Gray areas
Submitted by fyl on Sat, 2013/01/05 - 11:29.
The thread at http://www.nicaliving.com/node/20849 has become a bit big and, as is usual, drifted from the original subject. This thread is to discuss one point that has evolved there -- gray areas.
The system in Nicragua encourages the use of and expansion of gray areas. Sometimes it is that there just isn't any right way to make something happen. That is, some regulation translates to "no, you can't". To take a specific example, the Public Registry in the department of Estelí had decided that a non-resident cannot be the owner of an S.A. (corporation). But, other departments (that is, all others that have been tried) don't have an issue with a non-resident owner. So, the solution is to simply do your incorporation in a different department. Perfectly legal and works fine.
My general perception is that if you remain goal oriented, Nicaragua is pretty easy to deal with. If, on the other hand, you want a concrete definition of how to do something which will always work, you will end up very frustrated. So, see this as flexibility others as a pain in the ass. The difference depends more on your attitude than anything else.
To offer a real world example, I know someone who told his lawyer that he wanted the the real purchase price he was paying for his property on the Compra-Venta. His lawyer explained that everyone puts a value significantly lower, virtually always an order of magnitude lower or more, on the paperwork. But, he is a black and white man and insisted.
When he went to pay the transfer taxes the government took the value he declared and doubled it. He protested. But, the government "knows" that number is always a lie and always doubles it.
Here is one more very common example. If the waiter in a restaurant asks "would you like a receipt" it is code for "would you like me to add the IVA (sales tax) to your bill.
Welcome to Nicaragua.
Um, whatever it is, I like how people are here
My experiences with every agency I've dealt with, including Aduana, have been completely straight-forward. One Nicaraguan suggested that the more you have, the more Aduana gets tricky (I also wonder since smuggling is endemic here, everyone wants to believe the worst of Aduana to justify bringing in a dozen digital cameras for resale).
People who simply want to come here, retire, buy a bit of land and build a house, or who just rent, seem to not have any real problems in Jinotega. People who want to start business, maybe not so easy, but the business failures here seems to be the faults of the would be entrepreneurs (the Russian vet is doing just fine; a German who runs a part business seems to be doing fine).
For people retiring here, who aren't trying to set up a second career, muy facile (with the caveat that being focused on goals rather than how things get done is valuable). People trying to set up a second career will have to deal more with the government.
My further impression, for Jinotega at least, is that if people want to help you, things happen faster and less painfully than if they don't. Problems and delays for people who try to insist on things seems to be common. It's possible to recover from screwing up, but I had to realize I'd screwed up with Claro and make amends in small ways (and buy a $400 cell phone). Since helping them with another gringo, and a couple of months of doing business with them, if there's an error on my bill (happened recently and has only happened once), it's not at all traumatic to get it fixed. I've never had any trouble with the Correos people; I know other people who claim they did.
There's a certain dreadful kind of customer/client/hotel guest who abuses staff. In the US, the staff joke about those people behind their backs, but must deal with them politely. In Jinotega, this rule doesn't apply. Here every interaction is between two humans first, then about what sort of further transaction there is.
Humans can cut each other slack. People who treat other people as though they were robots might have problems because if you treat other people as robots, then you must be a robot, too, and so can't have human feelings.
One of the books that I read when I first was here said that if anything came to a bribe, don't treat the person accepting the bribe as someone who is contemptible, because even with the bribe, you've turned this into something that isn't one human helping another human and getting help in return.
Rebecca Brown
My gray is getting blacker.
My gray is getting blacker. Love the country. Love the people. Really starting to dislike the government! More cigarettes, more Tona. Hope there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Particular part?
Is your darker gray with a particular part of the government or just the general variable nature of things?
I wish that I could explain,
I wish that I could explain, but I think that Rebecca's advice rules at this time. My agent is going to Managua, yet again, tomorrow, and a well placed friend is going to make some phone calls. I'm getting by with a LOT of help from my friends!