Why Me

Reviving this topic with a question. Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere as I am sure many are in the same situation.

My last 90-day report was due April 9 when online was down. All my previous reports had been done online. So this last one I sent in by mail - mailed Mar. 30, received April 1. But haven't gotten back anything yet. Went in online just now to check status. Shows all the old reports but not the current one.

What to do? Wait some more? Go to MTT? Obviously no point redoing the report online now as it will be rejected for being late.

4 hours ago, dddave said:

each person standing on their assigned little square. 

555. There is a uniform distribution assumption but this is not it. Hint: It has to do with the disease.

Ok, so you figured it out. But it is a fair premise if you don't have added info to bias the population you are interacting with.

14 minutes ago, xylophone said:

If I ever get in the same situation again I will DEMAND that a culture be done on the sample.

Totally makes sense. And only a doctor can order a culture. And then it's what a 24hr. turnaround to start the correct treatment. So the OP or his friend or whoever should head off to a urologist instead of experimenting on his cock.

29 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Even the doctors here often don't bother recommending getting tested. They tend to treat first by trial and error

Shouldn't the doctor decide? I just went through this thread and a bunch of recos for drugs but no one has a name for what it is.

The poor chap has a bunch of symptoms. He should see a doc and get diagnosed to begin with to my mind. His penis is not something for a man to play around with. Well, you get what I mean.

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I'm guessing he used drugs to win over his victims much more than charisma....

He seemed to make friends first, win their trust and find out what they owned. Man definitely had more than just a menacing smirk and a powder in his pocket.

And I don't know if the part about Suda is an embellishment or not. But if it is true then that is a testament to a gifted loverboy. For a foreigner to seduce a hiso Thai gal is not easy at all:-)

On 4/15/2021 at 5:36 PM, katana said:

The actor playing Charles Sobhraj in the series portrayed the character in such a way that in almost every scene he sat there in his dark glasses overtly exuding menace and danger like some kind of Bond villain. Bizarrely the other characters seemed not to notice.

Exactly what I thought. One-dimensional and occasionally tiresome. Obviously, the man himself had a disarming charm and charisma to win the confidence of his victims.

On 3/25/2021 at 6:54 PM, Sheryl said:

As for hospitals, their main concern is getting paid. But given the choice they'd rather a self-pay patient (who has sufficient funds) anytime over an insured one simply because it saves them a lot of paperwork and also some uncertainty (insurers may dispute certain charges etc).

Sheryl, I see where you are coming form. But I've always thought another plus of being insured is that the hospital is confident of being paid and will proceed with treatment without hesitation. Now, this might be the case too for a familiar patient.

However, if an unknown person is wheeled in after a serious health event and the doctor says we need these tests done right away and have to prepare him or her for surgery, I can see the manager of a private hospital (quite reasonably from their point of view) asking if we can't tread water for a few hrs. till we know how it's all going to be funded. And I would hate to be in the fellow above's situation if I am sick, drugged and in barely coherent state of mind:

On 3/25/2021 at 5:25 PM, JetsetBkk said:

So I was drugged up to kill the pain, showed to the taxi rank and sent to my bank to withdraw about 200,000 baht.

8 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Long of the short the broker went to bat for me and came back with a 15% discount which brings it back to $3,136.50USD, so an overall increase of $811.50 USD is better than a $1,365USD and I still get to have my pre-existing coverage.

Good for you and your broker. I too started with David Shield a few years ago and was happy with their service, never made a claim though, till a couple of years in when I got some data from AA Insurance which suggested a possible stupendous premium increase at the next age band which I was approaching. Your experience seems to bear that out but it's great negotiations limited the damage.

I didn't wait. Because I didn't want to risk crossing into a new age band and then finding other insurers giving me a hard time for wanting to join late. So I fled to April France a couple of year ago which you were considering as well. Again, haven't made a claim yet. But from what Sheryl said about her experience no worries dealing with them.

Just now see GetMyPayment says the stimulus amount is to be deposited to my CU ac. in the US on Mar. 24. Finally they see the light after mailing checks to Thailand the last two times:-)

3 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

HIV vaccine may be available in a year

Seems trials have been running in our backyard. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_vaccine_development :

Many trials have shown no efficacy, but one HIV vaccine regimen, RV 144, has been shown to prevent HIV in some individuals in Thailand.

7 hours ago, RJRS1301 said:

In another tread you posted on PrEP, a poster felt the health tests required for supply of the drug, sucked.

That was me and I was blissfully ignorant at the time. It was a great thread though and my thanks to the OP for enlightenment.

NRA 8     USA 0

Dang they keep winning.

22 minutes ago, Pib said:

I've never used the IRS Direct Pay method but isn't each tax payment you make via Direct Pay is a one-time thing even if you are scheduling a future payment....and the IRS Direct Pay doesn't save personal information like bank acct for future use....each time you use Direct Pay you reidentify yourself versus being issued logon credential for future use.  It's kinda like an one time pull of funds from your bank acct.  Basically it's for sending money "to" the IRS but not for the IRS to send you money like a tax refund or stimulus payment.  

Yes, you have to identify yourself each time by giving personal details plus answer questions about a prior tax return. So you are probably right it's a once and done deal and no sender data is retained.

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Sounds like you didn't provide bank acct info for your 2019/2018 returns (if you filed) for stimulus payment #1 or #2.   The IRS first looks to see you have filed a tax return to determine if you qualify for payment.....if they had a 2019/2018 return from you they used the info on the latest of the two returns to process you payment. 

I've filed a tax return every year since I moved here several years ago. I owed taxes last few years which I paid via Direct Pay from my CU. So they do have my bank info but I think the problem is that they don't want to send money to an account from which taxes have been paid because the filer may not be in control of the account, while they would trust an account to which a refund is sent. (Even though in my case the name on the ac. and the filer's name match).

But all this should be moot if they just said, ok we don't have a bank ac. we can trust for him to get his money, but hey here's an SS ac. he draws from.

3 hours ago, lexilis said:

The Get My Payment site is still showing "Payment Status - Not Available" for me. Hope that is not indicating some problem.

Same for me. I don't think it's a problem. Just that the data isn't accessible yet. Incidentally, from the reports I see on TV those that get their payments deposited directly get info at Get My Payment more quickly than those with an address to mail to.

My last two checks were mailed to me in Thailand which is annoying because my SS is direct deposited to my CU in the US so they have that info. But they insist on going by the address I use to file my tax return. At least none of the checks have been lost.

2 hours ago, BKKTRAVELER said:

I see one big flaw in their area quarantine proposal. The main reason they keep you in quarantine after testing negative on the third day is because of cases that occurred in which people tested negative at first and then positive later on (10th, 11th day). That means that people passing the first test can still be positive later. 

 

Now, it seems people will be allowed to mingle with others within the hotel limits. What if someone that passed the first test but is still actually a carrier gets in contact with someone on their 13th or 14 day of quarantine and give it to them? This person may end up going free the next day and spread it later on.

Probability 101. Testing negative on the first day might mean x% chance you might turn out positive down the road. Testing negative on both day 1 and day 3 and the chance drops to y%, where y << x, which is deemed an acceptable risk.

I don't have the numbers obviously but there's data around if you look and I bet that's on what they based their decision.

A question for drone gurus. I have zero experience flying one but am wondering if there is a mini drone I can fly indoors. I live in a fairly large apartment and the thought of a little thing buzzing about tickles me.

I guess it would have to be something that's not only tiny but stable at low height and low speeds plus be very responsive to controls as obviously there is little room for error.

Is there something for me out there? Or should I stick with wasting my time on Netflix?

1 hour ago, cmarshall said:

You cannot contribute income that was excluded by the FEIE.  You can only contribute income above the cutoff for the FEIE.

I contributed to my ROTH while working here when almost all my income fell under FEIE. But the operative word I understood was the second E = Earned. As long as the income is earned it can be used to contribute to the ROTH.

That's what I understand and what I did for years. I just found this

which suggests FEIE amounts must be added back in to determine contribution limits, but are not excluded from being contributed. Which makes sense, because if the government is going to say some of my income is not taxable per se, then they shouldn't come back and tell me, well you want to save some of it do you, now you have to pay taxes.

Of course, course ROTH contributions can't be deducted from earned income in the given year. They just grow untaxed.

1 hour ago, tcatsninfan said:

he said that whatever money I contribute to a Roth has to be declared on my taxes and is taxable, and it also isn't covered by the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.

I would say that the first part is right in that it "has to be declared on my income and is taxable (or FEIEed, but shown on the return)". The second part is wrong.

I will defer to a CPA but damned if I will go back and change anything. Heck, I contributed from my income here to a ROTH for years of which several were when I hired a professional tax preparer and I was audited too (for unrelated issues) a couple of times when I assume my whole return was scrutinized by the IRS.

Added: OP, if the ROTH contribution is your concern I would suggest get an answer from the horse's mouth. Call the IRS help line. Make sure to be informed about ROTH IRA contribution limits first or you may end up confused.

Otherwise, your return might be quite simple. Unless you are in the multimillionaire class or some weird category like a blind lesbian head of household with a common law wife and two kids adopted from Tanazania, you should be able to do your own return in a couple of hours. It's fun. Try it.

Just found this list I have saved from years ago from the US Embassy re expat tax preparers in Thailand.

tax_consultants.pdf

To the OP:

I used to use a US-based tax preparer till a few years ago. Until I figured out that all she was doing was plugging my numbers into her software and charging me for what the machine spat out. Even then she was getting things wrong.

So I fired her and set out a few hours that April to do my own and have been doing so past few years. If your taxes aren't very complicated it's not hard if you follow the instructions, every schedule/form coming with its own set. The one time I did need help I called the IRS Help line (yes, they have one and its free).

Could I ask what schedules/forms you typically file? Just curious how complicated your situation is.

9 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Your domicle, obviously.

Obviously but I have had a Thai address on record with the AT&T card ever since moving here nearly 20 years. There's been regulatory overhead since 9/11 for any US financial operation to do business with international clients. I guess a recent cost benefit analysis by Citi concluded expats aren't worth the trouble anymore.

9 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

OK. Your CU has your Thai address?

Yes. I called them yesterday and asked if it could be a problem. Was told, no, they have many members with international addresses. Fingers crossed.

On a related note, Fidelity where all my investments are has been sniffing recently at my domicile. I used my brother's US address to open an account with them. But because I've called them from Thailand they've become suspicious.

What I understand is that they don't close the ac. for an international address but "restrict" it. One restriction being mutual funds are not available, but ETF's are ok.