ukrules

He's right, any government making promises beyond their term can have it reversed in a heartbeat after defeat in an election. If the people all backed and wanted Prayuth and his governments plans for the future then they would have voted him back in again as PM. They didn't, but then again they didn't vote for this one either

Many Prime Ministers around the world thought the same right up until the moment they were kicked out of office due to coalition failure. With this parliament there could be many PMs over the next 3 to 4 years

Oh well, no great loss to society.

Jan 1 will be just fine.

lol

Not if they really want that fancy new consulate they won't - and they really, really want it for some reason.

I hope they don't water down my cognac

Nothing ended in 2021, quite the contrary

Thailand Elite, 1 year stamp for each entry and can extend or just leave and re-enter - 1 year, every entry - guaranteed.

No, this happened to someone I know and I know of several others who have been shaken down over the years on a regular basis as well. You're deluded if you think this kind of thing doesn't happen because it does.

He's probably 'working' without a correct work permit, they will come and shake him down every now and again. I've seen this kind of thing before involving someone I know - they are out to get you, working undercover and attempting to catch you out doing the most mundane things which might not be 100% described on your work permit but in the same place of work, etc. For example if you're a chef and you accept someones payment which is a cashiers job - they will wait until there's no staff around and then ask to pay, all undercover looking like a regular customer, then the badge comes out and the money changes hands. They hate us all and will go to extreme lengths to make problems. Best to remember that.

There are different lists for Thais and Foreigners, when talking about foreigners it's talking about a national id card issued by your 'home' government. Also on the list when I checked it a few days ago was a driving license. I did contact support at one point and ask if they would accept a passport but they mentioned that the passport is already being used with the 'NFC' thing. Now the only issue I have is that my driving license sits on a shelf in England and I don't have access to it at the moment so I can't do it. I have a Thai driving license and an expired UK license so I'm going to leave this until some point in the future right now, I can get the license but it's at a relatives house and she's not being very cooperative lately.

They're making problems here where there were none before. The TM30 should be good enough, it's proof positive of where you live.

It's not surprising, people hate paperwork. People also hate dealing with the officious self important loathsome embassy staff who seem to work at all embassies around the world including my own. No visa requirement = massive increases in the number of people who come. I don't go to places where I need to go to an embassy to get a visa any more - those days of kissing the embassys ass and following all sorts of rules / disclosing personal information are long gone for me. If it needs a visa then I don't go unless I can get it online and print it out myself - like Cambodia, simple. The one exception for me is Thailand where I have decided to live, I've got a very long term Thailand Elite membership, which requires minimum fuss, I applied for it online, paid with the bank app and I'm good until 2040.

They're all too old as well, the Senate could do with a good clear out of the geriatrics too

Yes, that's what they're doing here. It's odd as he had zero chance of winning there anyway.

Yeah, it would only be worth doing the non resident thing in a year where you plan on liquidating and bringing in many millions of Baht on which there is no tax paid. Not paying any tax is more common than people tend to believe, for example you sell that family house you bought 40 years ago and end up with 500k pounds - you're not paying any tax on that and if you're tax resident in Thailand during that year then good luck with that!

I did it a few years back using an agent as there's no way I was going to Bangkok twice just to get a new passport. Can't remember what I paid for the service. For proof of address at the time I used a rental contract, one which we made in English especially for this purpose.

Did many actually stay out drinking until 4am?

Professional service at its best

Not really, tax avoidance quickly becomes tax evasion once you fill out and sign any kind of tax return with incorrect values. In general you're often ok right up until you put pen to paper and sign something which is untrue. Then you're in trouble.

The change that they're attempting right now is to tax remitted income from around the world. They have stated that they want to tax it even if it's not remitted to Thailand at some point in the future (an amended law) - that's when the big problems will begin. We can all earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and keep it outside Thailand far away from the tax system if we want even with the new rules but if they do this next step which requires full parliamentary approval then it's a whole different world if you make plenty outside Thailand and don't remit it.

People who can't be bothered or don't have the time / freedom from responsibility to take a 7 month holiday - which when you think about it is going to be most people - also Thai nationals are the main target. I believe we're just small fish getting caught in the nets.

I doubt that very much. Firstly, most of the long term visas are income tax exempt and secondly we can choose how much money to remit, and that does not need to be very much compared to our overall income. Lets say I have an income of 300k Baht a month but only spend 100k a month in Thailand, I will send 50k a month to Thailand and send 50k to the woman I live with who I'm not married to, we would both pay about 20k tax a year which is almost nothing. The rest including all investments stays outside Thailand and there are ways to remit very large amounts of money by leaving the country for a single year, the same year when the shares, etc were sold which would result in zero tax that year. We're not stupid and plan for such scenarios with accountants and lawyers, so it is very possible to bring tens of millions of Baht of untaxed money into Thailand and not be taxed. If they do change it to taxing worldwide income (something else to this current change which they are also talking about) then there will be a mass exodus of anyone who has any significant wealth and income resulting from it.

Trust nobody I guess, even the banks because they clearly don't give a ###t