gamb00ler

The answer is ..... it depends. If you go to the Thai Revenue department and apply for a Thai tax ID, AND you have a Pink ID number.... that number becomes (or is already) your Thai tax ID. If you don't have a Pink ID number, the revenue department will assign you a new tax ID number. If you subsequently get a Pink ID number it will NOT be your tax ID. In other words... the first number you get (tax ID/Pink ID) will be your tax number.

You have correctly named the funds withheld by banks, but the rest is not accurate. It is attributed to the account holder (by name) even if they don't have have a Thai tax ID. At the end of the calendar year the account holder can file a Thai tax return and most likely get all the withholding back (dependent upon other income). If you don't like the nuisance of filing Thai income tax AND your interest income is below 20K ฿ you can apply for a Thai tax and give it to the bank(s) and request they don't withhold tax until your interest exceeds the 20K exemption. Plus there are personal exemptions, so anybody earning less than about 200K ฿ won't pay any tax.

I suggest you consider opening a Charles Schwab International account. If the fees are the same as for US nationals, they're quite low. Canadian banks are definitely fee heavy.

Already answered.

A minor point.... the exemption you gave is for wage income. Self employment income also has the same exemption but is NOT exempt from employment tax.

Your figures are exaggerated. The difference between VISA/MasterCard exchange rates and those from WISE are on the order of 15 satang per US $ (about .4%). Most US debit cards charge 1 - 2.5% in foreign transaction fees. Some debit cards do not charge those fees. The above assumes you don't choose the wrong option for exchange at the ATM or point of sale.

I did not argue that what you said was wrong. I fail to understand why you gave the same terse response to @JimGant's explanations ... that can easily be interpreted as a disagreement with his posts. I'm guessing that Jim also was perplexed by your responses which led to his comment expressing doubt about your views on the matter.

It appears from the above transcript that you dispute @JimGant's mathematical explanation of why a SWIFT transfer above a certain size will be cheaper than a WISE transfer. You never acknowledge the accuracy of Jim's explanation... you just repeatedly say the exchange rate makes the difference. Jim's position is 100% correct and remains true even if the difference in exchange rates is substantial between the SWIFT and WISE choices. Granted that when the rate difference is marked, the required volume does become an issue. Your claims that "the exchange rate is what makes the difference" are not supported by the math unless you provide an explanation or example.

Are you including Thai Immigration's Inquisition-like examinations as a government "service" we are using?

Your only contribution to this thread has been unsubstantiated claims extremely short on explanation.

@JimGant's competence has been proven on AN by many posts... yours.... not so much.

So, the info is on a need to know only basis?

Do you have the details of the bank fees that are charged for SWIFT transfers to Thailand from the country where your funds originate? If so, it's very simple to compute the effective exchange rate of a SWIFT transfer and then compare to Wise's effective exchange rate. Have you already done that calculation?

Just a guestimate would be great. Hopefully I could generate a notification to partially compensate for my frequent lack of attention to such details.

They're probably made of silicon, not rubber. I have both bread and muffin pans in silicon but have been without an oven until recently. Soon, I'll resume making bread but this time without an automatic bread machine.

Campbells Mushroom soup cans had the best audio!!!

The real issue with YT's algorithm is that it makes it harder to use the proper method of countering misinformation. IMHO, the proper method of countering misinformation is to drown it out, water it down, with correct information. However, once someone clicks on the ever present content from Miss Info, YT determines that is what this customer wants and then spoon feeds them more from Miss Info. So my suggestion to YT is to rate the content as to its accuracy and if that rating is low, then present more titles to the viewer that have a higher accuracy rating. Make the suckers go digging for Miss Info.

yeah.... math is one of my favorite flavours! (ooops... I used the non-US spelling)

There are time flexible loads that I would use, such as laundry (especially the electric dryer), ironing, etc. I sometimes pre-cool the portion of the house our son and DIL will want to cool off when they get home from work. Our house is fairly well insulated so the pre-cooling can be effective for a few hours. You make a good point about needing to pay attention to the potential for cloud cover or rain to reduce PV output.

Could I get a simple device to measure the sun's observable brightness that will produce an output that can be periodically (ever second?) sampled by computer? By using that light meter one should be able to relate that to your solar production. Once you calculate the appropriate conversion factor from light meter to solar production one could accurately predict what the solar installation could produce at each meter sample time.

That seems like a good start to me!

Thanks for that link. It is a great example of the free work that many internet users do to provide convenient summaries to the public.

If you're using the LA Thai consulate, perhaps there is a Thai business in Thai Town that could help you in this situation. There used to be a small Thai service business right across the street from the LA consulate that offered many services for reasonable fees. Ask the consulate if they know any method to get the $$ to them from Thailand.

The last 25 years of working, I was self-employed and had very few tasks that had to be done at a certain time on a certain day. My work did not require that I follow a routine. I lived in the city with a true 24 X 7 lifestyle... Las Vegas. Most of my "work" time was spent doing analysis and accounting at home on my computer. All those years of no routine has given me a bad procrastination problem. Oh well, I can worry about that tomorrow!

I agree.... prepare for numerous invasions in unexpected quarters.