Karma80

It says a lot about your immigration policies when you lurch from one "buy one get one" offer per nationality to the next. Buy now! Limited time!

Exactly. The same story as China, was cheap, now not. Once the costs start to increase, it's off to Vietnam!

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world by a long way. I don't think that's something to be proud of.

I strongly oppose CBDCs and the perils of centralisation and agree. Governments cannot be trusted to act in the people's best interests. But I can't help but think that Thailand's effort is 95% utter incompetence and desperate clinging to power rather than there being an evil plan.

No. That's the point, you are plainly not. You are carrying on as if you are the CEO of a toxic company that's a nightmare micromanager. You have created instability, mistrust, and the people didn't even want you.

How many meaningless announcements does the PM make a day. I've lost track.

And let me guess, you're going to wave your magic economic wand, and everyone gets 10,000 Baht. Hey Presto - a thriving economic powerhouse.

That is pretty much my strategy now. Thailand is making it clear that the only people they want here are wealthy foreigners on an LTR who are exempt from tax on overseas income. Of which only 318 people have applied to date, so that seems to be working out well for the program - not. However with this new government, I wouldn't trust that the rules didn't suddenly change on you after investing here. At least I'm not one of the poor buggers that bought an elite visa thinking it would be part of a tax strategy.

None. Hence the speculation. It's one thing to send out a memo; it's quite another to change the law or obtain a ruling in the tax court. In typical Thai style, we could end up with nothing being clarified and things just being a mess for a couple of years as the waters get tested. Shame really. Thailand was the beneficiary of a lot of money which will stay offshore, and not just from expats.

I live in Phuket. Can confirm it's little Moscow. What a surprise...number one nationality for overstay is....

Quite probably. The system now mirrors Japan's non-permanent resident status, which you get for the first 5 years of moving there. Taxed on anything remitted into Japan in accordance with any DTA. Otherwise not. Like everyone, I am waiting to understand exactly how this operates in practice, badly I am assuming, and shelved plans to buy a property or transfer significant funds into the country.

I've yet to hear any credible argument as to why this program has a net benefit other than the PM trying to buy votes, because he surely didn't get them in the election.

I'm happy with my Toyota hybrid, thanks, especially in a country where scooters still fill up with gas sold in whisky bottles at the side of the road. Want to reduce emissions? Improve public transport infrastructure rather than wait for the top 1% to spring for EV's.

That is of course true. However, it will be very interesting to see what happens in the legal challenges which will no doubt be filed in the tax court. A couple of paragraphs from the Director General of the RD, on the instruction of the PM, does not make law. And this is perhaps the sad part about it all. An environment of uncertainty has been created, and all to pay for a promise of helicopter dumping cash on voters, even at the cost of economic pain for several years. Thailand has the opportunity to leverage its developing status, but instead is blowing it up.

Give that man a medal for calling out the digital wallet snout in the trough circus.

Actually, I think Palestine and Israel have a "few" more than the US or Thailand. But lest I forget, Thailand is the centre of the universe...

We already have digital payments in Thailand via the banking system. This wallet is a competing "currency" issued by the government via the central bank. The difference is they exert control, program where it can spent and at high level is just being used as a bribe to force people into the tax system with the lure of money being spent at their business in this one-off windfall. So who is paying for it? Every single adult, through the widening of the tax net and buying into a dystopian government digital IOU system. I sincerely hope that people in Thailand spend the 10k, get the money bank into the real banking system and dump it. However, the notion of "Super App" means that the government wants you to continue using it, and by "want", I mean to force you by restricting access to other services in future.

Money before morals. I don't care that there are Russians here, and heck - I would leave if I lived there too, but that's a poor look.

To be honest, I've lost track of which ministers, senators and politicians have criminal pasts. I just assume the majority do now and since they made merit, they are now outstanding members of the community. 😛

They already stay here anyway. You would be surprised how many "students" there are in Phuket or just plain overstay. They constantly list number one nationality in Phuket immigrations overstay charts.

Alternative headline: An Indonesian online travel agent report 50 flights booked compared to 10.

Or blind nationalism. Easy to be eager to run back home to fight when you have an overwhelming force, opposing a strip of rubble with a couple of US battle fleets parked there as overwatch. I wonder how many would be so quick if they were Russian and facing a meat grinder.

On the bright side, Thailand pushing forward with it will likely just be an exercise in how to screw your economy for no reason. Sure, people will spend 10k, in the nominated businesses that they can use the walllet - because it's free. Then they will just go back to using cash and prompt pay. Businesses will still enjoy instant transfers. Prompt pay will continue to drive instant settlements across ASEAN. The cost will be a decade of debt and inflation. This government will just point fingers and the whole mess becomes a footnote in the encyclopaedia of incompetence, now several volumes deep.

Drown out the voice of economic reason with your greed, please. A decade of debt for you to blow 10k, but only at places we tell you.

Still conscription. For the poors.