Motoon

I would never think to carry embassy contact information with me.

.

You do now...at least when in Bangkok

No expert in UK tax law but I believe that the principle is the same everywhere:

- Profit on the investment is income and taxes are levied on that

- The fact that the company pays tax in Thailand has no impact as this is a corporate tax and no individual tax

- For a double tax treaty to work your investor has to declare income tax in Thailand, would therefore need a position and work permit in the Thai company, and payments would be done as salary (not a very clever solution given the tax brackets in Thailand).

- The offshore solution can be very viable provided done proper and legal. The income can for example be taxed flat rate in a recognised offshore location with double tax treaty with the UK (Labuan f.e.).

Cheers

Mo

I think the timing is very odd and might indicative some other motives than jus pure love for country and HM. The Jakkrapong case is still hanging... Unfortunately to the masses it is again reported as these bloody farangs try to topple the monarchy... The different comments on the Manager site show how it is perceived and it is disturbing.

There is currently a couple of hundred workers sitting outside the Triumph building in the Bangplee Industrial Estate. Triumph has basically halved their workforce stating the economic outlook. There is a lot of bad blood between the Union and the Management and both sides have made substantial errors in the past. Sad now that it is the workers that will be affected...

my first reaction after a few paragraphs was "this can't have been written by a Thai person".

Whether it was written by a Thai or a foreigner is, in the main, largely an irrelevance and a distraction. Whoever wrote this raised some indisputably valid points and made a fairly articulate and coherent argument. But in doing so, unfortunately and probably to a degree necessarily, displayed degrees of the same kind of generalization, stereotyping and lack of cultural understanding of the very group they were seeking to attack.

Good observation, I agree.

my first reaction after a few paragraphs was "this can't have been written by a Thai person".

i see a few others think the same.

so, if it is a fraud, what is the motivation,

who is the author, he/she must be a native english speaker.

i reckon it's written by a farang still in Thai honeymoon mode (the 1st 2 years).

He (probably a he) is married to a Thai lady, still has enough money and thinks he has found heaven on earth.

So, let's wait another 1-2 years and see what he posts when the money is getting low and the wife is getting greedy.

if,

he/she is a Thai,

love to meet and have a chat using language, logic, rational argument and all those good things that make up a proper conversation,

coz that's one thing i have never come close to in Thailand.

Quite speculative but a good example of a disillusioned "guest" in Thailand. Your remarks how a Farang/Thai relationship will eventually develop - although plainly stereotype - shows a degree of personal frustration so does your remark about having a meaningful discussion.

I have had great and fulfilling discussions with educated and smart Thai people which I would rate as on par with what I would get in my country, although I admit that many of these have been in Thai.

There are many issues in Thailand that frustrate me and I do my best to deal with them.

I feel sorry for those guys who obviously have little joy being in Thailand but somehow managed to get trapped and now only have forums such as TV to vent their frustrations.

Sorry, that did nothing for me at all...

Well, I agree that many have suffered from this fraud, but, as usual, a way over the top sentence. <deleted>!! The guy is 70 now and they give him 150 years??? What does that tell you.

I think a culprits age won't matter. The judges assess the crimes and met out a punishment for each count. Doesn't really matter whether he's 20 or 70, right?

This sentence might be over the top and banks will probably still get away with their manipulations - just to be bailed out later - but Bernie did a lot of damage as it is and has destroyed a lot of families and lives...

no sympathies here...

I'll be happy to do my duty free shopping in Singapore. Avoid KP for a while now and will continue to do so.

You do realise that King Power is an international company that operates in many airports, including Singapore's Changi Airport????

There are several duty free set ups at Changi. None of them likely to run such a scam though...

Sorry, but is this story true?

1. If they TOOK the wallet, have to pay the bribes so they later on could get the passports back with a paper from " prosecutors and police stating that no charges were to be brought against them."

OK, of course wrong to be able to bribe police but Thailand (and most countries on these globe) is NOT U.K, or Sweden, Denmark and so on. In most countries you can pay for your small mistakes as speeding, shoplifting, wrong - but facts of life.

They could just stay here for another 3-4 months, waiting for the case to come up to court. Now they paid and could leave after a couple of days. At home in U.K they should than keep there mouths shut instead they went to The Times (wouldn't The Sun been better…)

2. They DIDN'T TAKE the wallet. As in the article saying, FALSELY ACCUSED…

Why did they than pay at all ? A lot of money, also in U.K, without any guarantees for getting the passports back? To an interpreter, and not even a Thai…? It's well educated people...

Sorry, but I don't believe that ANY policemen would just take a foreigners passport, at least not in Thailand maybe in Zimbabwe, without any evidence like copy of film from CCTV cameras or the wallet itself in a pocket and no receipt…

Now days it's very popular for newspapers, both here in Thailand and abroad, to blow up this kind of stories. Lived here for many years and don't want to defend police or the legal system here, but don't believe everything you read in the press.

NO SMOKE WITHOUT A FIRE…

What a load of crap...Being here many years you should know better.

This is an elaborate scam and brings in a lot of money. Don't even think that it has no involvement from the upper level...

I'll be happy to do my duty free shopping in Singapore. Avoid KP for a while now and will continue to do so.

Much fuss about very little, it seems. This has been the rule for quite a while now and all they announced is that they intend to enforce it (in Phuket). I have to say some of the responses just blew me away - forearm tattoo, yellow star, rfid??? Makes you wonder...

Reality check - During my lat biz trip I had to produce my passport at hotels in Italy, Germany and yes, the UK. Same every time I'm in Singapore.

Sad news

Talking to people who work around the industrial estates of the East you get the following anecdotal stuff:

Virtually nobody has O/T unless it is unpaid right now. This has meant some workers hve had to resign and return "home" because with no O/T they cannot afford to live.

Everything was worse around the turn of the year when sub-contract workers were laid off, O/T diappeared and bonuses didnt come through and companies closed. Orders were then running at around 50% or even less of the previous year. Nobody felt safe. Even HR staff who had finished the lay offs were then being laid off themsleves.

In June there was a greater feeling of security based on orders picking up. Up to 80% of the previous year, and due to so many people having left companies already. Orders from UK and US weak. Orders from EU and Asia stronger. Obviosly oreders are for the future and wont impact in June or something but do create some work.

All anecdotal of course.

I think this is pretty accurate. That's the picture I've perceived as well.

Imports have fallen to a greater degree than exports, so the Thais are still ahead of the game.

the imports are used to make the goods to export! no imports nothing to make, no work for the thai people....

Exactly! Thailand actually manufactures very little; what it does do is assemble parts imported from foreign manufacturers and then export most of them as the finished article. Take the Honda plant in Thailand as an example. Very little of what goes into a Honda car is really made here, the engine, drive assembly, electronics, etc., are all imported from Japan or other factories in Asia and the Thai workers just assemble them to make the finished car.

It's a bit simplified. A strong contributor to decreased industrial imports is the fact that most companies in the electronic and similar fields had to correct stocks. At the start of 2008 stocks for raw materials and components were kept high due long delivery terms, whereas almost no orders were placed at the end of 2008. Companies are cleaning their stocks out and still export some finished goods, although at reduced quantities. In the industry I'm surveying I've seen program reductions of up to 40%. However there are signs that business is picking up a little - see Hana f.e. - and that the actual situation might improve a bit. Having said that one must be aware that it will take deep into 2010 to bring the industry back to a "normal" state. Unfortunately Thailand has made a bucket full of strategic errors and sent the wrong signals into the world. Consequently some industries feel more comfortable to establish their Production Centers/Regional HQ somewhere else -> see Ford a.o.

So we had quite a basket of opinions so far with the main point seeming to be that Thais (males) are not to be trusted and are generally degenerated, murderous bastards doing their trade in packs, waiting in the shadows to bash up some poor Foreigner tourist - be it in Pattay or up country. Well, well. I'm not an idealist with pink glasses and I'm certainly not defending the incident or even the short comings in this country (e.g. authorities) but that seems a bit simplistic.

I'm in this country for 16 years and what I have to say is that for every sleaze bag that I come across, I know at least five decent Thais that I consider my friends. Someone said that local Foreigners usually get along just fine with Thais and I agree. By the way, Thais do fight in packs - even amongst themselves - and the target is to "win", no matter how. Again I'm not defending, just stating a fact.

What happened may be disturbing and not right but it is a logical consequence of the course of action. I f you blame, blame all involved including the foreign tourist police volunteers jokers, with their hugely inflated ego, small hearts and their jacked up "police" pick ups.