ballpoint

Two years after I retired from working and paying quite a large amount of income tax annually in Thailand, I was audited by the Revenue Department. I first became aware of this when my online 90 day report was rejected and I had to go to the local immigration to do it in person. They said my passport had been flagged by the Revenue Department, and I would be unable to extend my visa, when that time came, until this flag was removed. It was the RD in Bangkok, to whom my taxes were paid while working, who did the flagging, and not my current district, even though I had transferred my tax number to them upon retirement. Apparently the RD are doing this more often, and the immigration officer told me some people had had serious problems with it - finding out they were flagged only when they went to extend their visa and then not having enough time to sort it out. He also said that not only were former income tax payers being targeted, but also any long term "tax residents", which anyone who spends more than 180 days here a year is. Accordingly, I went to my district RD office, who, typically, were unaware of the flag, but did the audit after calling Bangkok. I had to produce my Thai bank statement for the previous year and account for every deposit made into it. Luckily for me, I have investments in multiple countries, and I transfer my annual living money to a bank in Singapore each December, with no further deposits made into that bank until the end of the following year. I then transfer the money to Thailand over the first half of the next year, so when I showed my Singapore statement (they weren't interested in, nor did I offer to show them, the other bank and brokerage accounts I have in various countries) it showed more than enough money on the first of January to cover all transfers to Thailand that year. I linked each transfer from that bank to a deposit in my KBank account. I only had to show monthly statements up to the date of my final transfer for the year, so the December one, when the next year's money was deposited, didn't need to be produced. In short, all was okay, and they informed Bangkok to remove the flag. This was in 2020, and I haven't had any issues with them since. They informed me I do not have to file a tax return, unless I want to reclaim tax withheld on interest, which I can't be bothered doing. More importantly, they said that, had there been any deposits made into my Singapore bank the same year as I transferred money, and these were made before, or on the same month, as that money was transferred, I would have to account for where that money came from, and, if tax had not been paid on it at source, I would be liable for income tax on it in Thailand - even if I already had enough money in the account for my transfers before that money was deposited. So, although the bit about not having to pay tax on income earned prior to the current tax/calendar year is correct, any income deposited into an overseas account used to transfer money to Thailand is liable to be taxed if deposited prior to transfer(s) being made (and it hasn't already been taxed at source).

Your body doesn't sense absolute temperature, but rather temperature relative to itself - Try putting one hand in a bowl of cold water and the other in a bowl of hot water. After a while both hands will feel like they are at the same temperature. Then place both in a third bowl of warm water. The hand previously in the cold bowl will feel hot, and that from the hot bowl will feel cold. Your sense of temperature comes from the brain, based on electrical impulses from external sensors - just like all your others senses, and is open to the same sort of illusions as they are. Similar to this optical one, where square B appears lighter than square A, but is in fact the same shade. The contrast of the squares around them, plus the fact that your brain expects B to be in the shadow of the cylinder, make it appear lighter. In a normally warm humid environment your brain expects the air temperature to be warm, compared to that of your body, so it appears cooler than it is when it isn't. If you link the two squares, the illusion vanishes. Similarly, if you could somehow put half your body in a real cold temperature of 6 deg while leaving the other here at 16 deg then the half here wouldn't feel so cold.

It would be bloody, but not in the way many people think it would. What is required is for a number of high ranking Russian officers, who can see what Putin is doing to their homeland, to openly confront the private militias - mainly the Wagner group, but also a number of others as well, and destroy them. Destroy their leadership and any rank and file who refuse to officially enrol as Russian army soldiers, or lay down their weapons and return to civilian life, and/or prison. Now would be the prefect time to do this. Take out their men while they are facing the Ukrainians in the field and "deal" with their leadership, and those who support them, in Moscow. No professional Western army would tolerate troops totally outside its command structure fighting, and giving orders to regular army soldiers, on front lines. Surely there are some professionals in the Russian military command?

The real way to end the war, and make the world a safer place, is to destroy the hotbed of anti-Russia in the Kremlin.

Just returned from my annual check up at Doctor’s. For some reason she complimented me on my footwear - said I have healthy shoes!

My friend is involved in a major custody battle. His wife doesn't want him and his mother wont take him back.

I can't get over how old my new neighbour is. He said he's a retired English teacher, and used to teach Shakespeare.