nigelforbes

I understand the Mr Chemistry sets from Mr DIY and good for these things, perhaps that's an option for the OP if he wants to shave a few more baht off the cost! Yes I think that accreditation and certification is a deal breaker, why wouldn't it be, this is Thailand, not the UK, US or Europe. As far as your comments about range and the results being approximate are concerned, sorry but that's just nonsense. Two fairly insignificant errors in one panel reading can change the whole interpretation of the result because often the substances is in the relationship between readings rather than their position in a range.. Blood test labs here are accredited by ISO/IEC 15189 and ISO 15190 standards , certification is done by Council of Medical Technology.

Whichever lab you use, make sure the lab is accredited AND the operator is certified, if they aren't you may as well not bother. From what I can see the labs that have been posted don't appear to be accredited.

The Options Markets suggest that the Pound will continue to fall in value, until there is a return to fiscal discipline, regardless of the outcome of the leadership race.

"Statin therapies are not the cause of muscle pain in over 90% of those who experience symptoms, according to a new study led by researchers from Oxford Population Health. The results were published today in The Lancet and presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress". https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2022-08-30-new-study-shows-muscle-pain-not-due-statins-over-90-those-taking-treatment#:~:text=Statin therapies are not the,European Society of Cardiology Congress.

If you can cycle but not work I suspect its's not claudication and more likely to be spinal stenosis perhaps, I don't know, I'm not a doctor. But I do have similar problems and mine is 100% stenosis. You might want to try ruling out some things, an Ankle Brachia Test should point towards claudication or stenosis but it's not conclusive. A nerve conduction study is also a useful test to help pinpoint the cause, the former test is inexpensive, the latter is a bit more expensive. As for the doctor: spinal doctors are much easier to find than vascular surgeons so I'd go that route and let the spinal doctor rule stenosis in or out, either one can easily order the two tests I mentioned. Since you're not planning to have an operation you probably don't need to be overly choosy about the spinal doctor, any private hospital should be able to make a referral, you just want some diagnosis and tests ordered. That outcome should help determine next steps.

You may want to point out to the District Office that they are required by law to know details of all foreigners who live in their district along with details of their address, this is one of the key reasons the yellow tabien bahn exists. But there again you may not wish to point that out, it may only make matters worse. FWIW I have the same problem with my district office who sent me away to compile a long list of documents etc. Once I gave them everything they had asked for they said we'll call you for an appointment, that was 8 months ago,

The are hundreds of blood tests you could have, the question is, what tests do you need? The answer to that question is best determined by a doctor, based on your symptoms, your medical history, your age and your gender. Just walking into a lab and telling them to test you would be a complete waste of time and an invitation for them to empty your bank account! So, why not go see a doctor and and explain your symptoms to the doctor and let them recommend the half dozen or so tests that you might need.

I'm waiting for somebody to suggest Dynasty.

Shangri La everytime, Landmark is too close to Nana if you're with family. Anyway, Shangri La is a nicer hotel, I think. That said, the restaurant in the Landmark can be very good.

You're welcome!

I just spent 90 minutes with my UOB branch, it was both interesting and revealing. The short answer is that several of the banks addressed the issue of tax on savings account interest in different ways. At least one took the easy way out and deducts tax from all interest on all savings. Another bank wrote to each of their customers to obtain their permission to send individual account details to The Revenue to let them decide how to handle each customers tax deductions, this is because there is a data privacy issue involved. UOB appears to have taken a sensible pragmatic approach. They encoded everyone's tax ID in their systems with a leading digit, which determines whether all the interest is taxed or whether the first 20,000 baht interest is paid tax free. There seems to be a third criteria which is the account holder starts paying tax in month X, according to what happened last year......(anything above 20k is taxed and can be reclaimed from the Revenue via a tax return). The criteria that was used for this encoding was based on the average balance in the previous year and whether the account holder paid tax in that year. If they did, the probability would be that they would also pay tax in the current year so their account was encoded to collect tax in the same month as the preceding year. The flaw here is course is that balances may decrease yet tax continues to be collected in accordance with prior year balances. In my case, I usually keep seven figures in my savings account, because interest rates are so low it's not worth locking the money into a fixed deposit. (my guess is that poster gamblor doesn't keep large balances in his savings account which is why tax is not deducted from his account or that of his Thai family). Note: The tax on Fixed Deposits cannot be avoided and must be reclaimed via a tax return. In prior year I would visit the branch and get a tax letter which served as input to my tax return and allowed me to recoup tax paid. Last year I didn't, because interest rates were so low plus I seconded my funds to other duties for half the year, my interest and tax paid was minimal so I didn't file a tax return. This year, rates are still low but my balances have returned to 7 figures so I was surprised to see tax deducted in May this year. The reason for this is because May was the first month I started to pay tax during the first year this system was in place. The tax ID on my account has now been recoded and the first 20,000 baht of interest will be paid tax free. Huge kudos to UOB Airport Branch staff who got seriously involved in trying to understand the problem and find a fix, I was pleasantly surprised.

Yes, but only if the interest is under the 20k limit (not 100% confirmed or agreed by everyone here yet), thereafter it can't be withheld. Plus interest on fixed accounts can't be withheld (at least mine can't at UOB).

Wow, a residency certificate is required to get a tax ID, that's one of the most outrageous things I've heard here in over 20 years.

We were unable to reclaim the 5% tax on an RTF that was encashed early even though it was never used as a tax deduction, using that as a guide it seems improbable that you'll be able to reclaim the dividend tax either.

That building houses Region 1 and Region 2, it my help you to understand which tax region you live in. When I got my tax ID years ago I went there but was told to go to a special office in the town because that location didn't issue ID's, it sounds as though things may have changed since. I once filed a return at the Region 2 office (turn left at the top of the stairs) when I should have filed at Region 1 (turn right at the top of the stairs). It took weeks to get my tax return transferred across, even though they are both next to each other. It was also the case that only people who had been in Thailand for more than 183 days were capable of being issued with a tax ID, if your passport couldn't prove that or if you don't have a long stay long stay visa, a tax ID wasn't issued. This has been the subject of much debate on various forums, exactly what the situation is today I don't know.

Good luck with the exemplary customer service search. Any bank staff who excel in this area get promoted and transferred out, any who aren't will get assigned to manage your account (and mine).

You're well over the top with that one, I'm pretty sure that nationally the average is between 15K and 18k although the average in Bangkok is closer to 24k. In the NE it's likely to be closer to 9k, there's a huge disparity nationwide..

I'm pretty sure that WISE transfers are domestic transfers and don't incur a bank receiving fee.

As said previously, I also was having tax deducted until I got my tax ID and informed the bank, after which no tax was deducted. But that was over a decade ago, then, a few months ago, tax started to be deducted once again. I couldn't be bothered to address this point with UOB but your arrogance and borderline rudeness has convinced me that on Friday I'll go and have a chat with them to see what's going on. I'll post details of what they say.

This thread is not about FOREX investments either, as you well know! It's purpose, as stated in the first post, is to help posters understand how the FOREX operates at the global level and all that involves. Now please!

Please do not turn this thread into a discussion about how to trade FOREX for personal benefit, it's not about that. Thanks

A recent exchange with another poster prompted me to post an explanation of how the value of USD is reported for FOREX purposes. The following extract from Marketwatch explains nicely: "There’s a number of ways to judge the dollar’s performance and one of the most common is by using the ICE U.S. Dollar Index, which is calculated about every 15 seconds from a feed of spot prices on different currencies. Six currencies — the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc — are weighted against the dollar to come up with a calculation of how the U.S. currency is performing". https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-u-s-dollar-continues-to-soar-what-that-means-for-the-stock-market-and-investors-11666208052?siteid=yhoof2 There are a number of ways to assess the value of USD and each one has its place. The Dollar Index reports on the strength or weakness of USD in a FOREX context; the volume of Treasury notes issued by the Fed measures it on a credit basis whilst Foreign Currency Reserves asses USD strength from a trading perspective. It's only necessary to understand the Dollar Index to asses the current value of USD, the remaining two ways are used to determine the future direction of the currency.

You already know the answer!

There is an ASEANNOW thread on this subject dated August this year. If you really do want to remain informed, I suggest you read it and pay particular attention to the policy of KBank about which one poster wrote: "I phoned up KBank head office today to ask why WHT was deducted from interest on my accounts since providing them my tax ID#. They said it was a revenue dept policy to now deduct WHT from all saving interest accounts so there was nothing I could do more. I got the information about providing Tax ID# to bank to avoid WHT from this forum in the past, so obviously that was wrong".

I cannot post the link or quote the article because it is against the forum rules, which forbids these things where the newspaper that shall not be named is concerned. BUT, if you google, "Taxman: B20,000 Interest Exemption Still in Place", you will see the article in question. I believe what may have happened here is that some of us have not given our explicit approval for the Revenue review, this is because we were never asked, that's why we're being taxed.