Dogmatix

The OP forget to mention the first day of his trial for LM coming up in July in a case brought by the Thai military,  based on the accusation that he defamed the monarchy in an interview given to  Korean newspaper.

Given that he is a known flight risk, it would be advisable for the court to place him on remand during the trial.

On 6/9/2025 at 7:43 AM, JimHuaHin said:

Time for Taksin to go.

...to jail.

It is very unclear but the announcements made so far could easily  be interpreted to mean that overseas income is taxable in Thailand, unless remitted to Thailand in the tax year it arose or the following year.  That would be effectively global taxation which they claim (falsely) is required by the OECD but with exemptions money remitted in the stipulated period.

It seems the latest regulation allowing exemption for income earned before 2024 will be wiped out which is tough luck for anyone who sold investments in Dec 2023 to create a long term stock of money that can be remitted to Thailand. 

If it is indeed a global tax, there would be a loophole, unless it has to remain in Thailand for a certain period, in that investors could remit the money out again immediately.  It also seems simple enough to create a transaction on even earn interest on a bank deposit to able to remit the income tax free.

The RD clarified last time that principle could be remitted tax free.  If still true, anything can be remitted tax free.  If not true and only the income can remitted tax free, they will not attract the trillions they hope for because the principle will be left overseas.

The article says prostitution is illegal in Thailand but is not really true.  The 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act only makes prostitution illegal in certain circumstances. 

• Soliciting in public so as to cause a nuisance is prohibited.

• Operating or managing a prostitution business is illegal.

• Profiting from the prostitution of others (e.g., pimping, brothel-keeping) is a criminal offense.

The VN hookers may well be bothering people in the street which is clearly illegal but It is a hassle for cops to get good enough for that. Passers by will not give evidence.  So the cops have to do it.  In the past to prove the girls (East Europeans in those days) were really soliciting for sexual services, cops actually had sex with them, arested the girls when they had finished and knotted up the used condoms to present as evidence. (I think there was a queue of cops at Lumpini police station volunteering for this dangerous mission confronting violent criminals.)   There was a big outcry from Thai  women's groups arguing the cops had created the crimes themselves  as agents provocateurs.  There was also an outcry from the wives of the arresting officers who were named in the media.  Ha ha.  So the cops were forced to abandon these fun crime busting missions. 

Nowadays, if they take action against foreign hookers at all, it is most likely to be for visa violations.  

The cops don't like to admit prostitution is not really illegal in any meaningful sense the same way as they pretend smoking weed in public is specifically illegal.  It is not but smoking anything in public is illegal under the Public Health Act, if it causes a nuisance and someone complains.  So it is actually a fairly similar concept of illegality that makes it hard to get convictions.  So cops don't usually try in either case.

I remember visiting Pnom Penh many years ago and hundreds of VN hookers had moved in the years following Wun Sen's takeover at the head of a VN army.

18 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Any specific bars/areas that should be avoided? 

My question too.  For public safety the article should be specific about areas and bars VN prostitutes are operating, so we can avoid falling prey to their siren calls.

9 hours ago, Hornell said:

I just find it difficult to believe than anyone can be so stupid nowadays to either agree to carry another bag for someone or to allow them to insert a package, the contents of which they don't know, into their own baggage.

Exactly.  Charlotte Leek came back to England from a trip to Thailand then flew back saying she had been offered a job in Thailand with flight and expenses paid.  The job involved flying off again a few days later carrying 46kg of weed to Sri Lanka, presumably on route to the UK or somewhere else in Europe, since weed is widely cultivated in Sri Lanka and must be a lot cheaper there than in Thailand.  So she set off with an extra two suitcases packed by someone else and was given cash to pay for the excess baggage at Suvarnabhumi. Pretty obvious that she knew she was smuggling something illegal but thought the money was worth it.  She had been an air hostess for TUI and was a part time beautician in nail bar.  So probably not very bright but, even so, it must have been obvious that something was wrong, even if she didn't look inside the suitcase.   Weed is fairly bulky and has a strong aroma which sniffer dogs can't miss. 

The other English girl in Georgia is only 18 and pregnant.  She was going to start a nursing course but that will have to wait for for a decade or more probably now.  Not sure of the details of her case but it sounds like she had 14kg of dope and may well have known what it was. 

The extra bags may have been a red flag to Sri Lanka customs but what these kids don't understand is that the drug networks often grass on some of their own mules as part of a deal with authorities to let most through.  Also very young travellers with odd itineraries are often a red flag.  Doing two trips to Thailand in quick succession and flying to Sir Lanka or Georgia afterwards, particularly, if full fare, may look suspicious.  Years ago two English girls were busted smuggling heroin out of Thailand.  Thai cops said they were alerted by British cops who had seen their itinerary flying full fare from Bangkok to West Africa to the UK as odd and tipped off Thai police.  The British cops checked their profiles and found they were unemployed which further heightened suspicions.  Having pleaded they were set up they got Royal pardons on account of their young ages and went back to England to tell the tabloids they knew all along what they were smuggling.  

1 minute ago, Sydebolle said:

Well, well, the ten-years visa might be a winner, the 99-years lease as well but, according to the article, is restricted on government land. 

Let potential buyers - irrespective of nationality - buy land with certain restrictions (I understand that US citizen are entitled to one Rai under the "American Treaty" dating back to the 60s of last century). 
Drop the work permit restrictions as I cannot see a non-Thai hairdresser or non-Thai ice carver competing with Thais; architecture and tourism might also be much more professional without the restrictions in the Alien Business Law. 

There are lots of possibilities to make "Thailand great again" but it takes a new breeze of professionals and not all those old oligarch goats driving this country into the ground for their own personal benefit. 

Restricted on govt land because the seller has to sell the freehold to the government and the lease to the foreigner.  A very bad idea.

Funny pic of a teacher wearing a plastic welder type mask that would do mothing to keep out COVID.

Not the way to reduce the trade deficit.  Send it back to Mar a Lago.

Never tried magic mushrooms and no interest to either but I know that magic mushrooms cause lots bad problems for newbie tourists who take them in Amsterdam and end up in the emergency room.  No one knows what is in the dosages sold and what effects to expect.  It is the same with ingesting cannabis but much worse.  

Throw the book at this creep and the Thai government should consider tougher visa rules for Israelis to make it harder for them to hang out in Thailand for months on end doing illegal businesses.  Visa rules for Thais going to Israel are quite strict for similar reasons of working illegally.  Introducing reciprocal visa rules for Israelis and they can't complain, if they are unwilling to relax visa rules for Thais. 

A lot of individuals at high risk of committing crimes are to be found in the cabinet office and the parliament.

Holding bullion yourself or in storage is theoretically the safest way to hold it but storage of large quantities at home is not that safe and external safe storage not that cheap.  ETFs are another alternative.  Many people know GLD and SLV traded in NY but not so many people know there is also a gold ETF, also GLD, on the Thai stock market for those who have Thai baht onshore.  The Thai GLD is free of capital gains tax but gains on gold bullion held in Thailand are theoretically taxable. 

In North America Sprott in Canada has some offerings of interest and some are available on the Toronto Stock Exchange traded in USD and CAD as well as in NY.  Sprott's PHYS is a gold alternative to the US GLD that claims a closer tie to the underlying gold held as collateral and charges just a smidgeon more than GLD.  I like Sprott's SLVR ETF because it combines a holding in the silver ETF as well as silver mining stocks and is not too heavy n the largest silver mining stock, First Majestic, which has a lot of problems in my opinion.  For gold mining stocks GDX provides exposure to the largest ones and GDXJ to the juniors.  A favorite gold ETF of mine is GOAU which is an EFT of gold royalty companies.  These companies buy royalty streams from mining companies on sure fire projects which is a great way for the miners to secure upfront finance to complete mining projects and for the royalties to get income from gold mining without the costs and hassles of mining themselves.  Gold royalties are a great bridge between own bullion that doesn't pay any dividends and gold mining stocks, as they pay dividends and get more of the upside when gold goes up but not as much of the downside as the miners.  GOAU owns all the large gold royalties companies and some smaller ones, diversifying the risk. 

One reason that non-Americans concerned about estate planning for their families might chose to prefer Canadian or other non-American listings is Federal Estate Tax.  While Americans and US residents get an exemption of $13 million from this iniquitous tax, non-residents only get an exemption of $60,000 and a blanket rate is charged on all US situs assets above that, even US listed stocks held in a brokerage account outside the US.  When a non-US client dies, the broker will freeze all their US assets until the executor can convince them that US estate tax has been paid and this may take a long time. Brokers don't tell non-US clients about this because they don't want to scare them away from investing the largest stock markets in the world.  

The only proven way to avoid US Federal Estate Tax is by having an account in the name of a company.    BTW the UK does the same thing by charging IHT on UK stocks held non-residents.  

Bitcoin and other crypto ETFs abound for those who want to diversify into crypto but don't want the hassle of dealing with crypto exchanges and hardware wallets.  The biggest and most liquid are of course in the US but there are also plenty of crypto ETFs in Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Europe that avoid the issue of US estate tax.  My favorites are the Hong Kong listed ETFs.  For those who want listed ETFs or ETPs in alt coins other than Etherium which has large ETFs in the US, Europe is the place to go.  Swiss company 21 Shares has issued ETPs on Solana and a number of other alt coins listed in Swiss and other Euro exchanges and so has Van Eck. 

Good luck and DYODD (do your own due diligence).

Just like the attempt to purchase F-35s the Thai navy and government has known all along there was no possibility that the Germans could supply the engines for use in Chinese subs on anything military of that type to a country that is so close to the Chinese.  This has just been a charade.

We can count on it that Ung Ing is a person of the utmost integrity who would tell us immediately, if she suspected for a moment that her dad was not at death's door for every minute of his stay in the PGH.

Does that mean that Telegram and LINE are no more secure than Signal that is used by the US government for discussing war plans with journalists?

1 hour ago, Cameroni said:

 

The US is too much of a financial risk, so you put your money in the Cayman Islands, BVI or Panama? 

 

Are you for real?

Panama uses the USD and the Caymans have a the Caymans dollar that has been pegged to the USD since 1974.  But you can hold other currencies in those places.  I think he meant that he doesn't want to invest in the US or in the USD though.

A general comment is that prices at Thai private hospitals have risen exponentially in recent years, so there is no longer the rational for medical tourism.  Meanwhile the quality of healthcare and the skills of the medical workers, including knowledge of English, have not risen in line with prices, although you still get lots more nurses taking care of you than in the West which presumably means that nursing salaries are still much lower than in the West despite the sharp uptick in prices. 

I have had 3 moderately serious conditions, one of which caused severe pain, that were totally misdiagnosed by Thai doctors in top tier private hospitals, even after exhaustive and expensive tests with state of the art equipment.  In each case the problem was correctly diagnosed by private consultant level guys in London using lower level equipment.  Two issues needed surgery and were fixed in London at a private hospital promptly and efficiently.  

9 hours ago, jacko45k said:

But it is near impossible for foreign trained doctors, non-Thai, to get licence to work in Thailand. I might expect nursing is also a reserved occupation. Most certainly it would need a licence. I expect it would be a far better job in private hospitals than public too. 

Doctor and nurse have never been reserved occupation.  My understanding is that foreign doctors and nurses can work in Thailand, if they have graduated from a medical school recognized by the Thai Medical Council but they have to pass Thai licensing exams with no exemptions  which means that very few foreigners attempt this.  Most of the medical professionals who go this route are in fact Thais who did their professional education and training overseas.  That being the case, I think the way is open for the OP's missus to work as a nurse, if she is willing to sit the Thai licensing exam.  Otherwise she could work in another capacity.  English skills are much in demand at private hospitals.  I frequently encounter nurses and technicians at Samitivej who can hardly speak English and ask if I can speak Thai instead.

Bangkok Nursing Home used to have farang doctors and the matron was always a farang but most of them started work in Thailand before the Thai language requirement was introduced and were grandfathered in.  I met one of the last doctors or this era, Dr Patrick, who died recently.  I also knew the last farang matron, a formidable Scottish lady, who died several years ago.  I came across a younger English doctor in the modern BNH hospital about 20 years ago, who must have passed the Thai licensing exam but I didn't ask him.

He claimed he had had a WP before and perhaps could have operated it legally with a WP but he chose to operate an unregistered business and not pay any tax and maybe had no insurance for the bikes and rented them to tourists without licenses in addition to allegedly overcharging tourists. 

He knew this was all illegal.  Throw the book at him. Then blacklist him for life when all is done.  Ripping off tourists and operating businesses that are a danger to customers and other road users is a reserved occupation that can easily be done by Thais.  Go and rent out motor bikes in Gaza or the West Bank.  
 

1 hour ago, Cabradelmar said:

the failure of thai edu sys falls squarely on teachers and their methods (and the inability to use modern textbooks and curriculum)... heaven forbid they actual get asked to do real work. of course none of this matters if they continue with the "no fail" policy. 

More to blame is the corrupt, centralised education ministry.  Local autonomy and accountability would work wonders.  Get rid of the fat cats in Bangkok dictating to folk in the provinces.  The ministry has  the largest budget of all the ministries but achieves pitiful results compared to neighbouring countries

I agree that non-smokers in general should not be troubled by weed or any other smoke.