Moving to The DR to live..Any Advice ?.

The general cost of living would be less than where you live.
Of course, it depends on how dependent you are on imported products.
Cellphones cost more to operate.
Electricity is a bit high, but maybe cheaper than in Europe.
Gasoline is more expensive than the US, but cheaper than Europe.
Water is cheap, but you can't drink it, so you drink bottled water, which costs $1 US per 5 gallon container.
Doctors & hospitals are cheaper, but not quite up to snuff, by industrialized world standards.
Property taxes would be cheaper than US or Europe, but I'll leave the details to someone else who has exact answers for you.

You might want to take an hour per day reading old threads, and learning a lot of useful information.

A starter

You may find answers to some of your questions in the following threads.

http://www.dr1.com/realestate/info/buying.html
http://www.dr1.com/forums/legal/56507-property-tax-increased-1-2-a.html?highlight=taxes
http://www.dr1.com/forums/legal/56823-property-transfer-tax-loophole.html?highlight=property+taxes

The most hated and dispised tax

The "luxury dwelling" tax is costing folks at Sea Horse a ton. A friend of mine has to pay upwards of a million pesos per year in property taxes to that #$^$%^$%@% government in Santo Domingo. The deal now is to bunch together all of one's property and tax that!
A house that cost one million to build when re-bar was at RD$50 a quintal, cement was RD$10 a bag etcetc...is now appraised by government officials at RD$60 million and the house in Seas Horse---you go figure....and the guy has to shell out RD$960 K!!!

The problem is, basically, that there is absolutely nothing in return. No schools, no hospitals, no police no fire departments, no sanitation services, nada, zippo, zilch comes back to the tax payers!!

HB ranting with justification...

Oh yeah, the government's appraisal are no open to appeals....

Hi down there in Oz from a Pom living in DR. We pay IVSS (luxury tax) on our house, currently 25,000 pesos a year (US$780 approx); even doubling next year when rate goes from 1% to 2% that doesn't seem unreasonable to a Brit who was used to community charge/poll tax etc back in UK. So I suppose it depends on your perspective. I've heard Oz is a high tax country, is this correct? If so it could alter your perspective on how you view taxation here in DR. By the way, that $780 is on a property valued (by tax authorities) at 7 million which we could probably sell for 9/10 million pesos.

I appreciate Oz is a long way away but nothing beats a visit here to see things for yourself.

Merry Christmas!

Palmerston, homes that are currently valued at less than RD$5,000,000 (currently equal to about US$150,000) do not pay any annual property taxes in the DR. Above that, the rate will soon be 2% on the amount above that. At sale, if the price has greatly appreciated, there is a chanced that you would pay capital gains taxes on the sale.

A "gated community" is a group of homes, or a development, which has a wall (usually anywhere between 4 feet and 15 feet high) around the entire group of properties, in an attempt to follow a theme, or create a sense of security, or just to keep the neighbors cows from wandering in. There may be a swimming pool for all to use, rather than each unit having their own pool, etc.

Normally, there is a common gate into the area, and a watchman as security (and to open the gate of course). This also usually means that you will pay monthly fees to pay for the watchman, maintaining the wall and its paint, maintaining common areas like swimming pools, poolhouse, watchman's office, lawns, and landscaping), and it's not always cheap either.

What makes you think that once you have paid cash for a property, that you "own it" ?- "taint so, wherever there is a government ruling their subjects, even in Australia. If John Howard wants to turn your estate into a refugee camp, who's going to stop him from using eminent domain? All governments interfere in property rights, to one degree or to more extreme degrees, such as if you are white and live in Zimbabwe....

Palmerston, homes that are currently valued at less than RD$5,000,000 (currently equal to about US$150,000) do not pay any annual property taxes in the DR. Above that, the rate will soon be 2% on the amount above that. At sale, if the price has greatly appreciated, there is a chance that you would pay capital gains taxes on the sale.

A "gated community" is a group of homes, or a development, which has a wall (usually anywhere between 4 feet and 15 feet high) around the entire group of properties, in an attempt to follow a theme, or create a sense of security, or just to keep the neighbors cows from wandering in. There may be a swimming pool for all to use, rather than each unit having their own pool, etc.

Normally, there is a common gate into the area, and a watchman as security (and to open the gate of course). This also usually means that you will pay monthly fees to pay for the watchman, maintaining the wall and its paint, maintaining common areas like swimming pools, poolhouse, watchman's office, lawns, and landscaping), common area liability insurance, etc and it's not always cheap either.

What makes you think that once you have paid cash for a property, that you "own it" ?- "taint so, wherever there is a government ruling their subjects, even in Australia. If John Howard wants to turn your estate into a refugee camp, who's going to stop him from using eminent domain? All governments interfere in property rights, to one degree or to more extreme degrees, such as if you are white and live in Zimbabwe....

Hillbilly said:

Oh yeah, the government's appraisal are no open to appeals....

Click to expand...

HB, are government appraisers open to "propinas"?

I am by far not in the "luxury accommodation tax" club, just exploring the environment...

Hillbilly said:

The "luxury dwelling" tax is costing folks at Sea Horse a ton. A friend of mine has to pay upwards of a million pesos per year in property taxes to that #$^$%^$%@% government in Santo Domingo. The deal now is to bunch together all of one's property and tax that!
A house that cost one million to build when re-bar was at RD$50 a quintal, cement was RD$10 a bag etcetc...is now appraised by government officials at RD$60 million and the house in Seas Horse---you go figure....and the guy has to shell out RD$960 K!!!

The problem is, basically, that there is absolutely nothing in return. No schools, no hospitals, no police no fire departments, no sanitation services, nada, zippo, zilch comes back to the tax payers!!

HB ranting with justification...

Oh yeah, the government's appraisal are no open to appeals....

Click to expand...

you do not mean that you have to pay the tax on your property EVERY YEAR?! why no one told me all that BEFORE i moved here? :ermm:
i rest my case. i want to be a humble housewife dependant on my hard working husband, with no idea about bills and taxes.....

seriously, every year?