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Presnock

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Posts posted by Presnock

  1. Mike Lister,

    Yeah, I forgot that this is just a bend in the rules of that tax law....I figured that eventually with all the crying and screaming both of ex-pats and locals forced to pay taxes here that it would mean that they had to re-write the tax laws to keep people at bay and thus would need that royal blessing.  I see that way too many people are still bothered by this change in rules although it will probably only affect a small

    percentage of them.  Other ASEAN countries too signed on to the OECD decision of last year and are changing their tax collection rules too.  Pretty soon tax evaders and those that "bend" the rules will have

    no where to hide.  Next they need to tackle the "agents" that are always around with too many people accepting them.   take care

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  2. First of all, until the FINAL decree is approved and published in the Royal Gazette, EVERYTHING is just a rumor or possibility or however one wants to call it.  I see the same questions over and over.  There are 59 or 61 whichever you have read double taxation agreements between countries and Thailand.  I for one only will read that of the US as that is the only one that pertains to me and my income and the US agreement with Thailand.  If you are an ex-pat from some other country, I suggest you read your country's DTA with Thailand, after all you are the only one that understands what income you have and how it is affected within the DTA.  I have also checked the Thai Revenue Department on a related issue - that of getting a Thai Tax ID number.  That too is readily available on the internet and I suggest one read that too as I sure wouldn't want to mislead anyone.  We have had several people do a lot of research on this issue, some have talked with "TAX experts", some embassies have held seminars which were available to some of the readers here and it basically still comes down to the fact that until the new regulations are officially reported, nothing is guaranteed.  And even then, TIT and things might change immediately or with the next government.  But, I am no longer going to repeat what I have read about this issue so good luck...3 more months and if one has been here the 1st 3months of this year, and is still here after June, then you are a tax resident and will be affected somewhat and maybe by then the Thai govt might publish something official.  Good Luck.  Got my LTR and know exactly where I CURRENTLY stand on this issue but...TIT.

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  3. I realize after the COVID era experience with masks is not a popular subject.  However if one reads this forum regularly they have seen the same figures I have about the local medical facilities that have been treating pollution-caused illnesses - (i.e. 30 million last year and to date this year 650K in the first two months of 2024).  I have lived in capital cities around the world famous for pollution and since I was there assigned by the US govt, was visited by US doctors that check air pollution, drinking water availability, et al. and when interviewed by the doctor was asked about outside exercising.  I was a "runner" for  50 years so the doctors always told me to wear an N95 surgical mask while jogging to block most of the 2.5 micron dust.  Therefore when COVID arrived, I was already wearing my mask whenever I went ouitside, especially here in Thailand (all of SEA, S Asia & China) due to the air pollution.  Each year we face the "burning season"...I recall flying from BKK to NKP in the planting season, not able to see the ground at all

    due to the smoke from all the fires.  But, each year we hear the govt claiming to be fighting this "burning season" and it just seems to be getting worse instead of better.  Besides folks suggestions about putting air purifiers in all rooms of one's abode, wearing an N95 surgical mask should be worn whenever going outside in my opinion and that of many doctors.  Since normally, health problems caused by the pollution don't appear immediately in many cases, it seems folks just ignore any possible self-solution activities.  My opinion based on the conversations with doctors and reading about pollution and masks on the internet with comments from doctors and scientists.  It all comes down to what one is willing to take charge of to prevent damage from the pollution.

  4. In Chiang Mai, when I did my transfer of stamps from old to new passport, I also needed to do a 90-day report on that date as my online was rejected too after doing several online reports successfully.  The first thing they told me at the outside tent was to go to the TM.30 office (2 minutes) behind the main bldg and which opened 15 minutes before the main office.  Then they told me to go to the walk in window for the 90-day report, (1 minute only).  Then they sent me inside to window 2 for transfer of stamps (free).  All in all no problems and guess they want a tm.30 report at the same time even if no normal reason.

    My experience this year anyway.  

  5. 19 minutes ago, Pib said:

     

    So did BOI finally accept your US govt sponsored insurance coverage?  If so, is that because the insurance company provided a special letter OR just some standard policy cover sheet?

    Actually, They wrote a nice letter explaining that the insurance policy covers unlimited including 50,000 USD for hospitalization.  They didn't put an ending date only xxx-xxx-xxx so the ltr folks just put int the 10-year final date. 2034!  Several other retired US govt also said they had a real problem using the same insurance company so am sure that the office in the US understood what was needed and it didn't violate any of the coverage.  No more 90-day reports and since I did it online each time, actually less than 90-days each time.

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  6. 11 minutes ago, noobexpat said:

    Thanks for info everyone.

    Devils advocate then: i switch to retirement visa when i get to +50 but all the funds i remit for many years (+10) are not assessable in thailand anyway - because of the format of those funds.

     

    Benefit of LTR would be no 90 day and cheaper.

    Disadvantage would be structured minimum of 80k usd.

     

    Googling suggests wealthy pensioner type needs health insurance or 100k usd on deposit in thailand.

     

     

    Yes, for health insurance, although I have a US govt sponsored health insurance ..since 1996..but there is no policy provided so I gave them the benefits (17 pages) highlighted benefits within the pages that explained that if I had to go to the hospital, EVERYTHING would be paid for by the insurer.  But they needed a letter from the insurance company spelling out that at least 50,000 baht coverage for hospitalization locally was provided and asked for an ending date of the policy so the final is 10 years hence.  Actually the BOI folks were extremely helpful and patient.  Only 3 weeks or so from retirement  O

    to the 10-year LTR!

    1 hour ago, mudcat said:

    This is incorrect.  U.S. Social Security is taxable only in the U.S. by treaty and that includes the survivor benefit my wife (a Thai-U.S. citizen) who because of her low income will pay no taxes to either Thailand or the U.S

     

    This differs from my government pension which is taxed only in the U.S. for me but would have been taxable in Thailand for my wife.

     

    Take a look at the attachment

    Convention and explanation for Articles 1, 20, 21.docx 34.23 kB · 2 downloads

    Excellent, no need for me to read it for you...most folks just won't read it for themselves.  Yes a native Thai can use form 7 I think for the US IRS to cease taxing the pension benefit and then since she is a thai, will need to pay thai taxes.

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  7. 1 hour ago, Pib said:

    95 pages?.... the two references I gave are a total of 5 pages long.

    95 pages?.... the two references I gave are a total of 5 pages long. 

     

    Maybe you are referring to the l....o.....n.....g AseanNow topic which indeed many pages long and continues to get longer as people express their opinions, etc.

     

    1 hour ago, Pib said:

    95 pages?.... the two references I gave are a total of 5 pages long.

    95 pages?.... the two references I gave are a total of 5 pages long. 

     

    Maybe you are referring to the l....o.....n.....g AseanNow topic which indeed many pages long and continues to get longer as people express their opinions, etc.

    PIB- you query about having to file an income tax form even though your pension is not taxable - according to the Thai tax code, one only needs to get a Thai tax number within 60 days of receiving ASSESSIBLE income and since your pension is not assessible you don't need to do a tax form.  I am not sure how nor if the Thai revenue department will require us to provide proof that the pension is from the US government.  We will have to wait until the final word is published by the revenue department.

  8. On 2/12/2024 at 3:39 PM, MPoll said:


    This thread has 92 pages of questions and stories of people obtaining a version of the LTR. I switched from an OA visa to a pensioner LTR which appears to be fairly common within the pensioner category. The LTR has been available for 18 months. There has not exactly been a tsunami of people applying for it so either the yearly income is a barrier or people don’t know about it. What else is there to say?

    In February, I began my application for an LTR under the "wealthy pensioner" category.  The BOI folks were extremely helpful with lots of patience.  On 25 March I received my LTR stamps in my passport.  No more 90-day reports.  As for local taxes, my pension is that of the US govt so under the FTA I do not pay any tax to Thailand.  

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  9. Yeah I suffered through it for tens of years.  The during assignment in PI, did a lot of scuba diving - salt water and sunshine wiped out just about all of my psoraisis except for that on the scalp.  The I began using coal tar shampoos - eventually all on the scalp disappeared too until just recently after a COVID bout.  I eventually found a some coal tar shampoos on shopee and began using it a couple of times a week.  Much relief for sure.  

  10. 21 hours ago, transam said:

    All part and parcel of the disease, which I have had in different degrees since a teenage.

    Thankfully for me, I only have it on my scalp now, hence no hair, but, in my experiments I found a cheap cream that really works regarding the itching and soreness. Loads of folk sell it on Lazada, but if you keep searching, you can find it for about 20 bht a tube, well worth a try. I buy 5 tubes at a time, you will not find it in the shops...Link below..

     

    https://www.lazada.co.th/products/sumifun-100-original-100-20-i4965430683-s20899143860.html?c=&channelLpJumpArgs=&clickTrackInfo=query%3Asumifun%2Bpsoriasis%2Bcream%3Bnid%3A4965430683%3Bsrc%3ALazadaMainSrp%3Brn%3Ac8af16c19eb686906b7d0ab27803a121%3Bregion%3Ath%3Bsku%3A4965430683_TH%3Bprice%3A19%3Bclient%3Adesktop%3Bsupplier_id%3A100235001549%3Bbiz_source%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.lazada.co.th%2F%3Bslot%3A1%3Butlog_bucket_id%3A470687%3Basc_category_id%3A13686%3Bitem_id%3A4965430683%3Bsku_id%3A20899143860%3Bshop_id%3A3530145&fastshipping=0&freeshipping=1&fs_ab=2&fuse_fs=&lang=th&location=กรุงเทพมหานคร&price=19&priceCompare=skuId%3A20899143860%3Bsource%3Alazada-search-voucher%3Bsn%3Ac8af16c19eb686906b7d0ab27803a121%3BunionTrace%3A2140e7b017114481085217376ef771%3BoriginPrice%3A1900%3BvoucherPrice%3A1900%3BdisplayPrice%3A1900%3BsinglePromotionId%3A900000024571787%3BsingleToolCode%3ApromPrice%3BvoucherPricePlugin%3A1%3BbuyerId%3A0%3Btimestamp%3A1711448108942&ratingscore=4.982758620689655&request_id=c8af16c19eb686906b7d0ab27803a121&review=58&sale=662&search=1&source=search&spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.1&stock=1

    Also for scalp, shopee/et all sell coal tar based shampoo - rids the scalp totally of the disease.  Unfortunately if you had COVID, that is a disease that is affected by the bodiy's autoimmune system and COVID seems to have unleashed that plus hives and other autoimmune diseases.  Salt water and sunshine seem to help wipe some fo it away too.  Google  "healthline" and psoraisis and it can possibly provide answers too.

     

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  11. 6 minutes ago, Presnock said:

    Well recent media programs here in Bangkok have reported that the Thai govt is coordinating with Japan to non-criminalize 150K illegal Thai workers there while in S. Korea they are coordinating with the govt there to de-criminalize the 170K Thai workers in Korea.  Not sure how many other countries have the same problem.  I see no problem with the local govt checking businesses, for illegal workers no matter what nationality and for punishing criminal activity otherwise.  I try to avoid doing anything even remotely seeming to be illegal.  On this forum, they have reported this past week that since Oct of last year they have cancelled the visas of 68 foreigners - that seems to be a very small number to me.  Maybe as the 180-day stay and possible tax problems, that number may increase but I sure won't be included in that category.

    Yeah, added to all the other comments about locals and criminal acty, on the Swiss kicker stories, recall the news items about the beach areas taken over by the rich folks renting - according to the news items on this forum, a Thai land development company took over all those beaches to help rent out the villas for big bucks - the Swiss guy said that the stairs upon which the dr was sitting was on his property and then we learned that some of the beaches were blocked by the housing developments owned by the Thai locals.  Now it seems the lower ranking citizens there want their beaches back as they are supposedly public lands according to the news.

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  12. 3 hours ago, harleyclarkey said:

    Great to teach him a lesson.

    For Europe to crack down on Thais working illegally. They are everywhere.

    In the UK I see on documentaries that they arrest Thais, and others, every day. 

    Well recent media programs here in Bangkok have reported that the Thai govt is coordinating with Japan to non-criminalize 150K illegal Thai workers there while in S. Korea they are coordinating with the govt there to de-criminalize the 170K Thai workers in Korea.  Not sure how many other countries have the same problem.  I see no problem with the local govt checking businesses, for illegal workers no matter what nationality and for punishing criminal activity otherwise.  I try to avoid doing anything even remotely seeming to be illegal.  On this forum, they have reported this past week that since Oct of last year they have cancelled the visas of 68 foreigners - that seems to be a very small number to me.  Maybe as the 180-day stay and possible tax problems, that number may increase but I sure won't be included in that category.

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  13. 2 hours ago, QuantumQuandry said:

     

    Oh, is that right?  Just to double check, we are talking about the MM2H program, right?  I wasn't aware of the updates.  PI, however, is definitely still easy mode.

    well, that may be 100% true about the PI but reading their forum, I see almost the same comments - some people happy, many not so happy.  The PI was my 2nd choice for retirement as I spent 6 years

    there but the natural disasters on a regular basis there made my choice of Thailand easy.  The immigration situation in Thailand seems to be a strongly felt major complaint area - I have been here for over

    20 years and it has gotten better and easier than it used to be.  To better enjoy life, look for the good rather than the bad and once the bad wins out all the time, it is easy to see that it is time for a change of location maybe.  Take care stay safe. 

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  14. 22 hours ago, avidorn said:

    As an experiment and to compare with CW I found the online appointment site for Chiang Mai, and it has IMO clearer options for appointment selection, and also doesn't require email validation as a preliminary step. So I selected "Retirement Purpose" to find a date.

     

    March is fully booked so I checked April, but it also had no available dates. Despite being greyed out I tried clicking on a day to confirm that's correct, and it displayed "There is no availability on this date" so that's in fact how it works.

     

    So I clicked forward to May...no dates. Finally June, and it has one day the entire month available. Beyond June, you may not pass.

     

    One day, in the next three months. So with 30 days and even a 30-day extension you'd be out of luck. I think there was a recent marriage visa thread about the appointment system, so online appointments and CM may not mix.

     

    Has anybody here done the initial Non-O there recently? Are they reasonable with walk-ins, or is it an all-day or even "All full today, come back tomorrow" affair?

    I found the same results as you last year when I was due for a renewal in May.  The only date (90 days before in checking) was the day before my due date!  I have always done my renewal 30 days in advance just in case something new was added and I needed that extra time to fix things.  But, in both of the last two years I just walked in, got my queue ticket, waited inside and never spent more than 90 minutes at immigration so since we used to have to wait hours in various queues, I see no real problem in not having an appointment - last year I was only in immigration for 45 minutes.

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  15. 1 hour ago, 300sd said:

    Nice opinion post from the Economist. Honest news is long gone.

     

    I would have thought if it's an Islamic terrorists attack, they would be happy to blow themselves up and die along with their targets and not try and escape back to whichever hole they came from.

    Not always.  I watched what videos there were taken by cell phones during the assault - the attackers looked like they were big guys, total unlike those pictured as captured shooters.  If cornered, yeah, they

    would rather blow themselves up before being captured.  This immediate capture and looking at those captured, surely looks like a staged event for Putin to try to garner some more public support for the Ukraine war which has wiped out a generation of young Russians.  My opinion only of course but I am not a fan of Putin nor of ISIS nor of any of the militant Muslims.

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