by Rod Hughes
Do you think housing costs in San Jose are expensive? The U.S. Internal Revenue Service evidently disagrees.
In a recent advisory regarding maximum deductions allowable for housing expenses, the IRS set a cap on yearly deductions at $26,500. Only Winnepeg, Canada, at $24,900 and the Salvadoran capital at $25,200 were lower.
Of course, if you really want to talk pricey, say you run an export firm out of Hong Kong. The IRS will spot you up to $114,300!
In Central America, even Guatemala City was higher, up to $37,600. Another supposedly inexpensive retirement location, Panama City, weighed in at a cap of $32,200.
Everyone knows that the European Union is not a place to hunker down on a low income: London weighs in at a housing allowance maximum of $$72,100, Paris at $79,300, Although Berlin at a reasonable $48,200. Rome is, apparently not bad at $53,500 but the northern Italian industrial city of Milan is murder at $79,800.
Some other places you might want to cross off your list of cities in which to spend your declining years on a modest Social Security annuity: Geneva, Switzerland, at $70,300, Moscow, $75,720, and Kuwait City, $59,800.