Banana7

Went to Pattaya City Hall to pay 2020 (2563) property taxes at 1:50 PM and finished at 5 p.m. Friday August 28, 2020.  Entered lower level at the front of the building. To pay taxes, you line-up in 3 different queues; yellow, orange and pink, in that order. There are no signs or instructions on what to do and there are multiple seating/waiting areas. There were 100-200 people in the waiting areas.

The yellow queue ticket is obtained at a small desk to the right of a doorway. It is used to get your documents checked and to obtain the orange queue ticket. The documents of most interest were chanote front page, chanote page showing last owner, the original tax notice describing your property and its use, passport photo page, blue house book pages that have writing. The processor takes your documents and gives you an orange ticket.

Queue callers, callout the next number for a particular queue. Numbers are only announced in Thai. The yellow queue caller was helpful if you showed your ticket to her, she would direct you to the appropriate processor.

After obtaining the orange ticket, about 30-45minutes later, your orange ticket number will be called in Thai language. The caller will give you a pink queue number and about 3 pages of documents for each chanote/condo. They will contain the price to be paid.

The pink queue is for the cashier, the area furthest from the building front door. There are 6 cashier stations, but never were all 6 in operations at the same time. The pink queue callers were least helpful. They would call a number, you show your ticket to them with the number they called, and they would keep walking away still calling the number. The pink queue has queue jumpers, assisted by the queue caller. The caller calls the next number to be serviced, takes the person’s ticket then points that person toward a cashier. The jump is accomplished when the caller approaches a “selected” person, and gives the current ticket in their hand to the “selected” person, who then becomes the next person to go to a cashier, as the number is called again. It seemed many tax payers had friends in the office that got to jump the queue.

 In summary, I wish they had a queue system like Jomtien Immigration where the queue calls are automated and shown on electronic signs.  Also they should increase cashiers to 20 fulltime. Finally, City Hall is not foreigner friendly; everything is in Thai language only.

On 8/26/2020 at 5:44 PM, LuciusCornelius said:

No. The Line ID and telephone number are next to useless.  The accountant I hired tried calling and messaging in the morning.  Radio silence.  In the afternoon when there was still no reply, she just went to city hall to deal with it.  Right now, someone physically going there seems to be the only solution.

 

How can you make the payment without first knowing the amount due?  Do you know the appraised value of your property according to City hall's records?  I sure didn't.  I would not recommend doing a transfer of a ballpark figure, because there is a fair chance it will not get associated with your property tax payment.  They want to see copies of the deeds (both sides), an ID, the sales contract from the land office and the household registration book (blue / yellow book).

 

 

I got a response from the LINE ID. My initial message identified my condo address precisely, my full name, and asked for the property tax amount. It took about 3 or 4 days for the initial response. Taxes: 40.35 baht.

9 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Same happened here in Phuket and the ones who have stayed open must have some deal over the rent and they are not over charging for beer many places have 50 Baht Tiger beer

Until 9pm 39 baht for a small Chang on walking street here in Pattaya. LK Metro afternoon all small beers are 44 baht at 2 bars. Some Soi Buak hau bars have the big Leo and Chang at 65B at all hours. Very thin profit margins.

Some beach road bar staff have told me they are now paid 100 baht a day, one third of their regular salary. The only way they survive is on tips and companion drinks.

Several big name hotels are starting phase 2 of employee terminations. One large hotel terminated 50-100 employees today. Basically, the hotels don't have sufficient guests mid-week. On weekends and public holidays, Thai guests arrive, but even with room rates heavily discounted, hotels are below 70% capacity, at those times. Pattaya hotels are realizing that it will be years before the occupancy and revenue returns to a previous rates.

See here for more forecasts:

1 hour ago, jvs said:

You can not exchange a blue book for a yellow book .

The blue book belongs to the house(condo) and it states the people who live there who are Thai nationals.

The yellow book is kind of the same but only for foreigners.

The yellow book is in addition to to blue book and is used for the same purpose.

I have no idea if this would exempt you from paying tax.

I have a yellow book and i do have to pay tax.

The yellow book can be used for prove of address in case of buying and selling  vehicles etc.

A yellow book can also be used to obtain a Thai id card for foreigners(pink card).

 

How and where can I get the yellow book for a condo in Pattaya?

Can the blue condo resident book be exchanged for a yellow book by a foreigner? If it can, what is the process and where can it be done in Pattaya? I understand that if you have a yellow book for your condo, and live in the condo, one doesn't have to pay land/property tax - is this true?

19 hours ago, LuciusCornelius said:

Yes, it is that tax.  The Land and Buildings tax.

 

I have been told that foreigners can obtain a yellow house registration book if they have qualifying visa status.  They can exchange the blue registration book for the yellow one and then be entitled to the tax exemption for the primary residence.  Obviously, people with investment properties or holiday homes that don't live there or don't even live in Thailand cannot.  This tax would also apply to Thais with second homes simply because they can only have one place registered as their primary residence.  It is possible that Thai couples or families could obviate this by buying properties in the name of a spouse or a family member and getting them to register in the house book.  However, I am not sure what (if any) impact that could have on that person's ability to then access public services like education in the location where they actually live. 

Which visas are qualifying visas for the yellow book? Is a retirement "O" a qualify visa? Where can the blue book be exchanged for the yellow book?

Arunotai school loves to water their huge grass field every day during the dry season. Unfortunately kids are not allowed to play on the grass. Do schools pay for water? Do government offices, like Police, military, administration offices, and hospitals pay for water?

I understand that hospital residences and housing for hospital staff don't pay for water or electricity. Maybe if everybody had to pay for water, maybe less water would be needed.

15 hours ago, LuciusCornelius said:

Yes, city hall was a zoo but the accountant battled through it and got the tax paid.  Oddly, 198 baht total in tax, which at least was expressed to me as 99 baht per unit.  Obviously, I would anticipate different tax levels for each of them as one is a 1 bedroom and the other a 2 bedroom.  They certainly have different purchase prices.  Anyway, receipts have been obtained and I will get scans of those tomorrow.  I am interested to learn what the appraisal values for the units are.

 

No backtaxes were demanded or even mentioned.

 

A weight off my mind.  

 

 

What time did you go and how long did you have to wait?

12 hours ago, dimitriv said:

I checked prices for the Toyota Fortuner. It starts at 1.3 million TBH, which is very cheap compared to prices of similar cars in Europe. Did you check other models? Is your example really made in Thailand or imported?

 

 

Here is the VIN plate from a Corolla, indicating made in Thailand.

Good job! Nice to see the illegals, and the ring leader get arrested.

On 8/15/2020 at 10:15 AM, lopburi3 said:

Believe it is the control for amount of air in tank (so does not become full of water) - they can fail and require repair or replacement.  At least that looks like what I had to fix on a 405 units several decades ago.

You are right, the part is called an air charger. I replaced parts 15, 16, 17, 18 in the diagram and the pump is running differently now.  Parts 17 and 18 were glued together to ensure an airtight seal. Time will tell if the fix has worked. Attached is the parts receipt, in case anyone has the same issue.

If the holding tank starts to leak, like mine did, replace it with a stainless steel copy, available from Lazada. On the original tank it was impossible to remove part 17, the air charger tube and there was no part 18.

3 hours ago, perconrad said:

The time has already come, I just bought a 2. hand Honda Jazz with 31.000 km on the clock for THB 300.000 only 2 years and 3 month old. Half price from new.

Where did you get those? I am looking for a Toyota Altis 1.8 "V" 2017 or younger with less than 50K KM but the prices are still very high.

One more photo of the destruction.

Note also that all the beach chair vendors have disappeared from the beach to prevent damage and injury to vendors and their customers.

On 8/13/2020 at 6:16 PM, biatch0 said:

I dropped by the Udon immigration a couple of days back with embassy letter in hand, but they essentially refused to give out the 30-day extension. They more or less said to continue trying to leave the country, and if you're still unable to leave then try to request the extension again. I went in assuming that the 30-day embassy extension would likely be difficult to get so early on, but tried my luck since I was heading to immigration on an unrelated matter.

 

I did however find a local agency who offered a 3-month volunteer visa which I'm looking at as my preferred option at the moment, and will decide on next course of action towards the end of this month. Hopefully others have better luck. 

What is your passport country? What did the embassy letter say?

Pattaya beach trees are being removed by the powers that be in City Hall. Maybe they are clearing spots for the new public toilets on the beach?

Seems like no more free shade, you'll have to pay for a sun umbrella from the beach chair vendors.

It is very rare and unusual for someone in a hot country to die in the summer season of pneumonia. Normally, pneumonia occurs in the winter in cold countries. Also, if it is caught early, a person can recover.

Those bodies need to be tested for covid-10 by WHO, the Thai authorities can't be trusted in this case.

7 hours ago, Sheryl said:

 

Hasn't started yet. Stalled over who would pay for their quarantine, among other things. The workers can't afford it and the Employers don't want to pay for it.

 

Govt is  (in a very confused and poorly communicated way) making arrangements so that those migrant workers already in Thailand whose visas or other permissions have expired or will expire soon, to extend them without having to first return home (as is the normal procedure)

 

In any case these neighboring countries are at least as COVID free (arguably more so in case of Cambodia) as Thailand.

Also each and every migrant worker should also have at least a USD$100,000 covid insurance policy, which can't be cancelled or refunded or transferred. That will cost about 50,000 baht per person.

7 hours ago, murraynz said:

There are several people on 'Bahtsold' who sell cars that they buy from their bank 'contact'..repossesions.

I bought one recently,only 13 mths old. 18,000kms..good buy.

The lady did all the work witj trsnsfET of ownetship and registration etc..

Was the lady's name May?