Presnock

When my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and they removed the breast they also took with that 16 lymph nodes to see how far the cancer cells had spread - 13 out of 16 - stage 4 cancer - later killed her. Once it gets out of the breast they can only know if it has spread at all by checking those nodes. But nowadays they are doing wonders with new food and pharma treatments even for stage 4. Read DR. William Li's "DIet to Beat DIsease" his mother had breast cance and was cured without having to have chemo - but according to the reseachers, pharma is much more effective with the proper diet. Just saying as now tests confirm these findings. Best of luck and hopefully a full cure.

Well in my opinion, just look at the statistics - every year, Thailand ranks among the highest with highway/road kills around 24K or so - about 80% of those dying on the roads are motorcyclists. I realize most at probably Thai drivers but the cars are Thai drivers too and they crash with motorcycles daily and which is safer that car or the motorcycle.

First of all, nothing that you read on this forum about taxes is guaranteed since basically it comes down to the Thai Revenue Department to come out with the final tax forms for 2024 - then we will see how they interpret any "assessable" income based on a Double Taxation Agreement if they have one with your country. I take it that you are an American citizen and thus will have to pay taxes on any income but it would be to your advantage if you read the DTA with Thailand which is available just by googling that or going to the Thai Revenue Department website in ENGLISH to see what they do say about DTA's about assessable income etc. That is a start but as you have been able to see from this forum, they are a multitude fo questions still and even if you go to a local tax agent (a farang) such as "expattaxthailand.com" they have webinars on pension income taxation, the DTA with various countries, and other webinars - if oneis already on a subject you are interested in, you can view a video and they give a 15-min free consultation. If however you have a lot of questions and a varied income situation, it probably could not be done in the 15 minutes. This tax agent too is looking to get paid for helping farangs fill out the tax forms early next calendar year - (January 1- 31 March 2025) for this year's taxes so like I say if you have a diverse income the only real way to know what to do is to wait until the revenue department puts out the new forms in Nov or Dec, the sooner the better for folks so one will begin to understand just what will be needed. You can see all the charts that many people have searched and found, plus Mile Lister has done an unbelievable job of putting it all together MANY times and along with a couple of other volunteers, (I learned all about my taxes from these guys or where to find that information that I needed to do my share) remember, it will be up to the individual to file the tax forms, as of now there is no plan that anyone has heard of that the Revenue Dept will be out here looking for particular individuals. The revenue website can also provide you with the charts on the assessable incomes, deductions, expemptions or whatever. The only visa providing any exemption to date is the Long Term Resident (LTR) visa. If you spend 180 days in a calendar year 1 Jan-31 Dec) then you are a "Tax Resident" and if you have assessable income (dfefined by the revenue dept) then you are required to get a Thai tax number and file for taxes. I am income taxation ignorant to say the least but I do understand the DTA , US civil sevice pension, US social security and if you have a question regarding them, then I feel confident I can explain to you but anything other than that, many will provide you with a GUESS on exactly how the revenue department will decide. Remember that the Revenue Dept is a Thai organization, their laws are written in Thai and something could easily be missed in the translation to ENGLISH. GOOD Luck and just about every tax possiblity has been guessed at over the past year or so. Good Luck.

When I was watching the local news, I saw videos of the gas cylinders installed under the seating. I looked at the cylinders and told my wife that they were just like a ticking time bomb for sure - these were the legal extra installation! Now they have reported that the fire began from a leaking cylinder near the underside of the bus. Driver still had time to open emergency doors! Totally sickening!

Everywhere... in the US, no one can understand about inflation and the increased costs of everything. They thought that they understood that the inflation was brought about by the pandemic and they allowed for the increases in everything due to the inflation...but now, the inflation according to the bank is just over 2% which has been the goal for years, and yet no prices have gone down. In some instances still increasing. So now, everyone will go on strike to get an increase in wages so the rich folks will increase the prices by that much more...a never ending scheme of the rich to get richer.

BTW Black Africans that emigrate to the US legally, are the most money makers of any other group of ethnic immigrants. The reason when they are interviewed is that they come to the US for the advantages and opportunities offered to all. One just needs to be willing to educate oneself or learn/know a trade and work hard. Poor blacks though many times seem to have "a chip on their shoulder", do not study well, fight against their brothers that do study and work hard and make life difficult for others. They are usually members of a "gang" and use/sell drugs and sex. Several blacks that I worked with said that when they would visit their old neighborhoods, they had to wear different clothes and do their hair in cornrows and act/speak entirely different that during their work hours. I grew up in a race suppressed world, and sympathize with many who have not been able to escape that environment. I have lived and worked around the world and have seen the same race problems just about everywhere.

Guess it is good elsewhere?

sems to be happening in most of the western word except Australia but that is because it is an island and too far for most illegal immigrant though have heard of some from s. Asia. Thus for many of us here our homeland is not as liveable as it is here currently.

State Department federal credit union (SDFCU.org) will open accounts for Americans without a US address or US phone number.

wrong as there are US banks that will open an account even if you do not have a US address or phone number.

I voluntarily enlisted in June 1964 - circa the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and was selected to be a Vietnamese linguist - I would have volunteered to go to VN along with thousands of other Americans. Our number one job was to protect our fellow soldiers. Only those that have actually gone to war really understand that "war is hell" by any standards whether one is injured or killed. No matter how long you are involved, the memories will always be there, I can vividly recall almost daily, the 2 years I was incountry as a soldier, plus more than a year of training soldiers in VN and other SEA countries. I don't regret anything except the way we sold out the SVN troops. Way above my pay grade on that decision but it affected many of my Vietnamese friends and fellow soldiers. Some former US soldier friends of mine still suffer from Agent Orange diseases and possibly some of their children too. I am proud to have served! I also applaud all those that do serve, whether in war or peace. May all those that have passed Rest iin Peace.

FYI: expattaxthailand.com plans webinars on DTAs with Thailand, if already done, they have it on video. I do think that the problems will exist in the interpretation of the language of the DTA - The US is very explicit in citing what is exempted or taxed only by the US and spells that out clearly - now I have read at least one other DTA and then I learn that they call social security like in the US something different in their DTA explanation so that if the RD might have a different interpretation AGED OLD pensions are not always social security nor civil service pensions which if spelled out correctly, would be exempt in most DTAs but sometimes the DTA only says pension and is not clear if it is a state pension or a national govt pension which the Thais do recognize (usually) as being taxed only by the paying govt. Not sure I have clearly spelled it out but it seems to me that based on the questions that many expats write on this forum, the fault may be in the language translations being done by both parties of the DTA. Good luck to all.

can't do that legally anywhere - especially as the banks would never be able to determine if the account holder was a tax resident at that time. Of course TIT and I am sure they would like to do that but then all the claims for illegally "stealing" money from an acct holder would bury them as fewer and fewer expats would ever become a tax resident. There are thousands already with exemptions to the taxes IAW LTR and DTA exemptions anyway and banks wouldn't have a clue as to them either. It will come down to the revenue department to do their job instead of having the banking or the immigration people do the RD's jobs. Just seems like more and more problems for them doing the active parts, instead of the individual following the written laws - oh yeah that was one of the main purposes of the OECD, FACTA, and CRS regulations on taxes - individuals not paying taxes anywhere.

Yeah I noticed in the video clip of Trump making a "campaign" speech, instead of the workers clearing trash and trying to find missing people by checking damaged buildings, they instead had to build a stage from which Trump could look like he was overseeing a crowd - for the camera video only. The emergency action teams were too busy that early after the disaster for him to be there in my opinion,.

Since I have been living here or working here since 1972, the same story has existed - the mighty baht overrules any laws. I do not know if this is actually true, but this is what it seems like to me. Or, in some cases even if no baht is exchanged, one can "hide" somehow until the statue of limitations on that particular crime passes - even the killing of a policeman. It may not be true but sure seems to be a lot of smoke so flames usually are around too.

Guess the video bit was for Peabody as he/she seemed to question about the rear door.

I was explaining where the other person could see a picture of where the "rear" door was located. not sure how it went to just you as you already knew.

WHY didn't he open any emergency doors before trying to get a "tiny" fire exinguisher" and then fleeing...they must have some kind of safety demo prior to the trip right to explain to the teachers where the emergency doors are and have them try to open them - these kids 3-8 years old probably couldn't open them anyway but the teachers could have..maybe. Driver just abandoned them when he should have opened emergency doors immediately when noticing fire! No explanation would satisfy me if I were one of the parents or investigators.

Just look at a few of the news videos, they show the emergency exits including that "rear" one.

We always refused over the school years to allow our daughter to go via the local transport for field trips, driving ourselves or having her fly to that location with a couple of other students whose parents felt as we did about the safety of our children. When I saw the initial pictures of the CNG setups, I told my wife they appeared to be BOMBS just waiting for an accident...and these were those that were "legal".

Yeah but meanwhile, my finances are SUPER simple - US govt civil service pension (nonassessable to Thailand, Have an LTR so exempted there too even if the DTA didn't cover my income. I have no other assessable income so everythiing I remit into Thailand is non taxable. But I am sure some folks will look at your spreadsheet and see something familiar which might help them out. I do wish all a happy tax season - hopefully we will not be affected much anyway.

Not easily! and in my opinion not worth the efforts.

and the knife fights? ALso, EU is suffering from the same BIG problem illegal immigration of people that don't really want to become model citizens of the country to which they are fleeing. The only thing we must remember, is that we are not native citizens and cannot be so very easily (unless one is female and marries of course) so we must relax and go with the flow so to speak with any and all rules here.

I agree with your assessment of the info that may be given to anyone by anyone related to the taxes until the final word from the Thai Revenue Dept is published in the Gazette. ANy of us that make any kind of statement are only guessing. We can read the RD rules about DTA but until the final assessment my the RD we are just guessing that we understand written English but the Thai interpretation of the same may be different.

one can get a 15-minute free consultation from a tax man - "expattaxthailand.com". They also have videos of previous tax webinars and have a schedule for more including DTA's with Thailand.