Mike Lister

The announcement regarding tax is typical Thai government, they want to push the message out there and then worry about the detail and the mechanics later. Anyone who has been here for any period of time will understand this. The 10k baht giveaway is a classic example, get the message out there and later find out they can't actually afford it hence the original story has to be walked back and a new modified giveaway devised..

I can't see for one moment that foreign currency already in the country should be an issue, it's the date of transfer into the country that's important, not the currency..

The simplest way would be to transfer before 31 December but if you don't, it shouldn't really matter since you can prove that money was earned prior to 31 December 2023.

I would not expect Thai's to pick up the medical bills for old people like myself. But I might have expected the health insurance industry in Thailand to operate in a similar fashion to the way it works elsewhere in the world and not to so heavily favor the insurance company and be so heavily weighted against their customers.

Of course he doesn't, he makes these things up. There aren't 300k expats in Thailand. There are around 150k Westerners but there are between 3 & 4 million foreigners, Cinese, Burmese, Cambodian and Laos mostly. Around 40k Brits live here,

Another self important and entitled farang thinks he deserves more, because he has more. Have you considered suing Thailand for breach of contract? Oh wait, there was no contract you say, hmmm, tricky that one then!

Bottom line, International Tourism is worth 12% of GDP, Customs exports is worth 59% of GDP https://wits.worldbank.org/CountrySnapshot/en/THA/textview#:~:text=Thailand Service Trade data from WDI 2021&text=Thailand%2C Imports of goods and,percentage of GDP is 58.64 %.

There are several things I have expected them to do but haven't, yet, I'm certain they will at some point and these include: - Long overdue increases in visa costs - Revenue approval certificates to renew a visa and to exit the country - Mandatory health insurance for everyone, regardless of visa or reason for stay

If you believed they would never change the deal, you were very deluded.

Remember that house I said was rent nearby that you might be interested in? Well, it's no longer available, at least it wont be after I set fire to it in a few hours. More seriously, you understand as much about economics as you do about tax and doing cut and paste of baby speak explanations wont make me change my mind on that. Byeee, again!

Hotels are required to report all stays by foreigners, every 24 hours.

Ditto.

Whatever are you waffling on about, for goodness sake. I'm talking comparables, comparisons, and you still haven't answered my earlier question, all you've done is give us more blah blah..

That equalls about 3 weeks worth of exports, it's nothing.

Are you suggesting the GDP of Thailand at USD525 billion, doesn't include everything that is purchase, sold or made? Because if you are and you appear to be doing so, making the GDP number bigger makes the expat percentage even smaller!

So let's be extreme and almost double the number, that's still only 3% of GDP, it's still small change in the bigger picture of things. 3% of GDP and no more whinging poms and bleating yanks, that's a bl oody good deal I reckon.

Even if we used your figures which are far too high, 300 billion Baht is roughly USD 8.8 bill. or 1.7% of GDP........that's a nothing amount.

My flat rents for 535, on the edge of the Lake District..

I did that calculation once and the numbers came out to be between 3% and 4% of GDP so not significant at all. But where it would hurt is Consumer Spending, not huge but significant impact.

Lou, you could have more appropriately picked up and corrected the phrase that I merely copied (pingarondtheworld post), instead you chose to take me to task for using verbiage supplied by a previous poster. Be a good chap and go away and follow somebody else, I'd really rather not put you back onto my ignore list because sometimes, not often mind just sometimes you have something interesting to read and I wouldn't want miss that. Thanks

Thailand has posted a budget deficit for many years (see below). The budget deficit for the past three years or so is as a result of covid government support of the population. The IMF has said in recent years that Thailand has ample scope to increase its budget deficit spending. This is because the BOT has significant foreign currency reserves, plus, deficit spending it far lower than comparable countries. None of that however has anything to do with foreign currency which is mostly generated by exports.

Hmm, it turns from a quick google that sales tax here is nothing more than another name for VAT, I merely copied the nomenclature from another post in my response. I'll go outside and self flagellate with some barbed wire and beg the gods for forgiveness. The forum guard and can now stand down, we thank you for your vigilance in helping posters correct errors in their posts, where would we be without you..

Yes, me too. I was trying to get to the certificate that shows my vaccination schedule but that screen is coming later, or so it says. I have entered the 13 digits number I got from when I was vaccinated but I'm still being asked for the number on the back of my ID card which obviously I don't have and there's no option to avoid that request. I amy be doing something fundamentally wrong, I may have to let the next door neighbours ten year old to sort it for me. :)

Countries that try to attract retirees, do so because they want the foreign currency they bring into the country. That was certainly true of Thailand when the rules for foreign retirees were first established. Today, Thailand no longer needs that foreign currency anywhere as near as much as they did, the BOT coffers have USD 220 bill. of the stuff swilling around in their coffers. The importance of foreign retirees to the economy is no longer foreign currency so much as it is support of local consumer spending and the property markets. That need is sufficiently strong to where they are going to discount foreigners tax, it's already low enough by comparison to many other countries. And I have no doubt whatsoever that anyone who wants to buy property in Thailand, will continue to be able to do so, without their imported funds being taxed here, AS LONG AS, those funds were taxed or represent savings, in their home country.

Many are too lazy to read that thread because it contains so much waffle and conjecture. Somebody should set out the simple facts that are known, in a simple post and tell the mods to shut down the thread to comments, as soon as it's been posted.