The new flight will operate twice a week beginning on July 3. (Octavio Hoyos/Shutterstock)
Mexico City-based budget airline Volaris has announced it is opening a new route from McAllen, Texas, to Cancún in July.
Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa confirmed the announcement Wednesday, saying the new route will strengthen the “new era of tourism” in her state, home to some of Mexico’s most popular beach destinations, including Cancún, Tulum and Playa del Carmen.
21 million tourists flocked to the beaches of Quintana Roo last year, as the state exceeded tourism projections. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
The route will feature two flights per week beginning on July 3, linking the Texas border town with the popular resort destination on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. Volaris announced the flights will be offered Wednesdays and Saturdays, leaving Cancún at 12:15 p.m. and returning from McAllen at around 4:05 p.m.
“This is a clear example of how collaborative efforts can overcome obstacles to build stronger connections among communities,” Lezama said Wednesday. “With this new route, Quintana Roo embarks upon a new era of tourism that promises unforgettable experiences for visitors to our state.”
The state has over 130,000 hotel rooms, and this number is expected to increase in 2024 with the addition of a growing number of vacation rentals. Quintana Roo also saw 6.1 million cruise passengers arrive during 2023.
Cancún International Airport boasts connectivity to more than 40 US cities and it ended 2023 with record-breaking tourism figures. The airport received roughly 33.7 million visitors last year. Revenue from tourism was reported to be 12% higher in 2023 than the year before, reaching US $21 billion.
“It has undoubtedly been a great year for Cancún, with numerous high-level events taking place,” Benito Juárez Tourism Minister Juan Pablo de Zulueta Razo said in early January. Benito Juárez is the municipality in which the city of Cancún, its municipal seat, is located.
Mexico’s rating had been downgraded to Category 2 in May 2021 after the FAA found “the country did not meet International Civil Aviation Organization safety standards.”
With the safety rating restored, Mexican airlines are allowed to open new services and routes to the United States and have already announced a significant number of new flights connecting the two countries.
Residents and park attendants rushed into action to save a pod of pilot whales in Yucatán, who were at risk in the shallow waters. (Screen capture)
Local residents and national park personnel on Tuesday rescued 21 short-finned pilot whales that had become stranded near a beach in the Celestún Biosphere Reserve, in western Yucatán state.
Park rangers noticed the imperiled animals, took video of them and immediately sent it to Picmmy, a local marine mammal conservation group. A nearby Navy oceanography station was also notified.
Más de 20 ballenas piloto quedaron varadas en el puerto de Celestún, #Yucatán. ⚠️
El avistamiento ocurrió en el sector conocido como “La Herradura”, detrás de las escolleras del puerto.
Los habitantes reportaron el hecho a elementos de la Marina, quienes actuaron para… pic.twitter.com/Yl0Jgx55jv
The rangers waded out into chest-high waters to prevent the marine mammals from endangering themselves in shallow water. Local residents also joined in the rescue effort, forming an extended line in front of the beach.
Once the Picmmy team arrived, they examined the short-finned pilot whales, discovering that two had suffered injuries, including one that was likely the result of an attack by an orca, or killer whale. After the evaluation was completed, the rescuers used boats to guide the pilot whales out to sea. Navy personnel joined in the efforts to shepherd the mammals to deeper waters.
“The participation of the public was critical in carrying out this rescue,” Raúl Díaz Gamboa, the Picmmy coordinator in charge of the operation, told La Jornada Maya newspaper. “They started without us, with the help of Celestún reserve personnel […] We decided to use all hands despite the risk of someone being struck or bitten, but we explained how to push the mammals and the importance of coordinating so that they could all be moved at the same time.”
Díaz, who is also director of the Marine Biology Department at the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY), said park personnel and members of the public have in the past received training to carry out this important maneuver, including on how to properly push and redirect the mammals and how to work in coordinated fashion to maintain a secure line of protection.
Pilot whales often stick together when one of a pod is injured, and experts say the behavior demonstrated in Yucatán is not uncommon. (NOAA/Wikimedia)
The number of pilot whales involved in the incident was not unusual, Díaz said, as pods typically stay together when one of their number is injured.
The rescue operation lasted most of the day. Picmmy was alerted at 10 a.m. and the animals finally reached open waters after 8 p.m. Navy personnel and park rangers remained in the area to make sure the pilot whales did not return.
Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) are cetaceans belonging to the oceanic dolphin family — which includes orcas — and are not actually whales. They are known as “cheetahs of the deep” for their ability to dive at high speed to hundreds of meters in search of prey.
At the Thursday morning press conference, López Obrador highlighted the improvement in the annual headline inflation rate in the first half of February. (Cuartocscuro)
Mexico’s annual headline inflation rate fell to 4.45% in the first half of February, beating the forecasts of analysts.
It is considerably lower than the 4.7% median forecast of 13 analysts polled by Reuters earlier this week, but still above the Bank of Mexico’s target of 3%.
INEGI data also shows that the closely-watched annual core inflation rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, fell to 4.63% in the first half of the month, down from 4.76% in January. Core inflation has declined steadily over the past 12 months.
The decline in headline inflation comes after increases were recorded in November, December and January. Prior to November, headline inflation fell for nine consecutive months after reaching almost 8% in January 2023.
The latest inflation data reinforces views that the Bank of Mexico will soon make an initial cut to its record-high benchmark interest rate, which has remained at 11.25% since it was raised to that level last March.
“This reading takes away a huge weight from central bankers, who could begin cutting rates next month,” said Andres Abadia, Chief Latin America Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
The central bank’s next monetary policy meeting is scheduled for March 21.
Fruit and vegetable prices decline more than 7% in 2 weeks
While fruit and vegetables were just over 17% more expensive than they were in the first half of February 2023, prices dropped 7.2% compared to the second half of January, according to INEGI. Widespread drought has caused fruit and vegetable prices to increase significantly over the past year.
The cost of fruits and vegetables, while still 17% higher than in the same period last year, fell significantly in the first two weeks of February compared to the last half of January. (Cuartoscuro)
The only other goods and service category for which prices declined in the first half of February compared to the previous 15-day period was meat. The reduction in prices was 0.64%.
The decline in prices for fruit and vegetables and meat was sufficient for overall headline inflation to recede 0.10% compared to the second half of January.
Prices for all other goods and services increased on an annual basis. Processed food, beverages and tobacco were 5.28% more expensive, while the cost of services increased by the same percentage. Non-food goods were 2.68% more expensive, while energy prices, including those for electricity and gasoline, rose 2.44% compared to a year earlier.
There are 68 Indigenous groups officially recognized in Mexico, including Purépecha communities like this one in Coeneo, Michoacán. (Juan Jose Estrada Serafín/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico observed International Mother Language Day on Wednesday with both happiness and sadness.
The happiness comes from the fact that there are 68 surviving Indigenous languages in Mexico, spoken by 7.5 million people, according to figures from the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). About 6% of Mexico’s population of 130 million can speak Nahuatl, Maya, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Mixtec or another Indigenous language.
The majority of indigenous Mexicans are concentrated in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero and Yucatán. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
The sadness, however, is that almost 300 Indigenous languages in Mexico have already disappeared, and others are becoming increasingly endangered. Approximately 25 languages die out every year globally.
For example, Cuitlateco, a language native to the state of Guerrero and its surroundings, died in the 1960s with the death of it’s final speaker, Juana Can. Now Ayapaneco, a language native to a village in Tabasco, and Ixcatec, spoken in a village in northern Oaxaca state, are each critically endangered, with precious few speakers of each language remaining.
In Mexico, there are 23.2 million people over age 3 who identify as Indigenous, but only 3% of them speak one of the 68 native languages, or one of their 364 variants, according to the newspaper El Economista.
International Mother Language Day, or Día de la Lengua Materna in Spanish, arose from an initiative in Bangladesh and was approved in 1999 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It has been observed globally on Feb. 21 since 2002.
Women are primarily credited with passing indigenous language and culture on to following generations. (Fernando Carranza/Cuartoscuro)
Of Indigenous peoples who speak native languages in Mexico, 22.4% speak Nahuatl, 10.5% speak Maya, 8% speak Tzeltal, 7.5% speak Tzotzil, 7.2% speak Mixtec, 6.7% speak Zapotec: 4.1% speak Otomí, 3.5% speak Totonac and the remaining 30% speak one of the remaining Indigenous languages or variants.
Those speakers live mostly in rural regions, and half are in four particular southeastern states. In Oaxaca and Chiapas, three out of every 10 inhabitants speak an Indigenous language. In Yucatán and Guerrero, it’s two out of every 10.
Most speakers of an Indigenous language use it within their families and communities; and nine out of 10 also speak Spanish. In absolute terms, there are about 866,000 Mexicans who speak only their native language.
The survival of languages in Mexico is credited largely to women, with grandmothers, mothers and aunts the main transmitters of knowledge and culture to new generations.
Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, a spokesperson for the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, noted on social media that Mexico ranks 10th in the world in language diversity, the same as in 2019.
To observe the UNESCO day, Mexico’s National Institute of Indigenous Languages (INALI) organized a two-day conference titled “Linguistic Rights in the Field of Justice” in Mexico City. The importance of using professional-level translators and interpreters in legal situations was highlighted.
The number of Mexicans seeking asylum in Canada rose significantly last year. President López Obrador has said the Mexican government is addressing the issue with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a "very respectful way."
(Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)
The number of Mexicans seeking asylum in Canada surged last year, and Canadian authorities believe that crime groups in Mexico are playing a role in sending some of them to the country.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged Canada’s concerns on Tuesday and said that the Mexican government is dealing with the issue.
Mexicans do not currently require a visa to visit Canada, and 17,490 Mexicans applied for asylum in the country in the first nine months of last year. (Rene Dominguez/Shutterstock)
Data from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada shows that Mexicans submitted 17,490 claims for asylum in the first nine months of 2023, up 134% from a total of 7,483 in the whole of 2022. The number in 2013 was just 128.
Last year, Mexicans made more asylum claims in Canada than nationals of any other country. Just under 2,000 were accepted, while the remainder of applications were rejected, withdrawn or have not yet been processed. It is likely that some of the Mexicans who applied for asylum in Canada last year have since entered the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that his government was “in conversations with Mexico about making sure that the number of asylum seekers — some of them supported by organized crime in Mexico to come up to Canada — are reduced.”
Since 2016, Mexicans have not needed a visa to travel to Canada, but Canadian officials have recently suggested that could change. Mexicans affiliated with criminal organizations began entering Canada in greater numbers once the visa requirement was dropped, according to Canadian intelligence reports.
Mexicans have been able to enter Canada with just an electronic travel authorization since 2016, but now some Canadian politicians would like to see tighter restrictions. (Shutterstock)
Trudeau’s remarks at an event in Winnipeg came after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) told the immigration committee of the lower house of the Canadian parliament earlier this month that it was investigating the role of crime groups in the smuggling of people to Canada.
“We can say that in Canada from our investigations across the country that there is Mexican organized crime involved in this,” said Richard Burchill, an RCMP acting assistant commissioner.
López Obrador was asked about the Canadians’ assertions at his morning press conference on Tuesday.
He told reporters that Truedau raised the issue with him during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC conference in San Francisco last November.
“We agreed there that the foreign ministers of Canada and Mexico would deal with this matter. And there have been several meetings about this and we’re already taking measures, an agreement with Canada is being sought,” López Obrador said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said in a statement on Jan. 24 that “due to the concerns about the increased number of Mexican asylum seekers in recent months, in December 2023, we held the sixth interim meeting of the Mexico-Canada High-Level Dialogue on Human Mobility.”
“… As a result of this meeting, we agreed to establish joint measures, which are making good progress, as reflected in the decreased number of asylum applications for the month of December,” the ministry said without specifying what those measures were.
The SRE also said it would “look for new solutions that can address the legitimate concerns of Canada and its provinces and, in turn, maintain the dynamic human mobility between our nations, which strengthens the economic exchanges and growth in the region.”
President López Obrador thanked the Canadian government for the decision not to act unilaterally on whether to allow Mexicans to enter their country without a visa. (lopezobrador.org.mx)
Asked on Tuesday whether organized crime is connected to the asylum claims filed by Mexicans in Canada, López Obrador responded:
“No. The thing is that there is an increase in asylum applications and we have to see if they really are people who need asylum or if it is [just] a means to get into Canada. … It’s an issue that the government of Canada has raised with us. … Prime Minister Trudeau raised it with me directly and we agreed to deal with it, but in a very respectful way.”
Apparently referring to the possible reinstatement of a visa requirement for Mexicans seeking to enter Canada, López Obrador said the Canadians “don’t want to take a unilateral measure that could affect Mexico, and we thank them very much for that.”
Francois Legault, the premier of the province of Quebec, wrote to Trudeau in January to urge the prime minister to take action over the flow of asylum seekers into Quebec and provide compensation for costs his government has incurred by taking them in.
“Mexican nationals represent a growing proportion of the asylum seekers arriving in Quebec, the possibility of entering Canada from Mexico without a visa certainly explains part of the flow of asylum seekers,” Legault said.
Canadian Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc subsequently said that he and Immigration Minister Marc Miller were considering visas and other measures for Mexican nationals seeking to enter Canada.
Miller indicated last week that the Canadian government would implement measures to reduce Mexican asylum seeker numbers, but remarked,”I’m not going to tell you in advance when it will occur.”
The immigration minister didn’t specifically mention that authorities were planning to reintroduce a visa requirement, which was introduced by the Canadian government led by former Conservative Party prime minister Stephen Harper in 2008 and scrapped less than a year after after Truedau took office in November 2015.
Mexico City has unveiled it's new solar energy plant, said to be the largest of its type in the world. It will be able to generate 25 gigawatt hour per year, enough to power 10,000 homes. (Gobierno de CDMX/Cuartoscuro)
An installation of solar panels said to be the largest of its kind in the world was put into operation Tuesday on the rooftops of Mexico City’s massive public wholesale market, the Central de Abasto (CEDA).
The 32,000 solar panels installed over 21 hectares (52 acres) above the capital’s Central de Abasto (CEDA) have 18 megawatts of capacity, and will generate up to 25 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable electricity per year, according to data from Mexico City officials.
The panels are installed on the roof of Mexico City’s giant Central de Abasto market. (Gobierno de CDMX/Cuartoscuro)
That’s enough energy to power 10,000 homes for a year, officials added.
They also said that the electricity generated will reduce carbon dioxide emissions annually by 11,400 tonnes and result in annual savings of 3.5 million pesos (US $205,300) in the payment of CEDA’s electrical bills.
The reduction of the carbon footprint is equivalent to the reforestation and care of nearly 29,000 pine trees for 50 years, said Mexico City Mayor Martí Batres Guadarrama.
The plant, which cost 600 million pesos (US $35.2 million) to build, was promoted by Morena presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum during her 4½-year term as Mexico City mayor.
Sheinbaum has a master’s degree and Ph.D. in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and from 1991 to 1994, she completed work for her doctoral thesis on the use of energy in Mexico at the world-renowned Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
The plant is being run by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
The plant was inaugurated this week by Energy Minister Miguel Ángel Maciel Torres and CFE head Manuel Bartlett Díaz, among others.
Mexico City Mayor Martí Batres was present at the inauguration of the new plant. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
Bartlett Díaz highlighted the plant as a work of economic development and social responsibility that will provide clean and cheap energy to the largest such market in Latin America.
“It is an important symbol — not just another electricity project,” Bartlett Díaz said. “It is really a sign that the [Mexico City] government has seen social and technological development as its main concern … [It’s] an example for the entire city.”
Maciel Torres said the next step is to generate storage batteries so that the electricity generated is not only used during the day, but also at night.
Like others, he also stressed the “important social component” of the project. “Not only are we thinking about the business, about recovering the investment, but we are thinking about supporting the population, the tenants, the people, the neighboring buildings,” he said.
The solar installation has been described as the largest urban solar park in the world; close competitors are the Radha Soami project in Amritsar, India and the rooftop solar park at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.
The Mexican government will shortly begin a six-month survey of wild jaguar populations, to determine the number that remain in the wild. (Shutterstock)
How many wild jaguars are left in Mexico? A government census will soon shed light on the status of one of Mexico’s apex predators, the largest wild feline in the Americas.
According to the National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (Conanp), the third National Jaguar Census will take place from March to June this year, with results expected to be released in August.
How many jaguars were recorded in the most recent surveys?
Mexico conducted the first census in 2008, studying jaguar populations across 15 conservation sites.
The review took three years to complete and established Mexico as a leader in conservation strategies for preserving wild jaguar populations.
According to that first census, an estimated 4,000 jaguars lived in the country, mostly in the Yucatán peninsula. By 2018, when the second census was carried out, this figure had increased to approximately 4,800.
Con la información que se genere tomaremos decisiones para fortalecer el cuidado de nuestro felino sagrado en 🇲🇽, con las comunidades. 🐾🌳🌺⛰️ pic.twitter.com/G5x9gfKLNd
One of the conservationists involved posted this video of camera trap footage of “our sacred feline in Mexico”
Experts hope to see that number increase once again in response to the conservation measures in place.
How will the census be conducted?
Data will be collected from Natural Protected Areas (ANP) and areas of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, the jaguar’s natural habitat. In total, 19 ANPs and 10 additional sites will participate in the census.
The survey will be conducted by the Environmental Ministry (Semarnat), the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp) the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the National Alliance for the Conservation of the Jaguar (ANCJ).
Where can jaguars be found in Mexico?
Jaguars are the biggest wild cats in the Americas. In Mexico, they primarily live in the southeast of the country and along the Río Bravo region of the Gulf of Mexico. They can also be found in the Sierra Madre Occidental on the Pacific coast and near the borders of Belize and Guatemala.
The current government has increased protected jaguar habitats by more than 1.6 million hectares. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro
The three states with the largest jaguar populations are Campeche, Chiapas, and Quintana Roo, with the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche and the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve in Quintana Roo reporting the largest population of jaguars.
How much protected land is there for jaguars in Mexico?
A healthy jaguar population requires extensive habitats. A single jaguar requires between 2,500 and 10,000 hectares, along with a network of connected territories.
During the administration of President Andrés Manul López Obrador, the protection of priority jaguar habitats has been increased by 1.6 million hectares.
Through ANPs and Areas Voluntarily Destined for Conservation (ADVC), Conanp said it has consolidated 1.5 million hectares of vital territory for jaguars in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, the second-largest protected tropical forest on the continent after the Amazon.
The 2024 tax season has begun. Here are some tips to save you a headache when filing. (Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash)
Many Americans have had nightmares about sitting at the kitchen table late at night, with their head in their hands, eyes toggling back and forth between the instructions for tax forms and schedules, and a pile of receipts, while their pencil, eraser and calculator wait patiently next to their now-cold cup of coffee and their mind agitates about how they ever got themselves into this mess.
Tax season has that effect on people. It’s an unwelcome, often confusing and tedious chore that brings no joy and that everyone wishes would just go away. But if you are like me, and have been dutifully signing your name on a tax return for (going on) forty years, you must realize by now that it is not going away. Even if you move to Mexico.
If you live and work abroad, different tax rules may apply to you. Check with the IRS (or a professional) to see if you are affected. (Unsplash)
And since we can’t avoid it, we may as well embrace it. Yes, I said embrace it. As April 15 marches inevitably closer, I am providing the following five tips to get you in the right frame of mind to handle tax season with aplomb.
Tip one – Assume you have to file a tax return
Did you ever wonder what the United States has in common with the African nation of Eritrea?
Answer: They are the only two countries in the world that tax the worldwide income of their citizens, regardless of where they live or where they earn money.
This means that if you are a U.S. citizen living anywhere in the world, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants to know how much money you made last year. And, if you happen to be an Eritrean citizen and are reading this article, you should know that the Inland Revenue Department of Eritrea also wants to know how much money you made last year.
The happy news is that just because you are a U.S. citizen and have to file a Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, this does not mean that you will owe tax. Generally, if you are single and your gross income is less than $13,850, or if you are married and your gross income is less than $27,700, you won’t owe anything to the IRS. Gross income means anything that puts money in your pocket, including your earnings from work, dividends from investment accounts, distributions from IRAs and pensions, rents and royalties that you receive and profit on if you sell your home.
If your income is below the taxable threshold for your filing status, there can still be special situations that require you to file a return. To be certain, you can click the link “Do I need to file a tax return?” on the IRS website to help you decide if you need to file a return.
If you are living and working outside the United States on April 15, you automatically qualify for a two-month tax extension until June 17, 2024, to file a return and pay tax. (coworking.tulum/Instagram)
If your income is below the taxable threshold for your filing status, and you don’t fall into one of the special situations that require you to file a return, you may still want to file. For example, you should file a return to get a refund of any income tax that was withheld from your pay or your retirement account or other distributions, to satisfy requirements to obtain a green card for a non-U.S. spouse, if you plan to apply for a loan from a U.S. bank or to get certain refundable tax credits such as the Additional Child Tax Credit for dependent children or the American Opportunity credit for higher education costs. Refundable tax credits are essentially reimbursements from the government of a portion of what you spent on what it deems “qualified costs.” Even if you don’t owe any tax, you can receive these payments, but you have to file a return to claim them.
Another reason to file a return even if you aren’t required to is to help prevent identity theft.
Consider this, if you file a return, and a fraudster files a return using your personal information, the IRS will contact you about the duplication. Following up with the IRS in this circumstance will help the agency to quickly resolve the fraud and issue you a personal protection identification number (PPIN) to use on future returns. A PPIN is an extra layer of protection to ensure the IRS only processes returns filed by you.
Tip two – Know the deadlines to file your return and pay your tax
Once you have established that you will file a tax return, you need to know when to file. I think most Americans know that April 15 is the regular due date to file a return and pay taxes. But if you can’t get your Form 1040 filed by April 15, you can file Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. This grants you a six-month extension until October 15, 2024.
It’s important to note that the Form 4668 extension provides more time to file your tax return, but it does not provide more time to pay your taxes. Your tax is still due on the regular due date of April 15. The IRS can charge you interest if you don’t pay your tax by the regular due date and can also charge penalties for late filing and payment. You can use Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals, and worksheets on the IRS website to help you figure what amount to pay with Form 4868.
If you are living and working outside the United States on April 15, you automatically qualify for a two-month tax extension until June 17, 2024, to file a return and pay tax. If you qualify, you need to include a statement when you file your Form 1040. The statement can simply state that you were living overseas on the regular due date and that your main place of business is overseas. Note that the rule states that you have to live and work outside the U.S. to qualify, so if you actually live and work in the U.S., scheduling your Mexican beach vacation to include April 15 won’t net you two extra months.
If you can’t get your return filed by June 17, you can file Form 4868 by that date to get four more months, to October 15, to deal with your taxes. Again, however, your tax is still due on June 17, and interest will be charged from April 15. To avoid this, you should estimate your tax due and pay what you can with Form 4868.
Here’s a helpful chart with information about filing your 2023 income tax return.
Tip three – Don’t ignore the IRS, because the IRS will not ignore you
Many U.S. citizens who move overseas don’t know if they are still required to file a U.S. tax return, or they just put it out of mind. If you haven’t filed a U.S. return in recent memory, now is the right time to get started again.
While being behind on filing tax returns can seem overwhelming and you may not know where to start, my recommendation is to start with the current year. The information you need is still fresh in your memory and if you file by your required due date, you can avoid interest and penalties.
Once you’ve got your 2023 return filed, you can work your way back. In most cases, though, the IRS can only go back and audit the most recent three years. So, for example, if you have not filed a return from as far back as 2016, and you haven’t been contacted by the IRS already, it’s safe to assume that you will not be contacted by the IRS about 2016. In that case, you may decide you do not need to file a return for that year.
The IRS will not email you, contact you on Facebook Messenger, or text you. The IRS will contact you by phone or mail, or, in the unlikely event that you have a fax machine, by fax. Mail is their most common means of contact. If the postal system in your overseas residence country is unreliable, you should maintain a U.S. mailing address, either through a delivery service or with a friend or family member.
If you have received a notice from the IRS, there will be a phone number on the notice. Don’t ignore it. Call the number. Ask questions. If you have received a notice from the IRS and you’ve ignored or misplaced it, and you have not been contacted further, do not assume the IRS has forgotten about you. They have not.
To learn the status of your tax situation, you can create an account on the IRS website. Once you have an account, you can verify your tax filings are up to date, see any outstanding tax balances you owe or refunds you may be due, and see copies of letters the IRS has sent you. Beginning this year, you should also be able to sign up for paperless correspondence.
Generally, to qualify for the IRS free file program, you must be filing an individual return and your income must be below a certain amount. (Shutterstock)
Tip four – Consider hiring yourself before hiring a tax return preparer
I am a tax return preparer and I am telling you that you do not need to hire a tax return preparer to file your tax return. Doing it yourself can save you hundreds of dollars. While many people may have bad memories of trying to muddle through IRS forms and instructions to do their own taxes, I think those days are long gone.
There are now plenty of online tax return preparation platforms that walk you step-by-step through completing your tax return. There is still value in going to the IRS website and looking at the forms and instructions that will make up your return, but in most cases, the questions asked by any given software platform will provide you with a flawless tax form.
In particular, if you have what I call a “simple return,” you can most likely knock it out on a sunny afternoon with a pot of tea at your side. A simple return is some combination of a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, Form 1099-INT, Interest Income, Form 1099-DIV, Dividends and Distributions, Form 1099-R, Distributions from Pensions, and Form SSA-1099, Social Security Benefit Statement. If these are all the forms you have, then all that may be required is for you to transpose numbers from these forms into the online tax prep software. And, with the click of a button, you can e-file your return, saving a trip to the post office and the cost of a stamp, which is up to sixty-six cents in 2024!
Things get a little more complicated if you are self-employed and clients give you Form 1099-NEC, Nonemployee Compensation, or Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income, or if you have income from rental property. But if you keep good records throughout the year, including expenses related to your business or property, inputting those numbers into the tax software isn’t difficult. And even if you don’t keep good records, you’ll have to pull together the numbers to give to your hired tax return preparer anyway, so after you’ve done that work, why not do the return yourself?
Additionally, for qualifying persons, the IRS has free file partners which will allow you to complete and file your tax return for free. Generally, to qualify for the IRS free file program, you must be filing an individual return and your income must be below a certain amount. You can click the link “File your taxes for free” on the IRS website to explore your options.
If you are still feeling a little trepidation about tackling your own return, take a look at your prior year’s return and then go to the IRS website and review the instructions for the different forms you filed. Even though a form may have 30 lines, you may only have to input numbers on a few lines that are relevant to your situation.
Tip five – What to look for in a tax return preparer
If your return is more complicated than you care to take on, or if you just feel more comfortable having a professional prepare your return, there are certain steps you can take to help you find the right person.
Like in any industry, tax return preparers have differing levels of skills, education and expertise. Anyone with a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) can prepare a tax return for someone else, but a PTIN can be obtained on the IRS website in about 15 minutes by completing an application and paying a small fee. It doesn’t guarantee any level of expertise.
An enrolled agent (EA) is the highest credential awarded by the IRS and requires the applicant to pass an exam administered by the agency. Certified public accountants (CPAs) and attorneys acquire their skills independently but are also qualified to help you file a return.
You can search the “Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers” on the IRS website to find a list of current tax return preparers in your area. Social media chat groups specific to your location are also a great place to get recommendations, but be careful what you accept as truth.
Once you have a few names, don’t be afraid to contact the person. If they don’t get back to you in a timely manner, that may be a red flag. You want someone who is responsive. Though, realize that preparers are up to their necks in it right before tax deadlines, so don’t wait until the last minute to find your person. Start searching now.
Many preparers are happy to talk with you for free to see if the partnership is a good fit. If you are living and working outside the U.S., be sure to ask whether they are familiar with rules that apply to living overseas. Preparers that have a majority of their clients living in the U.S. may not be up to speed on the foreign earned income exclusion, foreign tax credits, rules for non-U.S. spouses or partners and other quirks that apply to U.S. citizens living overseas.
Above all, though, remember that you are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of your taxes, even if someone else prepared it for you.
Paul Carlino is an attorney living in San Miguel de Allende and the founder of Pickleball Mexico. He writes for Mexico News Daily.
Former CEO of Mexican state-owned oil firm Pemex, Emilio Lozoya, has been released after more than two years in preventative detention on corruption charges. (Pedro Valtierra/Cuartoscuro)
Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya was released from preventive detention on Tuesday after spending more than two years in jail as he awaits trial on corruption charges.
The ex-state oil company chief left the Reclusorio Norte prison in Mexico City Tuesday night after a court ruled that he was no longer a flight risk.
Lozoya left Mexico City’s Reclusorio Norte jail last night, and will wear an electronic ankle tag until his trial concludes. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)
Lozoya is accused of receiving multi-million-dollar bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for granting it a lucrative contract for work on the Pemex refinery in Hidalgo. He also faces charges related to a corruption case involving Pemex’s 2014 purchase of a fertilizer plant at an allegedly vastly inflated price.
As he continues to await trial, Lozoya will be required to wear an electronic ankle tag, is prohibited from leaving Mexico and will have to periodically check in with authorities.
If found guilty of receiving bribes, money laundering and criminal association in connection with the Odebrecht case, the 49-year-old could die in prison as the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) is seeking a prison term of over 46 years in addition to a compensation payment of some US $7.3 million. It is unclear when he will face trial.
Lozoya has admitted to complicity in a massive corruption scandal that involves former president Enrique Peña Nieto and other officials. (File photo)
Federal prosecutor Manuel Granados Quiroz said Tuesday that Lozoya has been afforded “totally unfair” privileges in being released from preventive detention. He said the FGR would appeal the decision.
The former Pemex CEO implicated a who’s who of Mexico’s political elite in the corruption of which he is accused, including two other former presidents, Carlos Salinas and Felipe Calderón, and 2018 presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in July 2020 that Lozoya must be protected because he was cooperating with authorities and his life could be in danger. On Wednesday he railed against his release, and asserted — not for the first time — that the judiciary is “dominated by a corrupt oligarchy” and “doesn’t represent the people of Mexico.”
He was the second high-ranking member of the Peña Nieto government to be taken into custody on corruption charges after former cabinet minister Rosario Robles, who allegedly participated in a huge embezzlement scheme known as the “Master Fraud.”
Robles spent three years in preventive detention before her release in 2022. She was absolved in late 2023.
The Popocatépetl volcano released a large amount of steam on Tuesday, but Mexico City is not expected to be affected. (Webcams de México/X)
Popocatépetl, one of Mexico’s most active volcanoes, released a large plume or fumarole on Tuesday evening at 6:25 p.m; civil protection authorities have maintained a Phase 2 Yellow Alert.
A column of steam and volcanic ash, which rose over 1.5 km above the crater, was visible from the Valley of Mexico and surrounding regions.
As of Wednesday morning, the volcano continued to spew steam and gas with low levels of ash content, and had registered 27 exhalations and 939 minutes of tremors.
According to the alert system developed by federal authorities and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a yellow alert indicates increased activity and suggests that residents should remain vigilant and prepare for a potential evacuation.
To the south of the city of Puebla, ash is expected to fall in Angelópolis, Atlixco, Matamoros and the Mixteca region. Authorities have also warned of ashfall in parts of the states of Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Morelos and Guerrero.
It is unlikely that ash will reach Mexico City.
The areas immediately around the volcano in the state of Puebla, Veracruz, Morelos and Guerrero are all expected to see light ashfall as a result of the fumarole. (Fernanda Valerio/X)
Located about 70 km southeast of Mexico City, the Popocatépetl volcano is colloquially known as “el Popo” or “Don Goyo.”
In May 2023, Popo’s volcanic activity put the area on high alert after registering intense activity for over two weeks.
After the volcano’s activity diminished early in June, the state government of Puebla announced it would create a permanent action plan for those who live near the volcano.
