Dogmatix

3 hours ago, JGon said:

Another one... soon the media will keep pushing this narrative and we "farangs" will be stereotype for a few bad apples (if this isn't already happening).

Seems to be just Swiss thus far.

Currently licensed herbal practitioners are allowed to write prescriptions for extracts over 0.2% THC.  It seems logical that they will also be allowed to write prescriptions for the raw plant which is not illegal,

Wow. That is around 4% of GDP. How about the defaults on consumer debt which is more that mortgage debt?

Thai interest rates the highest in 10 years but how come I am still getting only 0.5% on my saving account - the same at 10 years ago?

This is a great idea in tandem with the plan to attract more alcoholic tourists to Thailand.  

Why not also put these pictures on weed instead of recriminalizing it.  Warnings are indeed required on weed packaging in Canada and US states.  If underage kids and foreign tourists see the warnings, they will know the risks and not do too much of it.  So everything will be OK.

The state of California has determined this product may cause cancer and could cause damage to unborn fetuses.  California requires a warning like this on just about everything, not limited to found, drink and smokables but plastics and stuff too. Thailand should these pictures on everything including all the cheap plastic products imported from China.

3 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

Link containing quote sent

Thanks for the link but it doesn't support the statement that she was attacked by the government over monetary policy as governor.  On the contrary she was attacked by the private sector as governor for bowing under pressure from the government to introduce capital controls. For the rest of her time as governor she kept a low profile. 

The suspect looks a bit overweight.  Prison rations should soon fix that for him.

There is no justification for reducing rates at this point but this is Thaksin's style. He did same think in the first Thaksin govt and fired the governor of the BOT.  Repeating this type of nonsense and repeating the land bridge project along with the vote buying digital wallet shows how bereft he is of new ideas now but is nevertheless determined to get firmly behind the policy steering wheel again.  How sad for Thailand to have someone like that in charge again when they voted for a different party anyway.

If they believe they are going to attract more boozers, they should offset the loss of revenues from stoners after recriminalize weed.

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

This is wrong, this will not have any effect on tourism, a big zero. What might have an effect on tourism would be lowering the import wine tax on fine wines, and growing that part of the industry. Perhaps that would help to attract the wealthier tourists that Thailand keeps droning on and on about. Tourists who have very deep pockets are highly offended when they come here and try to order a bottle of wine that they pay $100 for at home, and it's $500 to $600, or it's just not available. And nobody knows anything about them because the wine industry is so severely oppressed due to the heinous taxation issues.

 

This administration needs to start getting some smarts, and exercising their brains rather than behaving like buffalo, and passing one policy after another which make no difference. 

I agree the impact on tourism will be negligible, partly because the supply chain won't pass on much of the tax reduction to consumers anyway. I don't notice any feasibility studies done by the government to project loss of tax revenue from wine vs incremental tax revenue from more tourists and/or more expenditures per head.  Do the Chinese come to Thailand to get pissed?

The trend of foreign condo purchases in Thailand has evolved following the COVID-19 situation. The market slowed during the outbreak but recovered and grew significantly afterward, reflecting the returning confidence of foreign investors in the Thai real estate market.

Sopon also opined that encouraging more property purchases by foreigners could be a policy to stimulate the Thai economy. He suggested the government define areas where foreigners are allowed to buy to mitigate security concerns and potential conflicts between Thai citizens and foreign property owners.

He further stated that the administration should consider new policies and approaches to regulate and promote real estate transactions by foreigners in Thailand. This would help the market grow sustainably and benefit the Thai economy while preventing potential issues arising from such liberalization.

Why does he want to restrict the areas foreigners, who are already restricted to 49% of usable space, can buy as a way to increase sales?  Crazy. 

The surge may come to an end when Chinese buyers realise they will have pay 35% tax on the money remitted to buy the condos, if they are in Thailand for more than 180 days in a year.

14 hours ago, Jack West Jr said:

The procedure to follow seems obvious . Arrest this scum and extradite him . 

I think they are so concerned about EU data privacy rules that the Irish police don't know their names either. So how can they extradite them?

On 2/22/2024 at 8:04 PM, Mike Lister said:

If the tax guide was exclusively for the benefit of totally reasonable people, I might agree with what what you have written. But what we have seen thus far is enormous but anecdotal interest in the Gift Tax as a means of skirting Thai tax, many have said outright that it is their easy and simple answer. If ultimately, Thai tax law confirms everyone's hopes that the law is available to use as seen by some, that will be a fabulous outcome, but we are not at that point, yet. The concern is that a majority will see that glass as half full rather than half empty and will end up in difficulty as a result.

 

We have several choices. We can leave the issue open, pending further clarification or we can steer people towards a safer scenario and advise caution.  I chose the latter, because, human nature suggests it will mean that people will be less likely to act using Gift Tax. 

 

With regard to laying down the law: the simple tax guide is explicit, it is a starting point for people to begin to manage their tax affairs and nothing in the guide will contradict anything said by the RD or the major tax consultancies. There is no obligation for anyone to adhere to what is written in the guide which makes it very clear that further information is  needed in several areas. We have already exceeded the boundaries of our initial remit in producing the simple tax guide. We said we would not be able to delve into specifics' of elements such as Capital Gains because it was beyond our knowledge levels and expertise plus the rules vary from country to country. Such things would be reliant on further information from the RD. Despite that, we have continued to push forward and in six weeks have produced a guide that has helped thousands and put an equal number of minds at ease.

 

I am perfectly happy for debates to be held on any aspect of tax, both in this thread and in the 250 page thread that has run for the past six months. I am less comfortable those debates take place in the Simple Tax Guide thread which I see as reserved for known answers, assistance for those with more simple needs and for the identification of unknowns. Any direction provided in that thread will be towards lower risk alternatives and avoid giving false hope. Any discussion in that  thread needs to be less complex so that those with limited understanding of tax can easily find the answers they are looking for, unlike in the 7,000 post thread.

 

 

Thais and foreigners will definitely be using the gift tax exemption to cover overseas remittances, particularly as it was apparently suggested by the RD in its #4 to its first Q&A on P. 161/2566, possibly as a way for taxpayers to mitigate the impacts of the announcement. So it will take some time to know, if there is an issue, since the RD will not be able to follow up on overseas gifts made to circumvent P. 161/2566 until after 2024 tax returns have been filed.  Since they have a backlog, it may take some time. If nothing is said, we might have to wait for a few years to be sure that receivers of overseas gifts from spouses have not been made to show that their spouses had paid tax on the gifts overseas (assuming the income was taxable in the jurisdiction it arose) and/or taxed and penalised.  If that is the case, it would be difficult to place the burden on the receiver, as they cannot automatically be expected to have access to their spouse's overseas tax records.  So the burden would more appropriately be placed on the giftor who may not be a Thai tax resident or even living in Thailand, as in the RD's case study กค 0702/530 on the topic of gifts made to a Thai resident by a foreigner resident overseas. 

As far as the Simple Tax Guide is concerned, I can see that it is probably useful to a number of AN members but I personally would hesitate to publish a tax guide rather than just post a regular exchange of views on tax, as in this thread or the big thread. A tax guide, unless it just quotes from the RC and the RD, contains opinions that AN has to be responsible for as the publisher and, if someone decided to claim they had been damaged by any part of it and filed a complaint, it could be problematic and disclaimers may not offer much protection. An area I have experience of is publishing opinions on Thai stocks which I know you have to very careful about to avoid the SEC coming around demanding to see licenses, WPs etc. Some publishers of such newsletters have gone to great pains to make it look, as if they were published overseas.  Just my thoughts.

Let's have a snap election and boot out PT in favour of MFP.  Then Yingluck will have to continue her extended shopping trip to Harrods.

I wonder what critical ailments Yingluck will suddenly be struck down by immediately on checking into the women's prison.

On 2/22/2024 at 7:03 AM, spidermike007 said:

Many nations have incredible craft work, such as Mexico, Indonesia (especially Bali) and India. World class crafts. World famous crafts. Thailand has a very limited craft industry, and the quality is not high, nor are Thai crafts recognized around the world, with the exception of some of it's silk. 

 

More nonsense from one of the most silly men in the country, and one who has no business pretending to be a leader. 

Souvenirs in tourist areas are mainly low quality tat imported from China or Burma.

9 hours ago, hotchilli said:

So Srettha what are you going to do about it?

 

Nothing.  Just continue grinning like a Cheshire cat, racking up airmiles at taxpayer expense and trying to sell fake project like the land bridge to generate consultancy fees for Thaksin cronies.

Re Gift Tax again. The RD's answer in its Q&A on the remittance tax appears to specify that qualified gifts would be exempted. Here is the imperfect google translate.  It mentions the gift tax exemption explicitly a propos of the remittance tax without adding that the gift must be taxed overseas and subject to a DTA or taxed in Thailand first. In some cases, it would not even be possible to pay tax on it first. Consider the case of capital gains in HK or Singapore that are not taxable where they arise? How would the gifter pay Thai tax on the income before gifting it, unless he is obliged to remit it to himself in Thailand first which is not the case.  The Gift Tax law places the receiver under no burden to show the gift has been taxed. If a spouse, they are only obliged to declare an amount over 20 million in a year and pay a flat rate of tax of 5%.

I agree that being conservative in the tax guide is OK but I don't agree with laying down the law and telling people categorically that gifts must be from taxed income without anything to support this view.  I think it would be useful to tell people that this, like many aspects of this remittance tax, is not yet clear.  

QUESTION #4

What are the types of assessed income that must be subject to income tax under Section 41?, the second paragraph of the Revenue Code?

ANSWER:

Money has not been assessed from foreign sources at If you stay, you are forced to pay income tax including assessable income according to Section 40 (1) to (8) of the Revenue Code.

However, if it is assessable income received that has received tax exemption according to law, taxpayers do not have to include it as assessable income to be taxed in Thailand, such as receiving an inheritance or receiving income received through the support of parents and trusted people, or from a spouse, as long as the money that is received does not exceed 20 millions of baht for the entire tax year.