retarius

Bob, best stay sober and have a w##k instead. It sounds as though it might be the only orgasm you will remember from your time in Thailand given your past lifestyle.

6 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

I pose this question guys cos i'm seeing UK bank deposit interest rates up to as much as 7% when the interest here in Thailand is no more than 2% so i believe. It does'nt make any financial sense to me other than if you don't have 65K monthly income.

 

Now i appreciate if you don't have the 800K or the 65K monthly income you're f***** and have to use an agent or a helpful IO

 

Any thoughts/comments guys ? 

Seems to me the interest rate difference generates a paltry amount of extra income which does not overcome the hassle of maintaining an overseas bank account and trying arrange expensive transfers. Plus when you keep you money in a different currency that what you plan to spend it, then you open yourself to currency risk. Sterling is not a strong currency with the massive budget and trade deficits, with a recession appearing to be imminent and considerable inflation. I don't trust sterling long term to hold its value.....you might put the equivalent of 800,000 baht into a UK account and find that it winds uo being worth 600,000 baht a year later. Not for me.

1 minute ago, khunjeff said:

You missed the part that says "and a national of...".

 

This clause was written to cover, for example, a Thai who lived and worked in a foreign country long enough to qualify for a pension, and then moved back to Thailand for retirement. It doesn't apply to citizens of that same foreign country who retire in Thailand.

I am US citizen and have a US pension paid over here. There is a tax treaty to avoid double taxation. Having Thailand as my tax home does not have any advantages because the US only allows you to write of taxes paid here in the US to the extent that tax rates are lower.....ie over the two filings you would pay exactly the same. So to make things easier and to avoid double filings, I have the US as my tax home. Things are starting to look ugly perhaps, when we talk about transferring private pensions paid in the US or savings from eg 401K plans. I have used the strategy of filing in the US and paying US rates as they are higher (marginal rate ~ 50% including state taxes) than in the 35% on incomes over 4 million baht per year here in Thailand.

If this is a trick to double tax foreigners, I will leave and go to somewhere that doesn't hate white people so much.

Some clear, concise and accurate communications from the government would be appreciated. Unfortunately the communications they send out (in explicably poor language) begs so many questions that the initial report is not worth reading.  

I support this initiative whole heartedly having been through the trauma and expense of obtaining a Schengen visa for my wife. 3 trips to Bangkok, petty bureaucracy (our invitation from the relatives hosting us with the same last name was sent on email, which means it  might be forged, and a hand written letter, that slo could have been forged, was needed and needed to be send by courier....it might have been nice if they told that in the first visit). Then they gave us a visa with the wrong travel date, despite giving them the e-tickets, meaning I had to change the flights at the airport at the cost over over $1000. 

Does this include the high speed, 50 mph train from Bangkok to Korat? Which at the rate it is being built looks like it will be ready for use around 2100. And was about the motorway M6, that was supposed to be open in Dec 2020 and looks like it might be ready by 2040? One could be forgiven for thinking (erroneously, of course :)) that these infrastructure projects serve only one purpose, and that being to funnel money to lucky ministers in charge of the projects. Incompetence on this scale is a crime.

I must admit I've used AI a few times. I can't say I have found it revolutionary or compelling. I can't see me using it much in the future in its current form. I think Amazon's interest is to use out to better target the ads it sends to you, and to be honest, they need to improve, they are so bad that I have them all go to spam and they self delete after one month. The place I would really like to see AI used in in targeting Kindle. Their suggestions for 'books I might like' are way, way off. I also made the mistake of signing up for "Goodreads" which is another vehicle for selling books. Goodreads is somehow incapable of knowing which book I am reading now, incapable of seeing whether it is a new read of a re-read, and incapable of inferring whether I like the endless "suggested reading" ads they send me. Poor, awful, inane don't even begin to describe the awfulness of Kindle's as targeting.

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Whether he was a good boss or not, he didn't deserve to go out that way.

I disagree. I am not one to shed false tears or make false platitudes over horrible people.

How will they make out with the 20 baht anywhere fare?

Well these cutting edge tests conducted by the FDA will make me feel a lot safer.

I wonder if he was. a good boss and decent to his workers?

Use earplugs.

I don't know any US or UK banks that allow accounts to be opened with foreign addresses, although you can open accounts with Citibank using a Thai address.

I opened my NatWest account when I was a student about 55 years ago, and used my parent's address as I was moving around all the time. I changed it to my son's address when my parents passed away. 

Ach! who cares? I have a woman who loves me so I don't care what she thinks about other Asians. I prefer other Asians to white people myself and I'm white.

Personally, I love it. I couldn't eat rice without it.

2 hours ago, LoudHailer said:

“Context” is important. Thaksin is a convicted criminal and is meant to be in prison. It is “in the public interest” to know exactly why and on whose authority he is spending this extraordinary amount of time in hospital. 

I see so Thaksin in your opinion is not entitled to basic human rights like privacy?

A 33% increase, that's sure to draw in lots of foreign company investment in Thailand. NOT.

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

To the title, and why I preferred to stop paying taxes in USA, as not liking what they wasted it on.

 

Here/TH, and the tax treaty will avoid any taxes on income.  As with most expats. 

 

But for some reason, we need thread after thread of 'not going to be taxed' to worry about.

How did you manage to stop paying US taxes? I have not lived in the US since 2005 and always have had to pay up....and no I don't agree with spending my money on endless warmongering. 

Yeah, Srettha did a brilliant job in NYC at the UNGA. (sarc) Let's see what his brilliant performance does to FDI (foreign direct investment) when he hikes the minimum wage.