Lorry

So, they do something about taxes. Not sitting on the fence and wait and see

Sitting on the fence if you remit 600,000 B/ year, ok. Sitting on the fence if you remit 6m B/ year - that would be incredibly stupid. But people who remit 6m B/year don't sit on fences.

Wrong. Some people should read the law before posting falshoods. It's 180 days, ie more than 179 days.

Very bad advice. There will be no government announcement later this year. Why should there be one? The rules are very clear since September 2023, nothing more to say. (Yes, some technicalities like FIFO or not are not clear - but this really has nothing to do with OP). Are you waiting for a government statement "we hereby state that from now on, people living in Thailand have to follow Thai laws"? And then you will wait for a statement stating whether they really mean it? It's not guesswork at all, what the rules are. It's reading work. Whether, when and how the rules will be enforced is, to a certain degree, guesswork. But to advise people to wait for a government statement "we will now enforce or laws" is very bad advice. They won't tell you

You will not be asked for taxes during your next stay in Thailand. Because during 2025, TRD will deal with all the people who filed taxes for 2024. But: if you plan a future in Thailand, you may run into the TRD later, maybe if you remit more to buy a condo, whatever. So I would make sure that I am clean if they ever check (3 years back is routine, 10 years back is possible). 3 easy ways for you: 1. Stay no more than 179 days in a calendar year 2. The numbers you told us are tax-free if you are over 65, married to a Thai, remit pension income 3. You can remit those 5000 from old savings, that you had already before 1/1/2024. If you remit old savings, these remittances are tax-free. You should be able to prove they are from before 1/1/2024, a good proof is if they come from an account that didn't have any money incoming since 1/1/2024.

I pretty much agree - as of today. But the regulations have changed. What makes you so sure enforcement won't change, too? Enforcement going 3-10 years back, of course. Hint 1: for years now, Thailand's tax net has tightened, remember the times where you wouldn't pay withholding tax on interest by opening a new account after receiving 20,000 B of interest? Remember the condo tax? Remember prompt pay? Hint 2: why would TRD employ all these new tax lawyers? You might answer, for the same reason they bought those airport bomb scanners. I hope, you are right.

I do this all of the time. Never any issues.

Not the immigration officer, but the tax official. He didn't flip through the passport, I had to give him copies of my passport, and he counted the days. 180 days in a calendar year makes you a tax resident. Depends on how much you brought in January, February, March. What I mean, is: if you could bring x USD without paying tax, and you bring a bit more, I cannot imagine you would have problems. If, for example, you bring 1000 USD more than would be tax-free for you, you should pay 50 USD tax. I don't think you will go to jail for this 90days report has nothing to do with taxes. Every foreigner who stays in Thailand more than 90 days in a row has to report to immigration, after 90 days. If he doesn't do this and leaves after eg 150 days, nothing happens. But if he doesn't do this and has for some reason to go to immigration after eg 150 days, immigration will notice it and fine him 2000B You have to add all the money you brought in the beginning of the year to the money you bring in autumn. And compare this sum (9000 USD maybe?) to what you can bring without having to pay taxes. The numbers 60,000, 190,000 etc have to be added. So, if you are over 65, you don't have to pay tax if you only bring 9,000 USD in this calendar year. No, they don't expect that.

It doesn't matter if you have no income in Thai baht. This only matters if you stay less than 180 days.

Yes, afaik (60,000 personal allowance for you, 60,000 for wife, 190,000 over 65, 100,000 expenses, 150,000 tax bracket 0%) Actually, I have no idea whether the wife has to be a tax resident ???

In theory, not sure - in practice, I wouldn't worry. Depends on many things, as @chiang maisaid. Read the linked pinned tax-thread. Check, how much is tax-free for you.

Agreed. But if this is a one-off trip, and OP doesn't have a bank account or condo, I wouldn't worry too much. If, however, he plans to spend more and more time here, possibly settle down in a couple of years, he may sooner or later meet the TRD - a d then a clean start would be good.

Some people who are now boasting that they will not pay taxes in Thailand may be in for a rude awakening (I mean those that are not just trolling). @chiang mai is right in every respect. For practical purposes: OP should check, how much he could bring in tax-free. If it's 500,000, the next question would be, does he spend more than 500,000 in 6 months? If so, how much more? If it's a trivial amount - see @ukrulespost. If its millions, I would definitely plan my trip in a way that I spend 179 days in Thailand, not 181. Yes, they can and sometimes do count days from the immigration stamps.

Tomorrow's headline: Thailand emerges as medical hub for Burundian patients

I don't use the apps. Used Cabb, which was very good for one year, then they told me I would have to order 24hrs in advance. Tried Bolt maybe 3 times, never found a driver. So I still use taxis, but often hard to get, I agree. Sometimes I take the bus, or I walk...I once took a motocycle to the airport, no taxis anywhere

It is not "technically" tax evasion - it is tax evasion. Por. 161/2566 talks about money you "bring in" into Thailand - นำเงิน...เข้ามา. And that's what you are doing. It doesn't prescribe by which means the money has to be brought in. This is so obvious that it's hard to believe you honestly thought otherwise. Wishful thinking.

It annoys me too, if I can't get a taxi, nobody wants to take me. Especially if I have no choice, like going to the airport. OTOH I often understand the drivers. I once had the smart idea to go to Prapadaeng at Songkhran - the driver regretted it, and I regretted it, too. The other day I had to go by taxi (I couldn't take BTS) from Phetkasem to Onnut, at 4pm. I knew it would be difficult to find a driver (and it was), so I allowed for several hours and didn't make any plans before 8pm. Several drivers apologized profusely, and helped me to find someone to take me.

And high risk includes frequently changing sexual partners, that's the majority of farang. When the old strain of mpox arrived here, people feared Thailand would be a perfect breeding ground. Close contact with frequently changing strangers has long been a main attraction of Thailand. Fortunately, it didn't happen. Hopefully, it won't happen this time.

Every single Western tourist I ever met has been scammed here - by taxi drivers, hustlers, market vendors, whoever. And every single one of them, without exception, told me how friendly and nice Thais (the ones who scammed them) were. How cheap everything was. How they only paid 500 B for a taxi (that, using a meter, would have been 250), only 80 B for a delicious bowl of noodle soup at a street stall, only 350 four a breakfast (egg, canned "bacon", " toast", instant "coffee") etc etc ad infinitum. I gave up to telling these idiots they got scammed - they don't want to hear it anyway. They arrive at the airport, haggle the taxi fare to Soi 71 (250B by meter) down to "only 700B" from 1000B, and are proud and happy. Farang tourists want to be scammed, get scammed, and everybody is happy. But I live here, and I am not happy to be scammed! Happens sometimes with taxis (rarely, but I don't go to places like Khaosarn), quite often at markets.

Lots of posters in this thread show frightening ignorance. Especially willful ignorance of hospital prices in Thailand. Travel insurances are often valid for a certain period, often the flight dates. Not always, though. The typical EU tourist has a policy that covers any trip he takes, as long as the trip is not longer than a certain period of time (usually 1 or 2 months). This kind of policy costs, in Ireland, 71.48 € per year - with Allianz, which is expensive. Coverage is often unlimited, the lowest limit I have ever seen from Western Europe was 350,000 €. You can get this kind of policy for 8 (eight) euros per year. Some policies extend coverage if you cannot make it home, some don't. Some exclude trips to the US. Dengue is by far the most common disease 36 y.o. tourists catch in Thailand. It can be life threatening (and deadly). If so, you don't want to be in a district hospital (a couple of years ago, a 21 y.o. foreign tourist died from Dengue, treated in a district hospital in the north. BTW a district hospital is the amphur hospital, not a real hospital in Western eyes - a provincial hospital like Nakorn Ping in CM is usually quite capable to deal with dengue). The new Qdenga vaccine from Takeda is available in the EU, but not easy to get. It is better than the old Dengvaxia from Sanofi, but it's not recommended for tourists. Recommrnded for people who live here and are not old yet (opinions differ about the age limit). An ICU in a Thai private hospital is the only place with 24h surveillance, because otherwise they have single rooms. So an ICU may really be just a room with a nurse and an iv drip. But often, the ICU patients require and receive intensive care. This seems to be the case here. A patient who needs constant surveillance will be put in the ICU if he is in a private hospital. But in the government hospital, he may be in the general ward under the caring eyes of 28 fellow patients and a handful of nurses/nurse assistants - if he just needs observation, not intensive care. 100,000 B/d is very cheap for ICU in a private hospital (it's the treatment, not the room rate, that is expensive). This is not Bangkok Hospital, they are much more expensive. BTW in the US, ICU isn't 2,700 €/d, more like 27,000 €/d, and many other countries like China, HK, Singapore have private hospitals that are much more expensive than the ones in Thailand. OTOH, the price of 179,000 USD for an airlift to Europe is very high. This can be had for 70,000 USD, if you are lucky. 120,000 USD should definitely be possible. Many (not all) private hospitals have double pricing. So do many (not all) government hospitals. In the tourist south, all hospitals have it. Hospital prices have skyrocketed during the last years, In the tourist south, they have doubled since before covid. In Bangkok Phuket Hospital, be happy if you get a bed at any price, they don't need you, you need them. In the rest of the country, if you had treatment a couple of years before covid, prices may have doubled by now.

Was that specialist in Thailand? If yes, who?

A lot of the social changes in Thailand happened mostly during the 90s and early 2000s. There were no social media then.

Allopurinol GPO is probably the cheapest. You can google if and where GPO has a pharmacy near you

Correct, but what you and most Thais call "polite Thai" is really formal Thai. Example: it is very rude, absolutely not polite, to use ผม to your girlfriend (I mean real gf like in the West, you and here being of similar age and status). Pronouns like คุน etc express distance, not politeness. Try "Ud." with a Spanish girl, or "Sie" with a German one. Not really. But they might get the impression you are cold, stand-offish - if your Thai is otherwise very good.

In my country (which is generally much more consumer-friendly than the UK) a bank - or any other big corporation - doesn't need a reason to kick a customer out terminate the relationship with a customer. Neither are they obliged to tell the customer the reason for their decision. The reps the customer can talk to probably can't answer his question because they haven't been told, either. I had a problem like this twice iirc Once I protested, told them I am not living in Thailand, which I could reasonably prove, and they accepted it. The other time it didn't bother me, I didn't need them anyway.