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Update on Holding Assets In An LLC Inside An IRA (US subscribers)

Last week in discussing holding real estate offshore in your U. S. IRA we stated that you couldn’t use the real estate yourself, or your family, but could use it to produce income as a rental.

One of our subscribers pointed out that real estate owned within an IRA can be used by and/or rented to a person who is not a linear relative (not your mother, father grandparents, son or daughter or grandchildren) but can be rented to non-linear relatives. We suggest that you check with a tax professional on anything that you read here before you decide to use it personally. We do our best but we are not tax professionals.  And thank you, Brad. That’s good information.

NOW BRAZIL IS MAD! And who can blame them?

The U.S. has now managed to get Brazil angry with them as well. It has been revealed that the U.S. NSA has been listening in on Brazil’s oil company, Petrobras, at a time when new deals were being made to open up new oil fields. According to the Buenos Aires Herald, September 9, the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, is saying there is no way this could be classified as national security. It is industrial espionage, which is illegal. Illegal? We laugh out loud. Since when did “illegal” matter to this crowd that is currently in charge in the U.S.?

Brazil’s TV news reports that the U.S. agency hacked into the computer system of Petrobras and other Brazilian companies. President Rousseff said that Brazil would protect itself from such violations–but she did not specify how they would accomplish that. The Herald further states that “Clearly, Petrobras is not a threat to the security of any country,” Rousseff said, adding that the company is one of the world’s largest oil assets and belongs to the Brazilian people.

How Is Your Spanish?

For all of you working at learning Spanish–or thinking about starting. You will remember I went on a “crash” program with the Spanish course before my citizenship hearing because my lawyer was so worried about my language skills for the citizenship hearing. You don’t have to be conversational to get citizenship, but they want you to be able to respond to a few questions and to appear to at least be learning some Spanish.  Then once I got the citizenship I backed off a bit on Spanish. I was a little burned out.

Since my goal is to be conversational by 2014, I decided I better get back to it. To my surprise, I haven’t lost any ground at all. I am really learning Spanish! Again we state that you can live in South America without Spanish if you stay in an area where English is spoken by quite a few people. But more and more I find joy in my new found ability to communicate.

The best thing is that you don’t have to work hard with this course. If you just do a little bit every day (or at least most days) you will be surprised. For more information about learning Spanish go to http://www.synergyspanish.com/?hop=fourflags

EXPATS ARRIVING
It was our privilege to welcome three new families this week who are here to investigate South America. We think it is important for newcomers to meet with seasoned expat groups when they come to investigate the country. In Uruguay, the Uruguay Info Exchange meets at La Papoñita every Sunday at 2 pm!  For more information you can email Marita at uyinfo@zoho.com.

Another expat group also meets weekly in Montevideo and information and a forum are available at www.totaluruguay.com. To find out time and location of the Atlantida expat group, you can email Katherine at katherinehine@yahoo.com. For information about the Uruguay Phyle which meets in Punta del Este, contact Ron Yoder at uruguayphyle@hotmail.com.  If you plan to check in on Paraguay, you can find a weekly group meeting there as well. Information is available at www.totalparaguay.com.

For those looking into Argentina, you might find get togethers that interest you at www.baexpats.org. However, we think Uruguay is doing such a great job of providing support for newcomers and old timers as well and we hope that as other expats come, they will catch the vision of providing these opportunities just to get together and get to know each other. If you hear of other group in other cities, please let us know and we will pass the word alone.

We continue to move toward our trip to Chile. I have an appointment to apply for my passport Monday morning. I have been given different estimates of how long that will take–anywhere from two weeks to 20 days.  We’re packing our bags in anticipation.

We Analyze History and the News

This week we include a helpful lesson (we think) in analyzing both history and the news we see on mainstream television. We have heard the following ever since we arrived in Argentina and this week decided to do some research. There seems no doubt that Hitler and his girlfriend escaped from Germany to Bariloche, Argentina, and lived there for many years after the war. Peron apparently was a friend of Hitler. Bariloche is where we lived when we first came to Argentina. It is probably the most beautiful place in the world! We are not promoting  this historian’s tours or anything but he treats Hitler’s escape to Argentina with a light touch. You can find a much heavier documentary on You Tube if you are interested.  The pictures can be seen at http://www.sharkhunters.com/10Arg2.htm if you are interested. He mentions Tortoni’s as the oldest nightclub in Buenos Aires. We took you on a visit to Tortoni’s a few weeks ago. That article is at this location: Tortoni’s Restaurant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YtQYapKBWTU#t=76

See you next week,

Arlean