Ricardo

Great, a spot-the-missing-elephant competition, much better than those too-easy spot-the-football ones !

They'll track it via the trail of elephant-poo, if by no other means ! Better invest in a strong dustpan & brush ? But probably good for your rose-garden !

How it usually works, when the bank update my own savings-account passbooks, they show entries for interest-earned and tax-deducted, on the trivial sums involved. I've never bothered to get a TIN, or file a self-assessment return, to reclaim the tax ... life's too short already. As you say, I don't yet see that principle being extended to automatically deduct 15% from all remittances received by individual expat tax-residents, in the current proposals ... but who knows what the future holds, with a mildly-socialist impoverished-government anxious to fund its promised-agenda ? Confuscious might have said, if contributing to this thread, "May you live in interesting, but less-taxing, times !" ps Apologies Mike, I was typing as you posted, you're correct IMO

Isn't the 15% witholding-tax only levied on interest earned/paid by the bank ? I hadn't heard, but am open to correction, that it would also apply to transfers-in.

I didn't need to do that, last time I needed a certificate-of-residency, to apply for a 5-year Thai driving-license, FWIW. Just a slow (IIRC 30-days wait) process at Immigration, which could be turned into next-day service, for a modest (B500 ?) administrative-fee.

Erm, wouldn't the savings-account possibly generate interest on money-X, said interest arising after 1.1.2024, which would perhaps therefore be taxable here when transferred ? Maybe see if you can get the saving-account to pass the interest to another (undeclared) account, to be safe ?

Spot-on ! I would guess that many people like myself, previously using monthly-transfers for retirement/married-extensions, will have been rushing to change to B800k/B400k on-deposit, recently ... if they can fund it.

You're tax-resident here, as many of us have been for years, but I don't think that necessarily means that you have to get a TIN or make a self-assessment return. Why trouble the RD, if you don't actually owe them anything, until they say that they do now require that paper-shuffling process ? I certainly haven't registered or filed previously, since I have always arranged my affairs so as to have no assessable-income, using the long-standing prior-year earnings route. This has never been a problem. Like you, I am now changing how I fund myself (plus family) for tax-year 2024, so that I will continue to not owe any tax here, until things become clearer (hopefully by mid-2025). This seems only sensible, to me. If it should become clear to me, that registration and a Nil-return are required in future, then I shall still have remained entirely legal. And I shall rearrange my affairs further, if it becomes necessary, as we learn more about what's expected of us.

Your tax-residency is determined by your having been in the country for more than 179 days, so I doubt that will work ? On the other hand, having transferred-in little/no money during 2024, there ought to be nothing to declare or be assessed tax on, as we currently understand the new situation ? So you can afford to await developments & clarification. And if you're a US-citizen, as your post suggests, then your DTA should shield you from part of the effects ?

The reason the TAT can't see the elephant in the room, is that the smog is so very thick, reducing visibility !

Look again, the article clearly says A320, Thai Airways don't even have any A220s, which is a single-aisle plane with 2+3 economy-seating in normal-configuration. The photo is clearly a wide-bodied plane, so not an A320 or an A320, it has to be photoshopped, for comparison purposes.

My son just spent an uncomfortable 4-days getting through Covid, he's on a short visit for a family get-together down South, whether he got it there or on the flight down isn't known, but it may well be going-the-rounds here again ? My wife & I first had it end-January 2020, among the first to get it, after it reached Chiang Mai on the daily charter-flights of tourists, direct from the source Wuhan. It was a week-long nasty winter-cold (we thought). Best avoided if you can ! I'll definitely be masking-up for my Christmas-flights back to London, en-route to care for my 93-year-old mother, who has every right to live her full-life despite what some anonymous ignorant plonker on AN might say ! They too will reach that age someday, if they're lucky !

Would the new PM care to also declare, that the widespread concern amongst foreign-residents about changes to the long-standing arrangements for taxing us, is also a "fake-news" story ? I doubt it, as it's currently still just an ill-considered proposal & internal-instruction within the Revenue Department, so only "semi-fake news". But it IS nevertheless causing very-great concern, and bad-publicity for the country ! Perhaps he might wish to clarify, that in-fact Thailand still welcomes tourists & longer-staying foreign-residents, and appreciates the contribution we all make when creating jobs & supporting our families & paying VAT/excise-duty/airport-departure-tax/land-taxes/immigration-fees, and states clearly that the proposal was all just a bad-dream (or misinterpretation or mistake by a junior official), and that we can all stop worrying about it ?

I agree 100%, and am doing the same thing, with just one additional-action ... I am switching immediately, from monthly-transfers to support my retirement-extensions, to B800k in-the-bank before 1/1/24. I am also now describing all bank-transfers henceforth as "UK-Taxed Pensions", and may well make a Gift (by bank-transfer) to my wife's account ... and carrying more Cash into Thailand as well, when travelling. Every little bit helps ! Minimise your visible exposure, never a bad strategy !

Not a widely-known concept even amongst farangs IMO, unless you've studied economics or business, the point is that introducing new funds from outside the local-economy boosts economic-activity by a factor of several-times, as it goes round-&-round businesses/people before gradually dissipating.

Happily death generally only happens once, whereas taxes are annual (or more), and an experience laden with onerous paperwork, which I (and many others ?) had hoped to have left behind, when I retired to live here ! I'd much prefer, if the RD want/need to raise serious amounts of money, that they raise the VAT-rate ? Yet they seem reluctant to do something like that, surely not because it would impact their voters, and not just us allegedly-rich farangs.

I'd predict the chances of the DWP doing that, in order to assist pensioners living out here with a purely-local tax-problem, are somewhere between Slim & None-at-all ! But would love to be pleasantly surprised. 😎 This is the government which, despite promises over-the-years, are still happy to dis-enfranchise its' citizens, once we've been overseas for 15+ years, don't forget. Yet still wants to tax us on any/all income arising in-the-UK. 🙄 But I digress.

Certainly, I've been getting the UK Old-Age-Allowance for a few years now, and have never had a P60 off the DWP ... apparently HMRC get the numbers from them direct, presumably linked to your NI-number, so don't need/want a P60 too ... and the thought that we customers (aka Old Farts ?) might also find one useful, well why care what we might want ? That's British customer-service at its finest ! 😎

And which sometimes even arrive here, when our local postie makes his weekly (if that) visit, to our village ! 🙄 Not knocking Thailand, just making the point that the postal-service is sometimes imperfect. 😎

Famous Last Words ? 😎

The SRT has been slowly trying to progress a 20-year track-doubling program for the past decade or more, it's still moving ahead, and might increase the movement of container-traffic to/from Laem Chabang from the North-East, North-West & Southern regions of Thailand ... which IMO is probably a good thing economically long-term. Especially if regional transhipment-centres result in what an elderly Brit like myself might remember as a Freight-Liner system ? Some may not realise that doubling a single-track system would more-than double the carrying-capacity of the routes, by eliminating delays while waiting for oncoming-trains to clear the next single-track section ? Not high-speed (as the Lao railway isn't anyway) but medium-speed, and improving efficiency of an existing asset, at a much-lower/more-affordable cost to Thailand. Without having to hand land over to a certain regional super-power, either.

Correct, the SRT have slowly (it's a 20-year plan, and running late) been duelling some of their single-track main-lines, but it's all just a much-needed improvement of their existing metre-gauge system. And not funded by China, as claimed. Interestingly much of the new Chinese-built line through Laos is also reported to be single-track, with passing-places along the way, and is medium-speed at best (understandable given the difficult terrain), Wikipedia say "The railway is built on a single track with passing loops and is electrified to China's Class I trunk railway standards, suitable for 160 km/h (100 mph) passenger and 120 km/h (75 mph) freight trains" .

Just to point out that one might ask one's everloving-wife, for one example, to pop into the exchange-shop with some Sterling/Dollar-cash, to be exchanged into Baht on your behalf. ????

Houston, we might have a problem, but ... nobody really knows yet ... watch this space.

I departed Chiang-Mai yesterday, and our desk for re-entry permits has now moved, it used to be a little-office next to the security-scanners, but is now to-the-right of the immigration-officers desks, where I was being finger-printed & stamped-out of the country.