Karma80

Because the yen is at an all-time low, and few Japanese want to leave the country. Meanwhile, Thai's obsession with all things Japanese continues, and with the Thai Bhat going further than ever, a large influx into Japan. Was that so hard?

I left Bangkok because of the pollution. Phuket's way better, but you trade PM2.5 for a whole other bucket of quality-of-life issues

$52k for your corporate membership, $19k for your ticket and then get yourself to Davos. You get to rub shoulders with all the prominent corporate slime lobbyists, the tone-deaf politicians, and the self-important people of the world at an event that is regarded as evil. Bargain.

This will hurt Thailand for years. They learned nothing from watching soaring inflation because of stimulus worldwide. And to borrow $15 billion to do it is incredible.

Then, spring the "details" on taxpayers retrospectively. Amazing Thailand.

Don't worry, just smoke weed and ride instead. Seems to work for some tourists in Phuket nowadays. What could go wrong? Sigh.

My head spins between the tourism is dead, and tourism is record breaking TAT drivel. What I do know is that high season in Phuket is not as busy as it used to be and many of the local businesses are quite vocal about it.

One small point. Vaping is not illegal anymore. The section banning it was removed in the 2019 update of the Consumer Protection Act. However, it remains illegal to import them. But that's a function of the Customs Act. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/no-vaping-and-vapes-are-not-illegal-in-thailand-heres-why/

Just another day at the TAT Office of Hopes, Dreams and Fiction.

Turning to a domestic tourism strategy will fail as well. Look at the sheer numbers of Thais going overseas to Japan. When covid was here, boom times because Thai's had nowhere to go. Now the flights are leaving. So are Thais.

Any regular business traveller from an APEC economy, of which Japan is, already has an APEC business travel card, which gives them 90 days visa-free to Thailand and all the other economies.

Except for the actual people who would vote us all out in a heartbeat.

Frankly, I'm surprised he hasn't sold off his family for overseas money at this point. Total benefit seen by actual people in Thailand since his socks graced parliament - none.

The Chinese side of my family has made it clear that Thailand is dangerous and Chinese shouldn't go. At least, that's what is being rolled out on Chinese "news" and chats. Once that gets traction, good luck with coming back from it. Ultimately, the CCP has a very good reason to try to keep tourism domestically focussed right now. The TAT machine stands no chance.

I'm going to plunge the country into debt, just so people can spend 10k at 7-11. Transformative? The sad part is that this was offered up as a bribe to buy votes, but never actually got them the votes. The people didn't want you here.

The PM is starting to ruffle a lot of feathers with dumb ass plans and helicopter announcements. Look what happened to your boss....

It's 21.3% for 16-24 year olds and 5% national average. In March 46.5% of 16-24 year olds were neither employed or at school, which means the figure for youth unemployment is probably higher in truth, but the qualifying criteria of "unemployment" is designed to push it down. Whichever way you look at it, that's quite troublesome for the economy.

China. Macua, HK. Domestic tourism in the economic slowdown has boomed.

This just dropped and worth watching:

True. But then thousands of people working in co-working spaces as digital nomads can't and would be liable for tax. 5% of Thai people actually pay tax regularly. 95% of people don't pay tax at all. When you put it into perspective, taking money out of an ATM with an overseas card, in a sea of millions of tourists, is not even on the RD radar this century.

More to the point, Non-O visas do not come with the ability to work, so in reality are little more than glorified tourist visas. The WP is just another level of ridiculous.

That's not true. Tax residency is residency as far as the RD is concerned. They do not consider your immigration status.

I couldn't agree more. Being a tax resident of a place with the lowest tax obligations is a no-brainer and forms part of my own strategy, and thousands of others no doubt. The problem with the RDs new (forced) interpretation is it makes Thailand far less competitive. Nobody wants to live through a learning period in a country with a really poor reputation for bureaucracy, flip-flops, implementation, corruption and policy instability. Not when your tax liability is on the line. Double taxation agreements or not, I choose not to have to dance through the hoops of fire to prove things to Somchai at the local RD. Anyone living in Thailand can attest that an active avoidance of anything official is the best policy. I appreciate for many retirees, the impact is next to nothing. But for others who are at a more enterprising point in their life from a business sense, Hong Kong or Singapore are starting to look a lot more attractive from a tax perspective.

Running in Bangkok or various other places would probably net shave a few years off your life due to the lung cancer risk exposure. That's if you didn't pass out from heat stroke. We should stick to the traditional sports of running to cross the road before you die, chased by wild dogs, and running to the 7-11 before they stop selling beer.

*Except for government ministers and connected HiSo, obviously.