Oh what fun---

[CancunCanuck]

I just have to vent for a moment and this seems like as good a place as any to do it. I just want to say what a PAIN IN THE $#%# it has been to pay my dang taxes!

Firstly, I gave all my papers to my accountant in January. A couple of weeks ago he finally called me into his office and said "Ok, it's done, you have to pay it TODAY." Ok, it takes you months to do them but I have zero notice that I have to come up with thousands of pesos? So, that was complaint number one for me, I am screwed for money in an instant.

Number two. I arrange to get said money, go to the bank to pay the taxes. I wait in line 20 minutes and present the teller with my papers. She says she can only do four transactions then I must get in line again. There are no signs ANYWHERE about this and I tell her it's only one transaction, just 13 receipts. I just want to pay the damned taxes. Ok, no arguing with the woman, I back down and figure I will stand in line four times to pay my freaking taxes. She does four of the receipts and back in line I get. I get to the next teller and she asks me for "la tarjeta". I say "cual tarjeta"? She says "LA tarjeta, la tarjeta!". Grrrr. Finally determine she wants some blue card from Hacienda that I do not have nor have I ever heard of it. She will not process my next four without them. I point out that the other teller did four for me, why is it different now? She says "Ok, I will do four but not the rest, you must get your tarjeta". Grumble, grumble, she does four more and I leave. Jorge takes the next morning off work to go to Hacienda for me and is told that the cards don't exist anymore and are not necessary!!! He goes to the bank to pay, they give him the same B.S. about only doing four at a time but he fights them and gets everything paid.

Moving on....

My accountant then tells me that I need a clave de CIEC in order to file my taxes. At this point I am tired of freaking taxes, they are paid and what the hell else needs to be done? But who am I to fight, I say fine, I will go get my stinkin' clave. In the meantime I have submitted my FM3 for renewal so don't have my FM3 but do have my passport, birth certificate, driver's license and a few other pieces of ID. I went to Hacienda this morning and told them what I needed at reception. The receptionist said "Ok, did you bring ID?" Well I sure did, a whole pocketful and showed her my passport! I waited an HOUR to get invited in to get my clave. They ask for my ID, I give them my passport and they tell me that it is not OFFICAL ID! My passport is not considered official, she said, she really said that my passport only had value in Canada. Well kiss my arse, my passport is an international document that I don't even need within Canada! She will only accept an FM3 as ID. I am now really tired of all of it and leave and phone Jorge to bitch about it. He finds their website and discovers I can get my stinkin' clave online and didn't need to go through any of this nonsense. And why didn't the receptionist tell me that instead of making me wait a stinking hour?

ARGH.

I appreciate you reading my rant, perhaps it's just a little insight into how things here work/don't work sometimes. I think I am a little on edge because all this paperwork (and payments) are happening within a week or two so I am stressed, please don't read this as a "wish I were back in Canada" or an "I hate Mexico" rant, it's strictly complaints about my personal experience in paying my taxes. You would think that would be the one thing they could make easy, no?

[Jamie]

Hey, if it was easy everyone would live there and then no one would want too. :wink: Just some of the penalty you have to pay for living in paradise.

We all have those days.

Jamie

[Elizabeth]

Because we get paid via the payroll company, they handle all of that for us. Sounds like a nightmare!

By the way, your Canadian passport is trash. Throw it out. I'll do the same with mine.

[CancunCanuck]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth

Because we get paid via the payroll company, they handle all of that for us. Sounds like a nightmare!

By the way, your Canadian passport is trash. Throw it out. I'll do the same with mine.

Should we use our passports as litter box liners?

[Elizabeth]

I'm going to use mine to wipe my bleep.

[TraceyUk]

See Kelly I knew that coffee in DUB and a girlie chat would have been better for your blood pressure. Hope it all works out soon.
Tracey
x

[CancunCanuck]

Originally Posted by TraceyUk

See Kelly I knew that coffee in DUB and a girlie chat would have been better for your blood pressure. Hope it all works out soon.
Tracey
x

That definitely would have been a huge step up from my actual morning!

And I still didn't get your text message, pinche Telcel too!

[RiverGirl]

CC- Good lord my dear! I love your rant, please, rant some more, more!!

[Life_N_Cancun]

People can be IDIOTS, thats all there is to it. :evil:

Sorry about your headache, but I cant really say I'm at all surprised. I am, however, that someone one consider a passport NOT to be an official document, as they don't get much more official, as far as I know. Perhaps there is some other reason, like the taxes are attached to your FM3 number, in which case she might have the habit of demanding to see the FM3's of foreigners regardless of its relevance to their current business, and is too much of an idiot to skip that step when its not needed. I feel your pain, it seems like doing anything related to the government or banks is unduly complicated and aggravating in Mexico. :-|

[Drewbert]

Well, when they say "official ID", they mean an ID issued by the Mexican Govt. Usually voters card for citizens and FM2/3 for foreigners.

One good thing you ARE doing is actually paying the tax personally into the system. I know of a number of people that entrusted that part to their accountant, only to find out later that he'd skipped out of town and had never been paying the taxes and now they were in deep with Hacienda.

Then there was the nice (rich) Mexican lady who went on one month's holiday to NYC, only to find on her return that her accountant had managed to empty out her bank accounts while she was away and had disappeared with the loot, and all she had left in her name was her house.

She had to close down her chain of retail stores because she didn't have the money to pay rent and wages.

[justjimmy]

Wow Canuck, that really sucks. :shock:

Don't hate me but we went to H&R Block and were in and out in 40 minutes. Got our State and Fed refunds 2 weeks later. That we will spend in Mexico in 3 weeks.

LooK at it this way, you can go to the beach tomorrow, we're expecting a foot of snow by then.

Jimmy

[Isla Zina]

I call t his HAZING, like a fraternity. The thing is, it is for everyone, not just foreigners. That's the way it is and the clerks often give bad answer than admit they don't know. Make a joke of it. Call your CURP your cuerpo, etc. It will get a chuckle that will break everyone's frustration. If you get one thing done a day, and today I paid my phone bill AND watered the plants, it's a good day!