mokwit

It was an article in the Bangkok Post many years go.

So it never happened that someone correctly declared the value or description and Thai Customs applied another value (or category) - which they do - they have set values for some items.

That is why there was a cacophony of complaints by Thai businesses about it, Liverpool Lou a foreigner on a retirement extension (probably) knows better than them. They were complaining about something that didn't even exist according to Lou. Correctly declared or not is decided by Thai Customs who are the judge in the case. Again, there is a "normal rate" but the schedule allows for duty up to 60% or even 100%. Thai customs are looking for things that have been wrongly declared or deliberately mislabeled in an attempt to evade the correct duty because that is where they can extract the most money, but it can come down to an interpretation by one officer whether the declaration (value or description) is correct or not. The situation was (don't know if it still is) that if you felt that interpretation was wrong you could appeal but if Customs who were the judge in the matter ruled it was correct you were charged 5x the duty.

The duty on the paperwork to customs may be the correct duty but you pay way more with a courier as people on this board regularly attest. It is a profit centre for them. It seems you have never imported anything via courier - I first got stung for 100% duty by them in 1995. With Thai customs, apart from one 100% charge it has never been more than 15-30%.

The 5x may have been changed because it was so unfair - I pointed out that might be dated. You are the person who was telling everyone how easy it was to reclaim incorrectly assessed duty - you then admitted you had never done it. Told us all you just 'phoned the hotline, explained how it was wrong and they sent you a cheque if I remember rightly. That doesn't sound like how things work in Thailand. So please tell us how you go about dealing with an incorrect assessment (I remember now I was charged 100% by Thai Customs, but that is unusual). there is a normal rate often 15-30% but the schedule for each category allows for up to 60 or even 100%.

This is for duties applied by Customs themselves. Few avail themselves of this opportunity because if Thai Customs, who are the judge in the case, find you are wrong to claim i.e. thye duty was correctly applied they charge you 5x what they originally charged (this may have changed but it certainly was the case).

Nope. If you send thing normal post and it is dutiable you pay the correct duty applied by Thai Customs - I don't think I have been charged more than 30%, most things 15%. With couriers, especially rhymes with Hell, you pay way more.

Meanwhile Thailand requires all kinds of proofs for their 60 day tourist visa - extendable with TM30 docs. Thailand deserves to lose every tourist it loses to Vietnam. Perhaps the Vietnamese don't know that tourists become a threat to "National Security" after 30 days.

'Stealing profits that rightfully belong to Thais' card might be played.

They will both sleep through it.

She needs to brush up on Thai law as it is applied. If the foreigner wasn't in the country the accident couldn't have happened so it must be the foreigners fault. Whether her special exemption for being Chinese overrides that is yet to be established. She may find it would have been cheaper to have paid herself than raise eyebrows about the "unusual" profitability of her restaurant business.

Seems this is usually an exercise in funds transfer - transfer of your funds to her - the land is sold or hocked.

It is/was being cracked down on at CW from what I have heard, although competing factions in a power struggle can often be the case, rather than an absolute crackdown. There is a risk your agents contacts could be on the wrong side of that. Receipts are important - if someone is freelancing outside the system you could have your extension or whatever revoked. Freelance is what gets busted, I have never heard of 'the system' being busted. As a general observation not aimed at the post I highlighted, it is truly amazing how whenever there is post on agents there are scores of people posting who clearly know noting about it and even go as far as "correcting" the handful that do.

Probably down for linking to other databases.

Wait 'till Hapkarn hits him with the visa offences. Visa and TM30 in one province but residing in another.

So much for the crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs.

You forgot to elaborate on this easy path for the under 50's. The board is all ears.

I used the term "requirements" without specifying solely financial requirements. The TM30 is a requirement to do an extension now.

I think the current requirements are an unwanted legacy. We had Hapkarn recently saying it was "too easy". I think he was referring to the fact that all you need is the financials and to be over 50. Presumably he was thinking of other criteria being needed, but likely if changes are made the financials will be increased. The new long stay visas require Bt3m on deposit. All it took for OA insurance requirement was ONE person (Anutin) to get a bee in his bonnet. Likewise the 400k year 'round.

Because if it wasn't taxed people would simply switch from ordinary beer to cheaper non alcoholic beer.

In 2010 you were not required to keep 400k in the account year 'round - or are you going to tell me it hasn't changed because it is still 800k like Hapkarn did? Don't remember any risk of being caught out by falling through the cracks with TM30 e.g. landlord dies at an inopportune moment. It doesn't matter what they were it is what they will be. Are you sure that there will be no changes going forward and we can all retire with peace of mind? You need to come out from under your coconut. What do you do when you are 60+ and now all visas require insurance? When they make changes they don't think things through and people fall through the cracks - possibly being unable to extend until things are adjusted - if they ever are. This seemingly happened when the compulsory insurance was introduced for OA - seems over 70's were excluded initially.

Ah yes, when you'd get them back to your place and you'd sit them down and say there was a special thing you wanted her to do for you which other men probably didn't ask for. What is it? she'd ask, and you would ask if she could sew some buttons back on your shirts (and they did).

800k in the bank - or an income of 65k is not the new visa types. Do try to keep up. New = $80k PA pension* for one type, Bt3m in the bank for OX. I wasn't talking about the O extension - I was making exactly the point that they regard being able to afford 800k as too low a barrier. *You would have had to have worked for US Govt/UN/Red Cross etc to have that kind of pension.

Only problem is it is becoming increasingly evident that Thailand doesn't want people who can't afford to retire in their own country. As evidenced by the terms of new visa types, it only wants "rich" retirees.

Mama's monthly salary should be in there too. You have to be doubly lucky. It's no good having a girlfriend who makes reasonable demands for herself if there is a greedy Mama in the background. Likely she is being "remoted" by the old biddies in the village.