================================================= Expat Worlds Monthly Digest ================================================= December, 2006 Vol. 8, Issue 12 .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== THE STORY =================== -=Campione d'Italia=- ==== OTHER EZINES ================ ==== EW SPECIAL ================== -=Bye Bye Big Brother=- ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... == -=Trivia=- -=News Story=- -=Jokes=- ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============= -=MB Biorhythm Chart Software=- ==== INSIDE THE CURRENT EXPAT WORLD == -=Table of Content=- ==== THE STORY ================================== * * * CHAMPIONE * * * from BYE BYE BIG BROTHER CAMPIONE D'ITALIA - BACK DOOR TO SWITZERLAND Campione d'Italia is a fascinating place - a small Italian enclave of 1.7 square kilometers located entirely within Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Lugano. Campione is technically a part of Italy (province of Como) and Italian law applies. The official currency is the Swiss Franc, but the Euro is accepted as well. All banking is done through Swiss banks a short ferry-boat ride (no passport or ID required) across the lake in Lugano. This gives residents the legendary Swiss financial privacy. Residents qualify for Swiss license plates, and Campione residents can also use the Swiss (or the Italian) postal and telephone systems. The famous Campione Casino generates substantial local revenue. This is probably one of the reasons why the residents and property owners in Campione enjoy very special tax concessions. Campione is exempt from the Italian value added tax (VAT). The real estate taxes or 'rates' are nominal. Italian income taxes are theoretically applicable to all who live there more than six months a year - but no one bothers non-Italian residents for income tax. There are no special tax advantages for companies domiciled or managed from there. Thus it is a fine base for wealthy (non-Italian) individuals, but not a place for an international business to be headquartered. Campione is not entirely tax-free, but even Italian residents do not pay the full Italian income tax. Based on a special provision in the Italian law, the first CHF 200,000 of income is calculated in Euros, at a ridiculously low fixed exchange rate. This results in a low effective income tax. As in Italy itself, there are no inheritance and gift taxes. income from interest on foreign bonds paid through an Italian bank is taxed at a special, reduced rate of 12.5% only. To obtain a residence permit, you may have to buy an apartment or a house - simply because there are few rentals available. The real estate market is very small and prices are relatively high. A home or apartment in Campione may easily cost twice what it costs across the take in Switzerland. Lugano real estate agents will have listings on Campione properties and there are also several real estate agents in Campione itself. Secret tip for our readers: There is a Migros mini-market and gas station just outside of Campione on the only road into the country. Inside this gas station is a bulletin board. An on that bulletin board, you will sometimes find rentals and good deals on cheaper property on a 'person-to-person' basis. There is also for local deals a free local advertising paper called Cerca & Trova. This means "Looking and Finding." Far more deals are concluded privately than through brokers. Mortgages are virtually impossible to obtain because foreclosing on Campione properties is hard to do. As a practical matter, and in theory, a non-Italian should get a residence permit after 3 months of continuous physical presence in Campione. But since continuous physical presence can be broken by stepping across the street or going for a swim, no officials will ever ask for a resident's permit from anyone who rents or owns a property and lives a quiet life. To qualify for the permit to become a legal resident, you need police clearance from the Italian authorities as well as approval of your resident's application by the local Campione authorities. While residence permits are issued by Italian authorities, access to the territory of Campione (entirely surrounded by Switzerland) is governed by Swiss visa regulations. This means that the passport you hold should allow you to enter Switzerland without a visa, or you will (theoretically) have to apply for a Swiss visa beforehand. But here's another secret tip... a back door to Switzerland for-people who normally need a visa to enter (or for PTs who simply don't want t to show their passports as a matter of principle). There is a ferry boat from Cerisio (Italy) to Campione. You don't need any Swiss visa to get on that boat. The ride is about 30 minutes. Once in Campione, you can take another ferry, or walk on foot into Switzerland without crossing any border posts. There is even a footpath that crosses from the top of Campione over an unpatrolled strip of forest on a mountain ridge. A twenty minute mountain hike gets you back into a pleasant mountain resort town in Italy. As a practical matter, there is not much of a border between Italy, Switzerland and Campione anyway. Cars with EU license plates and white passengers are waived through. They are seldom stopped when crossing into or out of Switzerland from Italy. For European Union or EEA citizens: Campione residence is a back door to Switzerland. You are in effect, living in Switzerland and can have an office in the financial center of Lugano - yet by being a legal resident of Campione, you can avoid the draconian Swiss rules on residency and also Swiss income taxes. Standard Italian naturalization periods apply in Campione. This generally requires ten years of residence or three years of marriage. There arc reduced-time requirements for persons of Italian ancestry who speak Italian. Also, every four years or so, there is a general amnesty in Italy for undocumented aliens. This allows people who are in Italy (including Campione) to get legal residence with a simple form. The catch is that people who take advantage of the amnesty are expected to pay Italian income taxes, social security, health insurance premiums, etc. If they don't, the residence permit is revoked. However, Italy is a refuge for economic and political refugees, and a person who stays out of trouble is exceedingly unlikely to be deported. ==== OTHER EZINES & BOOKS ======================== ASIAN TIMES ONLINE Asia most trusted source for news, business,commentary and analysis from throughout Asia and our world. (www.atimes.com). ----- SURVIVAL BOOKS Go to and check it out! ----- japan-guide.com Extensive, up to date online guide on Japan living and travel related information. http://www.japan-guide.com/ ==== EW SPECIAL ================================= BYE, BYE, BIG BROTHER - The Report No Government Wanted Printed The new three volume (over 800 pages) blockbuster report, Bye, Bye, Big Brother, a report that no government wanted printed contains the philosophy of "PT", Bureaucrat Busting, Protecting Your Ass and ASSETS and getting Big Brother Out of Your Life in the Post 9-11 World. It is where the answers are. BBBB will educate all those who do not know what a PT is and refresh the memory of the old-timers. Check out the details at: ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... ================ NEWS STORIES The latest wacky sentences: Dress up as a dog, carry a sign admitting guilt Among the latest wacky sentences are an offer to reduce the sentence of a man who shot his dog if he dresses up as a dog and an order that someone who parked illegally in a space reserved for handicapped drivers stand outside the store with a sign telling everyone about his crime. In Painesville, Ohio, Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti offered Thursday to cut Robert M. Clark's sentence to 10 days in jail if he wears a Safety Pup costume and visits the city's five elementary schools. The mascot educates children about issues ranging from traffic safety to drug abuse. Clark, 38, pleaded no contest to an animal cruelty charge and was sentenced to 180 days in jail for shooting his Great Dane in the head. Cicconetti suspended all but 30 days of Clark's sentence if he pays the Lake County Human Society for the dog's veterinarian bills. The judge then offered to cut an additional 20 days if Clark dresses up as Safety Pup. Clark was arrested July 3 after neighbors reported hearing the dog's cries and police found the injured animal. The humane society took the dog to an emergency veterinary clinic, but he suffered brain damage and had to be euthanized, the group said. Clark is appealing the sentence, court officials said. Meanwhile, a judge in Union, S.C., sentenced a man who parked illegally in a space reserved for handicapped drivers to stand outside the store with a sign telling everyone about his crime. Ragheem Smith, 29, stood in front of a Bi-Lo grocery store Thursday with a handmade sign that read "I am not handicapped. I just parked there, sorry." Magistrate Jeff Bailey imposed the sentence. "I figured he needed to apologize in a public way," Bailey said. Smith told Bailey he didn't have the money and couldn't afford the time away from work that a jail sentence would require. He could have been sentenced to 30 days in jail or fined $325. "That was better than having to pay a lot of money," Smith said of his punishment. "I know I won't do it no more." --- FBI releases last of secret John Lennon files LOS ANGELES, Dec 20 (Reuters Life!) - The FBI has released the last 10 documents from its secret files on slain Beatle John Lennon that had been withheld for 25 years on the ground they could prompt "military retaliation" against the United States, campaigners for their release said on Wednesday. The files turn out to contain only well known information about Lennon's ties to left-wing leaders and antiwar groups in London in 1970 and 1971, said Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine, and the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Today we can see that the national security claims the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning. The Lennon FBI file is a classic case of excessive government secrecy," Wiener said in a statement. The released documents include one that states Lennon "encouraged the belief that he holds revolutionary views ... by the content of some of his songs." Another talks of the Beatle turned anti-war campaigner promising to finance a left-wing bookshop in London. A third describes a 1971 interview with Lennon in The Red Mole, a London underground newspaper, in which the singer "emphasized his proletarian background and his sympathy with the oppressed and underprivileged people of Britain and the world." Wiener first requested the files in 1981. After legal action under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act that went all the way to the Supreme Court, he got most of the 300 pages in the Lennon files released in 1997. But 10 documents remained classified on the grounds of national security. The FBI told the U.S. courts in 1983 that release of those documents could "lead to foreign diplomatic, economic and military retaliation against the United States." Wiener, whose campaign was detailed in a book and formed the basis of the 2006 documentary "The U.S. vs John Lennon," has posted the documents on the Web site www.LennonFBIfiles.com. "I doubt that Tony Blair's government will launch a military strike on the U.S. in retaliation for the release of these documents," Wiener said. Lennon, whose iconic song "Imagine" has become a rallying call for anti-war activists around the world, was murdered in New York in December 1980 by a deranged fan. --- Jakarta hotel puts $110 hamburger on menu JAKARTA (Reuters) - A hotel in Indonesia is dishing out a hamburger that costs more than twice the monthly minimum wage in some parts of the country. The $110 hamburger offered by the Four Seasons is made of Kobe beef with foie gras, Portobello mushrooms and Korean pears -- served with french fries, of course. They're not exactly selling like hotcakes yet, but the hotel says it has sold 20 of the 1.0 million rupiah ($110.1) hamburgers since they were launched this month. "One burger has 225 grams of Kobe beef. It is so expensive because the flavor is really different," said Erwan Ruswandi, the chief of the restaurant offering the gourmet burger. "The calves in Kobe get special treatment ... they drink beer mixed with milk, vitamins and eat pesticide-free grass. We add foie gras and also some Korean pears. We import all the materials, and they are high quality so it is so expensive." The minimum wage in most parts the country of 220 million is as low as around $40 a month. A tiny number of Indonesians are among the richest people in Asia while millions live in dire poverty in urban slums or shanty towns in the countryside. --- Oxymoron: virtual reality ----- The government that can protect you from your enemies can be used as easily by your enemies to harm you. -- Harry Browne ----- The internet is a great way to get on the net -- Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate ----- "Happy is the one who eats not the yellow snow." -- on a Bazuka Bubble Gum Wrapper ----- "In the beginning there was nothing... which exploded." -- The shortened Big Bang theory ----- A German tourist walks into a McDonald's in New York City and orders a beer. (In Germany and many parts of Europe, McDonald's actually does serve beer.) The local guy in the line behind him immediately gives him the jab: "They don't serve BEER here, you MORON!" The German fellow felt pretty stupid, but suddenly turns to the New Yorker with a surprised look, and begins to chuckle. "And what's so funny?!?" the New Yorker demands. "Oh, nothing really, I just realized that you came here for the food." ----- A guy is screwing a great looking blonde. The girl asks, "You haven't got AIDS have you?" He replies, "No." She responds, "Oh, thank heavens for that!! I don't want to get that again...!" ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============================ MB Biorhythm Chart Software MB Biorhythm Chart Software helps you generate your daily biorhythm charts. The chart displays the three primary cycles for physical, emotional and intellectual cycles. These cycles help a person understand how his body functions according to these cycles. Go to . ==== INSIDE THE CURRENT EXPAT WORLD =============== EXPAT WORLD NEWSLETTER (VOL.18 ISSUE 10) Table of Content: - TRES AMIGOS - AN INDIA DAIRY A BIKE RIDE THROUGH INDIA - SURF THE NET AND GET PAID FOR IT - AROUND THE WORLD WITH EXPAT WORLD - * * * CHAMPIONE * * * FROM BYE BYE BIG BROTHER - CAMPIONE D'ITALIA - BACK DOOR TO SWITZERLAND - HISTORY ACCORDING TO EXPAT WORLD - INTERNATIONAL SNIPS & CLIPS - EXPAT WIVES - AN EXPAT WORLD PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT - TRACKING YOUR LOST/STOLEN CELL PHONE - CRAPPER RAPPER - MAY GOD BLESS US ALL YOU MISSING SO MUCH Each week the EXPAT WORLD DIGEST gives you just a smattering of what you can find in the EXPAT WORLD newsletter that we produce once a month. Why not get the whole story and subscribe now to our electronic version for just US $30 per year. Go to our website: www.expatworld.net to sign up. ********************************************************************* EXPAT WORLD - the newsletter of international living URL - http://www.expatworld.net Email - office@expatworld.net ---------- End of Expat World Digest --------------------------------