Buy in US or DR to furnish a new apt in Punta Cana

Welcome to the forums.  Many of the questions you are asking have been answered on various forums.  I will condense them here.

1. Legal implications: residencia makes you legal here. Otherwise you are limited to 30 day tourist card or 60 day tourist visa. Residencia has several threads already.

2. Residency allows you to ship one container of household goods NOT brand new items to furnish your new place.

3. No

4. Covered in the residency threads and it makes you legal

5. You should have started 6 months ago.

Everything you need to furnish  an apt is available here with biggest selection in Santo Domingo. You may not get same choices as NY but you will find more selection then you think.  As you travel back and forth bring the little touches with you.

Thank you planner, I admire your dedication to the forum. I see you in most of the threads.

I have been reading the threads, and residency seems complex for now. Will it help us if we want to rent the apt as vacation rental. I am wondering if we would need to pay income tax on revenues from apt and if this is different for residents.

I will look  for threads on furniture shopping, for now I have been looking at Illumel in Santo Domingo, any opinion here?

There is a Illumel in Punta Cana....I think its still there.

Tax wise legally you are treated the same whether resident or not. If you are going to rent I hope you are owning this inside a corporation.

There are many options in Santo Domingo including Ikea!

Hi Planner, thank you
the condo we are buying is a condo hotel. There will be a management rental office on site. I am not clear what it means “buying it inside a corporation.

We hired a Lawer for the purchase but he did not mentioned anything about  a corporation. Should we have a corporation? Will it benefit us?

IMO you should buy locally when possible.  If you’re going to invest in property and declare residency here I believe you should also invest in the people and the local economy as well. 

There are lots of great local products you can purchase to furnish your home.

Thank you Tripp,

I would agree with you 100%, I am for supporting the local economy. Our challenge is time. We both wrk in New York and have limited vacation time. When our apt is ready we are planning to go furnish it in 2 to 3 weeks. I am sure this is not enough time to search the market and possible commercial offers. 

Suggestions on best  places to purchase furniture, appliances, and general house hold items are welcome. Alternatively, we also love natives wood and wold like to contact a vendor who sells locally made furniture with local wood.

We shipped a smaller container from Washington state with primarily personal items but did ship 3 memoryfoam bed mattresses, which we are thankful for.
We purchased a sofa from the Ashley store in Santiago and household items (plates, towels, etc from Ikea)  Ashley has some very nice furniture and there are some pretty upscale stores in Santo Domingo as well.
We purchased appliances from both Corripio and Hi-Fi. 
Just a note about appliances - ours have been a bit of a hassle. 
1. Stores may offer delivery for a fee but if their delivery truck breaks down they may tell you that they cant rent a truck until they have other deliveries in your area.
2.  Installation is an extra charge and you have to be clear about asking for it as well as making sure installers come the same day as delivery.
3.  If you are purchasing new construction, make sure that you understand the measurements where appliances will fit.  Space for a 30 inch oven needs to be 30 inches inside the space not outside.  Laundry closet needs to accommodate ALL sizes of washer/dryet not just the one offered in a package from the builders.

We have found these things out from personal experience and purchased industry standard size appliances before the apartment was completed based on the architect drawings.

I might suggest hiring delivery and installers separate from the appliance store.   Once they have your money they arent very concerned about getting product to you or installing.

Moving here doesn't have to be a headache but it can be if you dont ask plenty of questions.

Start the residence process asap.  Background checks take some time.  If you were born in another state you will need birth certificates apostilled by that state.

And just about everything needs to be apostilled.  So research apostilles closest to you.  We had one that came to us.

Call the closest consulate to your home and get the most current list of necessary documents.  It's a little lengthy process.  We started in January and had our interview in the capital 2 weeks ago.  Should get our final determination in 2-3 months

Ask lots of questions here.  The people here have a wealth of knowledge to share.

Good luck.

Personally, I bring in all my appliances from the US.

I doubt you will be challenged on furniture being new/used ....

For an idea of shipping....
I use Awlida in Corona NY (Bronx) - there are many others
Ask for Jesus Para and use Casa el Faro from Cabrera as your reference
They pick up and deliver to your door

Come to Santo Domingo and I will take you shopping!  I know exactly where to go!  Just let me know in advance!  As you already purchased the condo - has it closed?  I will message you so you have my contact info and we can plan shopping!  Cost for my help is lunch!  This is my idea of fun!

A corporation helps you with taxation and is a huge benefit if one of the owners passes away.

Great Information Tracy, we will start the research for Residency and we wIll  continue asking questions

When you sent the container you were not a resident, did you have to pay lots of duties. What does that look financially.

For now it seems that there is a lot we need to research, gladly we have some time our apt will not be ready until the end of the year.

Thanks,

Somebody mentioned Ilumel earlier....

Get on that fast--- summer prices are about 1/2
and they will store it for you.... no delivery as I recall.

You can knock off the residency pretty quickly with the right lawyer
Planner's got one

Shipping without residency: you pay shipping, duty between 20 and 40% of value they assign plus 18% sales tax.  Seriously not worth it.

Thank you all for caring. We appreciate all of your help, it seems that we have few possibilities based on your advice which we will investigate.

I follow Illumel in Facebook, visited the store in Santo Domingo a while ago, I thought they had great things but a little on the expensive side. I have not been in Illumel Outlet, maybe next visit.

And there are soooo many other stores to check out.  ANy with facebook I will post here.... whenever they pop up on my timeline.

SteinSol:  The point of the corporation is so you don't have the DR's law interfering on how the property is disposed of if one of the owners passes.  The laws here are very different than the U.S, which does not have forced heirship.  There are no restrictions on foreigners inheriting title to real property in the Dominican Republic but the inheritance taxes is 3% of the appraised value.  If the beneficiary resides outside the Dominican Republic, inheritance taxes are 4.5% of the appraised value.   Also understand that if you do incorporate and place the property in the corporation's name the company will pay 1% per year of the assessed value with no exemptions.  If the property is not placed under a corporation then real estate taxes are not generated unless the property is valued more than roughly $144,500 U.S.  Taxes above that amount will accrue at 1.0% of the excess. 

Income and capital gains earned by companies are subject to corporate income tax at a flat rate of 27%. Income-generating expenses are deductible when calculating taxable income but your management company will (should) withhold 10%  of the income generated as a "down payment" on your potential DR tax liability.   So in your case if you rent your apartment for 11 months of the year, the income generated by the rental will be taxed at 27% (10% of which will be taken off the top) but you get to deduct the management fee, cleaning, advertising fee etc. in determining you end of DR tax liability.  There are strategical ways around this so you can end up with a negative income which will help your bottom line both here and in the U.S.  You also have to factor in the U.S. tax consequences of having vacation home.  If your main objective in purchasing the property is one of income I would strongly encourage you to consult a U.S. tax attorney who is somewhat versed in International law.  Hope this helps.

Concerning residency, if you don't intend to live here on more or less permanent basis  perhaps it is not worth the effort but consider you may love this place so much you will want to live here.  Remember as a nonresident you can stay up to 60 days with an extension of your visa.  The visa question is still influx and most likely will change in time

One of the most well written responses I have read!

Planner, Just curious why do you say that about owning within a corp?  Is this from a liability standpoint or tax standpoint ?

Read the post above.   

From a liability standpoint the corp is also on the hook, not you personally for everything EXCEPT payroll and payroll taxes and income tax.

Yes it appears to be much  smaller than the original one in Santo Domingo......

WishingWell:

THAT is an OUTSTANDING post.  The best I have ever read describing benefits and "why/how" of expat ownership in DR.

You should consider expanding it trying to market it to one of the expat groups for publication.

Seriously.

ExpatRusher

wishinguwell wrote:

SteinSol:  The point of the corporation is so you don't have the DR's law interfering on how the property is disposed of if one of the owners passes.  The laws here are very different than the U.S, which does not have forced heirship.  There are no restrictions on foreigners inheriting title to real property in the Dominican Republic but the inheritance taxes is 3% of the appraised value.  If the beneficiary resides outside the Dominican Republic, inheritance taxes are 4.5% of the appraised value.   Also understand that if you do incorporate and place the property in the corporation's name the company will pay 1% per year of the assessed value with no exemptions.  If the property is not placed under a corporation then real estate taxes are not generated unless the property is valued more than roughly $144,500 U.S.  Taxes above that amount will accrue at 1.0% of the excess. 

Income and capital gains earned by companies are subject to corporate income tax at a flat rate of 27%. Income-generating expenses are deductible when calculating taxable income but your management company will (should) withhold 10%  of the income generated as a "down payment" on your potential DR tax liability.   So in your case if you rent your apartment for 11 months of the year, the income generated by the rental will be taxed at 27% (10% of which will be taken off the top) but you get to deduct the management fee, cleaning, advertising fee etc. in determining you end of DR tax liability.  There are strategical ways around this so you can end up with a negative income which will help your bottom line both here and in the U.S.  You also have to factor in the U.S. tax consequences of having vacation home.  If your main objective in purchasing the property is one of income I would strongly encourage you to consult a U.S. tax attorney who is somewhat versed in International law.  Hope this helps.

Concerning residency, if you don't intend to live here on more or less permanent basis  perhaps it is not worth the effort but consider you may love this place so much you will want to live here.  Remember as a nonresident you can stay up to 60 days with an extension of your visa.  The visa question is still influx and most likely will change in time

Good Afternoon,

If you have relatively new items is it cheaper to have them shipped once you have your residency or is it  better to buy new there? (cheaper) I have just been to some local malls there and found the furniture more expensive in many cases than the US. Coming from Florida would anyone have estimate on shipping container costs to ship furniture one bed, one couch, 2 65  inch tvs, tv stands etc? I read somewhere someone said $1,000 to ship everything? Who here has experience with this process? Also does Insurance cover this and if so what company?

I believe a full trailer from Miami to here is 2,400.  I could be wrong as I have not actually done that, only shipped commercial items.

Good Deal. I would be shipping to Santo Domingo.

I found that many of the department stores in Santo Domingo were expensive when it can to the purchase of dining room tables and chairs , bedroom furniture and beds, televisions, and bedding materials.. As I looked around the city I went to the Villa Consuelo area looking for living room and bedroom furniture sets and beds and found many local merchants with good quality furniture and Carpenters. There is also opportunity to have furniture custom made with some variety of good choices or you can bring the material of your choice and have it created. Televisions at Plaza Lama ( everything dept. Store) are in large variety but the ones that are especially made for the DR experience where they have built it surge protection system built in the back in the event of power switching between generator, gov’t electricity, and inverter power sources, will keep your investment operational . Lamps and other household items are found in Blue Mall, La Serena, Plaza Lama, Plaza Central, and  or other stores IKEA ext..any of the major hardware stores like Ochoa’s will give you a variety of household products as well as hardware needs..
Many of the local carpenter can do amazing work with basic furnishings as the wood craft is certainly worth exploring. As opposed to importing wood products to the country with or without a local residence card. DR has wood furniture in abundance! Thing like your favorite style linen can be place in your suitcase, special personal items as you see fit.. I noticed in December the holidays season  many more personal items are overlooked by customs agents and allowed to pass that would ordinarily be taxed while in your suitcase, removing a tag or two may help... La Romana has outlet stores and clothing, bedding, bathroom linen and curtain selection are less expensive than the destination department stores in Santo Domingo..
Back to the subject of shipping..Big ticket items like a vehicle or furniture are not worth sending without a residence card in hand as was mentioned by others and the comment about incorporating when purchasing property for  part time business or residence  is best to follow said advice as the reasons given were all correct. Also having a separate management company (in the event of doing business)  performing certain task will provide a buffer against liability issues that could arise, employment, contractors and payroll issues with anyone local or internationally involved, clear indicators of deductible service expenses.  taxes paid in DR and the USA. Plus it will provide more write offs and peace of mind during the transition period and beyond..
As was mentioned starting the process of immigration should begin in NYC at the Dominican Consulate. Filing for residence in the DR.. before you arrive to settle in yr end.

Almost everything is available at a various qualities and various prices.