REPORT #505 July 2002
SMALL INVESTORS VULNERABLE TO CROOKED POLITICS ARE FLEEING BELIZE! WILL THIS CREATE A FLOOD AND LOWER REAL ESTATE PRICES? WILL THIS CREATE A REVOLUTION IN BELIZE TO OVERTHROW THE BRITISH CORRUPT SPOILS SYSTEM OF GOVERNING?


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

Letter example!
Checking in via internet cafe in San Pedro. I read the posts re: the BTB (Belize Tourist Board) harassment of Wendy. I have neither the time nor the inclination (at $9 US per hour!) to read the laws again, so I will respond off the top of my head. I'll revisit the law when I return home.

I have always paid the tourist tax on my rentals. My condos are registered with the BTB and I believe they always have been; my managers have always handled that. I pay a fee every year for that as well as the tourist tax.

I don't recall the law on what is and isn't a "hotel" but to the best of my understanding, one does not have to be a "hotel" to incur the liability to pay the 7% tourist tax. My understanding is that if you rent ANYTHING in the way of accommodations to the tourist market you must charge and pay this tax for your rentals. Obviously if you are renting to long term tenants the tax is not applicable, but I think Wendy is going to have to pay it if she is renting to tourists; ie: short term rentals. Of course, Wendy should seek guidance from a Belizean lawyer but that is my understanding.

The conduct of the BTB is clearly harassment. If they believe that Wendy should be paying the tourist tax on her rentals and isn't doing so, the proper way to handle it is by letter and a request for payment, not sending goon squads.

Furthermore, the purpose of the "tourist police" to my understanding is to prevent crimes against tourists and to quickly apprehend any criminals who rob or defraud tourists. Use of the tourist police to threaten an accommodations owner for alleged failure to comply with a tax requirement is misuse of public employees and funds (what else is new?) Obviously Wendy is a target for her political outspokenness (and because somebody "connected" wants her land.)

This kind of treatment is indeed why we are focussing future activity and residence in Panama. We do not want our limited assets to be at the mercy of political hacks, goon squads, corrupt politicians and unjust courts, and we cannot afford them to be. At this point we plan to keep the condos but if we at some point find that our ability to make a return on them (after ten years of mortgage payments) is threatened by confiscatory and arbitrary policies, we will sell them.

Wendy is Belizean and has a heritage and family in Caye Caulker, and of course she has good reasons to stay and fight for justice, but foreign investors at the small scale level are starting to pull out of Belize due to the growing perception that the lack of fair laws and transparency puts small investors at risk. The real estate agent we bought our land in Panama from tells me that he is getting quite a bit of business from people who have or had interests in Belize and are leaving due to these kinds of concerns as well as others. Of course big investors whether foreign or native born who can afford to "contribute" to the pols don't have this problem since they can buy their way out of anything. It's the little guy who gets nervous.

Editors Note: The big money Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan have already sold out and left Belize, for the most part, with minor exceptions.

Belize's loss is Panama's gain and that of Costa Rica. It will take a political revolution to change things in Belize to foster development. Under the current political structure widespread development by many small new immigrant investors is simply too precarious and nearly impossible.

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