Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
These Arab are the most racist crowd , i have seen or dealt in my life ! I dont fancy that place for living !
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
I’m saying 400k AED for property!!! That’s around 100k $ for PROPERTY!
I checked properties in Islamabad…they come to almost the same price!!!
I’m not showing off…that’s the rate right???
Not that I have that kind of money to splash around…i’m going jobless in a few days anyways!!
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
These Arab are the most racist crowd , i have seen or dealt in my life ! I dont fancy that place for living !
true, theyre quite arrogant
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
These Arab are the most racist crowd , i have seen or dealt in my life ! I dont fancy that place for living !
Yeah, but in a place like Dubai, how many local Arabs are you going to run into? They are a small percentage of the population, and from reading Khaleej Times, they either work in govt, or run their own business.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
MWAP, actually US and canada have the investor residency program as well. i believe US is $500K currently.
sh3ry, for this residency based on investment, what is the threshold i.e. can someone buy a onebedroom condo and become a resident? also, does it mean that the person will have to show up there every 6 months or do u need to do anything to keep the residency active?
Yes it can be anything villa, studio flat, 2 or 3 br etc. You will get permanent visa. I don't know if you have to visit every 6 months to keep your RP valid. I will confirm it and tell you.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
true. middle east is not where i can work :hinna:
whereas living expenditure ain’t different (or less than NA—i think 
).
btw what is studio flat? (is flat same as apartment? :aq:)
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
X2…thnx…
if u don mind..can i ask the reason for the deterioration in perceptions…
zobia …aisa kuch nahi hai…media just exaggerates stuff…
wht kind of job exactly r u talking abt…it does depend on the kind of job…KSA has a preety decent working environment for females…BUT…not many opprtunities…
if u find a good paying job here…then u r lucky…
Xcom…yes…peace..tranquility…n serenity…these r a few of the good things abt this place…
& as far as money is concerned…well..if a person has a good paying job…then tht’s not a prob…since in KSA…wht u earn is urs…u don hv to spend it in all sorts of taxes n stuff…
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
Thing I find funny is, a lot of people in US think, "OMG, DUBAI = ISLAMIC COUNTRY, MY KIDS WILL HAVE AN ISLAMIC LIFESTYLE". Yeah right.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
Thing I find funny is, a lot of people in US think, "OMG, DUBAI = ISLAMIC COUNTRY, MY KIDS WILL HAVE AN ISLAMIC LIFESTYLE". Yeah right.
hehe...my mom used to think the saame!!!!!
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
mashallah and people were thinking i am a show off....
aisha if u cant see the difference in what mermaid is saying and thew stunts that you pulled when you first joined GS then I dunno what to say.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
thanks dude.
[quote="“sara_87, post:142, topic:175812"”]
X2…thnx…
if u don mind..can i ask the reason for the deterioration in perceptions…
[/quote]
people taking shortcuts, breaking laws, smuggling, stealing, etc was one
second was more that since many od them were poor, uneducated workers, the locals just treated them as inferior third class citizens and that perception expanded to envelope pakistanis in general
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
[QUOTE]
Thing I find funny is, a lot of people in US think, "OMG, DUBAI = ISLAMIC COUNTRY, MY KIDS WILL HAVE AN ISLAMIC LIFESTYLE". Yeah right.
[/QUOTE]
well...you can hv an islamic lifestyle almost anywhere in the world.....but its easier in the Gulf countries.....even in KSA if u want an islamic lifestyle..u'l hv it...n if u don't want...then u can just live the other way...simple.........
[QUOTE]
people taking shortcuts, breaking laws, smuggling, stealing, etc was one
second was more that since many od them were poor, uneducated workers, the locals just treated them as inferior third class citizens and that perception expanded to envelope pakistanis in general
[/QUOTE]
hmm........thnx....
magar pakis r more respected than indians here(as far as i know)........
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
I've been living in Dubai for one year-
it's been in some ways a better and also in other ways a worse experience then either my husband or i had thought.
It is nice not worrying about what you eat everything is turkey ham or beef salami...it's nice hearing the azan and having a place to go pray. it's nice speaking urdu as commonly as Spanish is spoken in California/Texas.
My husband finds the work environment really challenging and exciting. He works with both Arabs, Desis (both ones from india/pak and others from europe/american) and Europeans. He finds people very smart and hard working. He also finds the rapid speed of change and movement in business here is much more exciting then the US. It is an exciting time to be here...very hot.
It is a family friendly area- my daughter gets loads of attention and i feel fairly safe with her here...I also appreciate how easy and relatively inexpensive it is to find help for cleaning and babysitting though it is not super cheap either.
It is DEFINITLY not cheap in comparison to the US- we moved from NYC and rent is running the same here though you get a bigger place. Restaurants are the same...clothing is more 20-30% for me up to 100% more for children's toys and clothes. You can buy cheaply but you have to hit the "old" dubai areas which are a pain to go too..and not where you'd spend most of your time.
For Americans we still owe income tax on everything you make- though you get a tax free allowance on your first 80k....so there is some saving but if you're over the 80K income bracket it's not as nice as is it for other nationalities. I find that most friends who live here...especially recent arrivals are finding it much more expensive than planned.
I also don't know if i want to stay here forever...and though we're enjoying it now we plan on going back.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
I've been living in Dubai for one year-
it's been in some ways a better and also in other ways a worse experience then either my husband or i had thought.
It is nice not worrying about what you eat everything is turkey ham or beef salami...it's nice hearing the azan and having a place to go pray. it's nice speaking urdu as commonly as Spanish is spoken in California/Texas.
My husband finds the work environment really challenging and exciting. He works with both Arabs, Desis (both ones from india/pak and others from europe/american) and Europeans. He finds people very smart and hard working. He also finds the rapid speed of change and movement in business here is much more exciting then the US. It is an exciting time to be here...very hot.
It is a family friendly area- my daughter gets loads of attention and i feel fairly safe with her here...I also appreciate how easy and relatively inexpensive it is to find help for cleaning and babysitting though it is not super cheap either.
It is DEFINITLY not cheap in comparison to the US- we moved from NYC and rent is running the same here though you get a bigger place. Restaurants are the same...clothing is more 20-30% for me up to 100% more for children's toys and clothes. You can buy cheaply but you have to hit the "old" dubai areas which are a pain to go too..and not where you'd spend most of your time.
For Americans we still owe income tax on everything you make- though you get a tax free allowance on your first 80k....so there is some saving but if you're over the 80K income bracket it's not as nice as is it for other nationalities. I find that most friends who live here...especially recent arrivals are finding it much more expensive than planned.
I also don't know if i want to stay here forever...and though we're enjoying it now we plan on going back.
amelie also the rate of taxation on the amount over that 80K for ppl in US vs ppl in duabi is different from what I understand.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
I've been living in Dubai for one year-
it's been in some ways a better and also in other ways a worse experience then either my husband or i had thought.
It is nice not worrying about what you eat everything is turkey ham or beef salami...it's nice hearing the azan and having a place to go pray. it's nice speaking urdu as commonly as Spanish is spoken in California/Texas.
My husband finds the work environment really challenging and exciting. He works with both Arabs, Desis (both ones from india/pak and others from europe/american) and Europeans. He finds people very smart and hard working. He also finds the rapid speed of change and movement in business here is much more exciting then the US. It is an exciting time to be here...very hot.
It is a family friendly area- my daughter gets loads of attention and i feel fairly safe with her here...I also appreciate how easy and relatively inexpensive it is to find help for cleaning and babysitting though it is not super cheap either.
It is DEFINITLY not cheap in comparison to the US- we moved from NYC and rent is running the same here though you get a bigger place. Restaurants are the same...clothing is more 20-30% for me up to 100% more for children's toys and clothes. You can buy cheaply but you have to hit the "old" dubai areas which are a pain to go too..and not where you'd spend most of your time.
For Americans we still owe income tax on everything you make- though you get a tax free allowance on your first 80k....so there is some saving but if you're over the 80K income bracket it's not as nice as is it for other nationalities. I find that most friends who live here...especially recent arrivals are finding it much more expensive than planned.
I also don't know if i want to stay here forever...and though we're enjoying it now we plan on going back.
That sounds pretty nice...what about the worse experiences though??
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
oh joy something we'll get to explore when we do our taxes this year.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
loks like congress is makign it tougher fr expat US citizens and perm residents.
May 30, 2006
Americans Living Abroad Get a Nasty Tax Surprise
By KEITH BRADSHER and DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
HONG KONG, May 29 — In an effort to raise revenues, tax writers in Congress added a last-minute provision that retroactively increased taxes for Americans living abroad. But the sudden imposition of new taxes has surprised overseas taxpayers, and it has employers concerned about the added cost.
The increase for Americans abroad was added at the last minute to the $69 billion tax cut legislation that was signed last week. Americans living overseas paid almost $3.5 billion in United States income taxes in 2001, the latest year for which data is available, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
The change, which is retroactive to the beginning of 2006, is expected to raise taxes on Americans abroad by $2.1 billion over the next 10 years.
The suddenness of the move meant that American Chambers of Commerce in Asia did not have a chance to mobilize against the idea as they had in previous sessions of Congress.
“We were held back by the U.S. Chamber because they didn’t think it would be popped in this time,” said Richard R. Vuylsteke, the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei.
Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Finance Committee, who has long been a proponent of higher taxes on overseas Americans, has said that the tax policy had been overly generous.
Americans living overseas say the provision wrongly focuses on allowances that their employers pay to cover higher costs — like housing, schools and trips home — that they incur by taking a job abroad. The law changes the way taxes are calculated on subsidies like housing allowances, which should push many of those Americans into higher tax brackets, analysts say.
While the move will have limited effect on Americans living in countries with high tax rates — European countries, for example — those living in low tax jurisdictions with high housing costs — like Bermuda, the Middle East, Singapore and Hong Kong — will be hit hardest, partners at two major accounting firms said.
Over all, the bill raises taxes on overseas Americans by about 6 percent, but most individuals will pay nothing more, while others will see their taxes quadruple.
For Kristine Kraabel, a gift shop owner in Singapore, and her husband, who is now the regional human resources director there for an American company, the new legislation will more than triple their American tax bill. Their tax adviser calculates that they will owe $20,000 to $25,000 more in United States taxes, up from $5,000 last year, even as they pay $20,000 in Singapore taxes.
Americans working overseas get a dollar-for-dollar credit for income taxes paid to foreign countries to offset their American income taxes. They also get to exclude $80,000 from the income they report to the I.R.S. The new law increased the exclusion to $82,400 this year.
But analyses by the accounting firms Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers show that by adding provisions to how the exclusion is calculated, it raises the overall tax bill and marginal tax rates as well for some overseas Americans.
Senator Grassley’s staff, in a memo, said that the I.R.S. counted 306,393 tax returns claiming the exclusion in 2003, of which only 125,894 paid any American income taxes. When no tax is due it means that foreign income taxes paid by overseas Americans, together with the benefit from excluding $80,000, were higher than those that would be owed to the United States alone.
Michael Abdalian, a tax partner at Ernst & Young, said he has spoken to many employers about the increased tax burden. “Most companies have programs designed to protect their employees from additional taxes,” he said, so the expense will likely be borne by employers.
Paying the higher taxes and then the taxes on the higher income to cover the taxes is a costly proposition, Mr. Abdalian said. Because the new rules will push many Americans overseas into higher brackets he said many companies will spend $2 for each $1 their overseas employees pay in taxes. The entire $2 will be deductible by the corporation.
He said rough calculations showed that a married couple paid $300,000, of which $20,000 was a housing allowance, would see their income tax bill rise by about $20,000 and their employer’s cost by about $40,000. Most countries exempt their citizens overseas from income taxes, so the law will give companies an incentive to hire Australians, Britons, Canadians and other nationalities for whom they do not have to pay additional taxes.
The Kraabels, who own the Singapore gift shop, are especially upset because they used to live in Decorah, Iowa — Senator Grassley’s home state — and still own a house there.
In a furious letter to Senator Grassley, widely circulated among expatriates, Ms. Kraabel contended that overseas Americans subsidize their countrymen in the United States by helping to pay for services they never use.
“You will be hard pressed to find us on federal roads, state roads, county roads, or even to find us on the ruins of Decorah’s old green bridge,” she wrote. “We are your subsidy. We are your constituents, whose interests you condemn and refuse to represent.”
Senator Grassley has long attacked the tax break for overseas Americans as an overly generous subsidy that does little to improve the American economy. Because the tax is retroactive many families are just starting to realize that they did not have employers withhold enough tax from their paychecks for the first five months of the year. Many employers will have to adjust their budgets if they plan to make their overseas workers whole, cutting into capital available for investment.
Senator Grassley’s staff said complaints about retroactive tax increases lacked merit because only one estimated tax payment was due before the law was enacted in May.
Jack Whiteford, a regional sales manager in Taipei, Taiwan, said he was worried that his employer, whom he declined to identify, might not indemnify him against the much higher taxes he will face under the new law, making it far less attractive for him to stay overseas. “It’s pulling money out of all of our pockets,” he said.
Mr. Whiteford’s three children would go to public school tuition-free if he were in the United States, he said. But in Taiwan they attend a private, English-language school for which his employer pays $45,000 a year — payments on which Mr. Whiteford will now owe higher taxes.
His employer also pays for business-class tickets for the family to fly back to the United States once a year, and heavily subsidizes his rent, which is higher than it would be for comparable quarters in the United States. The $82,400 exclusion “hardly covers the extra costs I incur” by living overseas, Mr. Whiteford said.
Increasing taxes on overseas Americans was cited in a report last year by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation on tax reform and improving compliance, the staff noted, adding that it “has been in the works for at least several years” and should not have been a surprise.
In addition, analysts said the law did nothing about the hundreds of thousands of Americans living overseas who have illegally stopped paying income taxes.
Keith Bradsher reported for this article from Hong Kong and David Cay Johnston from Rochester.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
amelie an interesting experience I saw firsthand was of a former boss of mine. he moved from US to UK for a few years, sold his home here, rented a place there, spent a number of years, came back to US and was in the south..moved back to east coast after a couple of years.
His main complaint, the real estate had moved so much faster than his salary and any additional savings allowances for him.
his exact words to me were " I can not afford to buy a house in my old nieghbourhood"
for people who want to live in US, i.e. come back to US after their expat assignments, especially in areas where real estate prices are rising thats another issue.
In the long run I am not sure how attractive it is if the bulk of whatever additional you saved ends up buying property at a higher price point than you would have bought had u stayed in US or as in my former boss' case
some craft folks sold their homes here, but bought rental condos and thus as real estate went up the condos did too and the issue with real estate prices going up while the person was abroad became less of an issue. even though the condos did not appreciate at the same rate as single family homes but it took away a lot of the pain.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
well we bought before we left- assuming we'd move back and right now it's rented out. THe move her is allowing us to save some but not THAT much relative to what we were saving in the US.....
We also have the cheapest car amongst our friends in Dubai, live in similiar accomidations and aren't crazy spenders on designer duds .....but that's how we are in the US too.
I find alot of expats think they are owed a nicer lifestyle than they would have had back in the states....b/c they are expats and overspend/reach...which may be part of the problem.
As for the taxation- i know peoplel who try various tricks to get out of it- the best is an american whose non-american wife gets a paycheck from his company...he declares his income as what he actually gets to his name not including his wifes bit.
Re: Has Dubai/Mideast fever gripped your family or desi social circle yet?
That sounds pretty nice...what about the worse experiences though??
That is mostly simple things that are partially just a function of being in the middle east in a rapidly growing country.
-It's HOT...HOT in the summer
-Construction traffic
-really crazy road designs that don't make sense and detours that get your more confused and lost.
-crazy real estate agents who try to milk as much money out of you....and pray on your ignorance despite having very long daris and mashallahing everything.
The bad of dubai IMO is that it has no heart...yet. it's really trying to create a style/atmosphere and culture and is very cool but it is too young to have a real flavor of its own. When we've been in Paris, NYC or Beiruit you really feel it..and see it. Dubai is like living in the mid-west. Very suburban and nice...but generic.