“Who says that Mexicans are poor?”

Sunday June 6, 2010


Staring at my computer screen as I type, I am lacking concentration because of a big issue I came across with related to hacienda (the IRS), I missed the deadline to file my income tax return since one of my clients from last year refused to give me my constacias (w-2 forms) so I can’t seem to generate clear thoughts as much as I would like to, my mind is more concentrated on what I need to do in order to avoid being fined and thinking that I had never in my life had to pay so much money on tax fees. I don’t know how it works for foreigners working with an fm-2 or fm-3, I am working as a Mexican so before you panic, you might want to find out the full details.
But as we speak about taxes, I came across these interesting facts while looking for something else. This circulated all of Mexico in 2007, before the economy crashed.


“Who says that Mexicans are poor?”

One time a Mexican man living in Mexico emailed another Mexican man living in the U. S. to inquire why Mexicans are poor.
The Mexican man in the U. S. replied,

“Jose,
I can tell right away that you can’t see the trees because of the forest. How can you call yourself “poor” when you able to pay more than double than I do for a cubic meter of water? When you have the luxury of paying 60% more on electricity and phone services than what I pay? When Mexico is on the top five world-wide with highest electricity and phone service fees?
Or when I pay 20, 000 USD for a car and you are able to pay $38,000? You are able to give away $18,000 dollars to the government and we aren’t! Freaking Pepe, I don’t get you!

We residents of Florida are the poor ones, that’s why the state government bears in mind our economic situation and only charges us 2“% of VAT (Value Added Tax), plus another federal tax which is 4%, a total of 6%. On the other hand, you wealthy Mexicans living in Mexico have to pay 16%


On top of that you pay for “luxury taxes” such as the IEPS, (for alchohol, cigarettes, cigars, beer and wine, etc,) which reaches 120% of the original value and other taxes like ISR (Impuesto sobre utilidades y sueldos), utility and salary tax, ISAN (Impuesto sobre automoviles nuevos), tax when buying a new vehicle.
IMPUESTO AL ACTIVO, (impuesto a los bienes de las empresas), corporate tax,
IMPUESTO A LOS INVENTARIOS, (impuesto a las mercancías de las empresas), inventory tax fee,
TENENCIAS, (impuesto por uso de automóvil), tax for owning a vehicle,
2% s/NOMINA,(impuesto al valor de nómina de las empresas), 2% payroll tax,
2% s/HOSPEDAJE; (impuesto adicional por renta de habitación hotelera) 2% additional lodging fee.
You are very fortunate because you can even pay IVA (Value Added Tax) on top of all those taxes.




If you weren’t wealthy, wouldn’t you find it pointless to have such high tax fees?
Porque si ustedes no fueran ricos, ¿qué sentido tendría tener unos impuestos de ese calibre?

So are you really poor? Not in the least!

A country like Mexico that charges ISR (Impuesto Sobre la Renta) in advance. It has to definitely be swimming in abundance because it thinks that the nation’s business and its residents will always generate earnings and of course as your name describes it, “Wealthy.”

We are the poor ones because we don’t pay ISR (Impuesto Sobre la Renta) if we make less than $3,000 USD a month per person – an average of 35,000.00 pesos.

In Mexico you pay for prívate pólice service, on the other hand, we have to conform with public police services.

You even send your children to private schools and damn are we poor here in the U. S.! Public schools lent us their books since we don’t have the financial means to buy them.
Allí hasta envían a los hijos a colegios privados y mira si seremos pobres aquí en EE.UU., que las escuelas publicas te

Sometimes I am amazed at Mexican’s wealth when they are able to pay at least 38% interest rate for a simple loan.

That means wealth!
It’s not like here, we barely pay 8% (7.8% for the most part) because we cannot afford to pay more.
I’m assuming that just like all the wealthy people there you own a car and you are paying 8 or 10% annual insurance. Just so you know I only pay $345 USD a year.

¡¡¡ ESO ES SER RICO!!!
No como aquí, que apenas llegamos al 8% (generalmente 7.8%), justamente porque NO estamos en condiciones de pagar más.
Supongo que, como todo rico, tienes un carro y que estás pagando un 8 o 10% anual de seguro; si te sirve de información, yo pago solo US $ 345 por año.

You must have all this extra Money if you can make annual payments of about $1,000 USD for this so called thing called “Tenencia.” Meanwhile here we can’t afford to have that luxury so we only pay 15USD for the sticker, it doesn’t matter what kind of car we drive. Of course that is only for people who have a limited budget, we don’t manage those large money flows that you Mexicans do.
do the math.

Who is the wealthy one and who is the poor one?
And finally, more than 20% of people in Mexico are unemployed.

Here there’s only a 4% unemployment rate.
Don’t you agree that being unemployed is a luxury that only the wealthy can give themselves?


Come on brother!
You stayed in Mexico because you are wealthy! Only the poor ones like me are the ones who went to try our luck somewhere else.
I was also told that citizens pay the Federal, State and the Municipal Government a huge amount of money.
I am very jealous! That’s what it’s like to live surrounded by wealth!

Well Pepe,
Let me know how you are doing with next year’s budget. One thing for sure though, is that you will have to pay more tax fees. But well, it doesn’t really matter when you have all this money to pay.

Sincerely,

Your poor immigrant friend