In the last four years I have seen a negative trend that leaves me shaking my head in wonder as Uruguay’s government does everything it can to make this country poorer. Prices have increased, and property prices have become ridiculous. From a business point of view, everything has become harder and more expensive.

But, THE WORST IS YET TO COME. Uruguay’s government has announced that it is giving up its traditional territorial taxation and will start taxing the worldwide income of its residents—including investment income.

In fairness, according to a friend of mine in the governing party, Uruguay was bludgeoned into this change by the OECD countries, especially by the USA and the EU, which threatened to ban Uruguay’s agricultural products if this new taxation was not enacted.

Nevertheless, the impact of this new tax law will be huge, especially on expats and immigrants who moved here based on the principal that their foreign investment income and pensions would be tax free.

The flight has already begun; even people who have gotten their permanent residency have left and more are planning to leave.

Those who can afford two homes in two different countries are debating whether it is worth living here less than 183 days per year, in which case they would not be tax resident (assuming Uruguay uses the OECD model on which the tax is based); and then living someplace else for less than 183 days (except the US which has different rules). With a couple of vacation days in a third country, they would then not be tax-resident in either place.

Those who cannot afford two homes are taking a hard look at Central America and Eastern Europe, depending upon their tastes and needs.

I am personally broken-hearted about this, but will probably still spend about 180 days here, and the balance in one or more of the other places in which I have business.

I wonder if anyone in government here has considered the results of this ill-advised decision?

Frankly, unless Uruguay provides some exceptions, like for pensioners, or at least concludes a series of double taxation treaties, without which some immigrants could find them paying taxes twice, the number of new residents will slow to a trickle, while the number of immigrants leaving, for at least a majority of the year will swell to a tidal wave that will have a huge negative impact on the economy as they spend their dollars or euros elsewhere.

I am taking a wait and see attitude before making any final decisions, but I am sifting through my options. I suggest you do the same.

US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends.

The National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts China, India and Russia will increasingly challenge US influence.

It also says the dollar may no longer be the world’s major currency, and food and water shortages will fuel conflict.

If that isn’t enough, remember this:  the US Dollar is going to drop precipitously in the next few years due to the huge amount of money the government is printing to finance bailouts.

Pocitos, Buceo
traffic all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
My ‘lectric trike today
La Rambla is a mess
cars are everywhere
Christmas here in Uruguay
is more fun than up there!

The UruguayLiving/Socieadad Southron pre-Christmas party will be held on Thursday night December 20th.. Please bring any Christmas music that you want to hear–The Southron will have a good selection of traditional (and even some modern stuff for the infidels).

There will NOT be an Open House on Thursday night December 27th!

We will resume our usual schedule on January 3rd.

As of this past May, immigration is only accepting 10 new applicants per day. By their definition, a “new applicant” is someone who is turning in all of the paperwork to go “en trámite”. It’s the day you get your fingerprints taken. On this day, you need to go to the main information desk and get a special number—1 through 10—printed on a green card. During my last few visits, they’ve had two agents working on these 10 new applicants, and 1 working on everyone else.

For all other business, such as checking on visa status or consultations prior to turning everything in, continue to take one of the old numbers off the roll. As usual, those who’ve taken a wrong number need to take another number and start the wait over.

The agent at the desk told me that this action was implemented to relieve the over-burdened system, and is not intended to limit the number of immigrants coming to Uruguay. She did not know how long this process would remain in place.

We have asked our law firm to follow up on this and will report more as we learn about it.

But, no matter how hard we try, we can never fairly represent Uruguay the way native born Uruguayos can. Because it is their story that needs to be told, and not ours, we at UruguayLiving.com have decided to publish UruguayDailyNews.com as a means for Uruguay’s authentic voices to be heard to the world, or at least the English-speaking portions thereof.

UruguayDailyNews.com is primarily a digest of the news as reported by the major newspapers and broadcast media here in Uruguay.

The stories that we cover are selected by Uruguayos, not by us. The overwhelming majority of the articles will be taken from these local news sources, to which links will be provided whenever possible.

We make sure that you know whence those reports originated—and also the point of view of the original reporter, if possible.

Front page news will be reported daily, Monday through Friday—extraordinary events will be covered even on the weekends. Less pressing business, cultural, artistic, sports and other community news will be covered at least once weekly. Monday they will focus on the visit to Uruguay of President Bush this weekend.

We, the medio-Uruguayos (half-Uruguayans), help things along by editing the English translations and also by writing editorials occasionally. We also may try to explain some of the things reported in order to make them more understandable to our worldwide Anglophone audience.

And you can participate!

UruguayDailyNews.com is in blog format so there will be a place for your questions or comments—after they have been reviewed to avoid spam, commercials, or other over-the-top behavior.

THIS IS JUST A START!!! New features are planned for coming months. With your support it will grown and become a permanent part of the media here.

Welcome to UruguayDailyNews.com!

¡Bienvenidos a UruguayDailyNews.com!

Publisher: R David Finzer
Deputy Publisher: Santiago Galli
Editor-in-Chief: Christopher T. Kohl
Managing Editor: Andres Garín
News Editor: Pablo Cadenas
Kibitzer-at-Large: Theodore L. Raiter