Enzian

Banks in Thailand have a quirk that Westerners are not used to, for example my gf owes money to a government agriculture bank, which clearly sees her entire family as the unit they deal with, not just her alone. For the security on the loan she took out, the bank did not want the land she was borrowing to buy, but rather her parents larger parcel, but it was not them borrowing the money.

I was just in Poland for a month (I'm US citizen), in which time I was denied a senior discount in museums, on trains, etc. only once or twice out of dozens of entries and rides of many kinds. Thailand and Thai Air need to catch up with the world.

Your profile picture certainly relates. Do aspiring cats feel left out?

So will Immigration be one of those "state agencies" going paperless? Or is it simply an arm of the RTP and therefore not a state agency? While they are at it, could they improve and make tighter their underwriting criteria for banks giving out loans to people with little ability and almost no intention of repayment?

Thanks. Itemizing with receipts is exactly what a Schedule E is, so could I just show them a copy of my Schedule E? It will include property taxes in Alameda Co. CA, depreciation schedules going back years, cost basis calculations perhaps, insurance and utilities records, paperwork receipts from contractors and subcontractors, materials receipts from lumberyards and plumbing supply companies 8,000 miles away, and so on. If they will accept that, and more, then I'm clear. Edit: Assuming no big problem with differences in bracket rates I guess.

The problem, as I understand it, is that Thailand has a completely different way of calculating "taxable income" starting from gross receipts on rental property than does the US. The US IRS has one fill out a Schedule E which can (depending on how busy you've been) reduce one's taxable income to a small fraction of the gross receipts for the year. Thailand, I've been told, is not interested in your US Schedule E; they give a standard deduction of 30% of your gross and then tax you on the resulting figure. So one could have a gross of $500,000 but still plausibly have a US "taxable income" of $50,000 depending on various circumstances, and your tax would be in the low 5 figures. But Thailand would see your taxable income as $350,000 ($500,000 minus 30%), to be taxed at 35%, resulting in a tax liability of maybe $100,000 or so after the US credit. If I'm getting this all wrong, please inform.

What's the lawmaking process for such proposed legislation to (ever) become final, and what are some possible timelines?

My Thai gf once flipped out when I was greeted in public by a woman I had seen earlier--at her, not at me.

Is that a snake in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

For every one of these kind of articles/proposals and similar I simply wanna write "Just shut up and improve education for the masses."

This dumb topic must have been thrown in because of the new PM, but all she proves is that nepotism is alive and well, as if we didn't know. But seriously, I honestly wish her better luck than her aunt had.

Those well known farang noir novelists who have been dredging the dregs of Bangkok society for their plots have been missing the boat; why not let Tony be your script idea man and follow the money? Or in this case, the power ownership, because these people have all the money they can ever spend at this point.

This year I'm remitting only US SS monies resulting from my years as a self-employed contractor. But I also bank (in the US) income from residential rentals. Thailand calculates tax on rental income very differently from the US. For 2022 ('23 is still pending) I've figured that under Thai law, in 2022 I would have been liable in the very high 5 figures for my rental income, whereas in reality (due to new construction, remodels, depreciation schedules, property tax, ins., in other words all the stuff on a normal Schedule E) I paid in the low 5 figures. So global-based taxation would mean moving on (for at least half the year, but probably more as a practical matter) which in my situation would be easy. And if there is something I haven't got right, please enlighten. Thanks.

How many feet does this beast of a situation have? Because I've heard at least three major shoes drop, and surely not the last.

And I just had a lump of US cash land in my Thai baht account this morning, boy I've never been good at timing (just ask the ladies)!

You are speaking of Krungsri, and I've been thinking for some time that they are not good in that regard (even though I like them otherwise), so it's important to me to know that others think likewise. That being said, can you or others here chime in on which banks here are considered to give a decent exchange rate? I move lump sums of US SS to Krungsri periodically, but not monthly. Thanks!

I've been wondering why PT bothers to pursue the 10K handout in order to "buy votes", as many of us here explain, since votes don't determine the results of elections anyway, the power elite determines the outcome of any election. And I'm now thinking the handout is not to buy votes at all, it's to distract from the way the last election was manipulated and turned out, and with the vast majority of Thais that strategy seems to be working. There are no protests in the streets; people are just waiting for the money, which of course is taking a while.

Sure, all these women, young and old, sitting invitingly in front of their massage shops are going to clean up their act, or change jobs to doing 8 hour shifts in some downsizing auto assembly factories. I have doubts. And that's the "problem". The tip for an hour's "work" is as much as my step-niece gets for standing behind a counter in a 7-11 all day. And whatever the minister thinks, there's no real stigma attached to such work. How about cleaning up the structural inadequacies of this economy so it can move forward and give women more choices?

Something along the lines of the slaves loving their chains comes to mind...

I no longer understand this "vote buying" trope. The military decides the meaning and result of any election ultimately; it's not decided by the number of votes cast for any given party or candidate. Am I wrong?

The central bank people have said repeatedly that the problems are structural and he’s not addressing them, and we may conclude that for various reasons he doesn’t want to.

That part about "reducing the principle payment" can only mean decreasing the principle amount, the figure on the face of the loan. Pure moral hazard unless there's some god from the machine waiting to come down. And that's the drift I get from this report, that someone thinks there is something coming that will turn events around in terms of the real economy; but these measures all read like stopgaps, not solutions.

There's something I saw when departing for Penang (JW Island Green) and I would buy if I could on my return to BKK on Wednesday. Thanks!

Everyone below them on the social ladder in this society just bends over and takes it from them, so they think we should, and will.

A thing is only worth what others are willing to pay. If there are unsold units then it means the developers and owners have a break-even level that they are currently unwilling to go below. But as Pita mentioned the possibility of catastrophe in another thread, here we have the question of when the economy will reach the point of general capitulation, when the majority just gives up and takes what they can get, and hopes they will survive the effective margin calls. But as far as trust in the policy makers of this country, the damage has been done.