All the Littlers - Le Pen, Brexiters, Trump - putting up the barriers, reducing contamination from the horrid foreigners, the frightened masses huddled around their little leaders, backs turned to the world ...

7 hours ago, Reigntax said:

There is a difference between tax avoidance and tax minimisation even to zero. Anyone who doesnt minimise the amount of tax paid by using the law to their benefit is a fool,.

A nice distinction invented by the tax lawyers for wealthy clients, and their politician stooges.

And then there's morality, all too rare in all human beings not least the wealthy and our political 'leaders'.

1 hour ago, 11223344 said:

I always wonder why Isaan isn't high tech farming community with quality EU equipment?

 

Considering how much $$$ £££ went there over the past 40? years...

And into whose pockets do you imagine such monies as there were actually went? Certainly not to the poor subsistence farmers who are probably 90% of all the farmers of Thailand ... with no capital for investment, barely enough to feed themselves, and mostly illiterate & passive because of generations of appropriate education (ie none) designed to produce passivity & obedience.

Heavy rain in Prasat Surin for a couple of hours this arvo. Strong gusts of wind too.

If you look at how so many new houses get treated here by their occupants - looking like a slum after about 12 months, no maintenance, no garden just rubbish everywhere, and goodness knows what they're like inside - then it's not surprising that people would be reluctant to buy second-hand. But restored (and exorcised) can be a different story ...

Terms like 'high earning' and 'middle income trap' are relative not absolute terms (ie relative to some other country or countries you compare yourself with). Given the Thai difficulties already noted - essentially cultural and the politics that goes with it - Thailand is likely to be lagging way behind genuine 'middle income' and 'high earning' countries for decades to come.

But, measured absolutely, there may nevertheless be considerable progress made over time, albeit with the usual inequities present in every country (eg Usofa).

Brexit, Scottish independence, Quebec, Corsica, Brittany, Catalania and on and on - if you hold enough referenda on any particular subject, sooner or later you end up actually falling over the cliff - to everyone's astonishment and some dismay.

That's democracy for you.

7 minutes ago, advancebooking said:

they said to me that they didn't want to see any airline tickets. 

Fine, so just follow their instructions, and the instructions on the forms (1 for you, 1 for your partner). If there's anything you don't understand, ask them.

The forms are long but not difficult. Just answer the questions. There will be some parts that are not relevant for you or your partner, so put a line through those parts or write N/A according to the instructions.

2 hours ago, crutchy26 said:

TRIED about 18 months ago. No agent. Thought to myself: I can do this. We own our house, our car, our motorcycle. I deposit money into her bank account daily. 2 kids at a Mancha Kiri Christian school,,,,,,,,,,,, etc, etc. And some thai-employee of OUR embassy 'phones her up, and interviews her (TO MY DISDAIN, WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE).

Rejected: As she may not return!

Not the first instance I have heard of this.

Compounding matters: Issan ppl do not really like talking to Bagkok ppl. My observance! The have different dialect..............

Thanks Australian Embassy ................... OOOPs That should be the AUSTRALIAN  Embassy thanking me for the visa app fee!

 

And, while I have your attention (please, oh please someone from the Embassy must read this.......................   )

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO OUTREACH VISITS TO KHON KAEN????

To the useless public servants, at the Embassy,  drawing a huge salary, making decisions above and beyond their very-limited scope!)

 

So I wonder why your experience is so different from Pepper1959 and Psyvolt?

My own experience (same-sex couple in Isaan) on various occasions (twice as tourist, then 'permanent' [= 5 years] residency) is exactly as theirs: you follow the instructions, fill out the forms neatly, deliver the forms at the Trendy bldg in Sukhumvit soi 13, and wait. No sweat.

The main thing they always want reassurance on - perfectly reasonably in my view, given Thai people's attitudes to obeying the law - is that the Thai person will return home: so they want to see return tickets, financial support & residence during the trip, incentive for return (family, job). Much the same issues as falangs encounter travelling to Thailand!

No charge at Kap Choeng for new p/p transfer 2 or 3 weeks ago.

The Education of Donald continues.

Contrary to some people, I have never thought of him as stupid or irrational. He's obviously street smart - after all, he danced rings around the Republican Party & the Clintons during the election campaign, and that takes some doing. But he is ignorant of the world and its complexities.

The American system regularly produces Presidents & their staff who, mostly, start out knowing little about anything outside Main Street Hicksville. And, everywhere in the world, politics is local and domestic. But, if he continues to learn and adjust, who knows? in about 7.5 years he might turn out OK as Pres.

10 hours ago, ThaiWai said:

34.683 on Feb 23

Sent 5k received 173,416

published rates for that date were 34.980

 

Fine, so 34.98 is the "midrate" ie the average between buying and selling, which changes every few seconds.

If we accept that as, momentarily, THE theoretical exchange rate for US to ฿, then the calculation is: 5K x 34.98 = 174900. 174900-173416 actually received = 1484฿ (cUS42) which is the cost to you of the transaction.

"Fee free" but NOT cost free!

38 minutes ago, utalkin2me said:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, but my banking is absolutely, 100% free as far as I can tell. In fact, they pay me at times. I don't pay for my checks. I didn't pay to open the account. I don't pay when I use my debit card. In Thailand this may be harder to come by, I agree with that for sure.

The phrase: "as far as I can tell" is what counts here ... They don't charge you a direct, announced fee. But they don't let you use their expensive computers and ATMs and over-the-counter service etc etc for nothing! They use the funds you deposit in your accounts to earn them profits overnight and round the world. If you don't have a minimum amount in your accounts (perhaps unstated) over time, they will take more time to request any international transfer (so they can earn more profits from your miserable funds). And then, when you make an international transfer by using your debit card at a bank or ATM in BKK, they charge you "no fees" but if you take the trouble to compare the xrate you receive with the midrate at the time, you'll certainly see where they're making a profit out of you ... but "No fees" of course.

2 hours ago, Suradit69 said:

I've got a free checking/current account at Bank of America. No minimum balance. No charge using it to pay bills or transfer money in the US. It pays no interest, so I suppose that could be considered a cost, but I don't leave much money in the account. 

 

To transfer money to Thailand I use my brokerage money market account which transfers money to Bangkok Bank in NY for free and that MM account does pay a bit of interest.

 

For the amounts I usually transfer on a monthly basis, Bangkok Bank charges $5 in New York and about Baht 200 in Thailand. If I transfer less frequently, sending larger amounts at one time, the Bangkok Bank charges can be a bit more, but as a percentage it's still very small and, in total, a smaller percent of the amount transferred.

 

The Bangkok Bank method of transfer is also available in London, assuming you have a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand ... although I think the BB branch in London charges a larger amount for handling the deposit than the NY branch does.

 

 

 

Excellent! And the exchange rates?

I remember those stupid slogans of the 1970s in Oz & NZ: "Education should be free!" "Free health care for everyone!"

The question is of course, as with banking, not what's free - nothing is, everything has to be paid for - but rather: who pays & who should pay? how much? what for?

Banks are businesses which are there, like ALL businesses, to make money. Noone should be surprised at that. When you see the ratio of monies invested to profits earned, the latter are not inordinate. Yet every time a bank anywhere in the world announces its annual profits, OUTRAGED FROM NEXT DOOR is outraged, offended and morally scandalized ...

So, a particular debit card doesn't charge a fee each time you use it. Great. Does that mean that you pay nothing each time you bring money into Thailand? Ever heard of exchange rates? Ever heard that the exchange rate might vary from one institution to another? or according to how you bring monies in? or according to what time of day or week you bring it in? or according to how much you bring in at any one time? ...

Yes, my great aunt Ethell (117 next birthday) says she's seen it all before, and she's still got at least some of her marbles.

6 minutes ago, Evilbaz said:

Sure but the person making a Stat Dec signs a Declaration that they are not making a false statement and that they are aware of the penalties for doing so.

That is an integral part of what the Embassy Officer is witnessing.

You could read the Embassy form and see the numbers of occupations, including Embassy/Consular officers of a certain rank, who are authorized to execute the Statutory Declaration.

The standard of proof of truth required differs from evidence for a Court as you seem to refer to.

This is proof to satisfy the Thai Immigration authorities.

 

So let's agree to differ.

"Proof to satisfy Thai Immi" - ie lots of stamps & signatures everywhere; a few pink ribbons wouldn't go astray; nicely presented in a nice folder; plenty of smiles & wais and your Thai partner laughing at their jokes - always works at Kap Choeng.

Satisfying OzEmb: much the same but you will obviously need a copy (or even original) of your monthly or annual (in my case 6-monthly) pension statement, or other bank book with transfers, ATO etc etc etc. I should think the OzEmb would be the least of most people's worries, particularly if you're nicely dressed ? ...

56 minutes ago, djayz said:

I wasn't talking about Western concepts and this isn't the West, for better or for worse. 

I was merely trying to point out that a person who doesn't work, for whatever reason, can't automatically be branded as "out of work". 

 

I thought I was agreeing with you!

7 hours ago, djayz said:

Just because somebody "doesn't work" doesn't actually mean that he's "out of work". 

There are loads of people in the village in Korat where I live who don't work/don't have to work/don't want to work, but none of them consider themselves out of work. 

Most of them are happy not having to work and get by with having very little. 

Yes, if you apply 'Western' concepts of work and productivity here, you would probably end up with around 95% of the population either unemployed or underemployed. But when you see how people in the villages live, and how - more or less miraculously - they survive (scavenging, digging assorted bugs out of the khlong or the lake, fishing, stealing, borrowing, an occasional odd job, mutual assistance ... ), then Western concepts seem mostly irrelevant.

3 hours ago, Notout said:

You can write anything you like on a stat dec. All the Embassy is doing is witnessing your signature. By signing a stat dec you are saying that everything on it is truthful. If you knowingly sign a false statement on the stat dec then you can be charged with an offence. So you fill out your stat dec then sign it in front of a witness, this being Embassy staff who will then sign it which says that they have witnessed you sign it.

That's how a statdec works in Oz but the implication of the consulate's notice is that that is no longer sufficient for the Oz Emb here. May be a case of too many under resourced Aussies seeking help at the tax payers' expense?

So let's you give me your best two marbles and you can have my cold leftover pie. And I'll throw in the matie sauce too.

17 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

The Republican Health Care Plan Is Especially Terrible for Trump Voters

 “The typical person who is going to lose the most in this scenario is a lower-income person in their 60s who lives in a rural area, where the person who gains is the affluent millennial urbanite,” Cynthia Cox, an analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told me. In other words, the Republican plan doesn't just screw the poor. It screws Trump voters in particular, while giving a hand to a lot of young people who probably for Hillary.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/03/02/the_republican_health_care_plan_is_especially_terrible_for_trump_voters.html

People get what they vote for. Too bad they didn't take the trouble to inform themselves first. [Ditto in Britain.]

I'm having similar problems here in south Surin with a TOT wifi connection. VERY slow the last couple of days & right now - often times out on a variety of sites. I'm wondering whether it's the Amazon cloud problem of the last few days affecting us here? Otherwise a mystery to me ...

Some 20 ducklings hatched today - so many I can't count them exactly. Mum & Dad looking pleased. Another 5 or so about to hatch, with adoptive chicken Mum.

Meantime 4 goslings growing fast. Moved yesterday from their little cage (where their adoptive turkey Mum hatched 3 of them) to an enclosed part of the duck & goose run, near the pool. Donald, their Dad, parading aggressively up & down outside.  Their natural Mum, Daisy, continues to sit hopefully on her (phantom?) eggs but managed to produce only 1 of the 3.

I gather this is quite normal: you find a good turkey or chicken mother & they do the work for everyone.