This morning we went and paid our property taxes. All 237 pesos (20.00 CDN) worth. The low cost never ceases to amaze us! After we paid, the cashier gave us a small form to fill out but we had no idea what we were supposed to do with it. So I handed it back to her and said, "Por favor?" She filled it in and handed it back to us, telling us to go put it in a box at the back of the room. We only figured that out because she was pointing to it...lol. So we went to put the form in the box but there was no opening. An elderly gentleman showed us how to slide the small cover back. Ah ha! As far as we can tell, the form seems to be for some sort of draw, though we haven't a clue for what. The cashier probably told us but my Spanish still isn't strong enough to understand a lot. We don't have a phone so we couldn't fill in our phone number and the form didn't ask for an email address so, even if we win, I'm not expecting to hear about it.
Then it was off to the bank to replenish funds. The ATM usually spits out 500 peso bills so it's always been a challenge coming up with small money for shopping, bus fare and tips. I finally got smart this trip. After hitting up the ATM, I go to the teller and exchange some of the big bills for a bunch of smaller ones. I've also started using 20 peso bills to pay for bus fare on occasion, instead of always trying to scrounge up enough coins. These two changes have made life so much easier.
Groceries was next on the agenda. As we were leaving the store, one of the baggers came up to us and wanted to check our bags. I use a couple of large, insulated zippered bags from Sobey's. I had to unzip them so she could look. She wanted to see if we had Coke bottles, which we didn't. And then she checked our bags again after we were outside the store. We have no idea what the issue was but I couldn't help but be glad we didn't have any Coke in the bags. After we got home, I realized I had forgotten to tip the person who bagged our groceries. Jeepers!
El Faro has all-you-can-eat-ribs on Tuesdays so a bunch of us from the complex went tonight. I'm not really big on ribs but these were good. I quite liked the potato salad, too.
I forgot to post that we went to their all-you-can-eat fish and chips on Friday. I never order fish and chips back home because there's always twice as much batter as there is fish but the batter the other night was thin. There was more fish than batter. And their fries are really, really good.
After supper tonight, we stopped for tea and lime pie at the home of one of the couples. As we were getting back to our unit, our neighbours invited us in for a drink, so we enjoyed a lovely evening visiting with several very nice people.
Showing posts with label taxes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taxes. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Monday, March 5, 2012
Productive Day
This morning we went uptown to exchange our rental money (USD) to pesos so we have money for now. Senor B tried to call our bank in Canada, via MagicJack, but he didn't have a very good connection so nothing got accomplished. Based on info we've been given about some banking glitches and procedures, we're (naively, perhaps?) confident that our situation is temporary. We're optimistic that everything will work out.
Then we went to pay our taxes at the big green building, whose name I don't remember, at the main square. I think it's called the Municipal Building, but I'm not certain. We can see that there are different things housed within its colourful walls but the only ones we can identify are the tax office and a school.
I've found that a good ice-breaker is to say, "Lo siento. Mi espanol no es bueno." "I'm sorry. My Spanish isn't good." It always makes people smile. Maybe I'm saying it all wrong and it amuses them? Anyways, they're always very helpful and patient. So I said this to the lady at the tax office as I produced the cedula catastral, the legal document needed to pay taxes. She smiles and says, "No problem," as she takes the papers. She does her calculations, writes the fee on a sticky note and hands it all back to me. Then it's over to the cashier to make payment.
I believe taxes have to be paid by the end of Feb to avoid penalty. I have no idea if we incurred a penalty or not. We paid 263.63 pesos/$20.41CDN. Twenty bucks! For the year! If we got penalized, well, we're sure not gonna complain.
Then we walked around downtown a bit. Senor B wanted to get himself a tank top. Our friend, Dave, who came down with us in Nov, said they're much cooler to wear than a t-shirt. Senor B and I have known each other for 26 years and I've never seen him wear a tank top. He's really been stepping out of his comfort zone as he's getting older. These shirts are colloquially known as wife-beaters but, lest I use a term that isn't in favour, I Googled and learned that they're also called A-shirts, the A standing for Athletic. Ummm...Senor B and athletic in the same sentence? Ummm...sure. Why not? LOL.
A quick stop at the market to pick up a few veggies and then it was back to the condo.
On our way out this morning, we had planned on going to Bodega to get groceries, as well. At the front gate we met up with D, who lives on the upper floor. He had errands to run this afternoon and offered to take us to the store so we took him up on that.
I've read, on other blogs, that you can call it a good day if you get 2 things accomplished. We got 5. I think we may have set a record. *grin*
Then we went to pay our taxes at the big green building, whose name I don't remember, at the main square. I think it's called the Municipal Building, but I'm not certain. We can see that there are different things housed within its colourful walls but the only ones we can identify are the tax office and a school.
I've found that a good ice-breaker is to say, "Lo siento. Mi espanol no es bueno." "I'm sorry. My Spanish isn't good." It always makes people smile. Maybe I'm saying it all wrong and it amuses them? Anyways, they're always very helpful and patient. So I said this to the lady at the tax office as I produced the cedula catastral, the legal document needed to pay taxes. She smiles and says, "No problem," as she takes the papers. She does her calculations, writes the fee on a sticky note and hands it all back to me. Then it's over to the cashier to make payment.
I believe taxes have to be paid by the end of Feb to avoid penalty. I have no idea if we incurred a penalty or not. We paid 263.63 pesos/$20.41CDN. Twenty bucks! For the year! If we got penalized, well, we're sure not gonna complain.
Then we walked around downtown a bit. Senor B wanted to get himself a tank top. Our friend, Dave, who came down with us in Nov, said they're much cooler to wear than a t-shirt. Senor B and I have known each other for 26 years and I've never seen him wear a tank top. He's really been stepping out of his comfort zone as he's getting older. These shirts are colloquially known as wife-beaters but, lest I use a term that isn't in favour, I Googled and learned that they're also called A-shirts, the A standing for Athletic. Ummm...Senor B and athletic in the same sentence? Ummm...sure. Why not? LOL.
A quick stop at the market to pick up a few veggies and then it was back to the condo.
On our way out this morning, we had planned on going to Bodega to get groceries, as well. At the front gate we met up with D, who lives on the upper floor. He had errands to run this afternoon and offered to take us to the store so we took him up on that.
I've read, on other blogs, that you can call it a good day if you get 2 things accomplished. We got 5. I think we may have set a record. *grin*
Monday, February 28, 2011
Last Day
Today is our last day for this trip. We so don't want to leave. We enjoy México so much.
After breakfast, D came downtown with us to help us pay our power bill and our taxes. She's fairly fluent and is a godsend to most of us here. We still had a credit at the electric company but I topped it up some, anyways. Here, you can prepay your electric. I suppose it can be done in Canada, but I don't know of too many people who have that kind of extra money lying around. It's so cheap here. I had an 800 peso credit sometime last year and still had a credit of 439 pesos.
The taxes went smoothly. We had all the appropriate paperwork and the name change from the builder to our trust company had already been done. We thought the taxes had been paid last year but the lady said it hadn't. Taxes for 2 years was 456 pesos, or about $40. For 2 years! Incredible.
A couple, M & J, who are staying with S & D upstairs expressed an interest in renting our condo so they came to take a look at it. I mentioned, in passing, that I'd been trying to find a doorstop for the laundry room door. We've been using a sandal stuffed underneath it.
We went back to the condo and had some lunch. Then down to the pool for one last day of sun. It was hot today. Forecast was 35C and I'm sure it was. I even spent most of the afternoon in the pool. Same for yesterday. As I mentioned in a previous post, you know it's hot when I go in the pool.
It's freaking cold at home, though. For the next week, the highs are in the minus mid teens, Celsius, of course. The lows will be in the -30C range. We'll get in to the airport at about 11pm so it's going to be somewhere near that -30. Lord have mercy.
S & D and their friends had gone into Mérida to do some shopping. They all joined us at the pool later. J came to me and said he had a gift for me. He holds out a book. I love reading but thought it was odd that he was giving me a book because I hadn't ever said anything about reading. Oh no. That wasn't the gift. Tucked into his hands, underneath the book, was a doorstop. I've looked around in México. I had even looked in Canada, to no avail. I was so excited. Unless you live here, it's hard to understand how much such little things mean.
We stayed at the pool until the sun was behind the building and we were in full shade. Then we made our way to our place to make supper.
It was hot enough today that we actually turned the AC on. Only the second time this trip. We get such a fantastic cross-breeze through the place that it rarely gets hot enough to use the AC. Tonight, there's almost no wind. Señor B has already gone to bed and said to leave the bedroom window open to get some airflow.
It's strangely quiet tonight. There's almost no traffic. Even the transit bus that sounds like a low flying airplane has only come by a couple of times, or so it seems. It's as though México is mourning with us about our impending departure.
I've only killed 4 ants tonight. Owen and Bindi have been invaded. They found a bunch in their blender, in the space between the base and the pitcher. They also found a bunch inside their oven. I also killed some weird bug that I've never seen before. I thought it was a cockroach but the pictures on Google don't look anything like what I killed.
Those ants are some tough critters! You can't do a gentle squish in hopes of avoiding a mess. If you don't step on them hard enough, they can still motor about. I had one on the wall that I swept off with my flip flop. I accidentally broke it in half. Be darned if the head half still didn't go running!
My feet are still puffy so I'm thinking it musn't be the Chlor Tripolon causing it. You'd think, after 4 days of not taking it, the swelling would be gone. There are some other possibilities that I'm going to try to rule out next trip.
Tomorrow is going to be an early morning so I'd best get to bed. We'd like to be out of here by 7:30am. It should be illegal to have to be up that early when you're on holidays.
After breakfast, D came downtown with us to help us pay our power bill and our taxes. She's fairly fluent and is a godsend to most of us here. We still had a credit at the electric company but I topped it up some, anyways. Here, you can prepay your electric. I suppose it can be done in Canada, but I don't know of too many people who have that kind of extra money lying around. It's so cheap here. I had an 800 peso credit sometime last year and still had a credit of 439 pesos.
The taxes went smoothly. We had all the appropriate paperwork and the name change from the builder to our trust company had already been done. We thought the taxes had been paid last year but the lady said it hadn't. Taxes for 2 years was 456 pesos, or about $40. For 2 years! Incredible.
A couple, M & J, who are staying with S & D upstairs expressed an interest in renting our condo so they came to take a look at it. I mentioned, in passing, that I'd been trying to find a doorstop for the laundry room door. We've been using a sandal stuffed underneath it.
We went back to the condo and had some lunch. Then down to the pool for one last day of sun. It was hot today. Forecast was 35C and I'm sure it was. I even spent most of the afternoon in the pool. Same for yesterday. As I mentioned in a previous post, you know it's hot when I go in the pool.
It's freaking cold at home, though. For the next week, the highs are in the minus mid teens, Celsius, of course. The lows will be in the -30C range. We'll get in to the airport at about 11pm so it's going to be somewhere near that -30. Lord have mercy.
S & D and their friends had gone into Mérida to do some shopping. They all joined us at the pool later. J came to me and said he had a gift for me. He holds out a book. I love reading but thought it was odd that he was giving me a book because I hadn't ever said anything about reading. Oh no. That wasn't the gift. Tucked into his hands, underneath the book, was a doorstop. I've looked around in México. I had even looked in Canada, to no avail. I was so excited. Unless you live here, it's hard to understand how much such little things mean.
We stayed at the pool until the sun was behind the building and we were in full shade. Then we made our way to our place to make supper.
It was hot enough today that we actually turned the AC on. Only the second time this trip. We get such a fantastic cross-breeze through the place that it rarely gets hot enough to use the AC. Tonight, there's almost no wind. Señor B has already gone to bed and said to leave the bedroom window open to get some airflow.
It's strangely quiet tonight. There's almost no traffic. Even the transit bus that sounds like a low flying airplane has only come by a couple of times, or so it seems. It's as though México is mourning with us about our impending departure.
I've only killed 4 ants tonight. Owen and Bindi have been invaded. They found a bunch in their blender, in the space between the base and the pitcher. They also found a bunch inside their oven. I also killed some weird bug that I've never seen before. I thought it was a cockroach but the pictures on Google don't look anything like what I killed.
Those ants are some tough critters! You can't do a gentle squish in hopes of avoiding a mess. If you don't step on them hard enough, they can still motor about. I had one on the wall that I swept off with my flip flop. I accidentally broke it in half. Be darned if the head half still didn't go running!
My feet are still puffy so I'm thinking it musn't be the Chlor Tripolon causing it. You'd think, after 4 days of not taking it, the swelling would be gone. There are some other possibilities that I'm going to try to rule out next trip.
Tomorrow is going to be an early morning so I'd best get to bed. We'd like to be out of here by 7:30am. It should be illegal to have to be up that early when you're on holidays.
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