Jingthing

True Money told me that I needed to upgrade my visa info to upgrade my account to be able to use with online shopping, specifically Grab and Panda. They told me how but when I looked on the app, their instructions made no sense. So I didn't bother as I no longer need True Money for that. Also was not sure what visa info they needed if I could figure out the process as my original visa is 20 years old and immigration doesn't even want to see that anymore!

That's sort of funny because a racist white westerner doing that would also refer to Thais that way. Asians are Asians, right?

Not me. This was my straight hair cutting dude. I am the type that likes to talk at those times, and this guy speaks somewhat OK English, which is great to talk about hair and other stuff in the world. We even talked about the Russian war of aggression as the subject came up because he has a lot of Russian clients.

So he didn't cancel me but I'm starting to get the feeling that some overly woke f-rangs are. Oh well. Where I grew up we used to find a lot of arrowheads. I went through a phase where I used to wear turquoise bolo ties. I drew the line at dream catchers and fry bread though. Does that give me any native cred?

So what's the consensus? Typical Thais wouldn't have understood the Pow Wow thing? Haven't they been exposed to a lot of American pop culture like westerner movies with cowboys and Indians?

That's a good suggestion. I already know the Thai words for colors. In the moment, I just didn't think of it as we were speaking English. You seem to be saying that my perception that he understood what I meant with the Pow Wow business was wrong. I hadn't considered that.

I did something surprising (to myself) recently. I was talking to a Thai who had limited English and wanted to express a thought about native Americans, what others might call American Indians, indigenous people, First Nations, etc. But my first impulse in order to actually effectively communicate the thought was to first say Indians but realizing that sounds like from India to a Thai so I then put my hand to my mouth moving it back and forth and said POW WOW Indians! OMG -- what had possessed me? So racist. I don't think I've ever said or gestured POW WOW Indians before in my life. But he understood immediately, smiled and didn't try to cancel me. I have no regrets. Sometimes you just want to communicate. But still a bit surprised that I did that. Have you had such POW WOW moments talking to Thais?

I'm more of a middle ground person at the moment. There is a lot we don't know yet about enforcement and also a number of important technical details on the actual rules of the system. But I will say this about enforcement. Up till now, retired expats living only on remittances didn't think about Thai tax, getting a TIN at all. That was when the LOOPHOLE rule was money remitted from previous years to the current year was not accessable. But think about this for a moment. What percentage of retired expats do you think DID remit money earned in the current year? My guess is 75 percent or more. Weren't they in violation of Thai tax law? I think, yes, absolutely, they were, but it was completely off the radar because of NO ENFORCEMENT. It would have been totally insane to even try to go in to pay tax on such remittances before now. So you see, this is much more of grey area than you're presenting it as.

You're talking Traditional not Roth. Yes the IRS taxes as ordinary income the full withdrawal. If none is remitted to Thailand, nothing about Thailand as Thailand currently is on a remittance system. If transferred to Thailand my reading is the amount remitted to Thailand is fully taxed as accessable income. If you paid tax for that in the U.S. -- if U.S. tax is higher, no Thai tax while if the U.S. tax is lower, you get a credit on your Thai tax for the U.S. tax paid. Thus, at least you avoid DOUBLE taxation.

Leader of the "free" world.

American Carnage 2.0. God help us because Trump’s billionaires certainly won't.

Right. Social security is exempt.

Not worth the bother unless a lot of money.

Troll bait ignored.

Yes as I've remarked numerous times. There is the technical stuff which you can usually determine such as what is accessable income and what is not. And then there is the ENFORCEMENT part. If they aren't enforcing, the technical stuff wouldn't really matter. But heck, they could later.

Yeah the boxes will have that last resort reset option.

100 percent. However, there is that one change we know about which apparently was something like a memo. It was about the timing of remittances. Used to be previous year earnings were all exempt. The memo said no longer the case -- loophole closed. Can a policy change like that really be changed that way without passing a law? Buggered if I know!

Take the plug out the outlet. Take the power cord out of box. Wait 5 minutes. Turn on again.

I'll never forget watching Eraserhead at a sleazy Market Street San Francisco theater. But I forget the name of that place -- is it still there?

Sure but you've got to consider lost in translation both in language and reporting.

It's dumb to say all should file. If you don't have accessable income over the threshold, you definitely should NOT file.

About TINS, it might be a grey area for now, but I think it's totally crazy to rush out and try or get a TIN if you know for a fact that you have no accessable income. I did read a commentary from a Pattaya Thai national tax consultant that (at least for now) he seriously doubts that the tax office is going to go after retired expats with normal looking remittances (even though some might be accessable) and he was kind of suggesting wait and see.

Except for Americans. (So lucky!) Understanding Tax Residence: Key Factors and Implications

So I watched Queer, based on the William Burroughs novella. I've been a Burroughs fan since age 13 when I read Naked Lunch, so this was a must see for me. Pretty damn trippy. As there is an expat story to it (Americans in 1950's Mexico City) there is that expat interest. Well reviewed and Daniel Craig is getting best actor buzz. The gay sex part of the story is not explicit, more conceptual and romantic.

I have two kinds of income in the account. One accessable. One not. Mixed. Also used for spending. So it's a bit of a mess but I can't see hiring an accountant for one personal bank account. The "advisors" will all tell you to separate such sources into different accounts. Not practical for me and assume many others, so what I'm getting at is there is often more to record keeping than just having raw bank statements. My understanding is that "first in first out" is acceptable to the Thai tax office.