skatewash

They are most likely asking to see the Tax Withholding Certificate from your Thai bank. You *do* pay taxes in Thailand, or rather, you had taxes withheld on interest earned from your fixed deposit account. You applied for a refund of those taxes by filing a Thai Income Tax return (PND-90). To fully process your PND-90 the Thai Revenue Department wants to see a copy of the Tax Withholding Certificate (which are free for the asking from your Thai bank where you have the fixed deposit). I think you will probably find that you can simply upload the copy of your Tax Withholding Certificate to your already filed PND-90 (if you did that online, rather than on paper).

I believe based on my experience with my refund last year that they are back to mailing refund checks rather than requiring the filer to deal with Krungthai Bank. I did have to deal with Krungthai Bank for my refund a few years ago, though.

https://extranet.immigration.go.th/fn24online/ If you open the above in Google Chrome browser you can have the Thai machine translated to English, or alternatively, look at the website on your computer screen through the Google Lens app on your phone which will do the Thai to English translation. The TM-6 (Arrival/Departure Card) is temporarily suspended, meaning you won't need to actually enter that number on any of the immigration forms (although it will be asked for). It's a good idea to keep your boarding pass from your flight into Thailand. But even without this boarding pass you can always determine the last time you entered Thailand by the entry date on the entry stamp in your passport.

File 90-Day Report online on earliest date. If successful, you are done. If not successful, file online on the next earliest date. If successful, you are done. If not successful visit immigration office and file in person.

Reasons one may prefer the Mee Tae Dai account: Open a Mee Tae Dai account once and you never have to do anything with it again. You would need to renew your fixed account again in 4 years. The Mee Tae Dai account is not a fixed term account meaning the rate can go up or down although changes in the past have been infrequent. A fixed term is obviously fixed for the entire term. The Mee Tae Dai account is not a fixed term account but a regular savings account which means that you can give Krungsri Bank your Thai Tax ID and 15% tax withholding on your interest earned will not be incurred. It's impossible to avoid the 15% tax withholding on a fixed term account. This means that you would need to file a PND-90 Thai Income Tax Return every year to get the taxes withheld refunded. Interest on the MTD account is earned daily so if you do withdrawal you only lose interest from the date of the withdrawal. All interest is foregone on money withdrawn from a fixed term account. Money can be withdrawn online with a MTD account. I've been using my MTD account for a retirement extension at Phuket Immigration for at least 6 years. Never any problems. Phuket Immigration requires a passbook so would not want to have the MTD account opened online as that may cause problems with the retirement extension as I would not be able to show a passbook (in addition to the bank letter, bank statement of 12 months, and copies of the relevant pages from my passbook). Remember any money in a Thai bank account in excess of 1 million baht is not covered by the Thai Insurance Program.

You will be granted a 45 day permission to stay if you arrive in Thailand visa-exempt before 1 April 2023. Arrive after that and you will only receive a 30 day permission to stay.

Interesting topic but the link you included to explain the difference between average and median is rather badly written. For example: from https://differencess.com/average-vs-median-whats-the-difference/ No, that's wrong. That's the mode not the median. The median is the middle number not the most common. A pretty fundamental mistake. I believe this link does a better job of explaining the differences: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probability/summarizing-quantitative-data/mean-median-basics/a/mean-median-and-mode-review

Charles Schwab accepted my CMRA in Florida as my residence when opening an account online but this was about 9 years ago. May be more strict now. There are two levels of scrutiny at least. The highest is for residences when opening the account. Changing residences once the account is open may be easier. Using a CMRA may be more readily accepted as a mailing address because they seem to be less strict about mailing addresses.

The IDP is of no value without the underlying valid home driving license. It is a derivative of your home driving license; it doesn't stand on its own.

This is supposed to be why the International Driving Permit is needed, to unambiguously show which vehicles an applicant's home license allows them to legally drive. In this case, the IDP would not have shown that the driver was qualified for motorcycle driver's license.

The agent can only pay a bribe to the immigration officials to waive the financial requirements not the insurance requirements.

45 days if arrive by 31 March 2023, thereafter only 30 days.

The above statement puzzles me.

Aren't AirBnB landlords who rent properties for periods less than one month supposed to have a proper hotel license under Thai law? Isn't it against some condo rules for a landlord to rent rooms out for a period of less than a month? How does AirBnb enforce these regulations? If a landlord refuses to file a TM-30 on behalf of their tenant which is required by Thai law if the tenant is a foreigner, how does AirBnB enforce compliance?

Well, you are doing what you're supposed to do under the law and that is commendable. You aren't putting your renters in an awkward situation; you're not the problem. The problem arises in some AirBnb properties where the owner/manager claims ignorance of the law or refuses to do what they are legally required to do putting the renter in a very awkward position. My recommendation is that a renter discuss with their potential landlord how they will file a TM-30 on their behalf and what evidence they will give the renter that it was successfully filed. A landlord who doesn't know what that is or who is unwilling to fulfill their legal obligations shouldn't be your landlord. Look for lodging elsewhere.

You should read the link ubonjoe posted above. From memory: You don't provide the return envelope and postage, but instead you send a bank draft for 100 baht which covers return to you using Thai post EMS. It's all explicitly explained at the link referenced.

This article give some insight into some of the potential liability issues that US financial institutions face when dealing with customers who are non-residents of the US: https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/can-foreign-investors-buy-us-mutual-funds.aspx Also: https://roundtablewealth.com/resources/american-expat-brokerage-accounts/ These two articles describe the risk calculus US financial institutions are dealing with. Instead of there being a black-letter law that restricts US non-residents there are liability concerns for a company having US non-residents as customers. So instead of all US financial institutions reaching the same conclusion as one would expect in reaction to a specific law you see different US financial institutions envisioning labilities with continuing to service US non-resident customers and making different policy decisions in reaction.

Not sure, I haven't personally faced threats of closing or restricting my US financial accounts yet. It might be helpful to show the IRS has your US (mailing) address. The fact that an envelope addressed to your US mailing address was sent from the IRS at least recognizes the fact that the IRS knows your mailing address. But you're probably right that there are more specifically residence-based things that they are looking for.

I don't know where it would available. Currently Pfizer (which is off course an mRNA vaccine unlike AstraZeneca) is available weekdays at the Vachira Hospital Convenience Center (200 meters north of the main hospital in the Mahogany Building). You might check the notices at the top of the home page at Phuket.Win site to see if any have AZ: https://xn--12cmj6ba0a7b3g4a6fud5d2a.com/ Google Lens translate app is useful for getting a Thai to English translation.

Just adding that the transcript is mailed to your address on file with the IRS. If that's not the address you want it mailed to then you should change the address first before requesting the transcript.

Very sorry to hear about this, but can't say it's unexpected. The US government continues to force regulations on financial institutions that make it undesirable for them to have US customers who live overseas. I can only recommend that people maintain a US address and US phone number for US financial institutions. Never let them know you are living overseas. I realize that parties if interested sufficiently can tell that a US mailing address is not a residential address and that a US phone number may only be a Google Voice number or other VOIP number, but still I recommend their use. Just because someone can do the detective work to find out where you really live doesn't mean they will be sufficiently motivated to actually do it. Bottom line: don't make it easy for them. To those that need to prove that they "reside" at their US mailing address here is possibly something to try. The IRS will snail mail a copy of the transcript for your last tax return filed to your US mailing address. You can make this request online and within 10 business days the IRS will snail mail to the address you provide. I do this every year because it is additional evidence that the IRS has received and processed my tax return (important if you have $0 tax liability as you would not get a receipt for payment or a refund under those circumstances). The letter from the IRS to your US mailing address may be suitable for proving that you "reside" at that address. I use travelingmailbox.com but there are many other Commercial Mail Receiving Agencies (CMRA) that offer a similar virtual mailbox capability (one in which I can get online scans of the envelope and contents of letters received at that address). More information about the IRS service: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/heres-how-people-can-request-a-copy-of-their-previous-tax-return

Not a permanent resident. Opened the SCB EZ account with my passport rather than my Pink ID Card. It seems you can get SCB to input your Thai Tax ID into your account but how to do that usually requires the staff to phone headquarters for help and if they are convinced they can't do it (which I've been told by them despite seeing that other banks can do it) nothing changes. I've given up on getting it changed and so file a Thai Income Tax Return every year instead. Changing the account to my Pink ID might solve the problem but I've heard that others have achieved the waiver on accounts opened under their passports. Depends on how cooperative your SCB branch will be.

https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2021/09/thailand-taxation-of-international-executives.html Google what income taxes do foreigners need to pay in Thailand for similar advice.

SCB EZ Savings account 1.5% APR up to 1 million baht balance. No fixed term. Has been offered at this rate for at least a year, if I remember correctly. https://www.scb.co.th/en/personal-banking/digital-banking/scb-easy/open-account/easy-id-e.html#:~:text=Interest rate (p.a.)&text=*Interest rate is 1.5% p.a.,– 10%3A30 pm only. Note: you may not want to use this account for your retirement or marriage extension of stay as there is no passbook (if that is a requirement of your immigration office).

Another example that it can be successfully done at SCB. However, I have not been successful at my SCB branch. Filing a Thai Personal Income Tax return has always worked, though. ???? Bangkok Bank and Krungsri Bank have been able to do it, but not my SCB branch. I think it requires putting the foreigner's Thai Tax ID in a different non-obvious field (hence the phone call to the Head Office). If staff don't know how to do that then it's just easier to say "cannot do." Glad to hear it worked out for you.