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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rambi who wrote (65856)	11/25/2004 11:04:03 AM
From: Crocodile	Respond to of 71178

There was another whiny woman who was trying to get passports for her two children and was incensed over the fact they weren't ready when SHE had called ahead and they KNEW she had to still get to the Chinese embassy (the country of their ultimate destination). She was Canadian, but now AMerican, because, my dear, if her husband died and she was still Canadian, she would be taxed at a 78% rate! So much for love of country. Croc will have to tell us if this is true about the inheritance taxes. She may be quite right, although I'm not entirely familiar with estate laws for ex-pats. These are our Canadian estate laws -- nothing particularly scary in there and fairly easily sheltered through a number of strategies. tomrogers.net However, things get rather complicated under certain circumstances -- as perhaps in that woman's case. It says in the following: A commonly overlooked issue in Canadian estate and investment plans is the potential liability for U.S. estate taxes. This tax is not applied only to U.S. residents, or U.S. citizens living in Canada, but also to Canadians who own certain types of U.S. property. The United States imposes an estate tax on Canadians (who do not have dual U.S. citizenship) at death based upon the fair market value of all assets it considers U.S. property. The estate tax rates start at 18% of the assets' value and move quickly in increments to a top rate of 55%. -- there's much more at this URL: tomrogers.net So, I assume this may be why she was concerned about American citizenship. I've never checked into all of this stuff myself, but these are some of the issues that I suppose people should be considering when moving from country to country, etc... -croc

To: Rambi who wrote (65856)	11/25/2004 11:17:51 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

When we got back to the hotel, my system was so busy digesting the pounds of butter and quarts of cream ingested, that I couldn't sleep all night. Also our hotel was right next to the American embassy (I see now that this is an example of real foreshadowing!) and you couldn't drive to our hotel without getting approval beforehand from the police, so my imagination, fueled by the bottles of wine, was running rampant with scary terrorist scenarios. lol..then you do not want to stay at the Chateau Laurier Hotel should you ever visit our fair city. The new U.S. embassy takes up 2 or 3 city blocks between the Chateau, the National Gallery, and the old market which is the main tourist area of the city. And very pesky it is... they have blocked off lanes of traffic all around it using big concrete barriers (and it was already a very congested area to begin with). For awhile, people were rather annoyed, but we've sort of gotten used to the fortress in the middle of the busiest part of the city. It's kind of a weird thing though.. from what I've been told, the architectural design program was for it to look like a battleship, and that's exactly what it resembles.. a giant concrete aircraft carrier with a humongous gun-turret-like thing on top, plonked down into the middle of the city between all of the historic buildings. Hopefully it's not equipped with cannons or some other such thing. (o: croc

To: Rambi who wrote (65856)	11/25/2004 12:04:24 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

I'm so sorry there were no handsome attaches. But at least there were people to watch. Brandon said EXACTLY the same thing about talking to people on OUR trip!!! He was in a dressing room at Marks and Spencers, and I was waiting outside, to see if he looked ok, and I started chatting to a very nice Indian man, who said he was just exhausted by shopping, and took the chair so he could sit down. I told him I loved shopping (I know you don't) and that I felt invigorated by the whole thing, like I'd just had a really good workout, and he said "Ah, well that's the ladies", and then a man chimed in, he was Chinese, I think, and said "I enjoy shopping and I could shop all day" and then another woman, waiting for HER husband (she had a lovely South African accent, and the most gorgeous bronze colored skin, I was totally jealous, she was absolutely stunning, and had on the prettiest coat I've ever seen- and I wanted to ask her where she got it, but the conversation kept racing along, and I didn't get the chance, and it probably doesn;t even come in my size because she was like a size one)anyway, she said "Oh God, I hate shopping, but if I don't go with him, he brings home the strangest things" or words to that effect. Anyway then my husband came out to show us his shirt and 5 people are looking at him, and the Indian man says "No, too tight" and Brandon gives me a dirty look, and I said "Well, let's see the next one" which the Indian man DID like, and so did the South African lady, and then HER husband came out, and his shirt looked good, we all agreed, so they left with the shirt, and then my husband came out again. and so on. Anyway, I got a not very nice lecture, but I really liked the people.