Dogmatix

This was a curious election between two Thaksinite candidates. Kamronwit is the policeman who was promoted under Yingluck to Bangkok police chief and flew to HK to have his new badges pinned on him by Thaksin. Then he got caught flying out of Japan with a Saturday night special hidden in his sponge bag, allegedly hidden there by his wife, who packed his bag, to get rid of him after he was seen parading his well known girlfriend in public. Tony officially backed the candidate who was involved in graft the last time he held the position. So it must be something about division of graft proceeds and repayment for electorate support.

I used to buy wine at these King Power shops until I found I could buy the same wine cheaper at Villa Market.

Doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Tony wants it banned again for his own personal reasons relating to his son’s drug abuse. His beloved police also want to get their income back from dealing weed and shaking down people they arrest, including foreign backpackers who will be low hanging fruit because many will not realise it has been decriminalized. The announcement is already drafted and nothing will stop it, short of Tony waking up dead from one of the many life threatening conditions he claims to have.

The mad King Donald will soon reign over Americans in a way that will make them wish they had never booted out the mad King George Iii. This court is now a joke. It totally does the bidding of the man who appointed the judges. It is like some third world countries where those in power can get judges they appointed to even rule that a convicted criminal can be a minister, in spite of the constitution apparently saying otherwise. That’s what you get when you allow the president to appoint judges single-handedly.

It doesn’t say where this junk came from but it is highly selective in the data it cites. Exports of services may be largely tourism income which is positively affected by the weak pound partly caused by Brexit. But exports of financial services, London’s key industry, were totally trashed by Brexit as banks shut down entire departments and moved them to the Continent. London’s residential and commercial property markets are still suffering. As for exports of goods, these are totally ravished by Brexit due the costs and procedures added which have booted smaller British companies out of exporting to EU markers and out of business in many cases. EU customers no longer want to deal with British exporters who don’t have European warehouses because it is too much trouble for them. Some victory and neither of the two main parties dare acknowledge the 400 pound Brexit gorilla smirking at them.

I expect the police efforts to save the man might have been more successful, if they hadn’t shot him first.

Another photo op with him at the Patong cop shop but no more information about who he is or why he was arrested. Hopefully they gave the British Embassy more than a photo of him with his face blanked out but their efforts on his behalf would be the same either way.

They will still need manual Thai gates for Thais who can’t be read by the electronic system or those too young or too old to use it. You should be OK.

Sooner or later as sure as God made little green apples and definitely if and when they introduce global taxation, they will ask foreign residents on visas other than transit and tourist visas to show a tax clearance certificate. They could do this for visa renewals which would be the most logical but, since they are so damn lazy, they could also just enforce the existing regulation requiring a tax clearance certificate to leave the country.

Simple. Obtain a certified bank statement to show the money was in your overseas bank account as at 31 Dec 2023. Get that legalised at the Thai embassy or a consulate in that country. Then get a certified translation done. Finally get the translation certified at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Present it to the RD and wait to find out what is still wrong with it. Another solution that will be followed by most sensible people is to avoid buying any property in Thailand or making any major purchases in Thailand like a car.

I saw a friend last night who is retired and needs to make remittances from overseas to survive. He is concerned about how to do his tax return next year, if, indeed he needs to do one, and how the RD will interpret the DTA, how to claim tax credits, what evidence is needed to prove pre-2024 income etc etc. He visited his local tax office in Bkk and sat down with a nice lady who spoke good English but was totally unable to answer any of his questions, including, “Can I use my overseas credit card and ATM card in Thailand without having to declare on my tax return?” Definitely a high level preparation has been undertaken at the RD for a major tax change. Just issue an order to say the law means something difference for what it has meant for over 50 years without any legislative process and sit back idly waiting for billions of dollars of foreign cash to pour into the Treasury. I guess the difference with upcountry tax offices is that they are less likely to be able to speak good English or even understand the questions.

I just had a chat with my accountant on the phone about my two staff who earn more than 120k a year but not enough to pay tax and have never filed tax returns. My question was should I file late tax returns for them. She said technically they can be fined 2k, if they are caught and they should file tax returns. I said what about waiting till next year, rather than filing late which can't be done online. Probably OK was her response. I think there are many people in this situation and not politically a good idea to go after them but they could be fined, if caught in some kind of random check.

Simply nauseating that this convicted felon who even admitted his crimes and promised to repent to qualify for a Royal pardon is now openly running the country after his party lost the election while still on probation and on bail for his Lese Majeste offence. This all after spending his hugely reduced prison sentence in a luxury hospital suite (or at home) pretending to be ill, while other prisoners were enduring inhumane conditions and dying in the slammer. Just goes to prove that everything is for sale in Thailand - justice, election results - you name it. It's hardly surprising that the economy is in the toilet with the only plan to revive it is a ruinous cash hand out scam that will try to borrow huge amounts in the local bond market and crowd out the private sector's access to funding and sending his tame cheshire cat around the world selling land bridges and other ludicrous projects that no one is interested in.

How do you know all this, if you had your foreskin amputated at birth?

So he had a WP as manager of his company but is charged with working at a reserved occupation under the 1979 Royal Decree which doesn't stipulate any penalties. There must be thousands of Burmese and others committing the same offence in hotels, restaurants and shops in the South and many more working in restricted occupations who don't have WPs at all. Working in a retail business is a restricted occupation which means it is illegal to work in a shop or as a waiter in a restaurant. Last times I went to Samui and Phuket, it was hard to find anyone who could speak fluent working in shops and restaurants. Those with WPs must have a fake job description in their WPs. This is also true of foreign lawyers and accountants in Thailand who get WPs as consultants, trainers, adminstrators etc but illegally practice law and accountancy. Ironic for the lawyers who are breaking the law every minute of the day.

I got calls from scammers pretending to be police with a cock and bull story I had transferred money to someone who was implicated in money laundering and drug dealing. He had my full name, address,I D number and phone number. They set up background noise to sound like a police station which sounds quite realistic. I asked the guy to give me his name and rank and the name and location of his police unit, saying I would look up the phone number on the internet and call him back on the fixed line. He was obviously unhappy at that idea and just kept repeating the name of the unit he claimed to be form but didn't give his name or rank. So I hung up. That was about 7 months ago. At first they called several times a day after that but I never answered but blocked all the numbers which were easy to recognise because they will all 06 TRUE numbers, usually with the numbers in series or very close to each other. The numbers are all blocked from receiving calls. The calls still come in a couple of times a week. So they are very persistent. Must have a supervisor cracking the whip over them, probably somewhere just over the border in Cambodia. There is obviously a lot of complicity with these criminals. They seem to be able to buy pre-paid numbers in bulk that originate from the mainstream telcos , despite strict regulations requiring ID cards to buy a mobile number. They must be buying lengthy lists of personal data from government departments, banks and the like.

Thaksin is a role model for what you should do, if you face charges you think are unfair and don't believe you will get a fair trial.

I was stung on the thigh in the sea by something I couldn't see in Hua Hin one June. I was in waist deep water and it felt like a powerful electric shock which made my leg buckle and I collapsed in the sea. It left a nasty red wield about 5 inches across. A doctor gave me some kind of cream to put on it and said the pain and the swelling would be gone in 24 hours but it throbbed painfully for 2-3 days. After that it turned septic and suppurated pus intermittently for 3 months and has left a permanent scar. I have heard of people get similar stings on the face in Hua Hin, resulting unsightly scarring. One guy told me his daughter got one on her stomach and the scar was so bad she never wore a bikini after that. But better keep quiet about this in case it affects the tourist dollars.

For self employed people the RD offers two options. Either you accept a standard deduction for expenses, depending on the type of business, e.g. driving a taxi depending on its age might be 70% or you do submit audited accounts and use your actual costs. This is practical for most who wouldn't be able to cope with getting audited accounts done. Some business, like renting out property might not do well with a standard deduction as it doesn't allow you to deduct periodic, large maintenance or renovation costs which can be amortized, if audited accounts are submitted. When businesses get over a certain size, the tax bill can be reduced by incorporating as tax rates are lower for companies.

It is not her idea. It was announced that they planned to move to global tax when the interpretation was announced and she was still at the Comptroller General's office or had just arrived at the RD. It is something from within the RD triggered by their accession to CRS which provides the means, the silly OECD aspirations and above all by pressure from Tony on the RD to collect every last baht in tax it can to fund his digital wallet scam. One thing is certain. The RD's concept of implementation with no clarifications or supporting regulations and intending to tax everything, regardless of whether it has been subject to tax already or will be subject to tax in the following overseas tax year will drive away as many expats/ prevent them from coming as the tax itself. I think there can be little doubt that incremental tax collected net of tax and foreign inflows lost will be negative. Apart from runnning counter to the intend to promote more long term tourism, it also runs counter to Srettha's plans to promote more foreign investment in property with 99 year leases and 75% condo ownership. Even under the current remittance tax regime, many plans to buy property in Thailand have been cancelled by expats, including one of my close friends who after 30 yeasr or so as an expat is now also planning to live elsewhere for more than 180 days a year.

I found the post below on the UK HMRC's community website forum. It is a response to an enquiry by an HMRC staffer. Of note is the last underlined sentence where HMRC says that in all its DTAs income and gains arising from property arising from property in the UK are taxable in the UK. This is not actually what it says in the Thai DTA with the UK which says income from immoveable property "may" be taxed in the contracting party where the property is situated. However, it is logical for the UK to receive tax on rental and gains from UK property and clearly HMRC's interpretation of "may" in this case is actually "shall". The Thai RD has said clearly that it also plans to exercise its right under the DTA to tax Thai tax residents on income from UK. I know from my own experience that the UK tends to recognise the sole right of the state where income arises to tax that income, regardless of whether the DTA says "may" or "shall" which is a logical and practical approach. Part of the inheritance I received from my father was a house he owned in Spain. Despite him being UK domiciled and HMRC having the right to tax his estate's assets in Spain at a higher rate, our tax adviser told us that HMRC leaves Spanish assets alone, as long Spanish tax is paid, even if it is less. Thailand's grasping approach of wanting to tax the living daylights out of all foreign income, regardless of whether it is taxed in the country it arises or not is going to lead to serious problems which will probably drive many residents away. The UK is clearly not going to give up its right to tax income arising in the UK and will probably expect to come to a gentlemanly understanding with Thailand that it will not exercise its own right to tax income arising from from the UK. But, if not, that will just too bad for taxpayers caught in both tax nets. For UK landlords in Thailand this will be a right PITA. They may be able to claim a UK tax credit for 1 Jan to 5 April when they file their Thai taxes but will not be able to for 6 April to 31 December, meaning that they will have to pay Thai tax in full for that portion of the year and claim a UK tax credit for it. In addition they are required to file a PND 94 half year tax return in September and a full year PND 91 in March for rental income which is taxed on an entirely different basis to rental income the UK. In addition, capital gains are taxed more aggressively in Thailand than in the UK, although few Thais ever have to pay CGT because listed stocks and domestic property are exempt from it. If the RD is unwilling to even consider exempting overseas sourced pensions that are already subject to tax in the country of origin for the sake of collecting a pittance in incremental tax from foreign pensioners, they will obviously not consider doing the same for any other time of income. BTW British pensioners will also have a similar problem to that described above in that, even though UK tax may have been withheld, they will not be able to claim tax credits from tax paid from 6 April to 31 December in their Thai tax returns because they won't have filed their UK tax returns until after the deadline for Thai tax returns. "Posted 10 months ago by HMRC Admin 20 Hi Raymond_33, If you are not resident in the UK, but have UK savings and investments (such as interest or alternative finance receipts from banks or building societies, unit trusts, National Savings and Investments, or dividends from UK companies), the income is taxable in the UK. If you are not resident in the UK, then you are not taxable in the UK, on your non UK income or gains. If there is a double taxation agreement between your country of residence and the UK, then you may find that salaries, wages and other remunerations, as well as pensions including state pension arising in the UK, are not taxable in the UK, but are taxable in your country of residence. In all double taxation agreements the UK has with other countries, income and gains arising from property in the UK, are taxable in the UK. A tax return must be completed every year."

Srettha has achieved nothing overseas or in Thailand. A complete waste of space unelected by Thai people.

Quite right. Grinning cheshire cat PM who lost the election clocks up air miles circling the world in search of the quick wins his boss tells him are out there for the taking - land bridge, huge investments by Microsoft and Tesla etc etc - but comes home empty handed each time. You notice that no one is talking bout the land bridge any more. What a waster.

He go his religious cult up and running pretty fast in the 108 days he has been in the LOS.

Unrealistic expectations on both sides, cultural differences, lack of common language and interests can lead to frustration and grind down the relationship in the best of circumstances. The worst is dishonesty where she maintains a relationship with a Thai man all along and drains your resources to pay him enough to keep him sweet while he's doing younger Thai chicks with your money. Sometimes it works out but be well aware of the pitfalls.