chiang mai

The PI may not be the best example since the PI economy is reliant on remitted funds from overseas workers.

Correct

Sally Ride was a US astronaut, the first woman in space.

"The chosen location is ideal due to its deep-sea environment, which naturally breaks wind". Really?

I like the PI but I'd never live there, the beaches are massively better. Number one reason is the medical facilities are very poor, number two the PI is right in the middle of hurricane alley and it gets hit badly almost every year. A third reason is the infrastructure is poor, getting around from A to B is time consuming, unreliable and uncomfortable. Final reason is the food which must be some of SE Asia's worst. All those things said, the people are often much nicer and communication is often easier.

You're into the area of extreme what ifs. What if I remitted savings and they claimed it was income and demanded it be taxed? Well, the onus with taxation, the burden of proof, is always on the taxpayer to prove what they declared is true and correct. It's the duty of the Revenue Department to accept that proof or demonstrate it is false. if taxpayers can't provide proof then yes, they could be taxed. The short answer to the question is, make sure you have your evidence and proof.

How do you distinguish between informing the population and creating a worldwide panic?

DXY is nearly back to 100 which is a long fall from the 106 of a few months ago, I doubt the US wants a weak USD .....the fall over the weekend was a result of Powell's speech at Jackson Hole, confirming the September rate cut. 32? Possible but improbable is my guess, BOT will likely cut rates also in the coming months.

I'm sure that's fine with everyone, it certainly is with me. It's just that you can't pretend to everyone that the tax law is not legal and hasn't been communicated, which is what you wrote.

I never realised that was the case, thank you for that. It makes an even stronger case that no new law is required since things are only reverting to the norm.

No! But goodbye anyway.

The changes to the tax law are already legal and in force, nothing further is required. There is no new law, only a reinterpretation of an existing law hence it does not need to appear in the Gazette. The requirements have been articulated by almost every tax advisory service, the TRD in the form of the Revenue Code, various meetings across the country involving TRD and various embassies, etc etc etc.

Yes, technically you are correct, we already had the exchange earlier that the intent was to imply, "meaningful enforcement" rather than just the dictionary interpretation of the word.

There's a lot of truth in what you wrote, the problem is the mindset. Dealing with tax infractions is NOT like escaping police fines for driving yet that's the mindset many people seem to have. The easy and simple answer is to deal with matters up front and don't let the tax issue go unaddressed for a long time. For most people, the impact of taxes here will be either small or non-existent but you wont know that unless you do the numbers.

I stand corrected, a more recent article in the BP confirms that last year there was around 25% of tax returns filed:

Nobody forces you or anyone else to read tax threads, if you don't enjoy them, suggest you try a different topic. It's not your role to tell other members what to read or write in posts.

Yes indeed, but the foreigners don't understand how it all works, the locals do. Plus foreigners are at a disadvantage because of language, culture, expectations and reputation as ATM's.

Does this discussion really care about locals, their tax system has been in place for decades and they deal with it, in their own way. It's foreigners that are the new kids on the block. I didn't understand what reference you were using when you wrote vis vie fact and opinion. If you have concerns on that score, please feel free to ask me to clarify, any time.

I could not disagree more. The vast majority of readers of the tax threads have all undergone a steep learning curve to understand the basic mechanics of the Thai tax system and the issue that is involved here. I have read all the threads and I have seen that said repeatedly. A rough calculation shows that the various tax threads have seen over 500k views, that's half a million times that readers have come looking for information and from what I have read, had many of their needs met. If there are readers out there who feel uncomfortable about hearing what the tax penalties can be (and you keep mentioning this for some reason), they need to deal with that because they are reality and many people want to understand that, I know I do. I wasn't active in these discussions in the earlier stages but from what I have read here and elsewhere, the tax guide prepared by Mike Lister is not complete but it appears to have proved very useful because I have seen it linked and referenced repeatedly in various threads. Importantly, that appears to have been done at a time when there was very little else available. In more recent months, other entities such as Expat Tax have appeared and done similar things, they have answered questions that readers wanted answered. That you might not have similar questions, doesn't make you typical of the people who have been helped. That you think all this passing along of information and views has not been helpful, doesn't put you in the majority of readers on this subject. I don't mind that you don't like me or my involvement in these discussions but now that you've made your feeling known, get over it, this thread is not about your feelings towards me, message delivered, move on.

Nope, there's no evidence other than the logic of it all. Any move to tax non-Thai's is a huge step change that can't be only partially done. The only way to ensure full compliance is via the visa process and Immigration. If it makes you happier I can agree to to a word other than probable, not that it changes much that's meaningful.

Whatever makes you feel comfortable.....I get that you don't like anyone talking about tax and providing information, presumably because it scares you. I get also that you think anyone who knows more than you about Thai tax is a bad guy with no scruples or morals and is thoroughly untrustworthy. Sorry I can't help you.

There is a big difference between advising somebody and relaying the facts, I'm pretty sure that what I have done is to relay the facts/law/rules as I understand them. As far as whatifery is concerned: This is a social media discussion forum, I think members are well within their rights to hypothesise and offer opinion based on fact. If that sort of extrapolation of information leaves some people feeling uncomfortable I have to wonder why. It has been said many times by numerous posters over the past nine months that tax clearance certificates appear probable at some point in the future, failure to provide one would hinder the visa extension process, that's perfectly logical. Fictional? Yes. Probable? Yes also!

I have seen it said that the online system can handle returns for the past three years. I think I read that Mike Teave (?) filed past years returns successfully.

Once again, I don't foresee much chasing up at all. If I had to guess at how this will move forward, the model would look something like this: Phase I - current and maybe next one or two tax years - TRD ramps up staffing, comes up to speed on DTA's. The number of people filing tax returns for the first time increases markedly. TRD steps up investigations of high value remittances and audits more foreigners. Phase II - Organic growth of the tax net reaches a plateau, tax clearance certificates are mentioned increasingly, this probably causes more people to file returns for the first time. Phase III - Linkage in place between visa's and tax.

I would be extremely surprised to learn that the TRD intended to track foreigners period. From my dated and limited professional interactions with HMRC years ago,....no wait, I can't tell you that otherwise I risk appearing relevant or scaremongering or any of the things that some people accuse others of, when they say something, damn and blast! Oh what the heck, I'll say it any way.......... Revenue Departments don't need to track people when all they have to do is watch transactions and look at the reporting done by banks. When they see transactions that make them curious, they simply ask questions. Years ago I imported funds to buy a condo and BOT called me to ask what I was doing, that wasn't supposed to be part of the process and it wasn't written down anywhere, but they called nevertheless. 7 mill for a condo in the North was a lot of money back then so somebody decided to check, so I told them I was retired etc etc. Of course, when you've got Immigration....no wait, I can't say that, that's scaremongering, damn again. What I can safely say (I hope) is that it's an increasingly joined up electronic world which makes trying to do things discretely, difficult at times.