Jingthing

With Musk and his young sidekick "Big Balls" the world is his oysters.

Yeah the USA is quickly becoming a PARIAH nation on par with Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Israel. A definite own goal. This will surely impact the dynamics of Americans abroad whether they're in the maga cult or not. My understanding which is limited is that renouncing U.S. citizenship can be a massive tax issue plus of course you need a new citizenship, so not many people will be doing that.

Hitler type move. If you're surprised, you haven't been paying attention.

I'm curious. I think if that plane was to land outside a "friendly" to Putin country that it would be seized. Obviously, Thailand is friendly. With official maintenance cut off they've been repairing such planes by cannibalizing planes they do have. So my question is this -- does Thailand provide repair services for such "sanctioned" planes from Russia?

That's because the non O visa is not for retirement. So if you say ask for retirement, they're simply telling you about the O-A requirements. To add it's not at all uncommon or at all new for embassies to simply refuse to issue O visas for the purpose of retirement, and steer such inquiries to O-A or nothing. This entire topic should be frozen until and unless some actual credible news emerges about changes to O visas. Because as it stands, this amounts to fear mongering and will upset a lot of people without any good reason.

NEWS FLASH! This topic is now OFFICIALLY open to any kind of reply. The one word suggestion was an opening gambit. That's been played out (predictably). NOW ... do feel welcome to post anything you like related to the general topic of how Being an American abroad since Trump took office again feels From an American or non-American perspective.

I make no such claim. I'm participating in the discussion here the same as others posting.

Hateful garbage and you know it. Perhaps you're missing the irony of people complaining that accusations that any and all anti-Israeli stuff is infected with antisemitism (when the obvious truth is that some is and some isn't) while at the same time thinking it's totally OK to post an explicit antisemitic trope as above. You can't have it both ways.

I'm not aware of any Thai laws prohibiting discriminatory refusal of service so I reckon you're right about businesses here having that option. But aside from laws, it's clearly not fair to paint all of any class of people in the same boat, as no class of people is a monolith.

Embarrassing

This is intended for Americans, but I can't stop others from posting. The rule is simple. Enter ONE WORD to fill in the blank. For example, Being an American abroad since Trump took office again feels (one word fill in the blank) ORGASMIC (Not my answer, but used as an example only)

They woudn't even have to change any policy on paper. Just give even crappier service (it's already bad) to certain types of people.

When I was a teenage stoner, all the kids at the top of the class were also stoners.

I totally agree. Takes out all the guesswork. You know what they call Trump's new imperialist Monroe doctrine to annex Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal? The Moron Doctrine.

I do have concerns. The new service I discussed is a way that more people will be able to avoid cut offs or restore them if cut off. That seems contrary to the interests of this current new government. I also wonder whether there might be a negative bias towards expats spending their U.S. benefits abroad. I know some will call me paranoid but if you look at some of their radical actions in the last three weeks, I really don't think so. I'm not predicting anything. Just feeling concern.

I think time for a bit of balance with a more positive look at Israelis. Perhaps Israelis are a dish best enjoyed on their home turf?

Thank God Thailand isn't being influenced by international fascist movements that demonize such rational health promoting acknowledgement of sexual reality.

When I read the headline, somehow I just KNEW this was going to be in Pattaya.

In any case, they are certainly applying the HARD SELL when it comes to filing. That rubs me the wrong way.

A topic about Israel or Jews not attracting antisemitic tropes. That's unheard of.

I knew they are saying that. Personally I would ignore that if your case is relatively simple and you can easily prove your remittances were non-accessable in the event of audit. They are saying such audits are likely and will cost a fortune and they're doing you a favor by charging you to file such null returns. Does that sound like fear mongering? You decide. I don't see why if you have the records why you even need any help proving that. Everyone is going to have to filter out such issues for themselves. My filter says ignore that advice. Yours may differ.

The ignore list is your friend.

Technically it's possible but I reckon those would be cases of high amounts and blatant intent to evade tax. I think that people who are least trying to comply in good faith shouldn't worry much about such dire consequences.

Only in some cases. Needing to file and maybe pay tax is certainly a very unwelcome hassle but whether or not that extra burden would be heavy enough to rationally change your residency plans is purely an individual calculation. I'm imagining scenarios where people may be paying hundreds of thousands of baht to avoid paying ten thousand baht in Thai tax. Like it can be an irrational phobia.

The threshold means the amount of accessible income where if you're under, you don't need to file a tax form. That is completely different than owing tax. In other words, it is common to be over the threshold to be required to file but be well under the level to pay any tax.