Lorry

Could you tell us how you know this?

It's the normal way, even the international hospitals may insist on one if they feel you shouldn't be left alone in your room (they can usually organize one, at a cost)

I agree, and make that 99-99.5%.

The main benefit all foreigners here enjoy, and that's based on taxes: you live in a more or less functioning country, with infrastructure including a legal system (laws and law enforcement) There are roads, you don't get robbed if you go out without your gun, there are doctors and hospitals, there is a usable currency and there are banks, and and and... there even is a weather forecast. There are plenty of places in the world where you don't have to file taxes: Haiti, Somalia, the highlands of Papua, Western Sudan, Antarctica, international waters... Even Cambodia doesn't force you to pay taxes. But only one member actually moved there. He writes he is happy there. Most of the others prefer to stay in Thailand and complain. (BTW half of Cambodia's formal GDP is the scam industry, based on kidnapped and trafficked foreign slaves) https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/05/transnational-crime-southeast-asia-growing-threat-global-peace-and-security

You can find this kind of attitude not only in Thailand. Thais deal with it by agreeing completely to the doctor, and, once out of the door, ignoring his advice if they don't like it. BTW the amount of nonsense a doctor hears from patients in his lifetime is quite amazing, and tiring. A guy I know stated on a questionnaire that he was completely healthy. He had no legs, they had been amputated in the Amazon because of sepsis. He also had exactly 26 other diagnoses. He honestly didn't think that he wasn't completely truthful.

So, should oneput a 10B stamp on thd self addressed return envelope or better 40 ?

How to pay for EMS on the SASE? And: mark the return letter with the letters "EMS"?

https://thailand.go.th/issue-focus-detail/001-01-053 Seems only foreigners with PR are supposed to have it, that's not many people. Retirees are just tourists, they do not reside here in the view of the Thai government.

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To call a published rule of the TRD a rumour... I have heard of a rumour that drivers should stop at a red light. Just a rumour. Taxing people doesn't give the tax payer any rights at all, in any country. Example: Many slaves foreign workers in the middle east pay taxes there - that doesn't give them any rights.

Only 2 Chinese banks have ATMs in Thailand. ICBC has quite a few ATMs but charges those 220 B. Bank of China has very few ATMs and doesn't accept VISA. They do accept Mastercard/Cirrus, whether they charge 220 B for using those (from a third country) I don't know.

Is the 190,000 B allowance for people over 65 applicable already for the tax year in which you turn 65?

Logic sides with @JimGant The statements of the TRD in the embassy videos side with @chiang mai, the sniff test, too. This is the 27th time we discuss this, nothing new here. Related: buying stuff from iHerb, paying with my foreign CC, and have it sent to Thailand - is this a taxable remittance? I would say no, anybody disagrees?

It's a criminal offence to take food that's near or just over the expiry date and thrown away by the supermarket (many tons every day) out of the garbage container. They call it theft. Scavenging is also forbidden at railway stations, gas stations, airports, subways, wherever. In theory, it is legal at a public trash can in the street. In practice, public trash cans have been abolished. Yes. Trash is metuculosly separated, the trash police will fine people who throw things into the wrong container. It's all collected, nationwide, put onto big ships and shipped to South East Asia (before 2018, China) to be burnt in the open, eg in Laem Chabang.

Agreed - but of course it's enforceable. Enforcement will be unworkable for us, not for the TRD. That's why I call it hostile.

Easy. Let's say, if you aren't here in the year you remit the money, you just fly here, file your taxes and pay them, then fly back. If your Thai is good enough, you may even do it online while abroad. No problem at all.

Exactly, very well explained.

Illegal in my home country. I have often seen bullying and physical aggression between Thais, and sometimes between Thais and foreigners. I have never seen it directed at homeless people. That doesn't mean it doesn't occur, but it's not the typical Thai way to deal with them.

It doesn't matter much for people who live here more or less all year. It matters a lot for snowbirds (or others, who stay here part-time, like O&G), No snowbird I know has ever wasted a thought on Thai taxes. Now, they will have to carefully plan their stays in Thailand according to the tax situation, keep good records, especially documenting when the money they spend here was earned. I am sure they will like this a lot, everybody spending a whole winter on Thai beaches must miss tax forms.

Does the IO at the airport know what flavor of DTV you are on?

One thing I have always like in Thailand that they leave the poor and the mentally disturbed in peace. There is no social safety net, but at least it's not a punishable offense to sleep on the sidewalk, like it is in many rich countries.

Agreed. In a year you are not a tax resident, you will still be obliged to file a tax return if you remit money in this year that was earned in some former year when you were a tax resident. A snowbird who is a tax resident in 2025, but not in 2026, should be careful not to spend money in 2026 that was earned in 2025. At the very least, even stays in Thailand of only several months will require careful tax-planning. Doesn't sound like my idea of fun.

Their Q&As say just the opposite: Income earned in a year you were not a tax resident will not be taxed even if remitted in a year you are a tax resident (practical importance: a Thai working for several years in Israel can repatriate his Israeli earning whenever he wants, they won't be taxed in Thailand). Income earned in a year you were a tax resident will be taxed whenever you bring it to Thailand. They didn't say this explicitly, but by omission, and their Q&As have always sounded like this. I didn't dare to believe it, because the practicalities would be mind-boggling and would need a new system of filing taxes. (I have written about it early in the first tax thread). Now PwC are the latest to confirm it - you cannot get much more authoritative than that. In the current system of filing taxes, this is impossible to enforce (as Yumthai has pointedout). That's why I say "hostile". Good decision.

This was to be expected, see the TRD's Q&A No idea how they will enforce this - tax bills for people who may not be here for years (the only way I can think of would be a WHT on all foreign remittances). Tax bills for remittances from income earned years ago. This seems to become a very hostile tax environment.

The pink card itself is not worth much (people always quote national parks, I don't do national parks, wherever in the world). Together with the yellow book, it can be quite useful, like getting resident prices at private hospitals, or no need for CoR for drivers license. But you don't want to carry your yellow book to carry around with you, it was too difficult to obtain. It always depends on the person you are dealing with.