ronnie50

Last time they tried that (with Laos) it didn't end well for Thailand. Many years ago of course..

They'd just buy more directly from China.

Okay, but not easy if not in Thailand at the time.

I can only echo the above questions - @BangkokHank and @wombat. Forget WISE and forget SWIFT for a moment. Why do Thai banks limit the amount of incoming foreign funds per transaction (often hard currency like USD). Or is that just the maximum without filling out a bunch of forms? The latter is hard to do if you are not in Thailand at the time of intended transfer and have an existing Thai bank account. Is it some kind of OECD sub-rule? I guess all countries might have some upper limit that results in an automatic flag. Still TIT

Sorry to hear that. It doesn't really surprise me though. As some others have pointed out, most of 'ol blighty has been on the decline for 20-30 years - so you can't really blame it all on the current Labour government. The rot started long ago and has been ignored by both Tory and Labour governments. While I can understand refugees fleeing some countries, I don't really understand what drives economic migrants to bleak, grey and cold UK - because you're right that so many areas of the UK are just complete sh!tholes now. Migrants end up in these places because the places are cheaper. But (usually) they didn't create the sh!tholes, but maybe contributed to the decline. I also don't understand why they choose UK over places like Germany or France - both of which are in the EU and have similar if not better benefits than the UK. Or Sweden which seems to be the best place for State freebies.

One constant remains in my mind despite all the gobbledeegoop from this bureaucrat. That is, I still don't understand how the Revenue Department would know when the overseas money was 'earned' (this year or before) - and do pension funds and passive income count toward the tax free remittance? Some months ago, another member was referring to the 'first in, first out' principle - meaning money you have in a savings account back home for many years (for example) was savings from earnings already taxed from employment, pension, interest payments, etc. So the remittance of such shouldn't be taxed at all in Thailand. Again how do you prove it? The basic Thai income tax return form is just a simple document with no way to go into details in any case.

I'm not talking down about anyone's means (poor, rich). I was refering to the drunken losers - mainly western tourists and some Indians - brawling in the streets and bars of Pattaya's Walking Street and Phuket's Soi Bangla. If you've been folllowing this website and local Thailand news sources you will know it is an almost daily occurence. So, yeah, Thailand has every right to try to find a way to filter them out. Not about who has money or not - because I'd fully agree a rich violent drunk is as bad as a poor violent drunk.

I think codeine is a controlled substance in Thailand, but I could be wrong. Does it have codeine? Even so, if it is a controled drug, , you might get away with 2 small bottles.

Maybe her advisors suggested she show a tougher side quickly, as she's being ridiculed as a puppet of her father, and so this was an opportunity to do so?

The retirees and middle class tourists. This repeated idea (notion) by successive Thai governments that the answer to better tourism revenues involves tens of thousands of multi-millionnaires flocking to Thailand and living here year round, spending lavishly 364 days a year, is just mind numbing to me. Multi-millionnaires might well buy a condo here as a pied a terre, maybe even fairly large ones, but so what? If they're wealthy they might live in it for a few months of the year (winter) and then live in their own country during its summer, and then travel for 2-3 months a year to other places. Not many are going to be splashing cash around year'round in Thailand. It's a fantasy. And even if they did, how would the country, as a whole, benefit?

Minor point, but last week wasn't MOPH saying that XEC was on the wane (minority of cases) and a different strain (JN1?) was dominant?

I think that's a translation or misinterpretation in English. I could be wrong, but I think the article means regardless of whether the 180+ days of Thai residency are consecutive or ad hoc, as long as they add up to more than 180 days in Thailand.

Anyone else tired of this "Director General" making multiple, and often contradictory, policy announcements instead of the Government Minister?

Regarding riff-raff, I was refering in general terms, not necessarrily retirees. Having said that, are you saying you haven't met any foreigner over 50 who's retired here - and is someone you'd want to steer well clear from? No Jack the Lad types, often seen drunk and arguing with others, none?

I think so too. For the coup-backed elites to lose the Interior Minister post in this 'coalition' is a threat to their hidden hand power, influence and of course - above all - access to more wealth. They never lose. I wonder how long it will take.

No way.

Seems to me this Forum's very newsletter covers all that quite well, doesn't it? Why would a foreign newspaper cover daily stuff like this in Thailand?

Can't blame them for trying reduce the riff-raff. It seems every day there's a news story about violent or criminal 'kee nok' foreigners. Today's story was the American guy trying to exchange counterfeit US 100 bills/notes embedded with the words: "For Motion Picture Use Only"

This opinion piece is odd. The op-ed is about retirement visas. But the above reference to LTR is vague - there are several LTR's introduced in recent years. This paragraph seems to mix and match them. For example, an LTR for 'wealthy pensioners' doesn't require proof of USD 1 million in assets (unless I'm mistaken), but at least one of the other non-retirement LTRs does. And BOI told me the 80k USD must be 12 consecutive months in total before an application can be made for "WP"- not 2 years of 80k a year.

Thanks for all the comments. As I mentioned in the OP, I wasn't sure if the maximum amounts were new - just new to me as I had never tried to remit more than 1.5 m baht in foreign currency into Thailand. Glad I have a bank that allows more than 500,000 THB per incoming transaction, what a pain in the arse that would be for any major purchase otherwise.

I've been to Philippines several times. Mostly Manila. The young filipina women are often good looking - like the Thai. But only until around 25 (as someone said), then the filipina go pear-shaped from eating Jolibee and Shakeys Pizzas. America's dietary legacy to their former colony. It's usually because they've married young, by the age of 20 quite often, and have a child almost yearly. In any case, the filipina women (IMO) of all ages are nice people in general, whereas the filipino men are a bit aggressive - more than Thais. Once married, the women can't get divorced (in their country), so that complicates things for a new western boyfriend (including a friend of mine) if their husbands are deadbeat losers. It's why many end up in the sex trade (maybe not too different to Thai women from poorer regions where divorce is not a problem, but feeding 2-3 kids is). Thailand's development is better than the Philippines by far (why it's cheap to holiday over there). Why anyone would bring a casual filipina girlfriend to Thailand I don't know.

Now that you know from several people who've done it, you should explain to your wife the property can be sold with a mortgage as explained above. The 3m of your money should be well off the table by this point. If it's not, why not.

Correct. I guess it isn't just WISE that can do that. SWIFT can (and has for me in past) to SCB (but less than 1.5 million THB. I'm just trying to understand if new limits or rules have been imposed by the BOT or the by the banks themselves..

Regarding the 81 mg baby aspirin for blood thinner... hoepfully not too off topic... but the problem in taking it (for blood thinner) is you can't take any other NSAID (like ibuprofin, Advil, etc.) for back pain or joint pain, arthritis, and other ailments for which Tylenol/Paracetamol are useless. Can I switch to something else so I can also take ibuprofin for back pain?

I guess this isn't new, though it is to me, but I see chatter on the Facebook Expat Forum about Thai banks limiting the amount of incoming foreign funds. They say only SCB, Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank will allow incoming transfers of more than 500,000 THB after conversion. I checked SCB incoming SWIFT policy and it says up to 1,499,999 THB after conversion is allowed on incoming foreign fund transfers, though you can make as many individual foreign transfers up to that amount as you like. Also anything more than 50k in USD requires Foreign Exchange Forms to satisfy the Bank of Thailand on the purpose of transaction. Which doesn't make much sense as that is already over the limit of foreign transfer allowed (50,000 USD is currently 1,628,000 THB). Is this a new requirement, and how could anyone transfer a substantial amount to buy a condo or anything else? Fifteen or 20 identical transfers of 499,999 THB?