Mike Lister

Poor, the wife's Ranger was in the dealer for unscheduled repair, three times in four years. Turbo charger problems, transmission problems and rear end knock issue. Why?

I suspect you are on a totally different scale of things than the retiree with a single property they rent out. Yes of course there will be people such as yourself who can't easily and quickly match tax years but I doubt very much that you are representative of the average foreigner in Thailand.

I might have guessed!! Thanks for telling me.

In the context of your post, what's a DBA, again?

Do you not get tired of trying to take pot shots and take everything out of context, because everyone else does! If you were to spend more time being constructive and less time trying to construct ways to criotiicise me, the debate would be far more helpful to everyone. The Introduction to Thai Tax says this: 93) Completing a tax return is not complicated for most people, if you have difficulty, the Revenue Department staff are extremely helpful. If you want to file electronically, you should ask the TRD office to set up your on-line account and show you how to use the system. If you are not fluent in Thai it may help to take somebody with you who is. If you want to try doing this yourself at home, the TRD e-filing site is where you can apply for an e-filing account, submit forms and also practise using the system.

Comrade Malcolm I presume!

The twice yearly filing for overseas rental income is only applicable if the income is remitted in the first half of the year. A simple work around is wait until after June before remitting rental income. I receive rental income from overseas and file UK taxes each year. I know what my tax position will be in each country I have income, well in advance of the filing date and I'll be very surprised it others don't know the same. If I file my Thai tax return in mid March, I may have to guess at the numbers for the last two weeks of the UK tax year but I think I can do that with some precision. As it happens, my rental income is die 10th of the month which means by 10th March, I have my complete UK figures. To add: I have huge respect for poster Dogmatix's knowledge and research abilities on the subject of Thai tax and think his contribution to the topic has been truly outstanding. It's worth noting however that much of his interaction with the TRD on tax related matters, appears to pertain to business taxes or taxes relating to business. I'm not convinced if the TRD response to the general public will be the same hence I'm uncertain how much of that experience carries across.

Sure, as long as it's held for x years: Investors must continue to purchase RMF at least once a year and must not pause to make such purchase more than one consecutive year. Investors must also continue to invest in RMF until they reach 55 years of age and must continuously invest for at least 5 years. https://www.krungsriasset.com/EN/FAQ/Investment-in-SSF-RMF-LTF-ThaiESG.aspx#:~:text=Investors must continue to purchase,for at least 5 years.

RMF's can be good, if you have Thai income, otherwise they are less good if you can't use the tax deduction.

If I wanted all that lane watch/speed alert/bs, I could just remarry my ex wife!

I went through the same debate last year. I'd love to buy a Ranger, it looks great, But it's a Ford and it's not as reliable as Toyota. I just sold my 10 year old Vigo, it had 160k on the clock and never once took a sick day or demanded a replacement part, not once. Plus I got 50% of my money back in trade in on a new Revo......which is going to be just as reliable, I know this. If there's one thing I want from my wheels it's knowing that they will start every time, not stop unless told to do so and not take sick days, Toyota does that for me.

What you've written makes sense but only in terms of past history, I don't see any argument that says things wont change. "DTA's have hardly been used to get tax credits for personal income tax because there was no need to use them". Now there is a need to use them, I've no reason to believe that something wont change as a result. This is WIP, stay tuned, it's early days yet.

He's confused and is guessing, the tax law says he's quite wrong.

You're just asking if you can get away with something without getting caught. Sure you can, it's your life.

The total cost for me (as a foreigner) was 170,000 baht but this was at Sriphat Hospital, the semi private wing of the much larger university hospital, it is very much of a five star facility. comparable to some of the the best in the West. The surgeon fee was 50k baht which was included in the price.....as far as I can tell the cost for a Thai at the same hospital would be about 120,000. The cost for the same operation at a Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai was quoted at between 200k and 300k. All those things said, the surgeon would have been the same one, regardless of where I had the OP and the OR would have been the same one, even if I'd used the District Hospital. The things I'd do differently, if I knew then what I know now: The hormone replacement tablets dosage is relative to body weight. I needed to lose 15 lbs of body weight, which I didn't do until after the OP, mostly because my blood glucose and liver panel numbers went out of range. This meant my dosage was too high, as my weight was falling and that was tricky to manage. With hindsight, I should have had a stable weight going into the op but didn't. My endocrinologist was focussed solely on hormone levels and wasn't monitoring blood glucose and liver panel. It was me who asked for those tests privately because I started to feel unwell and because my body weight started to increase after the OP. My weight went from 84 kgs to 87 kgs and after dieting, down to 80 kgs which is now my stable weight. I found it helpful to weigh myself daily and track my weight changes and respond to them in real time. On the plus side: Even with a 28% chance of cancerous cells being present, I still would have gone for total removal, even though the partial removal was an option, a 28% risk was too high for me. And my long standing, higher than normal blood pressure problem resolved as soon as my thyroid was removed, I am now at text book level, even when tested in a hospital.

You're asking me to comment on potential tax avoidance and even more potentially tax evasion measures. I have always refused to comment on those things and continue not to do so. There's a huge area of grey between the black and white of avoidance and evasion, most often these discussions end up in the black which is not only against forum rules, it's against the law. Sorry.

I can only explain to you what the rules are and the things that the TRD consider, not the probability that they will do those things, how, or whether they will be successful.

Exactly that, I couldn't agree more.

In the case of a gift in marriage, the gift becomes Sin Suan Tua or the sole property of the giftee and ceases to be conjugal property. It's therefore quite easy to inspect bank accounts and see how that money was spent.....if anyone wanted to (not that they do necessarily).

I'm sure that happens. But when the problem becomes large and real, word of it usually rises to the surface via several channels, both Thai and local farang, I've not heard or seen anything from either.

You are the first person I've seen to say that, both Thai or foreigner. The obvious question to be asked is, if such crime is not reported in the media, how do you know!!!

That's a secondary issue, the question was asked whether they report or not. Without getting too far getched on this point, it would be easy enough to flag your passport number with Immi for when you attempted to leave the country, it's what they do for foreigners whose company they wish to retain in the country for further discussions!

Agreed on all points.

As JG points out, no it is not.....whatever a DBA is! The point I was making, which was clear enough to everyone but you is that either way, it is horses for courses, hence, I do not really care whether I pay Thai or UK tax because the cost impact is virtually the same..

What I think is that we should all try to avoid or at least minimise, DTA related remittances, until the picture becomes more clear which may well be before the end of this year. At the latest, first hand reports from the next tax filing season should clarify matters for many.