Guderian

It might have been asked and answered here already, but there's too many pages to search through. Does anyone know if other SEA countries, like Cambodia and the Philippines, are doing the same thing as Thailand?

I must admit that, in 20 years of living here, I've never had a positive experience with the RTP. One of the GF's friends was a cop and I quite liked the guy, but even he once told me over a few beers never to trust a cop in Thailand. After he managed to kill himself in a car accident, the GF joined the local police volunteers. She also started a small business, renting premises. About 6 months later she was in a dreadful state and had done a runner from her business, the owner had seen that she was doing well and demanded a doubling of her rent. She'd told him to go and spoon a goose, or whatever the Thai equivalent is, and he'd pulled a gun on her and threatened to kill her. Sensibly, she'd fled the scene and was never going back. So I asked her why she didn't just go to her friends in the local police station where she was a volunteer, report the matter and let them deal with this gun-toting miscreant? After a lot of gobbledygook, she finally admitted that the owner of the place she had rented, and the guy who'd threatened to kill her, was one of the senior officers in the local cop shop. That's what you call a lose-lose situation, but it just shows why you should never trust any of these goons, or believe a word they say.

Is this in any way related to CRS and the intention to charge Thai income tax on all foreign remittances into the country?

It's a fair enough question. If I go to the beach I drive the car. So I've got the car keys, my phone, plus I always carry quite a bit of cash, and I prefer to pay for a deck chair and a drink and then ask the vendor to keep an eye on my stuff while I'm swimming. At least he or she has got a vested interest in keeping your bag safe, and they can't do a runner. Personally, I'd never ask a stranger.

'Luxury condo' and 'Soi Buakhao'. Now that's two things I never thought I'd see in the same sentence, lol.

I was surprised at how quiet the traffic on the soi where I live in South Pattaya was yesterday. Once I'd turned onto Third Road, I found out why. Gridlock. Luckily, I was only going to Friendship, but checking the traffic on Maps all of Second and Third Road were gridlocked, and South Pattaya and Central Pattaya Roads were the same heading towards Suk. The only main 'green' road on the map was Beach Road, lol.

Just go back home once a year and bring back as much cash as you'll need to last you. Then every month get your wife or GF to change a grand or two at an exchange booth, while keeping a very close eye on her, of course, so she doesn't do a runner with the proceeds. lol

Just leave it neglected and rusting in port for a few more years, and the Chakri Narabuet will probably end up looking like a submarine, lol.

No they don't, or at least not in all cases. I came back from 6 weeks in the UK in October and got a residence certificate to buy a new car a week later using the TM30 that has been in my passport since I lost the slip from the previous one a year or more back, so I would certainly have had that one last December to do my retirement extension.

He's hiding something. People who stayed here in 2020 might recall that he demanded billions off the big business owners, like Boon Rawd and Thai Bev, just to allow them to start selling booze again during the early days of the pandemic. Of course, it wouldn't be good for Thai politics or the Thai legal system or Thai pride or the anti-corruption drive (the one that was still born, lol) if it came out that he's actually worth ten billion Baht, so this tidy little fiction suits everyone.

I hereby nominate that as the understatement of the year! lol.

Perhaps they're worried that Srettha will try and tax their incomes and pensions as soon as they land? lol.

What is it with this guy Srettha, is he the Prime Minister of Thailand or a personal travel agent for the Shinawatra family? lol

I might bother going somewhere if they stopped the double-pricing racism at national parks and other tourist attractions. Until then, TAT can whistle for my custom.

Meanwhile, at Arrivals....

And I've lived here for 20 years and in the past, it was exactly as you said, TM47, and the usual copies of your passport. I think I used to add a copy of my proof of address as well, but then when they started up the online reporting app life got simpler. Think of it like the TM30 nonsense, that's not a 'new law' either, it's been around for decades but in the past was never enforced.

AFAICR, that's exactly how it was before the online reporting started up, so it's hardly a 'new law'.

I agree, it's not impossible, but seems rather unlikely unless there's been some premeditation.

So they're worried about criminal gangs working in Thailand, yet have made it much easier for large numbers of Russians and Chinese to come here to live. You reap what you sow, as they say.

Yes, good question. I believe that the mathematical geniuses employed by the government have run the numbers and developed the scenarios and gamed their strategies, and learnt that there simply aren't enough foreigners tax resident in Thailand to be able to raise much more than 500 billion Baht. As usual, the Thai politicians have everything worked out to ten decimal places and know exactly what they're doing, what could possibly go wrong? lol.

After the highly embarrassing and incredibly expensive HS2 fiasco in England, all I can say is good luck to them.

That'll mean the airlines having to cancel another half-dozen flights from China to Thailand if this makes the news there, lol.

A lot of them have probably already borrowed and spent the 10,000 Baht that may or may not arrive in their digital wallets, that will have given their consumer confidence a boost all right. Look for next month's headline: "Consumer confidence in Thailand drops to 84 month low" as the loan sharks start knocking on their doors and the government still hasn't disbursed a bent satang, lol.

The Government's probably thinking of dastardly threats like the Move Forward party, lol.

Yeah, they've really made a mess of the road. It was once by far the fastest way to get from Suk to the sea, without a single traffic light along its entire length. It was dodgy if you didn't know where vehicles were most likely to turn right, but for the locals (like myself, lived on Soi 8 for over 12 years) it was a really efficient and effective way of getting places. It's become a bad joke now, much slower than it was before and no safer, yet not carrying any more traffic. Congratulations to Pattaya City Hall for making a complete pigs ear of one of the best roads in the city. And now they'll press on to make a mess of Soi Buakhao.