Prubangboy

To quote my idol, George W Bush "Why do you hate freedom?".

You gotta stop thinking of the $$ impact you have on the nice local people adjacent to you and think in terms of the macroeconomic. An expat is much less spendy than an average tourist. Few are springing for the 150 baht durian ice cream cone, but yeah, we're big, big consumers of bottled water. When I think of it, my landlord is a fellow New Yorker, 80% of the dining I do is in non-Thai owned places. My biggest $$ contribution to Thai people is 1) Grab Cabs 2)Weed.

Agreed, it cost money to chase down these tiny amounts. A haircut on remittances is very unlikely to happen.

And yet, you list no vitamins. Maybe double check on that increased mental clarity claim? 99% of the world thinks "taking vitamins" means taking the pill form. As long as I'm here, how did you arrive at this diet/vitamin formulation? This sounds like medium-extreme intermittent fasting. What are your thoughts on that approach?

It is indeed a mean ol' world full of low-morals opportunists. All of the world economies have a lot of problems. Thanks.

I gotta dig up the post from the guy who did the math on expat remittances and found them to be about .01% of the Thai economy. This is like a wino outside of a casino saying he's keeping the doors open there because he bought his pint at the 7/11 out front.

Yeah, the word for that is resident. Specifically, tax resident. Just like where you come from, just like the world over. As to the rest of it, it is self-evident that people who live here 52 weeks a year use more services than 2 week visitors.

Can you give an example of how someone's total tax bill might decrease under this scheme?

'Would love to hear more about your tax research in Columbia, which does not have a tax treaty with the US. But Thailand does. So it's super-likely it will follow along with US rules on taxable income.

You seem to think Thailand cares if you stay or go. So will there ever be a moment where Thai people are rueful and regretful about losing say, 10,000 low end expats? And will we ever be privy to that sweet schadenfreude? Or is this just some feverish revenge fantasy confined to your own head? I gotta go with: No, No, and Yes.

They'd miss the cheap labor Myanmar people a lot more than they'd ever miss us. We are but mere hood ornaments on the engine of the Thai economy.

As a former Infrastructure policy specialist, I can assure you that your modest contribution via your bill to capital projects is very minimal. Pretending that your few modest fees, $22K in the bank, and local spending is even close paying your way here borders on the zany. You had a free ride when they semi-needed you here. But like artist types who one day wake up to find a dentist living in the loft next door, things change.

If you flush your toilet, you're using their infrastructure. Stop lights? That costs money. This is the usual pretending not to understand loser blather. Your whiny "not sure" gambit is the tip off that you know you're a freeloader. And I thank you for your late entry "I'm a big spender here and the Thai's owe me" obligatory AN post. While you may indeed be rocking your world in Roi Et, all expat remittances are not even a rounding error in an economy this size. Again, the fearless seer, Swissie, foretold this all long ago. Hopefully, he will pop in here with more painful truth.

Again, thanks for pointing this out. Real life examples with real life math are always light on the ground here.

It's a mean ol' world and the Con side is doing a very good job of winning, despite a huge demographic disadvantage. Respect. Someone told (Saint) Obama that he needed to talk tougher. Replied O: "Nah, what I needed was more votes".

Nah, people don't want to pay for non-nationals, in every place in the world. It's a human nature kind of thing. Just like Thai people don't want to pay for your share of infrastructure and government service usage. Yes, it's nice that you stuck $22K in a bank account (assuming you even did, and didn't use an agent). But what have you done for them lately?

That's on a $25K annual remittance as per the table in this thread. If it comes to pass. Many people here don't like that and are engaged in a war against arithmetic, I guess to go along with the war on Christmas. When you lived in the UK, were you happy to see Non-Doms taxed? Did you, like most people there, want them taxed even more? Well, welcome to shoe on the other foot-land. Swissie, one of our deepest thinkers, had a good thread called "The Doors Are Slamming Shut". He meant on low income retiree's options world-wide. Poor places will def be looking to expats to pay up,

Controlling Laos is like inheriting a broken clock. China will have trouble getting paid back on their various schemes. Who isn't in default is the real question.

Not to derail a good convo, but I was a government analyst. This flavor is heavily big government/moderate left of center. Not a single conservative was in my grad school policy analysis program. They have no interest. They have no actionable policies. Reality and problem-solving has a liberal bias. Hillary -the laser-focused super-wonk, is our sexual fantasy. The deep state is real. Fear us.

Super low entertainment/interest/info/social skills poster. BigNok, is that you?

It's not potentially illegal, it's totally illegal to hide income. It def works and many people do it. Including me for 8 years in savvier UK. You're mad at white guys on general and you think anyone who lives in Chiang Mai is broke. I'd say a wake and bake would chill you out. Me? Just smoked a bowl, thanks. Off to the gym.

As long as I'm here (as a mere white guy, not a very special white guy), let me offer a tax evasion tip. Get a Schwab ATM account in a diff name. Take withdrawals from it. Very hard to trace that income received back to you. I did this for years in England.

This is not my experience. My wife had an implant done last year in NC for $7K. In Chiang Mai, $2,800.

I'm not complaining about anything. You are having imaginary arguments inside your head. I hope at least you are triumphant in them. I am a rare "white guy" (like that's a sin) who has residency permission in Laos. Crazy communism and Chinese vassal state status makes that an iffy proposition. That saddo in this thread sobbing about his lack of "rights" here should never think about living in a SEA autocratic place. They just opened a Bangkok Hospital in Vientiane. And yes, it's expensive due to the tiny and captive "white guy" market. It's Bangkok prices in $3 a day-land. Some pasty-faced fellow transplant is dissing me as a white guy. Excuse me while I fall down laughing.

-Truly, could you possibly be any vaguer? I agree with your broad point that medical tourism prices are def shooting up (as are costs in the west). We had major surgery (not merely general surgery) in Mexico. That was indeed about 30% off US prices. But again, we could get it done. In the States, that would have been months of fighting with the insurer and then getting nickled and dimed as to what they'd cover and how much.