As I’ve said before, we lived in Puerto Rico for five years and they have an extra special tax code love for Federal employees. I won’t torture you with our own personal experiences while we were there, but I want to relay a recent change done under the table to Federal employees on the Island.
As I’ve also said before, PR is flat broke and scrambling to pay for services. Virtually no one who can avoid it, pays taxes there. Most get welfare and work for cash under the table. Can’t pay the police and teachers if people are dodging taxes, eh? Federal employees have an extra special tax code there just for them and it’s adjusted as needed because you can’t escape if you work for the Feds.
A few months ago they decided to start taxing their 401k contributions on the down low. When it was discovered, the Puerto Rican government said something to the effect that “Yeah. We know that’s not kosher, but we need the money. And no. You can’t get it back and we aren’t going to stop because we’ve budgeted based on its availability. So. Sue us, but you’re not getting it back and we are going to keep taking it. We will tax it again if you retire here and withdraw money from your 401k.”
Insult to injury.
Man I love that island. It’s beautiful and you just never know what the hell they are going to do next.
I tell you this tale not because you could possibly care what happens to Federal employees there, but because that’s where our government is headed. If you think: They can’t do that. If you believe you are safe from madness like that, think again. Your government can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants in a welfare state like Puerto Rico. We send 11 billion dollars there to fund people on permanent welfare. This is what it looks like when the government “takes care of you”. Get ready for it, because it’s coming here.
It’s already here. Rangel has been given a free pass. Geithner was promoted. Dodd suffered no adverse action for his fraud. No one is watching the cookie jar.
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Comments
This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
You are so right. That’s my big fear: we are no longer in a land under the rule of law. Nothing can be counted on. How the heck do you make investment decisions under those circumstances??
I never, ever thought we’d be to this point already. Depressing as hell.
You don’t – unless it’s money you can stand to lose. Fortunes are made and lost in the blink of an eye in Banana Republics. Check your morality at the border.