chiang mai

Proving beyond doubt that Pattaya has at least one forex booth, bravo!

There are several methods of pegging to USD, hard pegged, soft pegged, managed float, crawling peg, basket peg and so on. NONE of those methods makes USD the currency of any of those countries. not even a little bit. So when you talk about the currencies of SE Asian countries, you have to describe the actual currency they use, not the one they wished they use.

No country is SE Asia has USD as it's currency, I don't think you understand the issue!

Pretty yellow, nice.

I've lived here for over 20 years, I've been to Pattaya at least twice a year, every year during that time (nearly always en-route to some where else mind you!). Anyway, how are you doing with that proof that GBP is one of Pattaya's most traded currencies, or that calculation of 200k British tourists as a percentage of total tourism, 32 million!!

Put another way, 200k is what as a percentage of 32 mill?

Remind me what percentage of tourists are British.

Currencies don't all rise and fall against USD, by equal amounts, they vary based on whether the currency is pegged or not and on the degree to which the economy is dollar dependent, eg imported oil

Those are BOT regulations, not rules made up by the booth. And nobody said forex in patts is a small business, only that the availability of gbp may be limited.

How can you possibly know what is the most traded currency in Pattaya, do you have proof of that? And since uk tourists represent only a small percentage of total tourism, I find that hard to even imagine as true.

I'm a Brit but that's not relevant. Forex booths aren't in the business of selling foreign currency, their primary business is selling baht and reducing their risk by not holding foreign currency, longer than necessary.

If any exchange booth has 2k or more, I'll be shocked

You think all those booths have stacks of sterling just say there waiting!

Nonsense........buddy!

In the UK/Thai DTA, at the TRD site, perhaps somebody will kindly provide a link.

That's correct, it is exempt

Indeed this is all very confusing. As you say, 100% of the income is taxable, if it is classed as pension income but if stocks or bonds, only the gain is taxable (allegedly), which if correct, appears to penalise pension income, which certainly can't be right. The bottom line is that we don't have enough information regarding the TRD treatment of these instruments and guessing at the answer or adopting home country solutions, probably isn't helpful.

The closest UK equivalent of an IRA is a SIPP, a self invested pension plan, I use mine to invest in stocks, bonds and cash, tax free. I know the value of my account every day because it's marked to market and of course I have a year end statement. But the account contains stocks and bonds which were they not in a SIPP, would be subject to CG. both in the UK and here. The fact those investments sit within a UK SIPP wrapper doesn't change their taxability in Thailand, remove the wrapper and they are bog standard stock market investments.

In practical terms it has to be so. We're back to this valuation of assets on 12/31/23 again and the next day effect of commingled funds. Unless of course the asset matures on 12/31/23 and not reinvested, in which case it's very straight forward.

You cannot manipulate the account to change the order of FIFO, quickly or slowly, temporarily or permanently.

I don't think that's clear at all, it's very ambiguous. The TRD Code doesn't describe or define savings, there is no mention of it anywhere, hence, using the Western definition is probably inappropriate.

It doesn't matter where you spent it, the issue is that you remitted it to Thailand.

POR 162 says that the assessability of foreign income earned before 31/12/2023 shall not be enforced. I agree with your assessment of things. Cash in a personal bank account falls easily under the rule, everything that is not cash in your account is an asset of some description. Whilst it may be possible in some cases to accurately value an asset as of the end of the year, the following day that asset becomes comingled funds that include income earned in two periods, one exempt and one assessable. Whether or not it is both possible and permissible to separate those funds, using the year end valuation or FIFO, is very unclear but I strongly suspect it is not.....opinion only. POR 162 only relates to funds that are in cash and in a personal bank account. Everything else is an asset of some type and despite being able, in some cases, to value that asset as of the end of 2023, the funds are not fully liquid and fully available.

I'm a Brit and am aware of Jim Gant's views on Roth and IRA's. I think there are issues there that are unclear/uncertain and I have fielded a question to Jim regarding valuations but have not yet read his reply.

Yet there is no facility within the Thai tax system to state what year any income was earned and TRD is only concerned with current year earnings. TRD is only concerned with remitted assessable funds, remitted funds are either assessable or they are not. If I work in country X and remit my earnings to my Thai bank account, in a year when I am not Thai tax resident, potentially I can evade tax in any country and that is the loop hole the TRD is trying to close. I think statement 14 is aimed at newly arriving expats, people who want to move to Thailand. I don't think it is aimed at existing tax residents.