Lorry

But what is the earliest you can file? Can you really file in July if you leave the country for the rest of the year? Practical importance: Retirees already have one fix date (ok, it's not one day, it's about a month) when they HAVE TO be in Thailand: the yearly extension. If you stay here longer, sooner or later comes a year where this is very inconvenient. Is there now a second period - Jan 1st to March 31st - where you HAVE TO be here at some time to file your taxes? IIRC foreigners cannot file online, I certainly won't try to file taxes online when I am not in Thailand. (there are 2 good reasons for me not to be here between Jan 1st and March 31st: air quality and tourists)

Is it possible to file a tax return for 2024 before Jan 1st, 2025?

There is a video of a discussion about the new tax rules at the French embassy. Discussion of this video on AN has been blocked twice, because the video is mainly in French. Moderator said an English translation or summary of the video would be ok. I listened only to the part after 56:17 minutes where the DTA between France and Thailand is discussed (about pensions), about 6 minutes. Summary: These 6 minutes are an incredible mess of different opinions in Thai, French and English about what the DTA says. Complete confusion. The participants of the discussion can't agree on the most basic things. What I take from this is: if the RD does something like this in front of cameras at the French embassy, I can imagine how I would fare if my view of a DTA is different from their views. There are many on AN, especially Mike Lister, who say don't worry, the DTAs will protect you. Others like me have always said the use of DTAs will be extremely complicated, laborious and expensive. The French video most definitely supports my point. On the other side, I know of one case where a provincial office of the RD was very knowledgeable about a DTA and it was smooth sailing along the lines of Mike Lister et al. Hopefully these people will prevail. This post uses English language only, please do not delete it.

Not possible to walk to the soi that leads into Government Complex? At the soi entrance, the are buses and motorcycles

Bringing in cash "under the radar" can have many variations (you may want to pay your next ST with a 50 or 100 dollar bill, the receiver will probably not report you to the BOT) - all of which I would consider illegal IF they reduce your tax burden. But IF your tax burden is zero anyway (because of low remittances, TEDA, DTA, etc) this is just one more layer of protection. It makes it more difficult to build a case against you. The same applies imho to usage of ATMs or paying with foreign debit cards. I wouldn't dare to do it to evade taxes, to obvious a paper trail. But it might be some additiinal protection if you are honest to the taxman.

Buy a condo from savings you had before 2024. Do not rent. Bring things to Thailand . Don't bring money to buy those things here (if price is similar). Remitting money is taxed, bringing stuff is tax-free. E.g. buy from iHerb (pay with your home-country account), not from a local (who imports from iHerb anyway). Buy your mobile at home, it just got 35% more expensive here. Spend your holidays outside Thailand, the family trip to Samet could become a family trip to Malaysia, which isn't more expensive but has a lot more snob-appeal. Pay in Malaysia with money from your home country. Buy air tickets abroad, don't buy them in Thailand (often cheaper abroad anyway) Do not be the banker for other people (mostly family), all must use their own accounts for their expenses. Do not sponsor too many girls with regular payments. There are other ways to help them.

Cow milk is very good if you want to turn a calf into a cow. Human children obviously are no calves, and we see in real time what happens if you feed them cow milk: all Asians now are getting taller, stronger, fatter... For an impoverished, undernourished kid in the industrial slums of Europe and North America around 1900 cow milk was a very efficient way to turn the kid into a strong industrial worker. And the calcium in milk helped to offset vitamin-D deficiency in their dark dwellings

That is one possibility. Declare it at airport of arrival or at airport of departure. The simplest situation is arriving in December and not leaving until you change USD cash in January. It's pretty obvious then that you brought this money in December. These situations will be of practical relevance for many snowbirds, who may in some years stay over 180 days in Thailand, in other years less than 180 days.

I know, but my question was: when (in which year) had the money been remitted?

Thx for this. How about bringing USD cash into Thailand, e.g. in December, but exchanging it after the tourist season, when the rate is often better. In your opinion, in which year has this money been remitted to Thailand? I guess in December, when you and the money physically arrived?

Thx

Bringing money into Thailand without converting it into Thai Baht: 1. Transfer money from abroad into a foreign currency account in Thailand 2. bring cash USD and keep it under your mattress, exchange it when the rate is better In these cases, has the money been "remitted" into Thailand when it was brought in, or only when it has been exchanged into Thai baht? How are these cases treated by the RD now? How does HMRC see this situation (Thailand might copy them)?

This is still not very helpful. Do you know how long Soi Onnut, for example, is? And it's all in Bangkok proper, whereas the places I really wouldn't want to be alone at 3a.m. are often in "neighboring provinces", e.g. Samut Prakan, deep in the sois off Sukhumvit. Having said that, I have often been warned by Thai friends that I shouldn't walk around in quiet sois after 11pm (like KhunLA, I used to be oblivious to the risks @kevozman1 mentions).

It is not possible to leave "no" digital traces. I don't even try to minimize them. But I don't make them unnecessary big. Especially if the "convenience" you are talking about does not exist imho. (As for the smart idea to integrate even the BTS card into your brain phone I recommend https://www.ft.com/content/26be349d-4717-4815-a221-a749e29de2b2)

Does anybody know how this bank letter is called in Thai?

I was almost going to click onto the video, thinking, oh, another video, this time with the Swedish ambassador... Never mind, you are from Australia, you are excused. (Most Europeans I know think that New Zealand is near Australia, whereas the distance between Australia and New Zealand is much bigger than the distance between Switzerland and Sweden)

Sure, but what's the point of writing it if you don't write it across/over the picture of the passport/ID? If it's written under or next to the picture, it can just be cut off. I have now heard of people signing a copy of their ID card (front side) without overwriting it. The thing I worry about is the backside of the ID card with the code.

Just a brick in the wall, as I said. A small brick. The holocaust needed many, many bricks. The example of the Dutch jews is very instructive. As for travel cards: if I were a Russian or Ukrainian abroad, I would not want anybody to know where I am. Or as few people as possible. And people from my country may soon join Russians amd Ukrainians.

Getting worse and worse. AIS 4G is almost unusable, downloading a pdf of 80kB takes 3 minutes, and that is if it downloads at all. True is soso, not very good. Next week I get DTAC, and today I will try TOT.

Sorry, this is not paranoia. It's just good old-fashioned privacy. When the Dutch government asked everybody's religion, the Jews saw no problem and dutifully made an "x" at "Jewish". The were living in a democratic country, after all. When the Nazis later occupied this country, they found this's lack of paranoia very convenient. All they had to do was round them up.

Agent asks for a copy of ID card, front side and backside, too, signed without overwriting the card. Just to apply for True online internet. I wouldn't do it, I have never seen someone signing the ID card without overwriting it. Dangerous in my opinion. I would just apply myself at True shop, safer. Am I right? Or am I overly paranoid?

It's not only the travel card. The travel card is just another brick in the wall. To buy a BTS 30 days pass you now need to download the rabbit app and pay from your bank account through the app (you then still have to go to the BTS counter to get your trips - so it's not even more convenient for the customer). Paying 7/11 with your phone is inconvenient (see the relevant thread), but it's the thing to do. Grab costs twice the price of a Taxi Meter, and you give them your data for free. Small, very small bricks. (Stafford prison - what is it made of ?)

? There is a whole literature about surveillance capitalism. Even in the banal AN thread "how to pay cashless at 7/11" posters found out what cashless means

The surveillance isn't, either

Use this card to withdraw only savings from 2024. That's 2 layers of protection.