A Month In Venice

Well I am finally back to writing my travel blog after traveling this week to West Palm Beach, Florida. Being away without a computer was a big step for me as I love to carry my laptop with me at all times so that if the inspiration should hit me I could put together the killer travel article.

However being away had me thinking that many novice travelers do not know how easy it is to set up a mobile office. I mean in this world you can work from anywhere and others are starting to prove this point. One of the initial reasons I went into software development as a career was because I would not be limited to where I worked. I will try to give you a brief outline of the steps necessary in order to free yourself from  your home and become truly mobile.

The first and most important step is to create a free email account on one of the major providers such as Yahoo, Google or Hotmail. In fact with many of these services it is very easy to set up multiple accounts.

The second step would be to set up a portable fax service. For this I would recommend using JFAX. JFAX will allow you to send and receive faxes from your computer. A fax service is necessary with many legal correspondences so it is always good to have a fax number handy when relocating overseas for any particular time period.

The third step would be to set up a forwarding postal address. To do this I would recommend you set up an account with one of the major providers in the United States that provide mail forward services such as the UPS store or a similar store in your area. Usually these stores will allow you to rent a box from them for a fee and then charge each month that you wish to have your mail forwarded.

The fourth step would be to set up a worldwide phone number so that you can be reached anywhere from one number. This is now possible through the VOIP services such as Vonage, Net2Phone and pc2call which allow you to make phone calls through a high speed internet connection. Since I have already discussed the difficulties in obtaining Internet access in Italy I will not bore you by explaining the problems that can occur with this particular aspect of moving overseas.

So there you have it a step by step guide to going mobile so that you can travel anywhere at anytime without really losing touch with any important contacts or friends. It is always interesting how technology has really enabled us to become independent of any one particular location.

Do you have any tips on how to live a truly mobile lifestyle?

One of the best ways to avoid the dreaded homesickness that you eventually get when you are on an extended stay is to stay in touch with close family members and friends. However Europe and Italy are well known to be very expensive when it comes to obtaining internet access. I remember when I was in Rome having to sit in the lobby of the hotel to surf on my PDA because I could not get a wifi signal in my room. This is not the case in most modern hotels in the United States.

It is very common to have either wifi or direct internet access through a port in the wall. You want to have access to high speed internet connections while you are away because not only will this save you money on phone bills but also allow you to continue to work while you are away. I am sure I am not the only one who has a business to run regardless of where I am at in this world.

Well fortunately I have some a really good resource out there if you want to have a free wifi connection while you are in Italy or Europe. The only website I would recommend would be jtwire.com. This neat little website keeps track of all of the hotspots in the entire world so you can use this to find wifi spots while traveling within the United States as well. A quick look will tell you if the wifi spot is free or not and since this lists the location by type you can see if your hotel is wifi enabled or if there is one close by you.

Okay I have now just started to monetize my blog. Even though I have only a  few posts I believe it is never too late to start getting some sort of return on investment. The first thing I did was insert the buy me a coffee plugin by Ankesh Kothari. Actually it is a buy me a beer plugin but since I do not drink at the moment I made it into a buy me a espresso plugin. The primary reason for doing this was to see how many people would help contribute to my trip to Venice, Italy so that I can immerse myself in the culture and learn the language.

So the question is how many cups of espresso will it take for me to go to Venice, Italy? Well at this time I am budgeting a trip cost of $7000.00 dollars so at 5.25 per cup of espresso so that is roughly 1333 cups of espresso. So either I will be extremely wired if I take all that coffee or I can have a trip to Venice. I would rather have the trip to Italy so if you do contribute rest assured that is where the money is going.

Anyways I hope to write some killer content down in the future to justify this plugin.

You have probably heard the old cliché that there is only two things certain in life: that is death and taxes. Well if you are planning on staying for a long duration it then behooves any serious traveler to become familiar with the country’s tax system.

The United States has fortunately formed a treaty with Italy in order to reduce the burden of United States citizens who live abroad so they are not double taxed on income, property and capital gains.  However since each person’s tax liability is different it is recommended that one consult with an international tax attorney or specialist.

Italy does collect taxes on residents and non-residents alike. For the residents you are liable for your worldwide income. For the non-residents you are only liable for income that comes from Italian sources.

Income Tax (IRPEF) has the following structure after allowances. For income up to $9,350 you are taxed at 18.5 % for income up to $14,000 the rate is 25.5% for income between $14,000 and $28,000 the rate is 33.5% for income between $28,000 and $63,000 the rate is 39.5%  and finally for income that exceeds $63,000 the rate is 45.5%.

Sales Tax (Imposta sul Valore Aggiunto) which is of course an indirect tax paid every time you purchase goods and services. It is similar if not identical to the Value Added Tax that many residents in the United Kingdom and other European Union countries have to pay. Typically this sales t ax is included in the purchase price however for items when this is not the case the rate structure is 9% on non luxury properties and 19% on luxury properties. What determines a luxury or non luxury property is beyond me so I would seek some advice on this from a professional.

Transfer Tax is a tax placed on the transfer of property from one owner to another. The rates vary by the type of property being transferred. For instance if the property is an urban apartment the rate of transfer tax can be up to 10% of the declared value of the property. For a agricultural property the rate is a bit higher as it can be up to 17% of the declared property value. However, there is some good news for first time home buyers because the rate is reduced to 4% but you must be a resident of Italy to qualify for this benefit.

Property taxes (Imposta Comunale sugli Immobili) are collected each year just like here in America. The property rate is really determined at the local level and is based on the declared value of the property. However what I can tell you is that the property tax rates vary between 4-7% based on the local municipality. This property tax is payable in two installments which occur in June and December.

It is obvious that Italy has a fairly hefty tax bill for their residents. However since the country does offer many social services the money must come from somewhere. Whether you want to retire there or not this can give you some idea as to what you will end up paying to the tax man. I have covered just a brief introduction to what you can expect from the Italian tax system here. The reason for this is that it is always wise to seek expert guidance in this matter.