Many meals for Manny and only Manny

BOXER MANNY PACQUIAO has another reason to defeat American champ Floyd Mayweather in their super-fight in Las Vegas on May 2 – a Filipino restaurant in California says the Filipino hero can eat there for free for life.

Owners of the eatery, Gerry’s Grill in Artesia, California, tell TMZ that the Pac-Man can “practically live” there and eat as many meals as he likes with no menu restrictions.

But there are two conditions.

First, only Pacquiao can eat for free. It was a stipulation, TMZ said, the restaurant had to include because “Manny rolls 50 deep with family and friends all the time”. Second, no take outs, allowed since Pacquiao can order for those 50 people and give the food to the group once they are somewhere.

TMZ adds that Gerry’s does not have any ill will of Pacquiao’s posse – it’s a group they love, by the way.

Now the only thing Pacquiao has to do is defeat the undefeated Mayweather and he gets to eat all the Filipino dishes he loves: sisig (crispy pig ears), adobo (meat stewed in soy sauce and vinegar, crispy pata (deep fried pig trotters) in unlimited – and free – fashion. However, he may have to spend his winnings to feed his dozens of friends and family members if they tag along.

 

Marriage and taxes

 

Thai authorities thinking of changing the property tax law ought to note what has happened in China, where Shanghai has seen a surge and divorces and re-marriages since a tax-law change.

In Thailand, a new property tax law was headed for the Cabinet this month but Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha put it on hold over criticism that it hit the poor too hard. Since then, there’s been suggestions that the tax law should target the wealthy, especially those with more than one property.

But that could lead to a rise in “fake divorces”, like what happened in Shanghai.

According to the China Daily, the sudden surge in supposedly unhappy marriages started in March 2013, when the State Council announced that couples who owned more than one apartment would have to pay a 20-per-cent capital-gains tax when they sold a second home. That was an increase over the previous one- to two-per-cent tax rate. The rule was introduced to control rising house prices.

But couples discovered they could avoid the higher tax by divorcing, then sell a piece of real estate and then remarry. The loophole triggered an avalanche of divorce cases, according to China Daily.

Shanghai’s Civil Affairs Department reported that 17,286 divorced couples retied the knot last year, up 17.4 per cent from the previous year. A total of 53,244 couples divorced in Shanghai last year, making it one of the country’s midrange cities in terms of the number of marriage splits. This was a continuation of a sharp rise in 2013, when 14,730 couples remarried in the city – a surge of 82.6 per cent year-on-year. There have been similar increases in other mainland cities.

Experts say the number of people remarrying to continue to rise in 2015 and 2016. Certainly, the number is poised to rise further as the “strategy” to avoid the tax is no longer a secret.

Even better, authorities are powerless to stop it, as it is pretty much legal to divorce and re-marry.