid problems in banks.

Since last January the General Regulation governing legislation against drug trafficking, related activities, money laundering, terrorist financing and organized crime, has placed these stipulations on banking and foreigners.
Foreigners are given a year of time limit for submission of Dimex by foreigners who have bank accounts in the country.

According to the Regulations, when the time limit expired, the bank may suspend the service or restrict the type or amount of services the bank offered, according to “the categorization of risk” customer.

According to Carlos Melegatti, director of Central Bank Financial Services – the use of a single document to identify foreigners permits a “traceability” or monitor any transactions conducted in the banking system. This happens with the Costa Rican, they have a universal identification that is the identification card.

Mario Zamora, Security Minister explained that this was the “link” that was pending to follow any irregular transactions.

The remarks came yesterday during the press conference which announced the mandatory use of Dimex for interbank transfers through the National Electronic Payments System (SINPE) from 1. July.

Now banks seek to apply the update mechanisms of identification for foreigners clients.

Anabelle Ortega, director of the Chamber Banking, explained that for the moment, there is no counting the number of accounts that are owned by foreigners.

The standardization process of the identities of migrants began in 2005 and since 2008 began with the issuance of Dimex.

Kattia Rodríguez, Director of Immigration, said that for the moment about 382,000 people have this document and they are still missing about 65,000 that have applied.

It appears to me that if you received a cedula for residency since 2008 you have the required ID.  To be on the safe side those with bank accounts should ask the bank if their ID is correct for doing business at the bank.

Migration will give special attention to people who have expired identification, the Costa Rican foreign parents of children and individuals who provide domestic and agricultural work.

Spanish Classes For Those Living In Costa Rica

This is a great opportunity for those living in the Central Valley close to Escazú.  Central Vally Spanish School is going to have a class designed for those living in Costa Rica.  They are going to offer "Beginning Conversational Spanish For Everyday Use" which is a 20 hour course for $199 USD.  The classes will be held on Saturday mornings for 5 weeks starting June 9th.

For more information contact them at:  2294-5412 or email them at:  info@centralvalleyspanishschool.com