gamb00ler

I have read that various aseannow posters have been given many differing explanations of why any particular Thai bank insists on withholding income tax while other posters have NO withholding at the same bank. I apply a discount of 100% to what some random bank employee gives as an explanation on this matter. I have savings accounts at three of the bigger Thai banks. I was having tax withheld before I gave them my tax ID. Since giving it to them, I no longer have tax withheld up to and including the June '22 interest payment. I'll let you make all the assumptions you feel are warranted by these facts.

It seems you assumed too much from a single bank changing tax withholding procedure. Other aseannow posters have experienced SCB bank mistakenly withholding tax or failing to properly associate their Thai tax ID with their account. My SCB account has never had tax withheld because I gave them my tax ID when I opened it 18 months ago. The changes at UOB are likely due to changes in company policy, or more likely incompetence. Thai people don't normally have tax withheld as you claimed in your first post in this topic. None of my immediate Thai family have tax withheld from the interest payments deposited to their accounts. I'm not special, just well informed and well prepared wherever I have potential tax obligations.

I'm in CM on retirement visa for 2+ years now. I don't have any tax deducted on my normal savings accounts. Bangkok bank only deducts tax from my fixed deposit account interest payments. I have provided my Thai tax ID to all my banks and requested cessation of tax withholding. Since all Thai taxpayers have an exemption from tax on the first 20K of interest income, UOB didn't withhold tax on that amount. Once your total interest payments from UOB exceeded that exemption they began the tax withholding. I didn't see one accurate statement in your posting about Thai withholding requirements.

When the expected return is 60% of your investment, most logical people call that poor value. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_lottery

You probably looked like a mugger!

YES! The shrinkage in income for non-indexed benefits is similar but opposite to the growth in investments due to compounded interest/yield.

If the IRS doesn't raise the income limits (unchanged since '84) they use to determine taxation of SSA benefits many taxpayers will be giving back quite a bit of the COLA increase as income tax. The US government should at least simplify the rules used. You can see the financial maze one must navigate to figure out one's taxable portion of SSA benefits here: --> https://thismatter.com/money/tax/social-security-benefits-taxation.htm

The perennial question when encountering the Thai bureaucracy.

Our house has just been finished. Asked the local builder if they would find out the details for getting a yellow book for me. List of documents that Hang Dong asked for: translated marriage certificate copy of wife's Thai ID blue book with wife's name in it passport copies of photo and main page translation of passport copy of extension stamp in passport residence certificate copy of construction permit copy of chanote

I can only suggest a good Thai brand of peanut butter to buy, not where to find it outside of Chiang Mai. Rimping markets in Chiang Mai carry two Thai brands of sugar free PB. I prefer the one called Tida's. I don't recall the name of the other brand but will try to remember to look for it next time I'm at Rimping. Both are sold in 1kg plastic bags so you would need a good size jar/container to hold the PB. I rate Tida's as being on par with Adam's PB from USA.

Despite being the largest Canadian province by population, Ontario is not a country and does not set policy for the rest of Canada.

Probably inundated..... with requests.

Is that the same Amandha Vollmer who said, "Due to the COVID-19 pandemic hoax, we are cancelling nothing,” read part of a post on the weekend by the owner of Yummy Mummy Emporium & Apothecary" and “You can come over here with a fever and cough all you want. We know that germs don’t cause disease,” ? I hope her urine regimen is less dangerous than her thinking about germs and disease.

Easy, peasy! Get an AI system which will use the weather forecast to teach itself the best strategy for charging/discharging your batteries given your particular priorities, PEA tariffs, etc. ????

Go to YouTube.com, type "organize Chrome bookmarks" into the search field. Include the " ". Watch the most popular video with the highest number of views. Try this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llqUNWs3qz8

My wife would beg to differ. We lived in Las Vegas and limes were expensive when compared to the large annual crop of lemons we got from our tree. We bought a motorized juicer and would save enough frozen juice to last a year. The rest of the lemons were given to a friend who owns the Lotus of Siam restaurant. We put the juice in little to-go sauce cups and froze it. The resultant Thai dishes were excellent.

Looks like Wise charges about .2% of the principal to do the ACH "pull".

I opened a multi-currency account with Wise using my Thai address. That gives me a US routing number and account number. I set that up as an external account with SDFCU and then I can "push" funds via ACH to my Wise account for free. I believe that incurs the fewest fees possible to fund transfers to Thailand via Wise.

If you are not in immediate need of the funds be patient until you can find a better solution than having 3% in fees deducted. Calm down and explore every potential detour that will get your funds here without the extreme haircut fee. Any other accounts with another financial institution in your home country? Can you open a new account in your home country through online? I know it's usually difficult/impossible but if you have the right documents it may be possible. I moved to Thailand from US in late 2020 and was able to open a new account earlier this year with my still valid US ID's.

Check if you can reach them by email. If you can, then ask them for a phone number that will connect you directly with the department in the bank that deals with international wire transfers. You will probably get faster service than going through the normal customer support telephone maze.

Our landlord installed an ingenious device that blows hot air on the clothes we hang on racks in front of it. Another really useful feature is that while the hot air is drying our clothes, the other end of the device is cooling our living room.

Many here will be happy to help....but more details will make that easier. How did you initiate the transfer? SWIFT, ACH to Bangkok Bank in NY, TransferWise, some other? What type of account at Bangkok bank? Have you determined that your Bangkok bank account is still valid? Did you tell your bank to send US$ or to send Thai ฿? Sounds like you're still in the USA. That should make it easy to clear up any problem on that end.

Our builder will hand over our non-air conditioned, closet-less, kitchen-less house in about a week. We're having a 10Kw hybrid system installed shortly after that by Eyekandisolar . The same local farang owned company is also doing the A/C. This company was recommended to me by Christian Grimshei, the owner of Chaweewan Solar who does solar installations in NE Thailand. Christian is also the admin for a Facebook group, Chaweewan Group solar (English), where he provides a lot of educational material about solar projects. So far Eyekandi's work has always been on schedule and well done. They cut in all the A/C drains and ran the coolant pipes in the ceiling to the condensers. We don't have any A/C piping visible in the house. He co-ordinated with our builder to install the in ceiling solar wiring before the ceiling installation was finished. He's somewhat more expensive than the other quote I got but the work is first class so far. I'll give an update after a couple of weeks experience with the solar system.

My previous related topic is closed to further comments: https://aseannow.com/topic/1126816-corian-type-countertop-supplier-in-cm/ Here's an update: There are a number of places selling solid surface countertops. Most are way over priced. Surprisingly, Hafele is reasonably priced but has a very limited selection of colors. I had lengthy chat conversations with three Bangkok companies that make solid surface countertops. All claimed to have the ability to integrate the backsplash seamlessly with the countertop. They sent pictures showing their work. However, not having seen their work in person, I remain skeptical of the quality. All three offered to make rectangular sinks that could also be seamlessly joined to the countertop. I didn't find their work attractive. I asked if they could provide the factory made sinks from the same manufacturer of the solid surface material used in the countertops. Some were willing to try and import the sinks, but cost and timeframe were not acceptable. None of them wanted to maintain any inventory. Here's the links to companies I talked to: https://moderntat.com offices in Bangkok, Chiang Mai + others https://www.hafele.com/th/en/ LOTS of catalogs, information online in English, design centers Chiang Mai, Bangkok + others https://www.homikitch.com/ local Chiang Mai business, good selection, some staff have passable English, https://www.modernform.co.th/en/ the distributor for HiMacs material in Thailand, weak English, not very responsive https://www.boonthavorn.com/ many branches in Thailand, limited selections in solid surface, English speakers sometimes available, expensive http://www.lavaredo-kitchen.com very responsive, manufactures solid surface sheets in Thailand, good English, makes sinks for export only http://www.TGSG.co.th does some solid surface work, primary biz is glass, Thai German Specialty Glass, English is OK

Better yet, emulate Steve Bannon and don't shower, wash clothes or iron them. You should probably pass on his 3-shirts regimen.