mfd101

Well we can all be cynical, an essentially negative substitute for activity. Politics is about symbolism. When politicians make the right symbolic gestures, things can change and improve. Make the wrong gestures - those of passivity & cynicism - and nothing ever changes.

There is a reason why many many Thais don't pay income tax: As in my extensive Khmer family, many many Thais don't have an income at all. Or they have one that is invisibly small or one that is short-term or erratic and unpredictable ....

What is the real deal? Noone knows, least of all the government. But the likelihood of it affecting genuine old-age pensioners living in Thailand is small indeed.

There has been a view (since May) that the time for military coups has passed, a younger generation simply won't put up with the b/s any longer etc etc. We shall see but - for our own (powerless) sakes & mental health - we should remain optimistic.

Answer: Longer & longer as the sea rises.

They had no intention? So it was just an accident ...

Eh, Mr President, this is the new President of Taipei. His name is Settee.

(Yawn)

No longer profitable.

Which assumes that the person in question is behaving rationally.

Um, all the same things that might happen if you did it back in your hotel room or out the back at the loo of a restaurant - gun, poison, slash wrists, ...

As suggested above, clearly the handwritten 'suicide note' holds the answer to the questions ... If the note has disappeared 'gone missing' by the time the UK cops & Embassy start to lift their little fingers, then we & the mother will know the answer.

Thailand always fascinating. Lots of ifs & buts and lots of surprises. Never dull.

I hate to be ethnicist, but here in south Surin, if we don't know anyone or family capable guy, we'll look for a Thai Chinese workman/supervisor ... We don't always find one but when we do the job done is invariably a whole lot better than the alternative and at reasonable price. And that includes my once-every-5-years doctor.

Mixed economies work quite well in most Western countries other than the US (which, compared to the others, is so far to the political right as to have disappeared over the edge). But they need to be mostly non-corrupt societies and getting the mix right is difficult. And in any case the 'right mix' changes over time. Unforeseen consequences can be a problem in any country, just worse in Thailand where popular culture does not encourage forward thinking. And overly-'socialized' economies (not to mention societies) struggle to work coherently. France comes to mind, a country which for an Antipodean to live in is a bit of an authoritarian shock (as I discovered in the 1970s). Lucky countries such as Australia do well with smallish population, lots of wealth to dig up & generate, and egalitarian attitudes positioned between government control & free enterprise (the inheritance of its penitentiary origins - dependence on & loathing of the jailers).

Mmmm, well, a free market economy works only where there are minimal levels of corruption at all levels of society ... The alternative, when there is corruption at all levels, is various forms of governmental control (ie 'socialism'). And one control leads to the need for a counter-control elsewhere etc etc. Unforeseen consequences are a Thai specialty.

Life in Canberra: comfortable, boring and noone to hold in my arms. 7 Life in Surin province : less comfortable, interesting, diverse, unpredictable, plenty of places yet to explore, trips to BKK & Cambodia & Vietnam, and I have my boy to cuddle every night. 9

Here right next door to you in south Surin we've had no long blackout so far this monsoon season but we have had 1 or 2 shorter ones (say 1-5 minutes). The longer ones are usually caused by a tree falling across the lines but we haven't - in this El Nino year - had sufficient storms yet to cause that. Also several 2-second jobs that don't cause me any problems (everything comes straight back up) and which don't seem to be related to weather. Someone pushing a test button back at HQ?

Golly, um, how does that work? Paying fortnightly is more expensive than paying monthly? Will cost billions to reprogram the computers? The debt collectors will have to work twice as hard?

No to your question. The point about no longer being an Oz 'resident for tax purposes' is that you lose your 1st $20K tax-free threshold. Which makes a real difference when the majority of your income comes from federal (CSS/CSC) superannuation + investments from retirement lump sum many many moons ago.

Yes I can & do use Mygov when I know there's something to check ...

PS But what if it's earned in the current year?as mine is. ie Every time I bring currency in from Oz, I pay x amount of tax to Thailand ...

Sob sob. It seemed like a good idea ... ????

If people bother to check in the OP the list of countries that have a double-taxation agreement with Thailand, they will see that about 99% of all 'Westerners' in Thailand are covered by those treaty-status agreements. Which aren't about to change. So no sweat. But it does raise an interesting question for many of us, a question which those who actually are informed on this might wish to address: Assuming that (as I understand) Thailand's income tax rate is way way lower than that in any 'Western' country, why not use the double-taxation agreement from the other end? ie pay income tax in Thailand and thereby avoid the much higher rate of income tax in your home country.

That sounds very tempting. As an Australian 'not resident in Australia for tax purposes' I have 1/3 of my income confiscated each year by the Australian government. If I could stop that and change to paying a nominal amount of income tax in Thailand, that would make a huge difference to our living standard here.