suzannegoh

On 10/8/2018 at 10:05 PM, marcusarelus said:

The thread is about "Many expats live in Thailand on less than 45,000 baht a month."

 

What do prices in Africa have to do with it?  Try an African war zone cheap housing I bet.  But nothing to do with the thread. 

He's probably giving you guff because he's a corporate expat making better money here than back in his home country and he has a hard time relating to people who choose their locale based upon cost of living rather than the amount that they can earn in the country.  There are forums and publications for corporate expats but ThaiVisa isn't one of them.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-10/want-a-21-000-pay-raise-hsbc-recommends-you-move-overseas?srnd=premium-asia

I sold my house in the USA in 2005 and deposited the money in a Thai bank at 41.5.  Ten years ago it was 34.  5 years ago it was 31.  3 years ago it was 32. 

Anybody using a VPN in Thailand?  I was planning to buy NorthVPN.  Also Do ISP in Thailand blocking any contents?  I would welcome any advises. 

I am basically a happy polite smiling sweaty fat bumbling idiot...I dont know if the Grannies feel sorry for me or what but they walk me across the street, help me to shop, etc (I do play more stupid than I am...maybe). I high five and fist bump and salute the security guys and MC guys, joke with everyone...hell yesterday at a Market I got free food everywhere since I was the only white dude around and was just having a good old time...a lady started poking me in the stomach, laughed and gave me a free sausage, a coconut dude got excited because I filmed him cutting coconuts...so he hands me a coconut for free. One lady insisted I take pictures of her pretending to eat live shrimp,  Red Bull girls tried to feed me Red Bull, I said Mee Kap, Kop Khun kap, make me ting tong, me pompwee, too much, no yaabaa me, they thought that was uproarious and then everytime a Red Bull girl saw me she would laugh and try to give me Red Bull and I would hear something like Falang yaabaa and they would all laugh and then a granny would pat me like I was some stupid child ...even if they are making fun of me (I am Millwall) they are all nice....I think Thai people are cool and I am glad I got here this time before high season and folks start getting jaded. It helps that I live off the beaten path a bit so its like, whoa, somchai, there is a fat falang here, WT, maybe he's lost, hey auntie, give him some water, he is sweating. 5555 OMG, he speaks Thai like a baby, here fat falang, have this here Roach on a stick, OMG he ate it, what a trip! High fives and wais. Meanwhile, I get free amusement for my far less than 45000B a month! Yesterday cost me 600B including rent I think....but hey I could be back in the US paying 180B for some Budwhizzer and watching American football as my brain rots....

13 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Meanwhile, back in the real world, American expats still need to deal with the current laws (new and old) even if it means intentionally dodging them. A member here seems to be suggested that most expat businesses were doing that already. I don't know how she can know that. 

I don’t know that most in Thailand are, just that most (maybe all) run by people that I know are.  It’s  not only because the US Tax code is burdensome, it’s because they are small timers and Thai law makes it such that the most practical way for a small timer to own a business here is to have their Thai spouse “own” the business. 

But either way, the example in the article that you shared doesn’t make very much sense because it says that that guy’s business never made more than $100K per year (in other words, he's a small timer).  It’s easy to legally shelter $100K/yr from US taxes.  The article also says that he found out about the changes on a facebook group for expats.  So apparently not a very tax savvy small timers.  This might be a real issue for some people but the article isn’t worth much because it didn’t dig into how large of a business is likely to be affected by the change and what options small business owners might have other than panicking.

7 hours ago, TunnelRat69 said:

I personally witnessed an American escorted out of a Bar in PPenh for Income Tax evasion by US Marshalls, he had a couple of construction companies in Thailand and Cambodia.  His downfall (according to the barroom banter) was he took a construction job for the US Embassy in PPenh, and a background check was made - he never came back to Cambodia to my knowledge.  ????  I was sitting in a sidewalk bar in Saigon a couple months ago and an American guy stated that he couldn't wait until he had been overseas for ten years so he wouldn't have to pay US taxes anymore............ I said "If you think that is true, your crazy"  You have to file for Taxes irregardless if you have an income or not...........i fact you may qualify for Earned Income"..........but he was adamant that he wouldn't have to file taxes anymore.  Good Luck to him............but one way or some day Uncle Sam will get his due.

I don’t run a business but I got a letter from the IRS once before where they recomputed a prior year’s tax bill and told me that I could either pay additional tax plus a penalty or give them a written explanation and documentation showing why they are wrong.  Luckily that worked, otherwise the choice would have been either to pay or go to tax court.

Re that guy you met that said that once he was out of the US for 10 years he wouldn’t need to pay US income taxes anymore, there are a surprising large number of American expats in Thailand who know zero about US tax law or believe complete nonsense about it.  I think that a lot of it is because conspiracy theories and alternative media are so popular among low-rent farang.  After all, if you “know” that the Federal Income Tax is unconstitutional, why would anyone worry about going to jail if they don’t pay?
 

5 hours ago, Jingthing said:

A bit off topic but actually Americans are NOT always required to file, expats or not. There is an income threshold where if you if you fall under it you are not required to file and indeed the IRS doesn't WANT you to file (wasted work for them). But if that income includes certain types of income you would want to file anyway, such as asset sales where the gross amount is over the cost basis. But of course there is no such thing as filing obligations ending after 10 years abroad. It's funny to me that anyone actually believes that. 

 

However there is at least one good reason to file even if you don’t have to.  Generally, in the absence of fraud, the IRS can only go 3 years back to challenge your returns.  But the clock starts ticking on the day that you file not at the end of the tax year, so if you never file the clock never starts ticking, making it possible for the IRS to go back 10 years or more if they want to.

32 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Personally, as I don't own a business here, I know almost nothing about what expat businesses do or don't do. But I am aware of the unusual situation for Americans abroad in regards to IRS obligations. So if you're saying, it doesn't matter because they're already ignoring U.S. laws, well, as you say, it's really hard to know how many people are really impacted. 

I’m sure that there must be some who play it exactly by the book but the ones that I’m personally aware of put the business in the name of a Thai wife or a Thai partner and try to make such that there is no paper trail connecting them to the business.  However I do know of one case where a guy’s business became a little too successful and someone tipped off the IRS that he was evading taxes and the IRS wasn't sympathetic to his explanation that his Thai wife was rolling in money bu that he had no income.

44 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

That's interesting.
But as you know with FBAR and FATCA bank account reporting requirements if they weren't reporting the accounts themselves that could mean even bigger trouble just about that.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Yes, they could run afoul of that if profits were being rolled over into bank account and not reported.  I’ve seen articles elsewhere saying that up to a million American small business owners would be affected but I haven’t seen a good explanation of the scenarios under which that would happen.  The example of very small businesses, such as in the Bloomberg article, doesn’t seem like a very compelling example because people running business of that size are probably drawing out most of the profits each year in the form of salary.  You probably know quite a few Americans in Thailand running small business – bars, restaurants, or whatever.  How many of them do you suppose are reporting to the IRS that they have business profits and are paying self-employment tax?

Most of those small businesses owned by Americans abroad such as in the example in the article (which turns less than $100k/yr profit) probably were either not reporting their income to the IRS or were paying out that income to themselves as a salary so that it would be exempt from taxation the grounds that it's Foreign Earned Income rather than business income.  It seems the ones that get bit would be ones who instead of taking the their profits out of the business were rolling over the profits into bank accounts in the business's name AND were telling the IRS about it.

18 minutes ago, finnishmen said:

i no understand how can waste money condo 7000 b have LOT, and how can waste LOT to food ? if have own condo/house go only 2000 b/ month elektric and water many year now, food max/month can go 4000-8000 b not can eat newer 10 000b / month, and hobby,ordens stuff at internet shop and other go about 4000 / month, i no understand how CAN waste money LOT ewerywere alltime ? how ? if u have old men pension you not need more you can live good and comfort all life. if u buy own car go lot 10-15 000/month u pay car but not need, bike only go 2000 b max / month if travel LOT. if you buiuld own house ecpet me do before go 50% to build and 50% living and can live all year 30-40 000b/ month building time good.and after house has ready living money drop 50% cheapen than buildtime, now live cheap and all have good no need anythink expensive newer last 3 year, only 10000b go onetime/year go far bkk embassy make pension salary papers and new visa next year.

Exactly. 

37 minutes ago, smedly said:

better still someone come from the UK and take him home, so he is in a wheelchair and can't talk, how does that stop him from flying

Sometimes people with brain tumors are advised not to fly any significant disance because if a seizure occurred on an airplane it may be impossible to get medical assistance.

20 minutes ago, tutsiwarrior said:

most english can't get heir heids around lager as what's referred to as 'beer' outside of England, not a top fermented ale...

You're being too kind to them.  Despite their boorishness over the superiority of British ales, few know the difference between a lager and an ale and far more Stella and Carling is sold in Britain than any ale.

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

Is that that giant Can of Beer I saw in the store? Like huge? with a plastic seal across the top?

Probably you're thinking of Kaiserdom. That's dishwater from Germany that's labeled as "beer" and exported as a prank.  Federbrau is usually sold in green bottles or normal sized cans.

1 hour ago, MarleyMarl said:

Does the TV have HDMI? If so you can use a Roku box, it comes with a remote.

 

There are also android boxes you can get from the Thai lazada that will work too. 

Those Android boxes from Lazada are a good recommendation. Some of them that cost around 2000 baht are pretty decent. There would be an issue if his TV doesn't have an HDMI input but the NVIDIA Shield would have the same issue and there must be such a thing as HDMI to composite video converters.

I’ve been in Thailand a good while, stayed at many hotels all over the country, and never had anyone stick their hand out and wait for tip.

3 minutes ago, remorhaz said:

You are either stupid, a liar, or you've never been to Thailand.  If you stay in a hotel they escort you to your room and stick out their paws for a tip after turning on the A/C.  This happens thousands of times per day.  Whats actually even worse is when I did this I would sometimes get a knock on the door later when I returned and its the hotel staff guy wanting his tip because he didn't get his piece of flesh when I first arrived.  Literally I went to the door, opened it, and there the guy is in his little hotel uniform with his hand out.  In this case he didn't even turn on the A/C just showed up and wanted money.  Yes this common and yes you're belief isn't required for reality to exist.  

It must suck to not be able to stay in your hotel room because of fear of the staff hunting you down and demanding a tip. I'm not sure why I've never experienced that, nor why Thailand hasn't gained a reputation for that, but it does indeed sound like a big problem.

I'd be very surprised if Carling is the best selling beer in the UK. Awful. Don't know anyone who drinks it.
 
Stella was the best selling beer, a few years ago, don't know about now. My go to beer. Becoming harder to find in Thailand now.

Moved to Canada twenty years ago, yeah, Its North American Beer, just notUSA beer.

I'm one of those Americans who doesn't gloss over our great countries flaws. so yes British dudes, the beer that most Americans drink does in fact suck.

If you can find Lion Beer from Sri Lanka, it is very nice, especially their Lion Stout - one of the best beers I have tasted in a long time. It's a bit high in alcohol (8.8%) but is really smooth and easy to drink.

8 hours ago, naboo said:

 

No. And with only 1.5 stars on ratebeer.com, I'll give it a miss.

That's the point. That would be a charitable grade for Tapper.  Both are low quality high alcohol brews, stuff that bums drink out of a brown paper bag. .

2 minutes ago, naboo said:

 

Starting to enjoy the Tapper and agree, definitely inspired by the long gone original Chang. Must by a case and see if it delivers the traditional Changover which the green bottled stuff is simply incapable of.

Have you ever tried Colt 45?