Friday, July 26th, 2013

Warning!  Long posting ahead!  (But you might be able to skip some of it.)

I went to bed at 10:30, got up 4 or 5 times during the night to use the bathroom.  Was this because I had such a modest dinner (cereal) before taking my medicine?  Woke up at 6:30 and as soon as I moved I got a cramp in my right calf.  It this due to too much walking or is there something – like Potassium – missing from my diet?  Finally got up at 7am and decided to skip my usual Friday morning workout. 

I forgot to mention yesterday while Jhon and I were having our drinks at the store, David, who I first wrote about 2 months ago, was sitting a couple of tables away.  I was reading Jhon several jokes when David said he had to ask me a question.  He said something like “Do you know how to make the sun without getting burned?”  It just didn’t make sense.  After a couple of attempts to clarify his question he finally got up and moved to our table.  Jhon asked him if he had been drinking and he said “no”.  I looked at the glassy look in his eyes and asked him if he has been taking drugs and he said “yes”.  I told him what he is saying isn’t making any sense and we never heard another peep out of him after that.  About 15 minutes later he got up without a word and walked back towards his apartment.  Strange guy; not someone I want to be friends with!

I also figured out the easiest way to turn off the “flashlight” is simply to turn the cell phone off and back on.

Last night I set up the voicemail on my magicJack and sent my brother an email asking him to call my number and leave me a message.  This morning while I was having my coffee and reading my emails I saw I had one from magicJack telling me my brother had called a few minutes before and not only could I log into my magicJack account on my laptop to retrieve the message but I could also play his message on my iPad by simply clicking an icon in the email.  That was so cool!  Now when someone calls me and I’m not on the computer they can leave me a message.

I’ve gotten several responses to my Non-Resident Alien posting on Colombia Expats.  For example (with minor cleanup of their English):

Harry T: “I read your posts on the Yahoo Colombia Expats board regarding the 30 percent reduction of your retirement pension. I decided not to post my suggestions on the board but instead to send you a private e-mail because many of the posts were more about bad mouthing some IRS policy than offering advice on how you can get the company to stop withhold 30 percent of your pension.

Here is my take on your situation. In your blog, you stated that you are receiving mail in Medellin from your pension office.  This action suggests that at some point in the past, you provided your pension office a foreign address (a physical and mailing address in Colombia). Terry that action was probably the beginning of the miscommunication between you and the company. 

However, at this point the most important thing is getting your money released. I suggest, use your Magic Jack to call your pension office.  Ask to speak to a supervisor and explain that a mistake was made.  Let the person know that you are an American citizen, end of discussion. Let the person know that you have an American address, phone number, bank accounts, and you were born in xxx city in 19xx. 

Ask what type of document would be acceptable to prove your citizenship. Get that person's name and send the required information to his or her attention.  Your pension office is probably going to require some type of document or statement from you to make the change.  It may accept just a notarized letter.  But, that would mean a trip to the Embassy in Bogota to get a notarized statement.

Next, you should change your foreign address to an American address.  During my 7 plus years in Panama, I never gave anyone an address of phone number in Panama.  And, of the hundreds if not thousands of retirees living in Panama City I never met anyone who did not conduct their business through an American address.  The one exception is that some folks have their social security checks deposited directed into a local bank.  The State Department has made special arrangement with one or two banks in almost every country to allow direct deposit of social security and military retirement checks.  Some people use that process and others prefer to have their checks deposited into a bank in the United States.

It seems to me that the company made a mistake but you may have to push the issue upward to a supervisor, a manager to get a quick resolution.  Thirty percent is no small amount of money.

Finally, if you prefer not to use a mail forwarding company that would provide an address in the Miami area, use your brother's address. Your magic jack has an American telephone number, and you have American bank accounts.  In addition, your passport has your citizenship.”

Chuck: “You are being caught up in the IRS crackdown on citizens parking money offshore to avoid taxes, obviously people living on a pension are not the problem but you get lumped into a greater attempt to collect $$.
Colombia is not on an approved list that the IRS maintains therefore you get hit with the bigger withholding, but important to note Is that it is a withholding not additional tax, when you file your taxes you should get it all back, of course it can crimp your budget during the year”

Tommy (an ex-US judge): “If it were I, I would be on the phone and ‘in your face’, threatening to report unlawful deduction (since I am a US citizen) and so forth. Would not a simple fax of a copy of your passport do the trick? I have a VOIP phone at my home that you are welcome to use to call and get this straightened out.”

Jim D: “Do you have a Stateside address?  I do, and have not been back for many years and my pension is deposited in my bank in the States and I have not been affected”

Clyde: “It would appear that you would be well served to buy a scanner and send a scan of the information page of your passport to your pension company.  Assuming you are an American citizen that should solve your problem.”

Costabaru: “As far as I can tell that is the default position they take to avoid harsh punitive penalties. This happened to me. I was pissed as I am a descendent of Rev. War patriots. This triggered when i changed my address to Panama even though the pension was being deposited in the US. They didn't know my citizenship until I sent them documents to that effect. Took over a year to get the withholding back, but the deductions stopped immediately. So in the end the onus is on you to show that you are not a "foreign person". Dummies, yes! What a load!”

Heidenis: “Unfortunately, Chuck is right BUT, it is not happening only in Colombia. All American monies being sent out of the US for pension, investments or for profiteering is subject to a withholding tax. I have invested money in Canadian stocks and bonds. Every year, they notify the IRS of the amount of money made and withhold 15% of it. It forces the resolution of any gains to go thru the IRS and will be credited back to you if your taxes work out that way. It also opens a "window" for the IRS to peek at what you are doing financially outside of the US borders. The tax man ALWAYS wins! The best answer so far is to maintain a US address ....there are services that do this like UPS.... and pay your taxes every year. If your taxes are done electronically via computer....turbo tax, H+R Block etc....there is no real way that they would come after you. The IRS uses the USPS to contact you if there are any conflicts and for a small fee the UPS folks can forward mail to you for resolution.  If you do not pay taxes or at least file a tax form your SS checks can and will be stopped until resolution has been achieved.  Just an FYI!”

I’m confident in time I can get my pension company to stop their 30% withholding practice, but after that – do I go through the trouble of changing all my addresses back to a US address?

I checked the movie theatres and there isn’t anything new playing this week.

I really want to see all the Chicago Bears football games this year.  I would rather see them on the big screen but barring that I would be willing to watch them on my laptop.  This morning I found the following information on the Chicago Bears app on my iPad:

Chicago Bears Mobile: Watch Bears games online this season

http://bit.ly/1bRFd9l
http://www.chicagobears.com/news/article-1/Watch-Bears-games-online-this-season/3b62878b-bc4b-465f-8ced-9d5dc3f73dd0

Probably most appropriate for me are their Game Pass and Audio Pass services:

“ChicagoBears.com and the National Football League are once again giving fans the opportunity to follow every minute of NFL football and scout the team like a pro this season with a full suite of enhanced services. Each product allows fans to view games on their desktop computer or mobile/tablet devices in HD with DVR control features.

Bears fans living outside the United States and Mexico can subscribe to a similar service called Game Pass, an international version of Game Rewind that allows fans to watch NFL games live in HD with DVR controls.

Another service available is Audio Pass, which will allow fans to listen to the home or away team radio broadcasts for every NFL game as they're taking place.

Now, it's easier than ever to follow every snap of Bears football at home, on the go, and in HD.”

Game Pass is $99.99 for all the Bears preseason and regular season games through January 10^th.  (Not sure if that would include playoff games.)  It looks like it would work on my iPad but not my laptop.)

Audio Pass is $14.99 for the audio version only; otherwise it’s the same as the above.

I think I might go with Game pass for a season and then if it turns out I can find all the games elsewhere then I just wouldn’t renew it for next season.

I just checked the Bears season schedule and of the 16 regular season games:

Games on CBS: 2

Games on FOX: 10

Games on NBC: 1

Games on ESPN: 2

Games on NFL Network: 1

The NFL Network game is a Thursday Night Game of the Week and the ESPN games are both a Monday Night Game of the Week.

So to summarize, I should be able to see the NFL Network and ESPN games in some sports bar here and the others I should be able to watch using USTVNOW.  (I just have to remember to log in early so as to get into the bandwidth.)

Breakfast was a bowl of cereal with my leftover milk.

Lunch was a Hamburdog at Dogger’s in the lower level of Viva Mall for 8,900 with a bag of potato chips for 1900 and a large Pepsi for 3,200 for a total of 14,000 ($7.37).  A Chicago hot dog is traditionally an all beef hotdog, right?  A hamburger is made of beef, right?  Therefore, a Hamburdog is an all beef hotdog.  It was tasty but instead of being thick like a Chicago style it is long more like a foot long.  From there I walked to Dario’s apartment building and it only took 15 minutes.  I have to remember that because I keep getting there early.

We walked down to Avenida 80 and caught a Circular 302 bus.  While on the bus I confirmed that it goes to Monterrey C.C.  We got off across the street from the SaludCoop building which is just down the street from the Immigration office.  We crossed the street and behind the building is a campus with the Belen library.  There is security outside the library and I had to give the woman a peek inside my chess bag.  Dario and I played 2 games of chess – 30 minutes each.  In the first game I had  black and I was in command throughout the game but I ended up losing on time.  The 2^nd game I had white and early on he made a mistake and I got a knight for a pawn and he resigned on the 24^th move since the outcome was inevitable.

He then asked me if a young man there could play against me and Dario would be down the hall in another room.  The young man spoke good English and was a very good player.  He got me “out of book” from the very first move.  After 30 moves we each had 3 pawns in front of our king and a rook and we agreed to a draw.

There was a cute boy of about 5 or 6 who kept trying to talk to me in English and Spanish but we just couldn’t communicate.

I then went down the hall and guess who was there with Dario?  Margarita, his dentist friend. They were working on something like a crossword puzzle.  There were a few clues in English that I helped them with.  While they were working on that I tried to do a Sudoku puzzle but I was only able to find 2 numbers.

We left there and went to a small store where he and I each had a Pepsi and a slice of cake and Margarita had a small bag of cookies.  I learned Margarita has a 27 year old son who is also a dentist and a husband who is a doctor.  When then walked to her car and she gave us a ride down Avenida 80 near his house.  On the way, there was a young man at a stoplight riding a unicycle with one leg balancing a soccer ball and also balancing something on top of his head.  We also drove past Kif Kof Burger and at 5pm on a Friday night there was no one there.  Amazing what they can learn to do here to make money.  We then said our goodbyes and I walked a couple blocks more to Viva Mall.  BTW, Dario paid for the snacks and all the bus rides.

I had a Whopper and large milkshake at Burger King for 16,100.  The young girl didn’t even ask for the extra 100 pesos when I only gave her 16mil.

When I got back to my apartment I noticed the microwave read 000 instead of the time so we must have lost our power temporarily while I was gone.

Just after 6pm I was finishing my shower when I heard someone buzz my apartment from outside.  Since they buzzed more than once I was pretty sure it was Beatriz.  I wasn’t expecting her until 7pm.  I dried myself off as quickly as I could, put on my terry cloth towel and went out on the balcony.  She was sitting on the little ledge on the neighbor’s property.  She was dressed in jeans and a nice top so I then had an idea of how to dress.  I put on jeans and let her pick out a short sleeved shirt for me to wear.  We walked across the street from Laureles Mall to a place called “San Antonio Dulces y Postres” which means “San Antonio sweets and desserts”.  We each picked out a different slice of cake – hers was cherry and mine was more like tiramisu for a total of 9mil ($4.74).  We each also had a cup of water – what a cheap date she is!  

We then stopped across the street at Laureles Mall and looked at the pets in the pet store and we stopped in the open pet area and watched the dogs playing with each other.  On the walk back we stopped at her house for a minute and she went inside.  A minute later her son came out and we chatted a bit in English.  If I remember correctly he’s going to be 19 on August 11^th.  A minute later Beatriz’ mother came out - who doesn’t speak any English.  What’s interesting is that Beatriz, who is 5’ tall, is at least about a foot taller than her mother, and her son is about 6’ tall.

Back at my apartment I copied a few jokes into the Google Translator for her that she enjoyed.  We’re going to meet again on Sunday at 1pm when she promised to clean my apartment.  There is a small chance she might meet me Saturday at Laureles Mall.