California 2 Puerto Rico

Although the front of our property is pretty baron because of all of the excavation we have done, the surrounding property is lush with Mango trees, palm trees, salsa trees and a bunch of other jungle looking foliage.

For the past month, all my friends and neighbors have been telling me I need to go into the jungle and trim all of the pica pica (translates to: Itch Itch). Everyone says how bad it is, once the winter hits because the pods grow little fiberglass like hairs that will blow in the wind into your house, onto your sheets, on your laundry hanging on the line to dry, into your car, onto the wax on your surfboards…etc. You get the point.

Everyone that has told me these horror stories has gotten the same response from me; “Will you please show me exactly what the vine looks like so I can go down there and eradicate it?” Instead of giving me answers or walking me up to a plant, they continue telling me how bad it is. I hate asking a question and having to politely listen to someone sensationalized answer that never even comes close to answering the question, especially when it comes to something that seems so time sensitive.

Unfortunately for me, I got the closest thing to an answer yesterday and it seems that almost every vine we have hanging on both sides of our house (about 2 acres….covered) is some form of Pica Pica. I am not stoked on that.

Yesterday, I started cutting down the underbrush (covered in Pica Pica) at the top of the property. My goal is to complete the entire property in two weeks. This section took me 3 hours. I should have taken a before picture…it was 7ft tall. The tough thin is that you need to chop up the vine in an up and down motion before you can cut out the bottom of the plant or the Pica Pica just moves lower to the ground..and once the huge labyrinth of vines are on the ground…still alive, it is impossible to get to it and chop it up and it stops you from going the next 10 feet. Here is the start of my fantastically itchy voyage.

Popularity: 19% [?]

I shoved a bunch of Hibiscus clippings into the ground last month because Mark told me that it will just grow. You don’t need to get it to root in water, you just need to shove it into the ground. Some of our ground was so hard that I had to hammer a piece of rebarb into the ground first to “pre-drill” a hole for it. I pretty much stuck about 40 pieces into the ground and forgot about them.

One month later, it is amazing how well they are all doing. They have green leaves and branches popping out all over the place and this one even grew a flower!

Popularity: 12% [?]

With all of the work we have been doing on the house, we haven’t really been focusing on the Master Bedroom. It has been on my mind, but there is a chronological process to all of the work we are doing here and the way it works out…we need to finish “A”, “B” and “C” before we can get started on “D”. For example, I am not going to pull Gino off of the kitchen tile work to start on the vanities in the master bath because we are waiting on the kitchen tile work completion to finish installing the cabinets…and we are waiting for the kitchen cabinet installation to order the counter tops (so we can have an exact measurement) and the counter tops take 6 weeks to arrive. HOWEVER, we are waiting for the vanities to be built so we can measure the amount of tile we need so we can start to finish the master bedrooms jacuzzi and vanity corner…which is the first thing you see as you enter the room. See what I am saying…chronological process.

Another example of this is the process of laying the marble walls in the Master Bath. The tile we are using on the floor is a pre-sealed and grouted travertine. It is somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. It will (is) cover the entire floor and will be the 6” border around the bottom of the shower and wet room. From there, we will stack the marble on top of it and carry it up the wall to six feet. Here is the process; the marble is 3/4″ to 1″ thick…so we need to build the bottom tiles out a half an inch or so so the staggered marble tiles are flush with the border tile. Because the marble is so heavy, we need to give the travertine a day or two to dry to ensure it is structurally sound….but we came up 10 tiles short for the installation so that has come to a grinding halt. We are pretty much dead in the water in the master bath until those tiles come in…which I had to special order from San Juan.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Today, I worked with Jerry cleaning up all of the junk in the backyard to get it ready for the dump truck. Once we were done moving all of the wood and trash around…I went and picked up my Mark Richards surfboard from one of the local ding repair guys and went for a surf in little waist high, but clean surf. When I got back to the house, Jerry and the guys had already spread all of the topsoil around the front yard, dumped all of the trash in the truck and were pretty much waiting on me. I was only gone for two hours!

The guy that sold us the topsoil used a Bobcat to push all of the dirt around and pick up our trash. He said if we wanted to use it for anything, he would leave it with us for the rest of the day. Of course we could use it! So, for the next three hours I powered around the yard in a Bobcat clearing weeds, moving dirt and getting ready for our big planting day tomorrow. I think we need a few Bobcats for miscellaneous stuff around the yard…maybe 3 or 4.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I just ordered my new desktop computer from Apple.com and found out some very disturbing news. Apple does not ship to Puerto Rico! (or any other US Territories)

Because Apple won’t ship my new iMac to Puerto Rico, I have to get my new iMac shipped to the Vicious Enterprises office in Carlsbad and then ship it from there to Puerto Rico. The operator that took my order gave me a couple of hundred bucks off of the list price to accommodate the extra money I would have to spend to re-ship the computer down here.

Apple is so cool.

Popularity: 20% [?]

If you have been following our www.ca2pr.com then you already know that Summer and I are very anxious to get our landscaping started. The hardest part is the first couple of months, then, once the plants are over the “shock period” they will grow like crazy.

For the past two weeks I have been calling around trying to get the best deal for topsoil, sod, a backhoe and getting rid of all of the rubbish we have piled up in the front and back yard.

Today, I finally closed the deal. Here is how it breaks down.
1. Topsoil - $17.50 a meter (we are getting 20 meters; almost two dumptrucks)
2. Backhoe - $35 an hour (4 hours)
3. Load and Haul away all our rubbish - $150

The deal I finally negotiated is $525 for all of the above.

Having grass (at least 6 weeks from today) should help with all of the dirt we are tracking into the house..just in time for the IPE Hardwood Floors to go down. It’s all got to get dirtier before it gets cleaner!

Popularity: 6% [?]

According to Stefans accountant, if you own a business in Puerto Rico and employ at least 5 Puerto Ricans, you are not required to pay taxes. That’s right, no state taxes and no federal taxes!

Minimum wage in Puerto Rico is $3.61 - $5.15, which means it would cost $2,888 - $4,120 per month to employ 5 Puerto Ricans full time.

Verrrrrry interesting.

Stefan is going to get more details on this from his accountant and I have a meeting on Monday with my accountant/financial planner. We’ll post the lowdown when we get the facts on this one…

Popularity: 19% [?]

I am trying to figure out how to handle my taxes this year and requested some information from my accountant. Here is what he sent me, we will be having a phone conversation about this in a couple days so he clarify what all this means to me. I’ll let you know if I found out any relevant tax information for US citizens that now live in Puerto Rico.

U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences (Individual)

• If a U.S. citizen is a “bona fide resident” of Puerto Rico during the “entire taxable year,” income derived from Puerto Rico sources shall not be included as gross income and therefore exempt from US Federal Income Tax. However, no deductions or credits may be taken if such deductions and credits are properly allocable or chargeable against amounts excluded from gross income (See IRC Sec. 933(1)).
• To establish “bona fide residency” in a US Possession (including Puerto Rico), a U.S. citizen must satisfy the presence test by: (i) being present in the relevant possession for at least 183 days during the taxable year; (ii) present in the U.S. for no more than 90 days during the taxable year; (iii) during the taxable year had earned income in U.S. not exceeding $3,000 and was present for more days in the relevant possession than in the U.S.; or (iv) had no significant connection to the US during the taxable year (See Treas. Reg. 1.937-1(c)).
• In addition to satisfying the presence test, in the year of a move to a U.S. possession, the individual must: (i) for each of the 3 taxable years immediately preceding the taxable year of the change of residence, the individual is not a bona fide resident of the relevant possession; (ii) For each of the last 183 days of the taxable year of the change in residence, the individual does not have a tax home outside the relevant possession or a closer connection to the US or a foreign country other than to the relevant possession; and, (iii) for each of the 3 taxable years immediately following the taxable year of the change in residence, the individual is a bona fide resident of the relevant possession (See Treas. Reg. 1.937-1(f)).
• If the requirements above are met, then the individual will be considered a bona fide resident of the relevant possession (Puerto Rico) for the entire year (See example 8 to Treas. Reg. Sec. 1.937-1(g)).
• However, if these requirements are not met, the individual may not be considered a bona fide resident of the relevant possession for the entire year and thus all worldwide income would be subject to U.S. Federal Income Tax laws (See Bergersen v. Commissioner, 109 F.3d 56 (1st Circ., 1997); John Motion v. Commissioner, TC Memo 1975-43).

Benefits for Establishing Operations in Puerto Rico;

• Puerto Rico offers significant tax benefits and incentives to certain qualified businesses that relocate to Puerto Rico.
• A majority of these benefits and incentives must be obtained by submitting an application to the relevant Puerto Rico tax authorities and/or designated agencies.
• One of the benefits includes a total current expense deduction in the purchase, acquisition, or construction of buildings, structures, machinery, and equipment used in the rendering of certain qualified services.
• Generally, if the corporation is in the service sector, it must meet the following requirements: (i) the service rendered must be on a commercial scale; (ii) the service must be rendered for the benefit of markets outside Puerto Rico; (iii) at least 80% of the employees of the service unit must be residents of Puerto Rico; (iv) the service must be a designated service; and (v) the qualifying service unit must employ a minimum of 5 persons in its eligible service operations.

Popularity: 5% [?]

We started working on the kitchen floor yesterday. We are butt jointing all of the tiles (no gap) which makes it a more difficult task as opposed to having a gap between each seem that would allow you to fudge the measurements a bit.

After measuring the entire room, determining the center point and determining which part of the room is going to be the focal point, we laid out the tiles so that all of the cuts would be against the wall on the right and or under the cabinets once they are completely installed. The entrance has full tiles as will the main work area of the kitchen. The first few rows of marble that were installed need to sit for 48 hours to completely cure before they start making cuts and laying the sides. They’ll need to walk on them which means they need to be completely set and dry.

The factory cuts of the marble are not perfect, some of them are a little bit thicker at one end vs the other and some of the edges have tiny areas that look beveled. I don’t know if that is how all marble is, or if that is a bi-product of buying marble in Puerto Rico. There are going to be some small gaps that we’ll have to fill in with a grout at the end of the day. Gino suggested we grind up broken pieces of the marble to create a grout that matches color perfectly. We’ll see…do any of you have experience with a decision like this?

Here are some pictures of the progress:

Popularity: 16% [?]

Acting the recommendation of the Granite guy in Mayaguez, I am going to buy 511 Impregnator to seal the white marble floors in the kitchen. The only stuff I found around here is way too expensive…so we are going to order it online.

511 Impregnator Sealer is applied to polished marble floors as a water, stain and slip protector (it also says it can be used on slate, quarzile, travertine, polished granite, porcelain tile, quarry tile, terrazzo, concrete, brick, stucco, agglomoerate and sanded grout). It is designed to protect medium to dense porous surfaces. It creates an invisible barrier that resists moisture and stains but still allows moisture to escape. Each gallon covers 1,000-4,000 square feet.

Popularity: 16% [?]