Presnock

wow! sounds just like New York except although some illegal immigrant has taken over one's house/property when the owner may have been on vacation...except the owner can't just kick the illegal immigrant out of the property, they must go to court, have a hearing (sometimes more than a month) and then although utilities are in the owner's name, if the owner has the utilities cut off, the NY athorities see that as a crime against the illegal immigrants! Some immigrants have already put this occupation of a vacant property online for other illegal immigrants to copy. World definitely has gone MAD! in my opinion. Seems like every day now we hear stories about lack of police action for crimes or are they just being reported now?

Strange, I am 77 and have been flying internationally for over 50 years and ever since I began flying on these flights, it has always been recommended that althought not required to buckle up during the flight, one should do so anyway. I always taught my family that from their first and last flights. Guess folks just too lazy or ignorant of what can happen. Over the recent past even, numerous flights have experienced turbulence and injuries and even deaths have occurred and media has reported this. Just saying, RIP to the two Singaporean passengers and hope the remaining 58 in the hospital recover completely.

WIFE and U were planning to take daughter back to the school and get her settlled in dorm, sold car, sold lots of furniture as we would go back on a tourist visa for wife and hang around until we were sure that our daughter was "okay" there since she had never been out of Thailand. But, when the consulate denied a visa for my wife, meaning she could not go then, daughter decided that she would not go without mommie. She checked local colleges and decided that the number 1 rated college in Thailand could satisfy her desire for a degree in Korean language in prep for masters in Seoul so while we went ahead with wife's visa (approval for immigrant and for obtaining a green card) took just over a year for US immigration and then we would have to re-apply for a visa from the consulate so we agreed with daughter and she is doing well in college here - is spending this summer's break between terms in Seoul at the #1 college in Korea studying Korean language too and learning more of their culture which fits right in with her college here in BKK. As a freshman, she did excellent, adjusted living in a condo alone next to the university, joined college activities and is very happy! couldn't ask for anything else - and on top of that, a lot cheaper than US living and college even with some scholarships. Many may ask learning Korean that well means she will be able to do what in life? US State department last year could only fill 24% of their foreign-language billets...other US offices also need foreign language US citizens to fill their needs. She will decide what she wants to do in life that makes her happy and can provide her with funds needed. I will continue to provide verbal and whatever else support that she needs to reach her goals.

Yessir, formerly assigned at the Embassy too here but we applied for a tourist visa for my wife so she and I could take our daughter back for college...it took over a year of processing for US immigration in the states to approve her going to the states and getting a green card but by then, daughter had already decided to just go to college here...doing an arts degree - concentrating on foreign languages so can only help her as she thinks maybe US govt state dept can only fill 25 % of their foreign-language billets.

Yes, a lot have gone to private schools/international schools and then educated in western colleges. Many only have positions due to family connections and they do what the owners want.

I personnally feel that O and Co should be paying for those college loans as they enticed kids to go without telling them to get a degree in something worthwhile. Now several generations have just gone to pot and can't find a job that pays them enough to even pay for rent, car and food. In Calf every AM 600K Americans come from their homes in Mexico to go to work in Calf. They can't afford any housing in Calf let alone the taxes as the state welcomes illegal immigrants too. The jobs mentioned above - plumbers, electricians, etc are well paying jobs and yes tech schools would be the way to go until one can decide if they want to stay in that career field or learn something else. No one seems to be happy anymore there either and with elections (for a couple of losers) coming this year things are not looking any brighter. I feel sorry for those folks especially since I have family and friends caught in this new world. I mean when the law allows men to compete in women's sports, allows men to use women's bathrooms, allows men to use dressing rooms with women, something is drastically wrong. I am against abortion but I would never ever tell any woman that she is wrong to have an abortion and to tell her what she can and cannot do with her body to me is totally wrong. I learned many years ago that US elections are run by the wealthy businesses and owners - who groom candidates that will allow them to make even more money...and upon election, all one has to do is look at what the winner does - begins campaigning for the next election and ignores the problems facing the nation. Now the US Congress is a laughing stock of the whole world as it is so fractured. The very basic job for them is the budget...they still don't have one for this year which began last year...and open borders allowing unlimited numbers of illegal immigrants to pour into the country and those coming in today won't have a court hearing on their asylum request for more than 5 years so they can roam all around the uS with noone knowing where they are. Them they take up residence in states that provide free housing, food, education for their kids and some of the states take benefits away from citizens to take care of the immigrants. Other states have to raise taxes from the citizens to care for the immigrants and their familiers too. A losing battle for the citizens and after November of this year it will be worse in my opinion. Do I plan to move back there anytime...no way for sure. It may not be perfect here but it sure is better than back there.

have to agree based on my experiences. When my daughter was old enough for Kindergaten, wlife checked around and we opted for what is supposed to be one of the better schools - lasted one year and we moved to find another. Then moved to one that had many western teachers, daughter was even on their ads for the school but within a month, the school got rid of the western teachers and replaced them with filipinos so we moved again...found a school k-12 with many westernl teachers...daughter now in 4th grade - brought homework about possessive pronouns...but of the 15 sentences, 6 had zero possessive pronouns so I marked those with red pencil and told my daughter to tell her teacher to contact me if she did not understand what I said. Of course nothing from the teacher so I went to the school with a copy I had made of that homework - asked the teacher why she didn't get one of the foreign teachers to explain it to her as she obviously had no clue. She said that they were not allowed to ask the western teachers for any assistance and that they could not change any of the assignments as they were prepared by the head of the school. So, on to the head of the school with the paper - she spent at least 20 minutes telling me all her credentials and how great an educator she was until I put the paper on the desk in front of her. It had my red pencil corrections of course and she said just who did I think I was. I laughed and said well to begin with I am a parent, second, I am a native speaker of English and I know for a fact that even if you check google it will correct those errors yet you also have native English speakling teachers so ask one of them. That of course ended the meeting. The school had always had a 2-year waiting list for new students...then, as they could have 3 teachers for kindergarten the decided that by doing that they could make more money so they fired all the western teachers, dropped from 7th through 12th grade and added 3 more rooms of the k groupers. I told my wife to search around the country for a better school immediately. She found a new school in CM so we zoomed up there - it was just opening - school facilities matched any US school I had ever seen before and they were just opening that year so daughter started there. It only took a month or so before the western teachers began to fade away as the school head was the daughter of a college school head in BKK and she brought a lot of her classmates to the new school but they failed to ever include the western teachers in any meetings or plans. We left and daughter went to CM intnl school as I knew a lot about them already. The other school offered my daughter a free scholarship to stay but I laughed at them - and within another 2 years as their contracts expired, all the western teachers left and by then there were no original students there either as parents woke up to the problems. CMIS is a great school, all English classes, many western teachers and daughter over the next 6 years graduated and was fluent in 4 languages (Chinese (which she taught in 11th grade at another high school), Korean (which she learned on her own at home because she like KPOP and which was in Korean - she scored level 4 on the international Korean test) English and Thai native. She was accepted at a US college, with full scholarships but they didn't believe my wife planned to return after taking our daughter to the college because I had retired here in Thailand...so the delay in getting approval for my wife to immigrate to the US caused a year delay and daughter opted to go to the #1 college here - Bachelor of arts in Korean language and (intl) culture) and just finished her first year. She is packing for summer college (Korean language) at the #1 college in Korea, a sister college of her college here in BKK. Even with her senior year screwed up by COVID, luckily CMIS had already purchased an online education since CMIS has closed previously due to smog and they didn't want their kids to miss any classes. Daughter is happy, does super in academics and plans her schooling through at least a masters in Korean Language. So it can be difficult, but in order to be competative when they finish school, one needs to look outside the locally controlled schools. My eldest daughter spent 10 1/2 years in international schools, graduating in Rome, did college at UMD and today is an assistant CEO of a successful business and is happy doing what she does - she is a computer software specialist too. Some of the international schools are costly but some are not so costly when it comes to how well they educate western kids and those Thai kids planning to go to western colleges. If one has school-age kids, it is essential they leave the local schools - and from the articles written, even the senior educators here recognize that there is a problem that won't be fixed anytime soon. Good luck with one's searches.

WELL, if you look at the radar picture and were around for the "summer" storms in the Thai and Myanmar area plus flying over the 2 cyclones, I having flown several thousand hours in the AF during the VN war in this region, these thunderstorms go quite high and the turbulence can be quite violent. Even experienced flyers (like me) can be scared (like me) by these turbulances. I recall one civil flight from NKP to BKK where the food carts were zooming down the aisles totally out of anyone's control smashing into the seats and panels at the ends of the aisles. There were quite a few "trainee" sterwardesses on the flight too and about ten monks - once the turbulence was over, all of the trainees kneeled in front of the monks who were chanting the entire time. sorry for the death and injuries others suffered and hope people do keep their seat belts on as much as possible when flying anywhere as it seems turbulence is getting worse as we read these stories quite regularly now.

the Thais can't be kicked out of the country...but also, many of the Thai drivers have high-level contacts or deep pockets so an act such as this can be totally wiped away even though all the newspapers carry the story. Some Ferari drivers fit into this category too.

Well if nothing else, the tax agents here and elsewhere that are aware of this proposed interpretation of the Thai tax law must be chomping at the bit to welcome all the prospective NEW clients who will become Thai tax residents this year. I have seen different presentations, many speakers saying that they have sat in on some of the discussions by those proposing the changes and yet they each have different takes on what might or might not occur as it is apparent that not everyone involve in the decisions of the changes concurs with ALL the interpretations. SO as so many have advised many times, relax, and also remember it may not affect hardly any of us or it might affect all of us. We can only hope that something definite will come out prior to the end of June. Good luck to all, enjoy this lovely place.

yeah there was also on this forum of a meeting of a TRD official and the ambassador of Switzerland - he did make the statement that the DTA exemptions would be valid but he also mentioned that all documents needed by the tax resident also had to be in English or an official translation. In other words if the local law is written in Thai then the Thais will determine what it is translated to. I am not sure of the date of this meeting was held and as other "experts" have made some statements that later come out different as those at the official meetings to decide this interpretation have said that there are always differences of opinion on what they should or should not do. Therefore, nothing we have suggesed, sworn by, opined by, rumored by mean absolutely NOTHING until the final word comes out and then if there is enough clamoring among those affected by any part of the new interpretation, it might even be changed as TIT. never forget that and just relax and try not to imagine what they will come out with.

yessir, nowadays with satellites and other technical means they do much better but the reason so many jokes are told about weathermen (google that if you haven't seen those b4) because throughout history folks usually could not depend on the forecast. Even London with 57 computers (years ago at the time I saw the figure) their predictions were still not that high a %. Just saying!

I was waiting to see if I got the auto reminder of the 90-day report since after my last one which the online rejected so I did it in person and later obtained the LTR and cancelled my retirement O visa and I was due to have a 90-day report in early May but, I didn't receive the message so maybe something with immigration did go right on this issue. Good luck to all.

yessir, join the weathermen!

This as well as anything else about the new interpretation is only guesswork until the final paper is put out on the subject. Any comments by experts, even TRD folks is speculation based on the latest meeting of those folks making the decisions. Good luck

The Thai weather department has had an official on TNN news broadcasts saying that the country officially entered the rainy season on 20 May as the sun began its yearly trip back to the north. He said that the first two months, rains will most likely be light as the country exits the ELNINO effect and beginning in AUGUST heavier rains are predicted with possibly two big storms in the latter part of the rainy season. They also predicted these "heavy" rains lasting until 26 May. Weather here is as predictable as in many other locations. I grew up in the US on middle eastern part and when one is asked about the weather, they always reply "well if you don't like it, wait 15 minutes and it will change". That is why the "Farmers' Almonac" predicting weather is usually more accurate than the weather folks with all their equipment. I once heard that for the daily London weather, they use 57 computers, each with the same starting criteria and then make a prediction based on the higher % of computers with close to the same results and they still hardly can predict it acurately. Weatherfolks are hardly ever correct and thus the number of jokes made with weathermen as the subject and the unpredictability of the weather.

hey all must remember whrere we are living TIT and I have been living here off and on since 1972 and nothing is permanent here except the changes. Hopefully, someday SOON the TRD/govt will put out the final documentation on the tax interpretations and most of us can jus totally relax as we are not affected one way or the other. Take care, all be happy in the LOS.

Well, I am not so sure, I still see some asking particular questions about documentation for qualifications, plus clarity in this new interpretation of the tax laws and how they might or might now affect one's quality of living due to taxation or problems associated with the interpretations of the TRD, some might just decide then so that they don't have to think about it for an extended period of time, they might go ahead and apply for the LTR. I only go mine a couple of months ago (MARCH) as I have not had any realproblems with my retirement O for 20 years and even with the new tax bit, I only have a US govt pension so felt pretty confident that the DTA would mean no effects from the new interpretation but then looked closely at the BOI LTR and realized it fit me better than any other visa. Glad I changed. Happy to stay another 10 years and hopefully worry free as TIT and one never knows...just like this Thursday we might see some unhappy people.

Research now finding that the BIG C as well as most other major causes of Health death are lifestyle/diet induced. Big phama of course (who helps control politicians) loves SICK people but now the researchers are learning that proper foods can be better at preventing and even curing many health problems of today. The food industries (fake coloring, fake taste, sweetners -sugar and fructose artificial) are too big and will fight the researchers while they use wheelbarrows to carry their profits to the bank. Many best sellers now available and loads of YouTube health videos. In my life I have faced the BIG C through my and my first wife (also died of breast cancer) my older daughter (breast cancer but a survivor), father, and 1st wife's mother and father and definitely not any fun whatsoever but as long as big pharma can still make trillions of $$$ in my honest opinion a cure will not be found by their researchers. Reminds me of the fairy tale of the golden goose eggs. Good luck and good health to all.

so, they do just accept 1099R where as for me after I submitted my 1099R for 2 years, they kept insisting I provide them with my 1040's for the 2 years. Once I did provide those, I was approved less than a week later. Strange in that the 1099 is necessary for me to fill in my 1040. just saying...

just remember, one of the reasons they are changing how they interpret their law is to weed out those that have not been paying taxes elsewhere nor here - this is part of the international OECD CRS, etc from some governments feeling they have been shortchanged especially pushed by the US which taxes their citizens no matter where they are. Ben Franklin made the comment after they did the declaration of Independence ---only constant forever - death and taxes

well as there aRE AT LEAST 7000+ LTR approved folks so far, that is at least 7000+ that will not have to pay taxes on foreign funds remitted into Thailand, but those working inside Thailand will probably have to pay taxes but at a cheaper rate. By the time tax time comes around there will be more so the RD will not be getting their monies. Plus in listening to the "experts" one from the RD department, DTA's will be honored too and that will limit even more folks from how much they would have to pay if any. But, if people have been able to obtain an LTR, they have most likely already been paying taxes to another country, and some will have exemptions from certain pensions, etc so it does appear to me that the RD might think they will be getting more from ex-pats...on top of which many ex-pats will cease to be tax residents this year and others will remit funds much lower than normal so Thailand will lose a lot more than they gain from the ex-pats in my opinion. But, as usual until we see the final law interpretation, who really knows what the outcome might be. Good luck to all!

Funny, that is an Aesop's children's fable (133) saying the exact same thing and based on translations of Latin similar story with many other civilizations having basically the same moral meaning of an animal having some type of food in its mouth, sees a reflection water or in some stories a fish in the water, drops his food to grab the fish, loses it as meanwhile a buzzard flew down and stole the food he was carrying. Lots of different stories... take your pick.

well onthis note, the immigration officers want to see the bankbook that shows 65000 remitted but is the taxable percentage taken off before the immigration sees the 65000 or what...Not sure how all that will work out. How about the cost of visas - is the tax added on as the money comes in for that purpose or are the visas all going up in price (i.e. 800K - tax so have to add the taxed amount too for the cost of the visa? Just wondering as that is what I used to do for my yearly extension. If I had to bring in 50K for an LTR would I first have to pay tax on it and then 50K for the visa? just wondering and hope that the RD folks would put out some official word so we know how to start complaining officially and to where.

Just like many of us have been saying about this issue, experts of different countries including Thailand continue to say that DTA's trump Thai RD. If the Thai govt plans to ignore 61 international agreements at once, then since they have now reportedly applied to join the OECD, I would imagine many governments will be opposed to their joining if they fail to abide by international agreements without consultation with those foreign govenments. But just like we also have said many times - until the final bill is laid out there for all to see, we just continue to hear about possibilities.