Last week, a friend sold a car he bought new in 2002. He was doing the paperwork at the SAT office, when a serious snag arose. “You owe fees on a BMW you owned 20 years ago and haven´t paid”, they said.
Now 20 years ago, my friend was the victim of a house invasion in Antigua Guatemala. They entered the house in the middle of the day, tied up and bashed the maid, lifted the large safety deposit box out of the top floor bedroom, carried it down to his BMW parked in the driveway, and drove away with both. No one was ever caught.
The theft was reported to the Police and the insurance, who all turned up to give their two cent’s worth. The safe was never found, but the car was insured and found a few months later in Chimaltenango, stripped to the bone. His wife occasionally bought jewelry from a respectable woman in Antigua and was surprised to be offered her own jewels for sale at a “women’s do”, somet 18 month later. Go figure!
Meanwhile back at the SAT office; “But . . . My car was stolen and the Police did a report and the insurance did a report etc., etc.,” he protested. “Not our problem” said the SAT; “You should have come and informed us of the theft and brought the Police report with you. By the way, you can’t do the transaction to sell this car, unless you pay the outstanding Q3 thousand fine, on the stolen BMW”.
The moral of this story is that in Guatemala, “You must never rely on any government dept. to inform the other of what’s going on”. It is always “your reponsibility”, to do all the running around, no matter how many fees or taxes they charge you. Remember; “the people are here, to serve the government”.
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