Mike Teavee

From Ground News: https://ground.news/article/chonburi-immigration-bureau-tightens-address-reporting

A recent change in procedure at Pattaya-Jomtien immigration (and Sri Racha) means that all foreigners requiring a service must have a TM30 form receipt in their passport. This now applies to long-term expats as well as short-term tourists. A TM30 receipt issued before the last entry to Thailand will be regarded as out-of-date.

35 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Does this include CW? 

Not in my experience 

It wasn't like that at Jomtien until this year so I couldn't say whether CW does the same or if they accept an older TM30 as long as you're still at the same address.

Seems the change was made approx. 2 months ago... 

Now occasionally you fly back to your home country be it the United States or Portugal or the UK, or wherever, and then come back to Thailand. Well, the past three years you haven't had a problem with the TM30 because you just have your original TM30 you filled out in the beginning and that is all you have had to deal with, and they haven't asked for further TM30 documentation in connection with your extension for example. They may ask for the TM30, the one you originally did but what has changed here is you now have to file a new TM30 after your latest arrival.

So moving forward, it looks like when you leave the country, maybe it's a day or two whatever, you are going to have to file another TM30 before any subsequent extension. So that is what we are looking at moving forward.

https://legal.co.th/resources/visa-immigration-law/thailand-immigration-law/tm30-making-thai-visa-extension-processing-more-complex/

Edit: If you read the comments under the Video it seems Chiang Mai also want a new TM30 

This is what happened to me at Chiang Mai Immigration yesterday. I was asked if I had a receipt in my passport, to which I answered yes, but I hadn't reported my last two entries last May and August. They asked me if I'd changed my address and I answered, no. They said that I needed to update and gave me a ticket to queue. When it was my turn, I was asked again if I had changed address and then some details were entered in the computer. Then a new receipt was made out and handed to me. That was that - free to go. My last entry was on 22nd August and the receipt is dated 18th October.

Edit2: The "Confused" amongst us might want to google the Pattaya Mail article "Chonburi immigration bureau tightens address reporting" 

18 minutes ago, david_je said:

I am due for annual renewal in March. I have a TM30 Receipt of Notification from May 2023. This is what I show if asked by IO, correct? Does it need to be updated or otherwise acted upon before March renewal?

Thank you.

Have you been outside of Thailand since you got that TM30 only some offices (E.g. Jomtien) seem to want a new TM30 if your last one was prior to your most recent entry into Thailand. 

It used to be that if you were returning to your previous address you did not need to get a new TM30 but has apparently changed this year & they now want the TM30 to be dated after your most recent entry into Thailand when doing your extension. 

If you've not been outside of Thailand since you got the TM30 then your old one should be fine. 

10 minutes ago, likerdup1 said:

Why pay 2000 THB when one can spend 5 minutes every 90 days on the website to do the checkin?

 

BTW, let's please keep this thread on topic. I didn't ask why you use an agent, rather I asked if you DIY your immigration business and why. This forum provides tons of useful information about how to navigate the Thai Immigration System and those who use an Agent really would only benefit to find out if the agent is ripping them off, which in most cases they are!

It’s 100B for an agent to do a 90 day report which is cheaper than a Bolt taxi to/from Immigration (please don’t suggest I take 2 Baht buses to get there).

I normally do mine online but there have been periods where it wasn’t working so it’s good to have a backup. 

On 12/22/2023 at 5:40 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Bell Bus had a van service from North Bus Station to the place wanted in Pattaya, included in the fare. It's on the internet.

I recommend Bell Bus, great service & IIRC only 190B. 

But the bus between where you want to go & the Bus station is an extra 110B, worth it IMHO as it turns it into a door-2-door service. 

On 12/26/2023 at 9:14 AM, scottiejohn said:

For 22 years! 1960. his DOB to 1982 the DOB of Prince William!.

What about Princess Anne? Does she not get a look-in? 

41 minutes ago, ballpoint said:

Thai Time 😂

1 hour ago, Happy happy said:

Question: if someone is on a retirement visa and who is considered a tax resident how much income can that person bring in annually to Thailand before being liable to Thai tax? 

Everybody gets a 60K personal allowance & the 1st 150K is taxed at 0% so the bare minimum would be 210K 

Then add on additional allowances for things like > 65 (190K), buy health insurance (25K), Life assurance (100K), have kids (30K each) etc… 

31 minutes ago, BenStark said:

 

You can install Firefox or Chrome, if you know how.

 

Google is your friend

I agree (& have done) but that’s not for somebody who just wants something to work out of the box 😊

55 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

My Mecool search revealed devices costing 75 quid from the UK.

 

How about the boxes on lazada for 1000 baht and up that are Netflix compatible and show users photographs with Netflix on the onscreen menus?

 

I haven't got any box from 3BB, nothing but their modem/router.

I bought a Mecool 2 Plus from Lazada for 2,180B 

I added WizzTV (approx 3,600B for 1 year for the Plus version with built in VPN) & now have more movies/TV Shows/Live events than I can shake a stick at, worth every satang 👍🏻

I do keep a Netflix subscription (though downgraded from 419 Premium to 169B… The 250B per month saving goes a long way to paying for WizzTV) so the GF still has subtitles when we’re watching movies. 
 

The  only downside of the box I can see for you is the Browser is a bit limited & as it’s Android TV you can’t just install Chrome on it but the inbuilt web browser has been fine for the couple of times I’ve wanted to use it. 

Edit: WizzTV does come with approx 600 Netflix movies/shows with more being added all the time, but GF was well into a couple of Thai Soap dramas at the time I bought the box so switching that off was more than my life’s worth… 

2 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

I get +190k, +100K, +60, +150k, 500 k in total for being over 65 on a pension.

I understand the 190K (> 65), 60K(personal allowance for everybody) & 150k (taxed at 0%) but can I ask what the 100K allowance is for? 
 

I get 60K +25K (Health Insurance) +150K = 235K 

10 hours ago, tgw said:

the problem when arriving in Pattaya Nua is local transport, although I don't really know about current prices.

That's the easy part...

As the bus pulls into Pattaya Nua Bus Station book a Bolt it will be there in 2-3 mins.  Approx. 70-80B (for a Car) to Wongamat Beach so I would imagine similar into Central Pattaya, cheaper if you're ok with taking a motorbike.

Failing that there's a group of Baht Bus drivers there that will drop you off at your hotel for 50B (100B if you're going to Jomtien), but you sometimes have to wait for these to fill up (usually not a problem when the Bangkok Buses come in). 

As others have said, 1,700b is reasonable for a door-2-door service booked by a hotel but if you want to do it cheaper you could book it yourself with Cherry Taxi Services, prices start at 1,400b from DMK... [The hotel will be using somebody like this & pocketing the 300b].

https://cherrytaxiservice.com/services-rates/

Watching today's Fabulous 103FM News report & there's a story in there that people have been reporting Immigration (am guessing Chonburi/Jomtien) asking for proof that Income has been taxed at source when doing retirement extensions (presumably using the 65K Income Method)... 2 minutes in...  

It does go on to say that it's unlikely any income taxed at source will be taxed again BUT makes no mention of what happens if the income hasn't been taxed (Obviously if it is Income & hasn't been taxed then the person remitting the money should have filed a Tax Return & paid tax on it in Thailand). 

11 minutes ago, Ben Zioner said:

Here, was clear right from  the beginning.

 

That doesn't say that everybody will have to file a Tax Return, it just highlights what I said about income earned from 1/1/24 being Tax Assessable if remitted in later years. 

28 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

Poster @Ben Zioner seemed to have different views.

I suspect the answer is somewhere in the middle ground, the Schema can be found here https://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/common-reporting-standard-xml-schema-user-guide-for-tax-administrations-june-2019.pdf so will see what it says :) 

Edit: I've looked at the Schema and as far as I can tell it's all about reporting the "Closing" Account Balances (not transactions) & given that the mandatory CRS reporting requirement is annually it's likely that once per year all finance organizations will report the closing balance for all accounts that they hold....

Even if it was reporting daily it would be considered "Amalgamated" (Not transactional) data. 

Whilst on the OECD site I also noticed this...

In light of the rapid development and growth of the Crypto-Asset market and to ensure that recent gains in global tax transparency will not be gradually eroded, in April 2021 the G20 mandated the OECD to develop a framework providing for the automatic exchange of tax-relevant information on Crypto-Assets. In August 2022, the OECD approved the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) which provides for the reporting of tax information on transactions in Crypto-Assets in a standardised manner, with a view to automatically exchanging such information.

https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/common-reporting-standard/

Which I guess would rule out any plans to use Crypto to somehow get around being seen to remit money into Thailand.  

Probably recommended when it came out 3.5 years ago but I must have missed Series 2 dropping so have been back to watch series 1 & am really enjoying it. 

We Hunt Together https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10661302/

A gripping twist on a classic cat-and-mouse story, this British drama series explores the intoxication of sexual attraction and the dangerous power of emotional manipulation as two conflicted detectives track down a pair of deadly killers.

4 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

Yet others persuade us that CRS is one one thing, which they they know because they are a consultant who works with such data every day and are expert. But when others post confirmation that CRS is something else entirely and they are invited to debate the matter and fight their corner, they hide under rocks and in dark corners. It is not so much a question of who is right and who is wrong, it is more a question of what is correct. Will my transactions be recorded and be capable of being viewed at the detailed level asks poster A. Oh no, how can it be, CRS is consolidated data. Hmm, not so says another, here's the record layout from CRS. Personally, even though I'm not an "expert" tax consultant, I'm going with the latter because there is evidence and the poster is credible but I'll leave it for those involved to argue the toss. We have no horse in this race but it would be good to understand the truth, especially when it comes from the mouths of "experts", allegedly.

Can you imagine the amount of data that would need to be exchanged if every country signed up to CRS shared detailed information about every transaction made! 

Added to that, how are you going to Identify Individuals? - Can't be on Passport number as my UK bank doesn't have my passport details (I don't even think I had a passport when I opened the account & if I did, I've had at least 5-6 new ones since & there's no onus on me to tell them), can't be on a Tax Identification Number as my UK Bank doesn't know my UK or Thailand TIN, so you get into the realms of trying to match by names (I sometimes do/don't use my middle name), dates of birth, addresses etc... Which again, is not practical given the amount of data involved.  

It must be consolidated data exchanged with maybe a mechanism to request the underlying transactions but you still have the problem of being able to accurately identify all transaction for a single individual.