chiang mai

Exports and tourism, thay are the two money earners. But 60% debt means only 5% interest per year, that's a great deal.

60% of GDP is not big by international standards, neither is 70.

Same as Gilts or Treasuries, it monetises debt, as long as they time it right and watch the interest repayments load it will work out well. The IMF has been urging Thailand to increase its borrowings for years, which is why they have started to operate a small budget deficit which they then convert to bonds, I wish I could do that with my budget. 😞

Nevertheless, it's a great way to get out of poverty and make some money, with almost no tax, as long as they are prepared to work hard.

"The 2025 borrowing strategy includes 1.25 trillion baht (US$38 billion) in sovereign bonds, 140 billion baht (US$4 billion) through bond switching, 520 billion baht (US$16 billion) in Treasury bills, and 120 billion baht (US$3.6 billion) in savings bonds. The rest may be covered by promissory notes and term loans". The Bond Market mostly. Thai bonds have been in demand internationally for many years, which is why some have said they should issue USD denominated bonds also.

Cross posted from another thread. "If those street vendors work as self employed and take the standard deduction of 60% of sales as costs, that 300k per year maximum income can easily be doubled, assuming they can sell the volume (and many do). 50k a month for net income is at least three times the average national wage. Tax deductions for the self employed are effectively a government subsidy (and it used to be a 80% deduction!) except few realise that".

If those street vendors work as self employed and take the standard deduction of 60% of sales as costs, that 300k per year maximum income can easily be doubled, assuming they can sell the volume (and many do). 50k a month for net income is at least three times the average national wage. Tax deductions for the self employed are effectively a government subsidy (and it used to be a 80% deduction!) except few realise that.

"the UK-Thai tax treaty is worthless, i.e., you can't use the treaty's tie breaker language to determine which country has primary taxation rights, and the other secondary taxation rights?" I don't know the answer or how this reloves.

Me too, you're not alone.

I've read previously of the desire to issue US denominated bonds but as far as I'm aware it's still only a wish by a few. One of the main strengths of the Thai economy is the lesson learned from 1997 in that 96% of debt is denominated in THB, they'd be foolish to change that. EDIT TO ADD: Presumably if they do issue US denominated bonds they will be hedged back to THB in order to mitigate risk, I guess the appeal is exposure to the wider US bond market and the offshore element.

A fairly easy to read explainer which says that the SRT can make a person UK tax resident, even if the number of days spent in another country, makes them tax resident there also. Whilst technically not tax resident perhaps in the UK under formal rules, tax that arises there is still due and payable. The net affect being tax residency in two countries. https://www.uhy-uk.com/insights/becoming-non-uk-resident-can-you-escape-grasp-uk-taxation

Steals two bikes, one for each of his personalities.

I was pondering the pro's and cons of an index tracker, to fill a small void in my holdings so I read through some debates on various investing forums. The one point that kept being repeated was that Trackers are better than managed funds, because most managed fund managers, fail to beat the benchmark. I don't understand this, none of my funds have negative alpha, they are all at least +3% Alpha which means they beat the benchmark by at least risk adjusted 3%. I'm wondering why anyone would actually hold negative alpha funds, or is this just some old story line that people like to throw out in order to appear knowledgeable?

As far as AUD/THB is concerned, the same issues exist today that existed yesterday, the only slight upside is global market momentum has increased. The old saying is, markets up, currency down, and vica versa. That means that when interest rates fall, investors move out of low risk assets, into higher risk equities and bonds. AUD is not really in that game since its only movement will result from market momentum, ie, the entire market moves.

https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/explainers/drivers-of-the-aud-exchange-rate.html

No overseas or foreign borrowing/debt, all denominated in THB, smart.

Asian well markets up, FTSE UK already up, the blip didn't last long. US open in under 3 hours, they will soar today I reckon. https://www.investing.com/indices/major-indices

The bank transfers prove that!

Well, yes! @topt "It is possible to be resident for tax purposes in more than one country at the same time. This is known as dual residence". https://www.litrg.org.uk/international/double-taxation/dual-tax-residence

Not certain at all, far from it. The bill has to pass Parliament and receive royal ascent first. That process will take time and it's now nearly 4Q24. In order to be implemented by the 2025 tax year, it will need to be done and dusted in three and a half months time....highly unlikely.

Thinking about this some more: I don't know much about when the employer must deduct taxes from the employee and what category of employees are affected. I understand from others that Work Permit holders have taxes deducted from their wages and that the employer files the tax return, in some cases. I also know of Thai employees who are hired as daily workers but are employed full time, and they are responsible for their own taxes. It sounds as though your business is not required to deduct taxes, presumably because you are not a company structure (?) which means the employee is liable for their own taxes (?). Finally, when you say you have employees who earn a lot but don't file a tax return, what is the scale of that, say 400k or more (?). Cleary, I'm trying to fill in the gaps here so any information you can provide will help.

I've never been employed in Thailand plus I understand work permit holders tax returns are frequently filled by their employers, I didn't know if that was also true for some Thai employees also.

Markets bought the rumour and sold the news, it does happen. But Asian markets will rise today and Western markets will not be far behind....it's a blip thing.

TSH and FT4 are the important ones to check the thyroid, an extremely important and often ignored test (speaking as the person who had his removed).

Bump @advancebooking