Guderian

It's not a worldwide tax system, it's a worldwide (well, almost) individual income and earnings reporting system, supported by the OECD and called CRS (Comprehensive Reporting System). Without this, Thailand would never have the ability to find out about your offshore financial affairs, but now all they have to do is pay the CRS filing fee of around $70 and the information held by every bank and financial firm in countries that have joined CRS - and that's most of them - will be available. I hear what you're saying about them not having the resources and I agree. Many years ago, I had to go and see the tax people in the Jomtien office. There were about 10 of them in a large office, and as it was during the summer holiday several of them had brought their kids to work. No security checks or locked doors or armed guards, it was all quite a nice family affair. Given that the office seemed pretty busy back then, I don't see how it could possibly do its normal work, as well as checking on the affairs of the tens of thousands of expats that would come under its purview. And as for the Thais being the hub of confusion in announcements and plans, it appears that way to us, but I often wonder how it looks to the politicians at the top? These guys are not stupid, and I suspect a lot of what we see as governmental chaos is, at least partly, down to poor and confused reporting by the media. The reason they never bothered with the 180-day tax resident status before is surely just because they knew people would simply say the money they're bringing to Thailand is savings or income from previous years, and so under the 'old' rules was not taxable here. The first announcement they made months ago changed all that. Just remember the story about the opening of Suvarnabhumi airport. Back in 2006, it had already been completed for quite a while and was just standing idle. One day, it must have caught the PM's attention (Thaksin, as it happens), and he asked his aides why it wasn't open yet? They replied that nobody had told them when to open it, so Don Muang was still operating normally as Bangkok's main airport. Thaksin got them moving, anyway, and not long after it was finally open for business. The message I take from this is that what can appear as disorganised chaos to us actually happens for completely different reasons, it's not that the Thais lack the capability, it's that they need strong leadership to tell then what to do.

None. You still can't even legally own a square foot of Thai land to accommodate the pot that you p*ss in! lol

Thailand is leading the world in recycling its old and broken politicians, like Thaksin, lol.

Pathetic, they can't even stop their own ignorant people burning half the countryside and causing massive, damaging pollution every year, and now they're trying to act all First World and tax carbon, which even Europe hasn't figured out how to do properly yet.

I recall reading in an article last year that not a single independent radio company had applied as the prices were so high. Unless things have changed since then, as in the price being asked has come down significantly, it just means that we'll only have the output of the national broadcaster to listen to, no contrarian views will be available. I guess we can always access our home country stations via the internet on our phones and cast them to the car's infotainment system, until this fascist government decides to block them, of course.

Human rights? What about no taxation without representation, for a start? Someone please tell the lamebrains in the TRD that their recent changes are also making Thailand a pariah.

Blimey, that must be some heavy rain, it seems that Chonburi, Rayong, Chanthaburi, and Trat have all drifted north-west into the Central Region! lol

Take it slowly, I have around 12 million Baht invested in Thailand, far too much to just walk away from or hold a fire sale so I can exit quickly. Go the 180-day route, as you suggest, and try the other places in SEA that you've either been to or fancy living. At least you'll see some new things, and you may find somewhere you like better than Thailand. Then you can sell up here and move there full-time. Of course, at the moment to avoid CRS it's only Cambodia and the Philippines that didn't sign up for it, and there's no guarantee that they won't at some point in the future, so the nomadic lifestyle may be the way to go long-term. I kept my place in the UK and go back there every year for 6-8 weeks, so it's not an impossible hardship to buy another property somewhere in SEA, spend 4 or 5 months a year there, and make sure I'm not tax-resident anywhere.

The big piece of empty seafront land north of Jomtien and south of Pattaya Park might be a contender.

Well that helps explain why Thailand is only No. 11 in this list. However, with Taiwan at No. 2, it's democratic but is hardly a star holiday destination for anyone not of Chinese descent. And as for the UAE at No. 5, that's a joke, surely. If they mean Dubai instead, OK, but then say it, and even then it's not democratic or scoring high on the other factors, unless you're a rich, exiled kleptocrat (like our own square-headed Chinese chap from Chiang Mai, lol) Here's the full list if you're interested:

Perhaps they should learn from the success of San Francisco's famous waterfront? For example, Pier 39 is very popular attraction these days due to the huge number of sea lions that can be seen there. Of course, Pattaya is not famous for its sea lion colonies and, rather than doing the usual Thai thing of buying them from elsewhere and then mistreating and neglecting them, they could simply do a sweep of the bars in Soi Buakhao and offer all the obese farangs in wifebeater vests free Chang for the day if they will go and lounge around in the sun as a tourist attraction on the Bali Hai pier, flopping about a bit and making the occasional barking noise.

Be glad you never visited the Hagone condo..... lol

Trying to pluck too many tax-feathers from the expat goose is going to leave Thailand seriously short of golden eggs.

Fixed it for you, lol.

I suspect a lot of people will simply ignore it and just carry on as they always have. But then you run the risk that, 5 or 10 years down the line, you get a huge bill from the TRD for back-taxes plus fines plus interest. Personally, I think it's wiser to find out next year exactly how your local tax office is treating your own personal situation and take it from there. If you know how much you're going to be on the hook for (indeed, if anything at all), then you can make a sensible decision on whether to stay and cough up, spend less than 180 day a year here, or up sticks and leave completely.

So all their adverts and e-mails about free foreign currency withdrawals when travelling if you already hold the currency in your Wise account only applies up to £200/month? That's not going to get you very far even as a tourist, never mind an expat. Are all the travel cards the same, stuffing you on fees once you withdraw more than the price of a decent meal for two?

As a long-stay expat, would a Wise card used in this way allow you to withdraw THB from ATM's in Thailand without it registering on the TRD's radar for possible tax? There's no passport involved to identify you when using an ATM, just your name and card number, and the Wise card would be issued in the UK, so the TRD have no obvious way of linking the Joe Bloggs withdrawing 20K Baht/day from various ATM's with the Joe Bloggs who's been living here for 20-odd years and might be liable for Thai tax on the funds he remits to Thailand.

So in future in the Land of Smoke & Mirrors, you'll be able to lose your shirt legally in a gambling den, but having a spliff to console yourself afterwards will be illegal by then, while hiring a willing young lady of the night to ease your burdens in bed will still be illegal. Like Ron Moody's Fagin sings in the musical "Oliver!", I think they'd better think it out again.

Chickens are so over-rated, ask if Villa has any ortolans...

He's probably just bored stiff with all the red Fanta that the Thais seem to think Buddha loves! lol

If they're so good, then why not sentence them to a few years hacking the accounts of Russians indicted by the ICC, with parole based on results?

Any sign of them ever legalising civil partnerships?

Pattaya City celebrating trees....Oh, the irony of it! Please don't tell him that there's still several dozen large, shady trees on Jomtien Beach Road that they haven't cut down yet and replaced with scraggly, sick, shadeless palm trees.

Sounds like they were filming an episode for a remake of "Rab C. Nesbitt"... lol