Mike Lister

It's probably not a great idea to think of people with different views as idiots and even less good to call them ridiculous, just because you disagree. Unless of course your own thinking and knowledge is far in excess of the combined scientific brain power on the planet!

When the tree in the forest falls and there's nobody around to hear it fall, does it make a noise!

Only if you want to live on beachfront, otherwise there's plenty of property available to rent in the OP's budget. https://www.ddproperty.com/en/property-for-rent/in-hua-hin-th7707

Consumer based Non Performing Loans (NPL's) figures just released show they have increased by 15% in the first quarter, primarily because of auto loans. Critically, Special Mention Loans have also increased by over 7% YoY, these are loans that are in default by more than 30 days but less than 90 days. NPL's equall 91% of GDP but this figure can be misleading. The NPL/GDP ratio will fall if GDP increases or if lenders lend less, a falling ratio headline doesn't necessarily mean the debt picture has improved, just that the base calculation components have. If the 10k giveaway scheme ever materialises, it will be interesting to see what impact, if any, it has on the delinquent loans picture. In tandem with the above, Government debt is also increasing, it stood at 64% of GDP at the end of the first quarter this year. That debt increased by 10%, from 50% of GDP in 2021, and by almost 10% again in 2022. In the past two years it has increased by 2% per year but the digital wallet scheme looks set to force another large increase. Historically, Thailand's economy has had three major strings to its bow: 1) Low government debt and extremely low overseas borrowings (4%), this was a throw back to the 1997 crash and a determination that it wouldn't be repeated. 2) An export led economy that provides a ready market for Thai products and produce and maintains Foreign Currency Reserves levels. 3) Tourism, International Tourism of which which is in itself an export, which maintained consumer spending levels. BOT's Foreign Currency Reserves started to decline in 2020 and by 2022 had fallen by over 25%, to a seven year low of circa USD 200 bill. Increased tourism receipts saw this number increase to their current level of approximately USD 220 bill. But even this valuation is not all it seems since the foreign currency assets are held in a range of currencies plus gold and SDR's, and valued in USD against an overly strong USD. It now appears that the financial discipline required to keep government debt levels low has been eroded and increased government debt is no longer a taboo. If that debt continues to increase, as it has in the past 5 years and is not matched by an increase in industrial output, the value of the Baht will remain weak and imports such as oil will continue to be expensive, which will mean higher inflation and greater consumer debt. I don't know about anyone else but I don't hear anyone talking about increased industrial output and productivity, apart from economists and the Central Bank, certainly not the politicians. https://www.pdmo.go.th/en https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/government-debt-to-gdp

I hadn't heard that, thanks for telling me. That team had a great formulae for a while, they also manage RL Diversified which has done well too but nothing like Select. If it starts to perform poorly I will likely put the money into a global tracker, fund picking is too hard work! I'm agonising over bond funds currently, I can't find the right return at the right risk, with the right protection, at the right price.....perhaps I should research goldilocks bond funds. 🙂

A fascinating graph on page 1. https://mybrand.schroders.com/m/6662cf1f5d2d8543/original/202202_what-drives-the-equity-bond-correlation.pdf

I was reading an excellent report by Schroders that demonstrated how negative correlation of bonds to equities is a fairly recent phenomena (since about 2000) and that there are large periods of time prior to that when they were positively correlated. I'll try and dig out the report and post it, it's quite fascinating.

Good to see there's another government pension that won't be taxed under dta rules, thanks for confirming

Technically there is a fine that can be levied where the tax payer had assessible income in excess of the threshold but no tax was due, and they did not file a return. The fine is 2k Baht.

The earlier exchange was about government pensions which appear to be exempt, at a minimum, in the US and UK DTA's.

If you haven't already done so, please read the document linked below. You only need to file a tax return, if you are tax resident AND if you have assessible income either above the threshold or such that you have to pay tax (you must decide whether to file or not in the case of the former. If your remittances are from savings earned before 1 January 2024, those funds are exempt. You do not need to submit evidence of anything until asked, same as in your home country.

A weight loss of 11 kgs in six weeks is very dangerous, the recommended rate of loss is one to two pounds per week.

If you have no assessible income, you do not need to file a return. The threshold is 60k or 120k based on the type of income. There is even a question whether you need to file, if you have no tax to pay. If true, that could mean you could have assessable income of up to around 500k and still not have to file.

No! Just file your return and if the TRD has concerns or questions, answer them when they are asked.

Members are free to chose which topics they wish to engage in, including myself.

Whilst I have said that the TRD staff are easy to deal with, I have never said anything remotely similar to the second part of what you wrote which is a wholly untrue and will be edited out.

The earlier post referred to Government age pensions and was not country specific. I imagine there will be some country DTA's that allow their government pensions to be taxed here but lets not suggest that is true of every country or even the majority.....that's what is scaremongering.

As you are well aware, members are free to discuss every nuance of the new directive, within the limits of the rules and what is sensible. We are all aware there are several areas of Thai tax that are unclear, most of us understand that. But let's not paint such a harsh picture that suggests a majority is not clear, for pensioners with simple needs, almost everything is clear. I realise this is thread contains lots of opinions, which is fine, but we're not going to allow the core base of information that has been accrued thus far to be destroyed, just because a small handful of members have concerns in two or three every specific areas. I will remind everyone here of the rules, particular the following: 5. Topics or posts deemed to be scaremongering, deliberately misleading or which deliberately distort information will be removed. In factual areas such as news forums and current affairs topics member content that is claimed or portrayed as a fact should be supported by a link to a relevant reputable source.

Every recipient of US Social Security pensions will invoke the US/THAI DTA and I don't expect one to fail. Ditto every UK government pension will invoke the UK/THAI DTA and I do not expect a single one to fail. You paint a picture as though there is massive doubt those things will be allowed by the TRD.....you are scaremongering and it needs to stop, now.

I'm not going to watch a one hour video in order to understand your question or concern! If you want me to comment on your concerns, tell me what they are.

Your statement in bold is untrue. There are more people seeking to understand the basics than there are trying to understand the nuances of Capital Gains and Gift Tax et al.

The number of people that will have to do that is likely to be very small, it will only be those who are audited, not everyone. It's good to prepare for the worst but don't lose sight of the fact the worst may only be 1 in 100.

Which is exactly why I am working to translate the useful parts of these threads, into a tax guide that people can understand. It's really no different from any other complex topic, people who have studied it or worked with it before, understand, those who haven't often will struggle.

Yes agreed. The only thing I would add is that there will already have been plenty of overseas CG's remitted to Thailand by Thai nationals so the process will already be understood, it's just that it hasn't been widely shared. It's not as if this is brand new ground that's never been covered before and we're all Guinea pigs.

If you factor in the allowances for your wife and child, it looks like you will be in line for a combined TEDA and zero rated amount of over 600k, that should take care of your current income and give you some extra headroom if you wish. Aggregated accounts or commingled funds can be difficult, if there's any way to separate the feeds into different accounts, you should consider doing so. It was this issue that made me decide to have my pensions deposited directly into my Thai bank account and I'm seriously happy I did, it works like clock work and everyone knows what is what. Since you only have to be concerned with income that was earned from 1 January 2024 onwards, it shouldn't be a major undertaking to make sure you have a spreadsheet or two that accounts for the income and to obtain bank statements regularly. There again, the chances that you will be asked to prove the sources of those funds is not high in the first place so I wouldn't loose sleep if I were you.