Mike Lister

Well yes, they would be! If a barrel of imported oil costs USD 75, it costs more to buy when the Baht is weak at 37 than it does when it's stronger at say 31. Plus the price of a barrel of oil is not always USD 75, the product itself can suffer from price inflation also.

Yes of course, but there's a big difference between small Chinese suppliers wanting to skirt currency controls in China and the country of China wanting to move away from a USD base for their currency. FWIW I lived in Beijing for three years, I saw first hand how quickly things change. I've sat in the revolving restaurant of the Oriental Pearl in Shanghai and watched the worlds supply of cranes building out the skyline, the rate of change is some areas was breathtaking.

The contributions are tax deductible, up to 30% of assessible income, max 500k. It's a retirement fund, you have to hold it for minimum 5 years. UOB has several such funds. https://www.uobam.co.th/en/tax-benefit/rmf

Thanks, yes, that's me getting my wires crossed. There are several new trading blocks being established, BRICS is just one of them which of course cannot include Japan because it is a G7 country. But Japan is a member of the fairly new, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which includes New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The new trade group that I had in mind earlier when I mentioned Japan is RCEP which comprises 12 regional economies and Japan, China, s. Korea and ASEAN countries. The aim of most of them, especially RCEP, is to avoid using USD ion trade bill settlement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Comprehensive_Economic_Partnership https://accesspartnership.com/asia-for-asia-the-future-of-regional-trade/ https://www.voanews.com/a/britain-joins-asia-pacific-trade-group-that-includes-japan-/7183030.html

Consulting a reputable tax advisor is an excellent idea, especially since nobody in this thread (or its predecessor) has identified themself as an experienced, Thai trained and certified, Tax CPA. Our role in this thread is to provide information for members to follow up and decide upon and to get them thinking about what to do next, apparently it's working.

Exactly. Which is why China has been on a gold buying spree, because they don't want to be embargoed by the US and have their USD assets at risk, the next time they misbehave. Think Taiwan, think South China Sea.

RMB was never going to be a safe haven currency whilst the Chinese economy is n the state its in and everyone understands that. The only remaining choices for safe haven are gold and USD, and other prime currencies....TODAY. Tomorrow is very likely to be a different picture entirely.

An interesting article on currency manipulation, if nothing else, look at the table. https://www.cfr.org/article/tracking-currency-manipulation

That's mildly junior high funny of course, but the reality is that Thailand is a USD 550 bill economy and is right next door to the worlds second largest economy. It's a no brainer that the two countries would grow their trading relationship and deploy currency swaps and try to avoid using USD where ever possible. That's the whole basis of BRICS, to which, many countries in the region have signed up, including Japan, China and Thailand.

I disagree. Neither Thailand nor many other countries are happy that their economy and currency is so closely related to USD. When USD weakness and THB strengthens as a result, that generates a current account surplus that the Fed calls currency manipulation, ditto Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland. The solution, according to Washington, is for Thailand to buy more goods from the USA........really!

Signing of the renewal of the Chinese Yuan - Thai Baht Bilateral Currency Swap Arrangement. Local currency exchange transactions under the Agreement are capped at 70 billion yuan ($370 billion) and have a five-year term from December 22, 2020.Jan 8, 2564 BE https://www.bot.or.th/en/news-and-media/news/news-20210108.html#:~:text=Currency Swap Arrangement-,Signing of the renewal of the Chinese Yuan,Baht Bilateral Currency Swap Arrangement&text=Local currency exchange transactions under,term from December 22%2C 2020.

China and Thailand have been using currency swaps to settle cross border trade bills for years, there's nothing new about this whatsoever. But USD remains the settlement currency for global exports, they are not going to see the back of USD for a long long time.

Excellent point, medical costs have been rising at over 8% a year, every year, for the past five years at least. https://www.wtwco.com/en-hk/news/2022/10/healthcare-benefit-costs-in-asia-pacific-projected-to-jump-by-10-2-percent-in-2023

So fly short haul to Sing, KL, HK etc and then long haul from there.

Price inflation in Thailand is nothing like price inflation in the West, especially not the US. The US Fed rate is over 5%, the BOT rate here is half that figure. Plus there are price controls on many things here, fuel, food stuffs and over 50 commonly used products. The US has no equivalent. https://asianews.network/thailand-cabinet-extends-control-on-price-of-51-goods-and-services-by-another-year/#:~:text=by another year-,Thailand cabinet extends control on price of 51 goods and,paper%3B petroleum%3B and medicines.

Inflation is different things to different people, based on where they live, where they shop, what they consume. The inflation rate for imported goods, imported food and alcohol is very high because the Baht is weak. Inflation in Pattaya and other westerner tourism areas is much higher than in the sticks. A westerner in Patay who eats imported foods, drinks imported booze is likely to be 20% per year or higher. The farang who lives in Issan and eats Thai food and drinks Chang, inflation is likely to be 3% on average or thereabouts. The price of petrol/diesel is the same nationwide, +/- one satang or so based on distance from Bangkok, plus it's subsidised.

The inflation reality of what product? Not all products price inflate at the same rate and since you don't want official figures, unofficial figures will vary from person to person based on what they buy and what they see.

The official BOT numbers on inflation are very low, but they are not realistic. Over 48% of the workforce earns money in the grey economy or unofficial labour force which isn't tracked and doesn't report so we have no idea what their earnings or price increases have been. https://www.bot.or.th/en/thai-economy/economic-outlook.html

I've decluttered some more....this time, the recent 11 post exchange about equality between foreigners and Thai's. Whilst indeed interesting, it doesn't have a lot to do with the topic. My fault really since I encouraged it, Bad Mike!

The free version only detects virus's and malware but is consistently rated very highly.

A fair amount of incorrect information has been provided, I suggest you read the document linked below. Any income earned prior to 1 January 2024 is free of Thai tax. If the funds you remit to Thailand to buy your condo are in that class of funds, you will pay no tax.

There is no exclusion for funds intended to buy real estate and you cannot legally not declare remitted income

That's weird. Try this link and tell me what happens, it works fine for me.

I have attempted to declutter the thread by removing posts that were chatty and contain low value information relative to the topic. I do this from time to time to keep the thread more easily readable.

It's at the end of the document linked below but you may only see the list, if you promise to read the entire document first.