TallGuyJohninBKK

As best as I recall, the consequences can be pretty financially severe if the feds end up themselves having to catch someone who has deliberately not filed over a period of time. But I think there are ways to voluntarily get back into compliance. Per the IRS website on the subject: Penalties "You may be subject to civil monetary penalties and/or criminal penalties for FBAR reporting and/or recordkeeping violations. Assertion of penalties depends on facts and circumstances. Civil FBAR penalty maximums in Title 31 of the United States Code are adjusted annually for inflation. Publication 5569, Report of Foreign Bank & Financial Accounts (FBAR) Reference Guide PDF contains information about criminal penalties. Filing delinquent FBARs Filing an FBAR late or not at all is a violation and may subject you to penalties. If the IRS hasn’t contacted you about a late FBAR and you’re not under civil or criminal investigation by the IRS, you should file late FBARs as soon as possible to keep potential penalties to a minimum. Follow these instructions to explain your reason for filing late. If you’re using a compliance option, such as the Streamlined filing compliance procedures, follow the instructions for the specific compliance option. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar

I haven't gotten anything new from BKKB as yet.... But I'm guessing, the form they're likely to be sending out is merely one that asks recipients to confirm or report their US SSN, which is the identifying detail that ties together all the various international financial reporting for Americans. It still will be up to the individual American expat to tally up all their various foreign financial account balances for the 2024 year, and then determine whether they do or don't have a FATCA and/or FBAR filing requirement. BKKB isn't going to be telling anyone that, as they only know about your BKKB account(s), but nothing about any of the others. I'm pretty sure BKKB asked me for, and had me fill out, one of the FATCA/SSN forms some years back in connection with my account. But who knows, maybe that form ended up in a shredder at some Thai Immigration office somewhere!

Because of the relatively HIGH financial thresholds on total foreign financial assets that exist in the FATCA requirement, especially for those living abroad, I'd think MOST Americans living in Thailand, especially retirees, aren't likely to have a FATCA filing requirement. However, as noted above, the FBAR filing requirement is much lower -- merely $10,000 USD or more in combined financial assets held in foreign accounts. Thus anyone with just the standard 800,000 THB retirement extension Thai bank deposit (equal to about $23,000 USD) and little else in Thailand IS is going to trigger the FBAR reporting requirement, but NOT the FATCA reporting requirement. As noted, FBAR is a separate annual reporting requirement done apart from one's federal tax filing process.

HHS to maintain free at-home COVID tests by mail—for now The Trump administration for now will keep offering free COVID tests by mail as it considers whether to store or destroy the stockpile of 160 million tests, both of which come with significant financial costs, the Washington Post reported today. Federal officials speaking off the record initially told the Post that the website for ordering the tests would go offline on February 18, but a Department of Health and Human Services spokesman later told the Post that the free test program would remain for now as the government discusses closing the current round of tests. Tests to remain in the federal stockpile The spokesman also said the tests would be kept in the stockpile until they reach their expiration date. Federal officials told the post that only a small fraction of the tests in the government stockpile are expired. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/hhs-maintain-free-home-covid-tests-mail-now

Yep, the rep there at my SCB branch had me sign the same form, which I gather, pertained just to to international fund transfers... which I don't do thru SCB anyway. I rarely use SCB for much of anything. But I also was surprised to discover that since the last time I went looking, they also have scrapped their former online banking website and now are 100% mobile app only, something that CIMB previously did as well. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but this march toward reliance only on mobile phone apps in lieu of web based banking seems the wrong way to go.... I'm OK to have BOTH, but really dislike them discontinuing their web-based online banking. That also was another reason that I let my former CIMB account go inactive and ultimately closed.

And, where were the controls within the dating app operator's system to ensure that underage minors were not making use of those services? I asked my Thai wife, and these days, she says Thai children can get their national ID card as early as age 7....

I was in one of my major Thai bank company branches today for some business, and while there, happened to ask if I could register my biometrics for my account, because the same issue had cropped up recently in another issue.... The bank CSR there understood my request and replied that the banking biometric system, at least as used by my major Thai banking company, only is capable of registering THAIS, not farangs. Not sure if that's going to end up being a GOOD thing, or a BAD thingn down the road.... Just waiting for the bank, one of these days, to tell me I can't do this or that kind of transaction via their mobile app because I don't have the biometrics registered for my account....

Effective PM2.5 reduction is not only a matter of the clean air flow delivery rate, but also the type and quality of filter being used. "True" HEPA filters eliminate 99.97% of PM2.5 at the filter point. There are lots of lesser quality, less effective filters including some labeled as HEPA that do a much poorer job of capturing/eliminating PM2.5. Also, there's the issue of electrical use and economy. Air purifiers by and large use far far less electricity than split air con units do. You can run an air purifier around the clock and not rack up any big electrical charges. But running a large room air con unit around the clock just because you're trying to filter PM2.5 is really going to spike one's electrical bill by comparison.

The U.S. also is currently undergoing a serious wave of flu infections, hospitalizations and some deaths -- with current rates at the highest in years. US flu reaches high severity status as deaths outpace COVID February 15, 2025 With flu activity last week higher than or similar to the highest point of the season and hospitalizations and deaths on the rise, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that it now classified the season as high severity for all age-groups for the first time since the 2017-18 season. Over the past 2 weeks, flu deaths have outpaced fatalities from COVID and now make up 2.6% of all deaths for the most recent week, compared to 1.5% for COVID. Outpatient visits for flulike illness have been above baseline for 11 weeks in a row, with very high or high activity reported in 46 states. Levels are highest in people ages 24 years old and younger. [emphasis added] (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-general/us-flu-reaches-high-severity-status-deaths-outpace-covid

Most traditional AC units sold here still don't do a meaningful job of eliminating indoors PM2.5, which is really where the focus should be, from a health perspective. "True" HEPA air purifiers are best for that job.

Ahh, this infamous Dr. Cahill? The Strange Case of Dr. Cahill and Ms. Hyde Professor Dolores Cahill’s scientific résumé can legitimize her false claims about COVID-19. Her crusade of misinformation raises the question of how far academic freedom goes. 13 Aug 2021 ... "Cahill, who until recently was teaching a class for first-year medical students called “Science, Medicine and Society,” has been making a number of staggeringly erroneous claims about COVID-19 and its associated vaccines since the beginning of the pandemic, never correcting her mistakes and always doubling down. She has said, falsely, that COVID-19 can be prevented by taking vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc, and that the most efficient treatment is in the form of hydroxychloroquine, a cheap medication against malaria and autoimmune diseases that turned into an object of worship for some individuals, even as the evidence clearly showed it did not work against COVID-19." ... Bolstered by Cahill’s academic and scientific credentials, her misinformed and hazardous claims have grown to the point where students at her university wrote a 33-page scientific rebuttal of these claims, a document that was signed by 133 students from the university’s own School of Medicine and sent to its administrators. One of the claims these students had to debunk: that once you get COVID-19, you are immune for life. This brazen assertion’s confidence is in contradiction with actual knowledge in the field, which is that we do not clearly know how long immunity does last. But this is the upside-down world at University College Dublin right now, where students are teaching their own professor basic facts about a topic she should be familiar with." McGill University, Office for Science and Society Separating Sense from Nonsense https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-health/strange-case-dr-cahill-and-ms-hyde

You're too "imminent" for me!!!

Anti-vaxxers are promoting mythical ‘vaccine detoxes’ to keep their movement alive Anti-vax groups are pushing vitamin supplements and snake-oil sprays to ‘detox’ COVID-19 vaccines from the body. The issue goes beyond making a quick buck. November 11, 2021 ... "This week, anti-vax and anti-lockdown journalist Morgan C Jonas featured an online interview with Professor Ian Brighthope, which was promoted as a “C-19 injection detox protocol” by Australian anti-vaxxer group Reignite Democracy Australia." vs. "Vaccines are safe and effective. Even if they weren’t, the concept of a vaccine detox is a myth. Professor Allen Cheng, who co-chairs the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), told Crikey that there’s no scientific basis for a vaccine detox: “‘Detoxing’ isn’t a concept that means much to me from a medical viewpoint — vaccines, like many exogenous substances, are metabolised and eliminated naturally by the body.” ... A key part of the argument for a detox is based on a popular fabrication that COVID-19 vaccines contain graphene oxide, a type of material used in batteries and electronics. Graphene oxide isn’t present in any approved vaccine COVID-19, and even if it was, there’s no way to detox from it. " https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/11/11/anti-vaxxers-are-promoting-mythical-vaccine-detox-to-keep-their-movement-alive/

Anti-vax claims flood Senate inquiry. Officials say they’re wrong May 27, 2024 ... "Professor Ian Brighthope, on behalf of World of Wellness, said “fake vaccines and passports” were a factor in higher death rates." vs. "The TGA [Australian Therapeutics Goods Administration] says deaths from vaccines are extremely rare and in most cases deaths after vaccination were not caused by the vaccine.” ... The Health Department said vaccines had saved millions of lives and their safety and effectiveness had been “validated by both post-market surveillance and real-world data collected on millions of people globally”. https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/anti-vax-claims-flood-senate-inquiry-officials-say-they-re-wrong-20240526-p5jgq6

Another typical whack job post and Substack article from the OP, this time, from another guy who makes his money hawking supposed nutritional cures for things like AIDS and diabetes, among others... (There's a nutritional cure for AIDS? That's going to come as some surprise to the world....) Absolutely no credentials whatsoever relating to COVID or COVID vaccines, except being an ardent anti-vaxer. But then again, that's about what you can expect in this "Off the Beaten Track" nonsense subforum. https://nutritioncare.com.au/our-story/ Re Brightrope: "He graduated in Agricultural Science in 1965 and then in 1974 graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery." The Brighthope Clinics and Biocentres were developed in the 1970’s. They specialised in Nutritional Medicine, Environmental Medicine, intravenous therapies including chelation therapy and herbal medicine. https://isom.ca/profile/ian-brighthope/ Looks like he's an Australian version of prolific American COVID misinformation spreader Peter McCullough, who at least was a practicing medical doctor before he lost his board certifications, and went into the nutritional "cures" business.