Finding personal freedom in Costa Rica

Absent a libertarian society, we each need to find a place that gives us the maximum amount of freedom, in the areas we consider important. This is a very personal decision.

We have found quite a bit of effective freedom in Costa Rica. Here we are able to live in a semi-urban area, with great weather, 20 minutes away from San Jose, with enough land to do what we want. There are no zoning laws or city ordinances that say we cannot have chickens or rabbits, or can only have a certain number of dogs. There are no leash or registration laws for animals. We have the advantages of an urban area (restaurants, shopping, Broadband Internet access, etc) with none of the nit-picking hassles that I remember from the US.
When we bought the property we put up a 3 meter wall made of black roofing metal along the front. Then we renovated the house that was there and built another one. All without permits.

I assume someone saw all the construction equipment going in and out, or maybe saw the house being built one day while the gate was open, because at one point late into the construction an inspector from the municipality showed up and demanded to see the permits. He did not come onto the property, staying just outside the gate. Since Costa Rican building codes define a house as "complete" when it has a roof, and after that it is only renovation, for which permits are not required (as long as there are no structural changes), I told him that I didn't need permits. We argued for a little while, at the end of it I told him write me a summons (not the exact term, but the closest I can translate) or leave. He left.

The local police have come here three times. In all cases they stayed outside the property until I explicitly invited them onto it. This is in great contrast to the cops in NYC who came into my house, twice, uninvited.

Here, the powers of the police are strictly limited and they respect those limits. There was a case recently, where a person convicted of fraud did not show up for sentencing. The police wanted to enter his house, the courts would not give them a warrant because there was no evidence that he was there.

Taxation is territorial. This means that if you did not make the money in Costa Rica, it is not subject to tax, even if you live here. In effect this means that if you do not collect a salary from a Costa Rican company on the books, you do not pay income tax. More importantly, the tax authority here does not have US IRS type powers. They cannot look at bank accounts, or confiscate property. Everything they want to do requires a court order. Which is very difficult to get. No one has ever been convicted of tax evasion in Costa Rica. Most small businesses are more than willing to trade on a "cash, no invoice, no tax" basis. Especially if they know you. So sales tax is not a real issue either.

There is a new tax law working it's way through the legislature, which, if it passes, will change many things, but the tax department will not get US IRS style powers. That is for sure. The Minister of Finance is complaining that without these powers, every thing else is useless, because they will not be able to enforce the law. I agree and love it.

On the privacy side things are pretty good. At least from my perspective. On paper things suck, since property ownership information (real estate and vehicles) is in the national registry, and the information is online. However, it is easy to register the property in the name of a company.

Bearer share companies do not exist. What you do is you get an existing company from a lawyer. The shares are in the names of the lawyers staff, who endorse them, leaving the name blank. Presto, bearer shares that do not look like bearer shares in the registry. The person who is empowered to make decisions for the company is recorded in a lawyer's notary book. Notary records are hand written.

Different companies own the house, the car, the guns, and the bank accounts. None of which is tied to us in any computer system. We have credit cards in our names. We tend to spend a couple of hundred a month on the cards, which shows modest activity, and pay for everything else in cash.

We have store "loyalty" cards. They never requested we show ID when we got them, I may have misspelled a few things. These are great for getting discounts at various places, especially when you pay cash.

Credit card companies and the stores sell the information about your shopping habits, just like they do in the US.

As far as bank reporting goes, they have the standard form to fill out for transactions over US$ 10,000 in cash, which gets submitted to the treasury department. This only applies to banks. Not to car dealers, not to real estate transactions, only banks. Also they do not report on funds transfers. Court orders are required for any government agency to look at bank records.

We unschool. Technically, all children from age seven through 14 must attend school. So we are breaking the law. There are many families in the exact same position. Including one that has been here since 1970. Their youngest is currently 15, she and all her siblings were homeschooled. No one ever showed up to complain or give them a hassle. The equivalent of "Child Protective Services" here is a bloated bureaucracy that can't even properly run their shelters. No way will they get around to those who choose not to send their children to school.

We have found that on paper things are not great, but when you scratch the surface, they are actually quite good. It is a case of de facto vs. de jure.

Of course, this is from our point of view. The fact that guns are registered will exclude Costa Rica for many people, even if the guns are registered to corporation. A national ID will turn off a lot of people, even if it is requested less than a driver's license is in the US and even if it can only be demanded by one police agency, as opposed to any in the US.

For us, it works.