Presnock

Not only the burning of fields, mushroom hunters, etc in Thailand, surrounding countries of Asia also burn big time - right now Singapore and Malaysia are complaining to Indonesia about their smoke causing very heavy smog in their country. I have been living off and on in Thailand since the 70's and during the "burning" season there is always smog. In BKK previous to going unleaded gasoline locally the smog seemed to be heavier but after the mid-90's, it did improve but now weather patterns seem to be affecting the smog areas more. NASA also has a satellite showing fires burning and during the burning season, south and south asian countries are almost all RED. A good quality mask is a must as are air purifiers. Some international schools also have air purifiers and have had them for years if one has kids in school. Hard to escape without leaving the region for a few months of some relief but smog in BKK is hard to avoid. One can also buy a cheap 2.5micron monitor from Lazada/shopee and they are more accurate for one's immediate area.

yes, the very first thing my wife had to do to get started was to have relatives that were still around when she was born and they had to go with her back to her original birth province. Fortunately one uncle is still a police colonel so that helped but other relatives too had to go. Then she got lucky at her new school when the family moved to the big city and someone there changed her birth number. An older teacher had to go through boxes of student registrations to find my wife's original / changed number as nothing was computerized. Yes, a very long and difficult 6-7 months of going to every level of government bureaucracy to change everything.

Well the US IRS will lower your tax bill dollar for dollar on your unearned monies that are taxed in Thailand plus the US govt gives you a lower tax amount earned if your residence is overseas. Check with greenbacktaxservices.com They will provide you with answers free of charge re taxes and ex-pat.

got married, late planned a trip to US as daughter would go to college. When we applied for visa, wife needed a copy of birth certificate here - found out someone when her family moved when she was 11 years old, changed her birth number. Thus she could continue using that new number on all her documents (but really illegal) so she opted to correct that. Talk about bureaucracy!!!! took 6 months or more...have to start at the bottom and work one's way to the top. Seemed that every level had never heard of and the main office in BKK had to advise each level until the provincial level and then they said that they saw such activity every day! having to get mooban chiefs, local chiefs at every level to come and confirm what she was doing. She had a headache daily from this. Since you are in the UK, it would seem to me to be impossible but... good luck in any case!

for alll the ex-pats concerned with this coming tax on our monies - last week I received an email from Greenback expat tax company...([email protected]) who advertized their ex-pat tax services. They asked if I had any questions about taxation here - of course I did and asked about the double taxation international agreements. I was surprised at the answer. They also gave me an answer about the FBAR which I had been doing without need at over the past couple of years but now that too is changed. Anyway, I learned that US citizens can be forced to pay taxes to a country with an agreement and that dollar for dollar paid to this country can then be deducted from my US tax payments. I do not know if they also provide any infor for other countries but one can always email them and ask. Good luck to all!

might want to check Portugal about taxes...saw an article yesterday about that!

I hae heard thatit may be possible but I really do not know for sure. I know that my wife will want to do that in case of my demise. Good luck, maybe someone else can advise all the info on that...might need to contact SS and ask

from all that I read, the bank statements show how much "monthly" is transferred and includes multiple deposits. BUT, the only problem I have heard of is whenever the deposits do not meet at LEAST 65K but, TIT and while I have been retired here for almost 20 years, I am not an expert by any means.

I use the 65K monthly monetary extension each year. From everything that I have read including numerous questions and answers on this forum, If I were you I would make sure that every month you transfer at least 65K into your Thai bank from abroad. Sending exactly 65K each month can be hazardous unless you check it out every month to ensure that there is at least 65K transferred into your account. Good luck.

I too agree we should wait until we see the official announcement of implementation of this law. But if one makes any money via interest on savings or income from outside Thailand, then unless the persoin can show officially that they are required to pay in one of the countries with tax agreement with Thailand then one might have to pay taxes on that income even though it might not meet the taxable criteria in one's home country. WE just have to wait to see what they really think that they are going to get from the long-stayers. Hopefully they will realize it is an effort in futility if they have to work with all the foreing governments.

Their announcement indicates that one must be here over 180 days a year to be taxed. Some news indicated that the original decree indicates that countries with a tax agreement wouldn't double tax folks either nor would they tax retirement funds (unless they were coming from interest drawn on savings, IRA's or what ever) that are earned each year of retirement, so like the US, Social Security or government/military retirement funds would not be taxed. But, =TIT and we have not yet seen the formal official annoncement so many folks are maybe wasting time even worrying about what might be. We have nursery stories about killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Great response! Last updated almost 2 years ago but most likely still accurate. It would seem to me that they would be creating more problems instead of making more money but that doesn't stop them from trying to squeeze every cent out of the farangs who spend money here the entire time they live here!

Yeah read today's healine too that he was chatting and laughing with the gambler at a party so that must make him guilty. I was only comparing our senior folks with the locals. Sorry you got upset, you must be one of the many hate-Americans here. Too bad, your loss.

Yessir because so many people just voted not so much for Trump but to deny Hillary CLINTON an opportunity, now we seem stuck between a rock and a hard place as they are both EVIL and we need new blood. Among the hundreds of thousands of citizen eligible one would think that the parties could find an honest person to name as candidate!

The reason for the new bank rules, comes not from any official finance office of home country but from the judicial (justice in USA) office whatever they may call themselves and originally was set up to tackle the money laundering schemes or non filers I think that is what I read anyway when they did it. I could use my daughter's US address but don't want to ever have a possible problem with the Justice Department so I joined the SDFCU bank in the US and have had no more problems.

Yessir, Thailand doesn't consider you a resident either but they sure do want every penny they can get out of (us) you.

Yeah, most of the polls that I have read always amaze me that they get such a response from readers in that most polls done by valid reporters actually give the reader the number of people interviewed and the numbers are about a thousand to 1500 people and they write about a national election? of hundreds of millions of people. For their polls, the reporter just has to go to a local district where the preponderance of voters are of the same candidate/party so that the results are definitely skewed and can be skewed in any way that the reporter can get an "exclusive" report!. My experience and just look at what Trump did in 2020, he thought he would win by a landslide due to "polling" but then, it seems many people from his own party were not choosing between Trump and Hillary this time so they opted for the lesser of two "evils" in my opinion only of course. But Trump had alluded to this happening long before the election even took place as he obviously knew too many of his party didn't think he was qualified to be the prez for an additional 4 years. My opinion too of course and one can just ignore it or agree.

I had more than 35 years with BOA when they came out with that same notice, only I wasn't given 6 months to clear it all up. Fortunately for me the state dept fed credit union along with Amer citz overseas allowed me to open an account with my Thai address. I am not sure if someone wanted to open an acct and is a foreigner if they can join the myriad of folks around the world that fit into your category. If you check the SDFCU.org address, you will see the many different organizations if one is a member of, can open and acct with this bank. So far after 3+ years, they have provided excellent service. Not sure if that helps but can also let you bank legally.

I was kinda shocked at this headline and the short report. But as an American who is embarrassed by my own politicians and rich barons that care only for themselves and not the nation nor its people, I shouldn't be surprised about this raid either. However, I will let the courts here decided what has gone wrong. As for the US, I saw a headline today "American politics, the corrupt Road to Riches". It permeates every level in the US today.

red the requirements for fbar filing...check your dictionary for the word "aggregate" as it means in English the total amount that passes through the account> Just because you didn't file and haven't YET been caught, the 800K is over the 10K "aggregate" to start with. Best to check with an expert who can understand written English.

well, unless my math is erroneous, 400K baht or 800K baht is more than 10K usd. Requirement says any time your account reaches an aggegate of 10k you are required that year (if you do a yearly long stay report using the 400 or 800 totals) your bank acct has reached over 10K so you would need to file a fbar stating that fact. The reason they eventually catch folks is that the Thai bank under an international agreement can provide the US justice dept with your bank details.

not necessary to have 10K dollars in the bank - that 10K usd is for a yearly aggregate of at least 10K.

My permanent address is CM, I opened my self-only (as requirement changed) acct there too. But yearly, while that bank does my 12 monthly deposits, the other "bank letter" has to come from the main office in Bangrak, Bangkok. It takes 3-5 days for that so I advise my bank in CM that I need the letters for immigration and they provide same within the same couple of days, I update my Acct on the day I will go to Immigration and also make copies of ALL the pages in the bankbook. Yearly there have been requests for each different report that I need so now I just include all these. Originally they wanted my advice reports from my stateside bank too but now only from Thai banks. Less than an hour at immigration now for yearly update of long stay. MUch better today than years ago.

Well no matter what happens in US politics today, I challenge anyone to prove that if Trump had kept quiet after losing by 10 million votes (his party could have called on the court cases (50-60 that all were proven false with no evidence) and he had accepted the loss and exchange of government peacefully, there would have been no Ga indictments, nor Jan 6 insurrection attack on the capital and only the NY trials for him to fight. But, he needs the monies that the MAGA folks continue to send to him to fight the courts and continue campaigning. Hillary lost to him in 2016 because some DEMs voted for Trump instead of her just like so many REPs voted for Biden in 2020 because folks could see that Trump was no where near qualified to be President. Now if only we could convince the party heads to select a viable/qualified candidate instead of listening to the "BIG" money folks who really select who they might control to get even richer in my opinion. Just look at the list of NEW US and world BILLIONAIRES during the pandemic! Same thing around the world nowadays and probably even during my younger years too but I probably was just too dumb to recognize it at home.

If you don't need to cook them, you can soak them overnight and then can eat them without cooking.