4myr

It was April this year. Spoke with a lawyer in the lawyers office room and with 2 from the operational dept. And a lot of bystanders in the room listening at the conversation, including the head of the lawyer office. I had English and Thai copies of the Dutch DTA taken from the Thai RD website. My DTA exemptions regards director fees I receive from my own private limited company based in the Netherlands. And also capital gains from property based in the Netherlands. I read the clauses of exemptions in Thai and English several times before. Also had the confirmation of the Dutch tax lawyers before I entered the meeting. The lawyer did not say a word throughout the meeting. One employee of the operational dept was very vocal and said that in the history of the cases she handled, there was not an instance of exemptions. Then she said incorrect things. She said that in my case tax credits would be allowed. However in the DTA tax credits were not stated for these income sources. In the end she made a suggestion - one way to not to pay tax is not to be tax resident on the year that I want to remit a lot of money. This factually is also incorrect. Because it depends whether the income source remitted was earned on a year whether you are tax resident or not. So trust level of local Thai RD went through the bottom. And sending an email to the Bangkok central RD law department also did not give hope - no reply. In the end I did not have the energy left to setup a meeting with a tax office more experienced in handling foreigner cases like in Bangkok.

A final note on this subject. My new meter is a 5 (100) Amp digital meter. It has various readings, including the sold amount of electricity. My new meter has the same service charge of 24.62 baht as the previous meter. With regards to the invoice. With PEA smart app I can print the normal invoice and a tax invoice. The format is A4. I get the invoice on the 5th day of the month. The accountant also sends a more detailed invoice. On the PEA smart invoice there are 3 meter readings of electricity used [ Peak / Off-Peak / High? ], currently at the same price. Although the meter has readouts on electricity sold, it is not shown on the invoice. Only the total amount. There is a withholding tax of 1% on the electricity sold. Because of my low amount used, I still get a discount of 20 baht before VAT. The invoice from the accountant shows the sold amounts split between Peak and Off-Peak, currently at the contracted price of 2.2 baht. It also shows the max actual kw amount sold vs max allowed according to the contract. In my case 3 vs 4.34 kw. I'll check if I can add one more panel to max out without blowing the DC fuse of the inverter.

After reading so many opinions on this forum, I was wondering does my approach make sense? 1) Coming years I'll try to stay under the radar, by remitting below 1M baht. It is remitted over various means i.e. Wise online, foreign debit card expenses and physical cash imports from friends visiting Thailand. 2) Till I'm retired, all of my remitted income is non assessable, i.e. savings/income before 2024 or DTA exemptions 3) I have a pink Thai ID, but I will not file a tax return, not even a nil tax return. My self assessment says I do not have assessable income. In the past I never asked a return of witholding tax of my Thai bank interest 4) in case I get a random audit, what will I do: Yearly I keep evidence records of my non assessable income, my home country tax assessments and my remittance transactions. All is summarized on a spreadsheet. My different income streams are funneled from 1-2 home country bank accounts thru 1 Wise account to 1 Thai bank account. It is impossible to tag the the income source on each remittance. However on my spreadsheet I make note of it. I'll make yearly pdf backups of all my bank transactions in my home country, Wise and my foreign debit card. So will be easy to search and show evidence in case of an audit. I spoke to the local tax office before. They disputed my DTA tax exemptions. On the other hand 2 tax lawyers in my home country with experience on the DTA agree with me. A Pattaya tax lawyer also confirmed my reading. In case of a dispute, I'll hire this local tax lawyer to handle my case Finally we are planning to buy a car in 2025. The car will be on my wife's name. She can get a 2 year car loan with 0%. So the money can be remitted in smaller amounts over 2-3 years.

https://www.rd.go.th/fileadmin/tax_pdf/pit/2567/271266PIT93.pdf One of the 2024 forms in Thai you can download.

https://www.rd.go.th/65971.html Some 2024 tax return forms are already available for download. Cannot find specific details on 2024 remittance rule changes. Very easy to fill in a nil return.

Well you have the different measuring standards NEDC, CLTC, WLTP and EPA. The best mileage you get with city trips, and worst with a full loaded car and only motorway speeds with headwind. Efficiency on the motorway is what matters, so a sedan shaped cars like Tesla / Xpeng will have better efficiency than a boxy SUV like KIA EVx. And on top of that your AC and battery cooling during driving, as the higher speed you drive, the more battery cooling is also needed. Fortunately most modern EVs have an efficient heatpump. I'm more concerned with extra battery/range degradation in a hot climate like Thailand. Note that new batteries are kept in a conditioned room of 25C. Even parking a car under a roof ambient temperature right now during the day can reach 36-40C. Will you want to keep your battery at 80-100% SOC on those hot days, or will you plan it and charge up before you have your trip?

Between 1 - 1.1M for plugin or extended range BEV for at least 400 km WLTP. Prefer plugin for the convenience on long road trips. Agree with LFP chemistry. Fortunately you can choose different qualities at the moment, which varies in charge/discharge rate nC, number of charge cycles, energy density, battery cooling method and specific measures to prevent thermal runaway. Here is my list: 1) Geely Aegis. In the EX5. And some Zeekr models. Has 3,500 cycles, 192 Wh/kg, 2.45C on average 2) CATL Shenxing and Shenxing Plus. Some Neta models have them 3) BYD Gen 2 blade. I read on the Australian BYD website that the Sealion 6 has the "new" blade battery. I don't know if it means Gen 2. I'm afraid all Thai cars right now have Gen 1. 4) BYD Gen 1. I prefer to avoid this for now. Advantage of a BYD car is that they have a lot of wiggle room to lower battery prices, and still earn a profit, as they are the second biggest producer.

Still a lot of money. But much cheaper than a new Atto 3 standard range battery which cost around 320k without installation. The price went down from 525k this year.

MG4 is already on the market at the moment. But I expect the new MG ES5 at the show. I see that the tech and interior has been updated. Personally I am not a fan of MG. They still sell old models of the MG plugins. Already surpassed by BYD. What I do like is that their batteries are modular, so in theory cheaper to repair, if this service is available in Thailand, contrary to BYD batteries. Also scheduled maintenance cost is in line with cheaper EV maintenance, half the price of BYD's.

The Geely Aegis battery is also called he Golden battery. Sources: https://carnewschina.com/2024/06/28/geelys-aegis-short-blade-lfp-battery-full-details-including-extreme-safety/ Most of my online research is with ChatGPT and perplexity.ai. And then looking at the sources that these AI tools are providing. Note that BYD is very good in marketing but unfortunately could not find the safety tests that BYD has done with Gen 1 blade battery, except for the famous needle penetration test. Gen 2 blade battery has also been announced, but here again no detailed safety reports found yet. Other issues that the Gen 1 blade battery has: 1) suboptimal cooling, meaning that during charging the capacity can be limited if certain high temps reached. Gen 2 seems to have improved it. 2) plastic cover which can be chewed by rodents nesting on top of the Atto 3 or Dolphin battery. The cover cannot be ordered as a separate item. Therefore aftermarket solutions like a rat guard to prevent them to build a nest.

I am in for a new affordable plugin hybrid or EV. I am not satisfied yet with the cars available in the market right now. Therefore I was following the new announcements and launches in the 4th quarter this year. In Nov-Dec there will be a Bangkok Motor Show again. These are the cars I will be looking forward to: BYD Atto 3 competitors 1) Geely Galaxy EX5. On paper in many aspects a better car, and most importantly a safer battery that charges faster and has a higher energy density. Unfortunately Geely will have their EVs produced in Malaysia [Proton] and the Thai distributor [Thonburi Panich Group] does not have so many dealers across the country. 2) GAC Aion V A longer car than the Aion Y Plus. Curious how the quality level is. Unfortunately GAC is a small manufacturer compared to Geely or BYD. 3) Changan Deepal S05 A smaller brother of the S07. Has not been announced yet that this car will at the show. Is lik the EX5 a big hit in China at the moment. 4) Xpeng Mona M03 It would be a pleasant surprise if Xpeng will show this budget car at the show. High efficiency, big boot space for a liftback. And excellent software [no 3 after Tesla and Nio]. Don't expect it to be launched in Thailand soon, as Xpeng cannot produce enough for the Chinese market. Bigger SUVs 1) BYD Sealion 7. The EV equivalent of the Sealion 6 PHEV. Will the price be between Sealion 6 and Seal? 2) Geely Galaxy L7 The PHEV competitor of the Sealion 6. Unfortunately not confirmed that it will be at the show. 3) Neta L [BEV or extended range] This is a longer version of the Neta X with luxury items like a fridge and massage for the front passenger. Unfortunately Hozon Auto, the manufacturer sells less cars in China and they are in urgent need of cash injections. 4) Leapmotor C10 [Stellantis] Will be launched in Thailand. Has high ratings in China. Not on my top list. Pickups 1) Geely Riddara RD6 [BEV] Already announced last month. Lower priced compared to BYD Shark in Malaysia. 2) BYD Shark PHEV Will it be announced in Thailand? Much larger and more luxurious pickup than Geely's.

If they require all [foreigner] tax residents to file a tax return according to the article: Then they need to change the definition of assessable income and with it the requirement to file a tax return. The law should not distinguish between foreigner and Thai citizen, only whether you're a tax resident. To my understanding, you are required to file a tax return, only if you have assessable income above certain thresholds. And there are certain remitted income that are not classified as assessable, e.g.: 1) savings before 1 Jan 2024 2) sold investments with a proven loss, so only the principal part of the investment is remitted 3) income that according to DTA is only taxable in the source country

Finally 2 weeks ago the accountant and a few PEA Prachuap technicians visited us. Changed the meter and contract has been signed. About the bill: 1) accountant will send the bill on a monthly basis to us. Can also be viewed with PEA Smart app 2) if it is a credit bill, each of them must be signed at the PEA office to collect the money. You don't need to come each month, but every monthly credit bill must be signed. She will check if a collated bill can be produced by the system. To my surprise, just today, the 1st of the month, we got a visit from a PEA pickup with 3 employees. They came to collect the meter values. It has a lot of values. Nope, the meter does not have a sim. The accountant is responsible to make up the bill on a monthly basis, after all meter values of electricity sellers in the district have been collected.

thanks for sharing. yes i will plan a test drive. the car is much bigger than my mazda, however the boot space is a tiny bit larger. i entered a demo car that had a long trip on a very hot day. i sat in the back and i could feel the heat permeating through the cover of the glass roof. the back ac outlets could not cool my head, only the front middle ac outlets. i had to increase the ac volume to feel the ac working

i agree with you on only maintenance costs, that for phev it’s higher than bev and ice. i owned for 5 years one of the first phev’s - the chevy volt subsidized by obama i. the ice engine can work as range extender and in parallel. most of my commute i use ev mode and i charge 2 times a day. after 5 years battery health was 88%. btw the maintenance costs of my volt was lower than my previous ice car and this is due to the quality of the car. only complaint i had is the noise when soc battery is low and the ice must do the heavy lifting on its own. that’s why byd like to keep the soc 20-30% so you can drive quietly in hev mode and the ice engine works primarily to charge the battery. byd seems to do a great job in canceling the ice noise in range extender mode. if you drive faster than 110 the ice charger cannot keep up with the battery drain, so then the ice needs to do the job on its own in the end. with a bev you don’t have these speed limitations, on the other hand the legal max speed is 90km on most roads here in thailand. i prefer speed limitations over bev limitations and frustrations. with regards to 30-45 min dc charging vs 10 min fueling, where you have to plan your trips on the availability of 125kw dc chargers. suppose you wanna tour around for several weeks on koh lanta or koh samui where no dc charger is to be found. how about the charger app low response times during rush hours in the weekends and downtime of some remote chargers due to mediocre maintenance