huck

I have no sympathy for foreigner investors who get screwed here in Thailand. Everybody knows the deal here. Even if this news break is 'tongue in cheek' foreigners have always been banned from owning land/ property . Try and and make it all legal through fancy names,accountants,lawyers and companies and this is what could happen. This is not the generous west ,This is Thailand.<BR>Thaksin is about to be re-elected by proxy and you can bet he will demand 46 billion baht be returned pronto! This country belongs to the rich Chinese- Thais. not us farangs. The only thing a western man can do legally in Thailand is marry a poor Isan girl and the government will gladly give you a worthless marriage certificate and her a Thai passport for passage to Europe. Take a useless isan wife to Europe and get her to send money back to Thailand every month. Farangs are considered a joke here .

Thailand already has a dubious reputation in the world.

By dubious, foreign governemnts basically find Thailand a criminal society run by a small elite.

So they welcome when this country is overthrown. Which will start soon with Thaksin coming back.

If Thailand deports foreigners and takes their land or companies in this case you will get an out cry from

foreign governments and there will reprecusoins for Thailand.

What I see here is some hollow words but no real action will take place.

Very good....

The extra 20.000 police is for the Thai's but the Red Shirts are so sensitive to this type of news that

they have to say that it is for foreigners who cannot drink and will therefore become reckless.

And Thailand claims to be a civilized country.

Its basically Africa here witha lot of arrogance.

How about this case: An artist (painter/photographer) or an author, who likes to spend time in Thailand, is content with a 30 day stamp in his/her passport on arrival, and tourist visa from neighbouring countries, ... sits in his private space to draw, paint or write, .. has no interest in having clients in Thailand, never shows his work in Thailand, because all the income is generated from business outside Thailand, > publisher in the UK > galleries in Europe etc Stays out of everyone's way, ships his work out via courier, in his luggage or in the case of digital files, via the WWW .. does not take a single Baht from anyone in Thailand, nor competes with any local "wanna be" artists, so jealousy is nothing to contend with ....

If that were you, would you even worry about a permit?

Thai tax law requires such a person to pay tax if he is a resident in Thailand for 186 days, and brings in to Thailand money he made overseas .. as Residents are taxed on Global Income!

So if the total number of days in Thailand on tourist visas exceeds 186 days within a 12 month period, they will actually notice and ask questions?

Tax recidency is different from recidency. If you do not own a property in Thailand but own a property, lets say in France and you spend 265 days of the year in Thailand and 100 days a year in France. Then France would be you tax recidency. Because you owned a property there.

Where you pay your tax has a lot to do with where you work and where you own property and the type of visa you have. If ytou have a 1 year reirement visa from Thailand you could be making a million dollars abroad. Thailand cannot tax you. Because its not sa permanant reidency visa. If you are a member of a club in the Bahama and you own a small shack there and you spent 350 days of the year in Thailand and 15 days in the Bahama's you would pay no tax. Because your recidency is determined by where you own property and where you have activities like being a member of this club. Thailand with its system has absolutely no right to any money you make abroad with the type of system they have. They are loosing big bucks by their own stupid system.

Ah yes but what if he sells his art / photographs online and someone from thailand buys it over the internet?????

How about this case: An artist (painter/photographer) or an author, who likes to spend time in Thailand, is content with a 30 day stamp in his/her passport on arrival, and tourist visa from neighbouring countries, ... sits in his private space to draw, paint or write, .. has no interest in having clients in Thailand, never shows his work in Thailand, because all the income is generated from business outside Thailand, > publisher in the UK > galleries in Europe etc Stays out of everyone's way, ships his work out via courier, in his luggage or in the case of digital files, via the WWW .. does not take a single Baht from anyone in Thailand, nor competes with any local "wanna be" artists, so jealousy is nothing to contend with ....

If that were you, would you even worry about a permit?

Under Thai law he could face 5 years in prison.

Tp tell you the truth. All immigration systems world wide are out of touch with reality.

They go against GOD's law. Which is man inherited the earth. Protestants believe in the work ethic.

God said: be fuitful and muliply. So Thai law goes against GOD.

All immigation systems are out of touch with reality. Basically we live in one world now. with one system.

It is called globalization. Man should be free to go anywhere in this world and work anywhere he wants to. That is called "free trade"

I loved the sponanious jam sesoins that were happening at Norht Gate.

I chose Chiang Mai to live in from the whole of South east Asia including the Philipines because of it.

I employ 2 people full time and spend on average about 150.000 Baht a month.

I was going to spend an other 10 million on a house in a Thai's name.

I said to myself; "wait" what am I doing.

This country constantly jerks farang around.

The immigation departments basically treat us like criminals.

Why should I put up with any of this any longer.

Thailand only has advantages of me spending my money here

and if there is no jam sesoins happening anylonger in Chiang Mai its probably time to move on

and leave Thailand.

So, if theThai Gov't immigration Dep't is so intent on making sure everyone is working legally, with appropriate work permits in Thailand, then why is it that so many schools are allowed to advertise jobs for teachers and then keep them waiting anywhere between 3 months to a year before giving a farang teacher a work permit, and yet so often when the new academic year begins and jobs are being advertised, they keep on advertising that work permits will be obtained on behalf of the teachers? Surely they know they need teachers, so why are they never prepeared for the process when it occurs and jobs are offered, same old same old problem every year, then the schools wonder why there is s shortage of applicants for the posts. Again, Wake Up Thailand.

You know this is Thailand, land of smiles. Every Immigration post has its own interpretation of work and of immigation policy.

I have heard so many variations over the years its a joke. Its what ever it is at that moment. All you can do as a farang is try and adopt the

different variations. Thailand is a huge Human Rights abusser and it costs about $100 to get some body knocked off here and the police will

do it for you. So be happy in the land of smiles and just smile back. Do what ever you want, if you get caught just pay them off

Great article... 15 day reporting for musos! Wonder if you can get back to back???

David

It is a great article Jane Witcomb has writen for City Life.

Firstly:

I believe Mr Ruchuchai Potha is interpreting Alien Working Act BE 2551 ( 2008) wrongly.

The act says for wages or benefits. This means the alien needs to have benefits from this work or wages

not the bar or other patronage.

Secondly;

I believe Thailand is in direct violation to Human Rights Article 27, which states:

Everyone has the right freely to partisipate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

Once a country has alowed a person (foreigner) to live in that country he or she becomes a part of that community regardless of types of long duration visa's. So any person with more than a tourist visa enjoys the human rights under article 27 of the UN charter

In the middel east people are fighting for democracy.

In thailand the only thing a foreigner is allowed to contribute is money.

And he remains a 2nd rate citizen.

This is not normal.

Other countries in the world countries want those that come to live in their country to partisipate in the society.

So this needs to change in Thailand

The law is the law. But laws are there to be changed.

So Thai Immigation law needs to radically change

Right now it is comparable to Nazi Germany where jews couldn t own land, and had to also report every 3 monthes

Who knows tommorrow we might have to wear an arm band here with a star on it.

I believe there arew few Thai musicians capable of playing good jazz.

Tuesdays are jam nights at North Gate and I don t think antone gets paid

So if no money has exchanged hands we cannot talk about a job being taken away from a Thai.

Karioke is also done out of love, We don t see Karioke musicians getting arrested do we?

The North Gate scene helps Chiang Mai and helps with tourism. By arresting foreigners

what the immigration is doing is actually going to hurt tourism and so hurt Thailand.

Immigation in Thailand is too harsh.

Most countries in the world, if you live in the country

they want you to partisipate in it.

Remember trade leads to prosperity, while sloth leads to poverty.

In the rest of South east asia foreigners can own property and even work.

In Nazi Germany Jews could not hold property and also needed to report every 3 monthes.

We live in global society and all immigration world wide needs to change.

Right now, immigration policies world wide are responsible for some of the greatest misseries

like slavery, prostitution and encourages criminal activity.