Mike Lister

Paging @JimGant, US cpa, retired and all round thoroughly expert US tax person. (I'm sure he'll be along shortly to answer your US tax questions)

How far away from the pumps do you park, are you afraid the pump might attack you!

Off topic pictures removed....save them for the Pub.

Anything is possible of course but you have to ask yourself, why would the Thai Revenue Tax Code that has been in place for so long, be changed or cancelled, just because one small loophole was closed. The change may be a big deal for some foreigners but for everyone else it is business as usual.

No, but there again I don't think Britman is 73 years old nor that his hit and run was yesterday.

I don't agree with the last part of what you wrote. Thailand needs its export partners, the US and Europe, any risk to the banking system or client capital will jeopardise that. When it comes to pollical alliances, Thailand is very good at sitting on the fence and keeping everyone happy.

A post that contravenes forum rules has been removed.

BOT isn't under the control government, the gov can't access the reserves.

Risk. Getting involved in foreign currencies involves a risk that can be significant, the Thai government learned that lesson in 1997! That is why today, the government borrows less than 4% of it's total debt, in currencies other than THB. Ditto banks, unless you are a global bank that can deploy currency assets into overseas branches, holding currencies can be dangerous for the balance sheet because the exchange rate can shift and the transaction begins to show a loss, even if you haven't done anything apart from collect decent levels of income. All of which partially explains why the banks listed in ExpatOilworkers spreadsheets are mainly only holding major reserve currencies.

Interest is paid in the currency of the deposit, interest on USD accounts is paid in USD. When a bank takes a deposit, it doesn't sit on it, the bank immediately deploys it into some form of investment that earns the bank a greater amount than they are required to pay to the customer in interest. The income they receive on their USD investment will be paid in USD, just as they have to pay out to the customer. That is known as matching of assets and liabilities, at which banks are well practiced. They will not be phased by any weakening of THB in respect of their USD holdings but they will probably offload them when THB strengthens.

Perhaps those assets are owned through a company, which is likely. That means the balance sheet can be adjusted to suit.

What interest cost, interest on what? Ah, understand, you refer to interest rate on USD. If THB weakened, it would have no bearing on USD value, that is determined by none THB and non Thai factors, mostly the US Fed rate.

I think a simpler explanation is that the banks Treasury departments forecast that THB will weaken further against USD which will offset the interest that they have to pay to customers. Complex conspiracy theories are rarely correct.

Banks collect currencies for different reasons, perhaps it's a strategic investment whilst USD is strong, perhaps it's an offset against other borrowings, again, dunno.

The average income, countrywide is circa 16,000 per month, Thai people can live far more inexpensively than we can. Given my earlier statement about the earnings of self employed people and their rate of taxation, earning 50k a month is easily doable whilst not paying tax. Income of 50k per month puts them in the upper percentile and they will file a return. So conceivably, locals in tourist areas can still earn a decent wage and still escape taxation. The other aspect is that a majority of locals don't live in tourist areas, most are rural poor who are difficult to audit for tax. There are plenty of stories about Revenue inspectors watching trade at market stalls and counting customers and calculating income, it's not as though they do nothing, it's just that it's very difficult.

The Chinese have to settle many of their trade bills in USD also and when your currency is so weak, that becomes expensive.

Interesting. That's a disproportionate percentage held in USD, since less than 60% of trade bills are settled in USD. Hoarding perhaps. Or perhaps Chinese holdings of USD in preference to CNY....dunno.

An elegantly worded flame was removed....a flame is still a flame, regardless!

I don't have a source to hand but you can easily google news articles and similar where these stats are quoted. The average earnings in Thailand are very low but the tax exemptions, allowances and deductions are quite high. It is easily possible to register as self employed and sell a product that you make and turn over 1 million baht per year in sales and generating income of 50K per month but paying tax of only 8k per year. The allowances are very generous, which, when combined with creative accounting, makes the tax return easily avoidable for most. But the Revenue is getting better at detecting tax evasion, especially now that much of the finance picture is electronic.

About 11% of the population file a tax return, only about 6% pay Personal Income Tax, about 4% have tax deducted from source, by the employer. The major tax revenue is indirect taxes such as VAT and sales tax, corporate taxes are the biggest contributor. The Thai Revenue is actively seeking to increase the tax net. The workforce is about 38 million out of a population of around 72 million, the size of the grey market (or unofficial) labor market is around 48% of the total labor force.

Quit the name calling! If you want to block a poster and not see any of their posts, use the ignore function. Hold your mouse/pointer over the user name and click ignore.

I could but you'd have to pay me a lot of money first. 🙂

Bickering flames removed, you can both go find another thread!

Do you have a link for that?

Good grief, 60 year old Western men punching Thai women pensioners in the face in a supermarket for gods sake! The mind boggles.