ballpoint

Only if it comes in a box.

I'm not doubting, or arguing with you, just pointing out my experience. As per my post above, I've been through the tax system here. The office in the centre of Chiang Mai is likely the provincial one though. A district office would be one in, say, Fang or Chiang Dao. As I said, I can very well see the possibility of each provincial office hiring a tax attorney, who hopefully speaks English. I have yet to find an English speaker in my own provincial office, which, again as I said, has told me that I must deal with my home district - rather like immigration making you go to the office covering your location. This being Thailand, of course each province probably has its own rules on this though. I'd imagine that for those living in the bigger centres, with large expat populations, English speakers will be available to deal with the influx of bewildered retirees this law amendment will maybe cause. But things may not be so simple for those living upcountry. Having said that, when I traced the location of the flag on my passport, described above, to Bangkok District 3, which has two offices (and of course, I went to the wrong one first, who knew nothing at all about my situation) I was also surprised to find nobody I dealt with in either - including some pretty senior people, spoke English to any level of competence. Even offices in the middle of Bangkok won't be able to deal with English only speakers at present. Changes will have to be made on both sides. As I said in my earlier post, I can easily see the added costs outweighing any additional tax revenue in many offices. Especially if all these English speaking tax attorneys are doing is telling pensioners they don't have to file a return.

I agree with you that immigration do liaise with the Revenue Department, though in your case, you're referring to an extension of stay based on employment, where evidence of tax being paid is a valid request. For those of us who are retired there has been no requirement to show any tax paperwork when doing an extension. However, should the RD have some concerns about your tax status here as a retiree (or even just pick you at random for an audit), they can, and will, flag your passport so it comes up on the immigration computer. The onus is then on you to get that flag removed before you are allowed to leave the country, and, in theory, even get an extension. As I have posted here on other threads, this happened to me when they decided to audit my taxes. Luckily my local immigration saw the catch 22 between not giving me an extension and not allowing me to leave the country, so did extend my permission to stay while I sorted it out. They could have just given me a short term extension while I sorted it out, but gave the full year. From what I've heard, other offices are not as lenient. There was no problem with my taxes. I was doing the valid, at the time, not transferring money until the year after it was earned tactic, however, trying to find out the exact tax office responsible took some time - it was a Bangkok one, not my home province, and then even when they were satisfied, the flag remained. I had to visit the immigration office in Soi Suan Plu, where the black lists are controlled, to do so. That part was simple though. Once I'd found the right office I explained what had happened and the woman got on her computer and removed it there and then.

Will this be done at all Amphur (district) offices? There are 928 of these, if you include the 50 Bangkok Khets - Granted, I don't know if every one of them has a tax office, but I do know that every district in my upcountry province has one. Hiring a tax attorney for each will be quite a process, and for most, I'd imagine, would cost far more than any extra tax revenue that office will generate. I can see the Changwat (provincial) offices doing so, but I have been told in no uncertain terms by my provincial office that I must deal with the Amphur in which I live. in my case, this is a tiny room run by two women who only speak two words of English between them (one says "hello" and the other "goodbye"). I visit them around this time every year, and (under the previous rules at least) have never had to file a return, or been given anything in writing saying that I don't. Nothing changed on my visit this month, though we are still under the old rules, but I'm very interested to see what happens next year. Somehow, I can't see an English speaking tax attorney will be squeezed in with them.

I was telling my mate my aunt has been in hospital recently. She’s doing okay and has been passing the time by playing board games such as backgammon, draughts and mah-jongg. “Any chess?” He asked “No, she went private”.