sandyf

May come as a surprise but foreigners and tourists are not the same thing.

Apologies. For those that choose to ignotre context I will amend. How many of tha advanced economies allow tourists to open bank accounts and how many allow people to arrive through normal channels without a visa and stay for years on end. Referring to illegal migration is an unnecessary distraction.

The writing has been on the wall for over a decade, item 2 on this email from the bank in 2014. At the time the forum view was the bank were wrong and nothing would change.

When I started it was the Thai Military Bank and only have had one small problem. In 2014 I goy an email from the bank that my details were inconsistent with bank policy and if not amended I would lose access to online banking. It was to do with the address, which was the Apex Hotel from when I opened the account in 2000. A trip to the bank and problem solved. People on this forum are always whinging about lack of standard in Thailand but as soon as they do something to tighten up on regulation abuse the whinging starts. They only want change where it suits their agenda. How many of tha advanced economies allow tourists to open bank accounts and how many allow people to arrive without a visa and stay for years on end.

We saw a sky like that 3 times yesterday, absolutely torrential each time. Been a lot of heavy rain last 5 days, bright and sunny today but with high humidity, condensation on the outside of the window with aircon at 27.

The going away party got cancelled due to the covid.

Rabbit hole comes to mind.

That is a distorted perspective. There was a study carried out in 2015. From the Ai Thailand's effective rate of protection on wine is 179.46%, which is significantly higher than the nominal tariff of 60%. This means the total cost of imported wine to a consumer is more than doubled due to various taxes and levies, according to a study published on Thai Journals Online (ThaiJO). Explanation: Nominal Tariff: The stated import tax on wine is 60%. Effective Rate of Protection: This is the total cost of protection to domestic producers, including the nominal tariff and other indirect taxes or regulations. The 179.46% effective rate: This figure indicates that the actual protection provided to local wine producers is much larger than the 60% nominal tariff. This means that imported wine is effectively priced 179.46% higher than it would be without these taxes, as noted in a study on ResearchGate. This is how the calculation is made in the study. "1.1.3 Tax Structure In Thailand for wine there is a tariff of 60 percent on imports. All other taxes compound off from the imports cost, insurance and freight (CIF) plus the tariff cost. Domestic wine taxes are calculated just on the cost and not the remaining values of the CIF and import tariff. Because of this the tax burden falls more heavily on the importers, creating favorable advantage to domestic wineries."

Take it you never noticed over the years the US citizens posting how easy it was to get an income letter from their embassy.

Why the brackets, I do not post false information. As it happens it is my niece's birthday today and have heard she is in bed with Covid, but she is an obs & gyny surgeon. Bit of a blow, she is finished at that hospital in a couple of days and starts a 3 year career development course next month.

Nothing more than an ill thought out assumption. You seem to overlook that some offices may want to see info on the source provider. eg pension document. Anyone in difficulty is more likely to turn to an agent than mess about sending money back and fore.

You are free to believe what you want. In the real world my niece is a doctor at a regional hospital. She tells me that doctors at her hospital that become infected are not allowed to take time off as before and may be infecting patients. With the number of patients a government hospital doctor sees in a day numbers would rise dramatically.

Wine is controversial around the world. Here in Thailand there is a fundamental problem in that the vineyards are still in a state of infancy and not capable of producing wine efficiently making it quite overpriced for the quality. A few years back the government raised the tax on imported wine in an attempt protect the emerging domestic wine industry. With the bulk of the wine consumed being imported the prices are in the hands of the importers and having established a new benchmark figure based on the tax rise it would be a bit of wishful thinking to expect any noticeable reduction. If you shop around there are some fairly cheap wine to be had. The Best Supermarket in Pattaya sells a 3 litre box for about 850 baht, but I can't see any restaurant adding it to the price list. They also have a bit of a predicament, reducing the price for an existing wine may be seen as offering a cheaper product. I have seen some restaurants that allow you to bring your own with a 200 baht corkage. Unfortunately no easy solutions and a case of living with it, or not, as the case may.

You couldn't be more wrong, on all points.

This started long before any talk of changing the tax laws, about 7 years ago for UK embassy. The transfers establish a positive net income rather than some paper indication of gross income. A bit of an inconvenience, but the Thais always get bashed when they try and do the job more thoroughly.