chiang mai

Of course I agree that prices are higher now than they have been in the past, they are in most countries in most economies.....prices rarely fall on a sustainable basis. I'm sorry you don't agree that if the Baht weakens against USD that imports, especially oil (which is priced in USD) will cost more, what can I say!

3M India says: "Our lab test data shows that when the AC filter is used as recommended, i.e. covering about 70% of the air inlet area, the airflow reduction is small (10 – 15%). As the airflow decreases, the exit air temperature would infact further decrease slightly, which would help cooling, not reduce it. Overall, if the AC filter is used as recommended and replaced frequently, its impact on cooling is minimal. Do let us know if we can help you in any other way."

No! If you cover the entire screen, you place extra load on the compressor as the Filtrette becomes more heavily contaminated and you run the risk of icing. At a minimum, it increases your electricity consumption costs.

Yes, every day for the past 21 years. You may think you already have that now but a Baht at 45 would mean way more expensive costs.

It's Boys in Brown, Men in Black, CANISAM, sheesh!

If your wish comes true, you also get very high: - petrol/diesel costs - electricity bills - transportation costs, which means everything will cost more - inflation - extremely expensive imported goods Be careful what you wish for. -

Yes. Filtrette by 3 M, cover two thirds of the air intake screen only.

Diesel was capped at 30 whilst the rest were allowed to increase and reached over 40. The government then released the diesel cap and increased it slowly until it's where it is today. Diesel has been artificially low for a long time, in order to keep transportation costs from climbing.

I did the same think with alcohol also, it had always been a part of my life since I was 16 years old. Stopping was amazingly simple, boring but easy.

More precisely, THB was hard pegged to USD under IMF rules, it was the releasing of that peg that cause THB to float.

The Baht itself is not strengthening, it's only USD that's weakening, there is no economic reason why THB should strengthen anyway. Tourists selling their respective home currencies against THB doesn't cause THB to strengthen. It's only when USD is sold against THB that happens. And tourists who sell USD for THB are far and few between, most of the USD that is sold for THB comes from the settlement of export bills which are denominated in USD. So when Thailand exports something overseas, a majority of the trade bills involve USD in settlement.

You think too much.

If, if, if! Most retirees have simple tax needs plus most people who have commented on the negative tax impact, haven't done the math. There will be some who need to reorganise their wealth and maybe even their living arrangements but for the vast majority, there's no impact. For most people this is a fear of the unknown issue and not real.

Not the 130,000+ retirees who have homes and families here they wont. Don't forget, many of us have already seen 37 Baht per Pound and know we can adjust back to that, it's only the newer arrivees that have been spoilt on covid related exchange rates.

The strangest thing ever......I decided to stop after 35 years of smoking and I did. I went to bed telling myself that tomorrow I'll be an ex-smoker, and I was. Since then I've never even thought about smoking and have never had craving or withdrawals. It just goes to show that you have to get your head right on this and it will be easy.

Fuel costs are heavily regulated in Thailand. There is a Fuel Subsidy Fund (FSF) operated by the government which regulates the price. When oil import costs are high, the FSF subsidises the costs, when the cost of oil is low, the FSF claws back some of the subsidy.

So will the public because oil and gas imports will be cheaper hence utility costs and transportation costs will be low.

I want to understand the rules and circumstances by which employers in Thailand are required to withhold income tax from employees wages and forward them to the TRD. I understand the rules vary based on the employment contract and status of the employee, the type and size of business involved and whether the employee holds a Work Permit or not. If anyone can shed light on the above, it will be most appreciated. The reason I want to understand this is in order to understand why so few people are registered for and/or pay income tax. My current understand from previous discussions, is this: 1) All Work Permit holders must have tax deducted by the employer who also files a tax return on their behalf. 2) Only businesses that are legal entities can with hold tax from employees. If the business is NOT a public or private limited company, or a partnership, it cannot. 3) Any business that wants to with hold tax from an employee, must register with the Revenue and establish an account. 4) Self Employed employees manage their own tax. 5) Hourly paid employees who work a full week, also can be required to manage their own tax. I don’t want to second guess the answer but I think we may find that many/most small/medium business are run by the self employed who don’t have to deduct tax and who employee hourly workers on weekly contracts. Self employed status is very inexpensive to operate, has almost no administrative overhead and comes with lots of great tax breaks. This is pretty close to working cash in hand and helps explain why the informal labour market is so huge.

Long term average over past 20 years is around 32, as long as it stays in the range of 31/33, exports and importers shouldn't complain. https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/currency

Borrowing can be OK or even good, if it's for the right reason and the existing levels of debt are not too high. Borrowing to undertake major infrastructure build outs such as airports, hospitals and roads, allows expensive projects to be done earlier, all of which benefit the economy and the population more quickly. Borrowing to fund unexpected and unbudgeted costs such as covid for example, allows subsequent budgets to proceed along "normal" lines rather than having to be cut to pay for something that has already happened, that had no benefit to the economy. Servicing the debt each year is a tricky balancing act, the problem is that excessive debt becomes difficult to service and only leads to new debt, unless the country is disciplined and is able to avoid becoming addicted. Thailand learned its lesson from the 1997 crash, thereafter its debt load was small to non-existent and every year the same level of budget was put forward, for several years the debt level was reduced to low levels. But it's difficult to build roads, airports etc using revenue income alone, especially when not many people pay tax and those taxes don't increase. If you look at the graph below you'll see the country's debt to GDP ratio over the years and you'll see how covid has affected things. If you dig in to each years debt, you'll see that most of it resulted from subsidies to the poor and for agriculture, in other words, government giveaways in order to stay in power. https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/government-debt-to-gdp

I'd like to understand the rules of when companies must deduct tax from pay, for what classes of employee, in what size or types of business because there seems to be different rules in operation. But a[[reantelt, either this is classified information that mustn't be divulged, or, nobody knows.

Awww, too difficult and confusing eh!

Yes, but you can argue this a number of different ways. You could say that at least the country doesn't have massive social security/pension costs hanging over its head plus it's free of unions. Plus the debt level is not that high by comparison and it's all Thai debt, not foreign. In those regards the country is still its own master and not obligated externally. Western countries are now on the cusp of having to take things away from citizens because of massive debt overhang, Thailand at least is still at that point where it has an opportunity to get the way forward right, for everyone's benefit.

UK news just released: "Debt hits 100pc of national income for first time since 1960s". The Pound fell as a result, as did UK stock markets, which just underscores the point about borrowing too much.