Wombo1

Does anyone have any updated recommendations for where to buy big shade trees in the BKK or central areas?

There is one young lady in the embassy that is very picky...about things that are not even required. Then as you all say she tried to force me to Master Photo.

I had a set done and she said that they are too glossy...; then on my next visit I had the older lady and she said that they were absolutely fine and "Matt" photos are not a requirement. And my passport was received just this week perfectly ok.

My company checked into this on my behalf (over many weeks), including using their external tax and legal advisors. These advisors are experts and support all our final expats in various expats.

In short their is zero clarity on PE, and as such we should expect that all normal PE risks will still apply.

On 1/28/2023 at 6:24 PM, F Groenen said:

Response received today from BOI:

For details/laws about Permanent Establishment (PE) in Thailand, please click https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flibrary.siam-legal.com%2Fthai-law%2Fu-s-thai-tax-treaty-permanent-establishment-article-5%2F&data=05%7C01%7CFrank.Groenen%40Teradata.com%7C14d6a87ae40943e69fb408db00654d05%7C9151cbaafc6b4f4889bb8c4a71982138%7C0%7C0%7C638104207378532083%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=c6hmVAm8N4ZjG2mGiBRwUID6h8po0jf%2Fs2DSLuy2wGM%3D&reserved=0

Generally, the nature of the working activity of Work-From-Thailand Professionals should not be considered an activity relating to Permanent Establishment if it does not fall in one of the activities and the term specified in an article from the abovementioned link.
_______________________________
Kind regards, LTR Visa Unit

Yeah I expected something like this, that is not clear enough for my company.

To many ways for the Thai government to read it and way they want

On 1/25/2023 at 8:43 PM, F Groenen said:

I have a LTR-WFT visa, but my employer is not alowing me to work from Thailand, until their PE and tax questions have been clarified in official publications.
I had a conversation with one of the LTR employees yesterday and he stated 'with an employee using the LTR-WFT visa to work from Thailand, there is no liability for the employer for PE or taxes.'. He said this was already published.
He promised he would send me the document that states this, but so far I have not heard from him again. I will call him again tomorrow.

My employer also has contracts with a distributor in Thailand, to sell and support our products. However, I cannot work under this distributor, since I would be a contractor to my employer and the 1st one out the door in the next reorg. MicroB, I would be careful working for a subsidiary as it becomes so much easier to get laid off.

I'm really curious to hear the results, your situation is an exact mirror is mine

This is the exact same reason why my company decided not to pursue the LTR, and are taking the path of a contract via our parent companies local subsidiary.

I had some discussion with the LTR team and it seems that their would be PE status, but I think they need to formally come out and make this public before my company would accept that it is true

3 hours ago, Tropposurfer said:

I think of my old country Australia; A nation blessed with energy sources beyond imagining; Intense sunlight, a huge tidal coastline, and wind power.

The coordinated mass nation-changing efforts of contributing to and perhaps even leading the world in some forms of alternate energy development (solar was one for Oz at one time but was unfunded, left to starve and simply left our shores) has been piecemeal, and to my mind, little more than a political sham and play-acting.

 

And sadly past Australian LNG project did not mandate a certain % for local consumption, of which that is generally a standard clause in all similar projects globally.

If we had of done that our gas supply, fertilizers projects, etc would have had a significant competitive advantage. But alas...

Yeah I am waiting for being able to apply for this VISA as well, my current VISA will expire on the 3rd Sept

19 hours ago, Onerak said:

I don't work for a Thai company. All my life I worked for US multinationals. Now I take up consulting work from time to  time. The new visa you can work anywhere in the World. Does not say for Thai companies. I have worked remotely for 20-years and the last ten years as a consultant. When I take up a job, I have to tell them that I can't meet all US working hours for meetings so that they can accomodate me in morning hours only. And If I say I am located at   such and such country, some companies (e.g. Cisco, Microsoft, ADM, Intel) insist that I must have a work permits in the country where I am located. Yes, I can lie my ways but for some reason if caught, they may also  refuse to pay me my fees and it will jeopardize availability of future works for me. That's the reason, pre covid, when I used to take a job while in Thailand, I would go back to the USA to fulfill my contract. With a work permit in Thailand I won't have any issue. I can come and go at will.

Same as me, eagerly awaiting this 

In our land area (outskirts of Bangkok) the limit is 12 meters, our architects said this is the limit for our local area. (They needed to get the local building rules to see this)

Nice to see the filters, and they dont seem to be backing the water up in the line too much.

Hey Everyone,

I have a choice between Daikin VRV and LG VRF.

In terms of functionality LG is superior for my needs, and the price is 50% lower... But yes I am aware that Daikin is generally considered the gold standard.

What I am curious for opinions is people experience from a reliability perspective of the LG? (Either VRF or normal Split system).

Given it is 50% lower and more feature rich I have basically already decided to go with it...just checking with people anyway

Just a little bit of rain coming down; that will test it out ????

22 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

Warning Will Robinson - 120V 60Hz!!

 

Do check that the software is user-adjustable for a 220V 50Hz environment.

The software is open source and supports a the full range, so no issues

32 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

ENRAF will do just fine. Rosemount Emerson is more common in my old industry, but that is a bit of an over kill.

The data logger is still in transit, hope it will arrive before the rainy season.

 

Yeah I have used those as well.

But I cut my teeth on the old wire float level ENRAF 802s, now that was a headache. They eventually got replaced with the Radars when it was impossible to get spares.

I am planning to buy this device for my power monitoring, it is massively scalable in terms of the number is circuits it supports.

(And it integrates with home assistant)

https://circuitsetup.us/shop/

It looks like your trying to replicate the demin water system from your work ????

next just add in an enraf system

On 5/22/2021 at 1:29 PM, unheard said:

Would be interested to know how it went....

Did you end up with Bluescope or tile?

Yeah, they have fully come around to the Bluescope.

It helps that BS Lysaght came back with a good offer beyond just the metal sheets. They are going to provide a full system that will really cut down on the heat being passed through.

13 hours ago, unheard said:

You should have the last word on any styling decisions.

I wonder how that conversation went.

Ask them directly what's the basis for their opposition.

If they continue to insist on using tiles based on styling "concerns" then the only logical reason I can come up with is that they financially benefit from tile installations (sale commissions, volume kickbacks, etc, etc.)

I really believe that it is for styling reasons, we had a couple of other disagreements on other areas and they normally come around to my thought or I realize their idea is actually pretty good. (One example was my wish for a heat pump water heater, rather than instant hot water heaters. Once they learnt about the tech they are really interested to do it)

I think they are coming around on this point, but they just want to understand in more. Solar does not seem so common for Bangkok houses...

18 hours ago, unheard said:

Could you please describe your architect's concern?

exactly...I cannot see any concern...

They are trying to push me towards using Tiles to keep with the design styling, but I am pushing them towards colorbond instead. Normally they have been very good, but on this point they are pushing back a bit.

My feeling is that the concern really comes down too:

1. Mounting to solar cell frame through the colorbond

2. Potential for leaks at the mounting points

For me I dont see any issues here as long as they follow the best practices.

Does anyone have any experience putting solar on top of the colorbond?

Our architect send really worried about this, but I see no issues