TroubleandGrumpy

That is a good point - taxation is very country specific and each DTA ia also different, therefore it is very hard to discuss anything in too much detail with any certainty.

Well said stat - I think that perhaps that is how this open and broad discussions about the issue should progress. Those wishing to deep dive and discuss hypotheticals are gioven free rein, and Mike can sit and watch and take what he sees as any 'certainties' and adds them to the guide, and add any unresolved issues (like Gift taxing and CGT taxing) to the list of unknowns if there is no resolution or agreement reached.

I have no intention of scaremongering - I am sure most people realise that. I am pointing out that the TRD and every Office of the TRD is unlikely to have a complete knowledge and undersdtanding of DTAs and how they apply to Expat's govt pension payments - which a lot of Expats here in Thailand either totally or partially rely apon to live here. I am therefore stating that IMO the TRD will not be as easy and smooth to deal with for any country's DTA Statement removed by Moderator, untrue. I am not scaremongering - I am disagreeing with your claims that TRD will be easy to deal with Statement removed by Moderator, untrue. Sorry Mike but my histpory of living in Thailand on/off since 2010, is that there is no guarantees when it comes to dealing with the Thai bureacracy - the ony certainty is uncertainty - and IMO that will not change in my lifetime.

True - but that depends on whether TRD decides to tax home country Govt age Pension payments remitted into Thailand - or if they give them a blanket exception. We have had the debate before as to whether it applies in all cases or not under DTAs, so lets not go there again. Suffice to say that Expats will try their country's DTA if possibly gives them any chance of not paying income taxes on their Govt Pension payments remitted into Thailand.

If the topic was fixing the gearbox from a 1957 Chevy I would know most of the terms being used, but I would not have a clue either. Quite frankly most of the current discussions here are 'hypothetical' - and most of the the rest is debate about the interpretation of certain parts and sections of the Tax Code, and how they may and may not be applied to Expats. Moderator removed baiting flame that is untrue. Until the TRD provides their much promised 'clarifications', and be assured there are a lot more issues for the Thais than for us Expats that they are looking at right now, then and only then can any certainty be applied to the matter. IMO TRD has not provided those 'clarfications' because when they started looking at all the feedback and criticism, they realised they had no idea what was really involved, nor how complicated it will be, and only now do they realise why for over 30 years the TRD never applied the new interpretation before (the original decision makers in the decision to not apply it have all probably retired by now). IMO the TRD are now also very aware of the high likihood that once they provide those clarifications, they will be taken to the Tribunal and Courts for doing it, so they are being very 'careful'. IMO the TRD are extremely aware that the PM wants them to get this additional taxation revenue ASAP, and the new Boss of TRD is desperate not to have it all blow up in her face. This is especially so if it was her that told the PM's Office that they could increase taxation revenues by XYZ Billion Baht by making this change in the rule interpretation. I was involved in Canberra (The Washington of Australia) for over 20 years, and I have never seen a Government policy change implementation with so many 'hairs' on it before.

Thanks - that is very useful information for some and it goes to the fact that all DTAs are different. In the AUS DTA it is section 13 and there are a lot of differences to the one you quoted. I wont bore you/anyone with the details, but there are a lot. australia : article 11-15 | The Revenue Department (English Site) (rd.go.th) Which brings me to the earlier raised point that TRD is not at all 'comfortable' with the use of DTAs for exemptions and exceptions. There are too many for them to learn and understand - and that aint gonna happen in every Provincial TRD Office for a long timwe (if it ever does). IMO until they centralise taxation returns into Bangkok, especially those involving DTAs, it will be a potential diaster in the boondocks trying to convince a local TRD tax official that he cannot tax something that he thinks he can. Quite frankly I think until they TRD as a whole works through a lot of the issues during the first few years, IMO it would be best for any Expat to avoid the TRD if they have any tax issue that involves a DTA - unless they want to and can afford to use a registered Tax Agenti. Quoting the rules at any Thai Official is never a good thing, and when it comes to the TRD I cannot see them being any more accepting of an Expat 'correcting' or 'questioning' them, than Immigration is currently.

Yes indeed there will be some CGT managed by TRD before, but IMO the vast majority of CGT will have been 'seasoned' for 12 months and then brought into Thailand tax free. Only someone with a close first hand knowledge woud know how much - but I estimate it will be a lot more under the new rule intepretation.

No challenge - but pointing out that the current TRD method for treating CGT is based on the current in country system, and is probably one of the many things they are reviewing when the CGT is overseas generated. That would include what they will do when the CGT is taxed already overseas. I know the standard tax credits apply under DTAs, but they may take the approach that if the CGT has already been taxed overseas then the TRD will not apply Thai taxes (that would be a lot simpler for them to do). If I recall correctly it is Malaysia (or Philipinnes?) that under their implementation of this new rule has excluded any remitted income that has already been taxed in the source country.

That is a lot to respond to but I will give you two answers, while still saying you could be right and I could be wrong. 1. There is nothing in any document or website or anywhere I am aware of that says the Govt is going to tax pensioners living overseas. That is all your opinion that it will happen. 2. 20+ years working in Canberra means I understand how it works (a lot). I have given presos and proposals to House and Senate Committees and other bodies, who were going through the 'development' stages of changing or adding a new Law/Rule.

That was provided to you as an example of the sort of matter that some people will get active about when the Govt decides to look into changing anything that affects those receiving social welfare. So far in all the documents I have seen, there is no statement that their aim is to tax overseas pensioners. But if that was to occur, then I am certain that many 'groups' will resond, at home and overseas, and that ILO Convention will but one of the many things that will be taken into account.

Yes I agree, and they are definitely moving towards a domicile based tax residency and closing all the old 'association with' type complications that allow some people to keep their tax residency (and thus the tax free threshold). But that does not mean that they will be taxing age pensions for overseas located Expats, because this change is very much focussed towards stopping those earning money and aying less tax than they should. Sure the law of unintended consequences could occur. But remember that under the current rules, anyone away from Aust for 2+ years is not a tax resident unless they have a lot of 'associations', but even then after 5 years it is all over. And no Exat located overseas is currently taxed on their Pensions.

I disagree with this statement. History shows that there was only one solution to the Nazi problem, and it did not involve a 'political solution'. Hamas and the Nazis have a lot in common - they are murderous inhumane filth and need to be removed from the fact of the earth. No Hamas, like the Nazis, can never be fully destroyed, but several decades of political appeasements and deals has failed and that is why the time for war is here right now. All Hamas has to do is to do to stop the killing of civilians is to do what the Nazis did after most of them were killed - surrender - and face the consequences of their actions in a Global Criminal Court (now the UN).

The solution is easy - but it would be a breach of human rights. Then again, it worked for Japan so maybe it is worth doing it again. Just speculating philosophically - not saying it should be done.

What is does do is tell Hamas to move all their troops and supplies to Rafah. Perhaps this is not just a 'senior moment', but it is a very clever plan worthy of Baldrick. Once all the Hamas terrorists are in Rafah, Biden will recant and state he didn't mean it, and Israel then levels the place 🙂

I suggest the OP traves around to some of the 'lesser' shops that sell Daiken ACs. All the big stores like HomePro will have this year's models and not offer the older models. I recently wanted an AirCon model HomePro had on display and the sales guy said 'no hab' - the Thai wife took over and after the usual talk talk talk, she said they only have this year's model (displayed below) for sale. I knew better than to ask why the old one was still on display - and I als knew not to ask her to ask him to check their stock out back to see if there was an older model there - because they will not sell it - even if they do - Boss' orders. The unsold units of most items in the big stores go back to distributor, who then offers them to the local small shops - who then sell then as new models 🙂 So that IMO is your best chance to get an older model - dont bother calling - you will need to walk in and look.

Yes indeed - I would be very dubious about the structure safety in Thailand. That pool look 20M x 10M a 1M and that amount of water weighs 200,000 Kilos. No chance I will ever get in that pool or anything like it in Thailand.

I hear you (3times) and understand your point of view - even thinking that way is very much against the grain. But I took a look at this bloke's youtube website and there are some positives about Russia. He clearly had an advantage in moving there with a Ukranian/Russian wife, but he seems happy about the move. And his reasons and the other Americans echoes those views on most Expats living and marrying here in Thailand - they dislike what their home country has become. Seems to me there is a bit of Thailand in Russia/Crimea - both the social aspects of the rejection of woke ideology and glabl BS, but also that the majority of people have negative views about the place (Thailand is seen by most as tourist islands and prostitutes).

Thanks - I hope it makes a difference and things change in this regard.

Yes that is true of course. But he cannot take videos of what is not there and show it - you should watch the video/s where he walks around the city (not the Putin interview part).

@george Maybe another one (I am not commenting about any Mod action but the system) is that Mods should not delete a person's posts for whatever reason, without informing them that their post has been deleted for whatever reason. It is really annoying to spend a while writing a 'longer' post (which I hardly ever do 🙂), and then find out later that a mod deleted it because you spelt 'Dissociative' or 'Otorhinolaryngologist' incorrectly.

I too was like most people and believed all the media stuff about Russia - and I still think that there is a lot of truth in those decades of negative stories. But after seeing the videos done by Tucker Carlson (not the Putin interview) as he walked around Russia, I must say I was struck by how nice the place looked (even the railway stations), and I was also impressed about how nice the people looked and behaved too. However, to truly see how things are there, it would take staying there for a while. But I am now thinking that maybe there has been more propaganda that truth published about Russia in the western media. Might go there for a holiday and see for myself one day. No intention of ever moving there though - Thailand is just great thank you - far better than what I left behind in Australia (except for medical services, and the laws and rights).

We are off to live in Khon Kaen soon - have you been to any of the golf places around here? If anyone knows of a good stay and play golf course near KK (less than a day's drive), please let me know. We have played at both Dancoon and Singha in KK - did so at both about a month ago. Dancoon has deteriorated a lot since we first played there pre-Covid, but Singha is still in good condition. I must say though that I did not like Singha much as a social course. It is far too 'technical' with a clear need for both local knowledge and distance control - and the greens were very small and very hard to read (the caddies were no help). Dancoon is a great layout and easy to play, but it needs some work and rain to bring it back to what it was - the greens are fine but the fairways are a little sparse here and there. However, that was not a problem because we play social golf - preferred lies etc. That makes any course condition on the day not such an issue. In fact, it always amazes me that some social golfers here adhere so closely to professional rules when playing on a golf course that it not maintained up to that level of competition. We play social golf - mud on ball or in a hole, then pick it up and clean and place, same for a bad lies in a bunker - basically we play the same on the course as we do on the greens. Astounds me to see people playing from bad lies on a less than professional quality golf course with damaged fairways and bunker surrounds and unraked or badly raked bunkers etc. It makes it so much easier and better to play social golf the way we do - but I guess if they are playing for money as some do, then it makes some sense.

Thaksin is not liked by most Expats that is for sure - but also most Expats dont understand Thai politics (me included). However, I did state that Anutin could be the 'kingmaker' and most posters were adamant that Pita would be PM which I said will not happen. However, I also got it wrong on Srettha Thavisin - not even on my radar that one. Thaksin is very powerful and influential - dont underestimate him in Thai politics going forward. He did not spend a day in jail and has been released with his freedom intact. A deal was done obviosuly - and he knows how to get deals done. No his plans aint perfect and he will make mistakes - but that is the nature of politics - 24 hours is a long time. Pita could do well to study Thaksin and learn how he has been able to get things done. His time will come, and it could well be him rather than Thakson jnr that nails the military coffin shut, but Thaksin would have to agee to that for it to happen without a lot of political conflict - both of them need to be aware of the dangers of massive conflict giving the military an excuse to take power again. I think Thaksin has learned a lot after he was forced/encouraged to resign from Office.

There is usually one near to top/bottom of all escalators. Detective T&G (retired)

Trump was POTUS for 4 years and unlike what they said would happen, the World did not fall apart and WW3 was not started. Sure he aint a great guy - but why are they so obsessed with him not being POTUS again?? It appears to me that most people in the USA were better off under Trump than they are under Biden - except hardcore left wing voters like Students and illegal immigrants. Why they are desperate to stop him become POTUS again - what did he do that was so bad? WW3? Economy Collapse? Massive Inflation? Gas and all prices up? Big increase in worldwide conflicts? Massive increase in illegal migration and crimes? Did he have dementia? Buying votes by using taxpayer money to buy/reward student votes? Blocking all legal efforts against his Son? Weaponised the DOJ against the previous POTUS? Getting the DOJ to invade the previous POTUS' house for documents he himself had in his garage? Allowing medical mutiliations of minors in the name of Woke PC idiocy? And the list goes on and on - but the main and most pertinent question remains the same - why are they so desperate to stop him becomming POTUS again??