Luma

FYI: (A question asked at the superior Phuket Gazette website, with answer from the Thai Revenue Department!)

---- FARANG QUESTION: ----

Every six months we (like all VAT-registered Thai companies) are eligible for a VAT tax refund. This is stated by Thai law and it is, I assume, how it is supposed to work.

However, every time we request a cash refund of our VAT, we get an “offer we can’t resist”. The Revenue Department suggests we should let them keep our VAT in a kind of “trust hold”. We can then deduct the forthcoming month’s VAT from the funds held by the Revenue Department.

Failure to comply with this generous offer is likely to result in monthly visits from the Revenue Department to scrutinize our accounting records.

A while ago we requested that our VAT be refunded as we needed it to bolster our cash flow. Up to now we have still not received this money. This is surely against Thai law. No other country with a VAT system (that I know of) has any problem refunding it.

VAT is simply a balance loan to the government that the government is obliged to repay to us if it is overdrawn. Failure to do so would be tantamount to embezzlement.

My questions are, is racketeering part of the Revenue Department’s practices? And if we can’t rely on the government agencies to practice Thai law, who can we rely on?

-- Michael

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ANSWER FROM THE REVENUE DEPARTMENT:

Thursday, March 6, 2003

“I can guarantee that there is no racketeering or corruption within the Revenue Department. Normally, we prefer VAT payers to let us keep their VAT in the form of “trust hold” which is quite convenient for both them and us.

But if a VAT payer wants a refund in cash, we are willing to pay it. However, the process usually takes some time because we must review the business’s operation and documentation. We need to make sure that it is operating legally.

If you are confident that you are doing business legally and have been waiting for refund for a long time, you can contact the Revenue Department direct. We will follow up the matter for you. ”

Thursday, March 6, 2003  Orrathai Mahatamtip, Senior Official, Phuket Provincial Revenue Department.

1) Last I heard, the train to Nong Khai, the Thai border town, leaves Bangkoks' Hualampong station at 20.45 and arrives in Nong Khai around 09.30 the following morning, but train times frequently change here, and trains often arrive late.  A second class ticket for an upper berth in an air conditioned sleeping carriage is 540 baht.

2) Head to the border post at the Thai - Laos friendship bridge (Saphan Mattaphak Thai - Lao) by tuk tuk.  Haggle the driver down to 40 baht, and don't let him leave you with any dodgy travel agents who want to charge you 2000 baht to "take care you so you no worry".  There is nothing they can do for you that you can't do yourself a lot cheaper.

3) If you have an overstay fine to pay, head for the office on your left when you arrive at the border (200 baht per day of overstay).  Otherwise, just pass through a checkpoint and buy a bus ticket (10 baht) to the Laos border point at the other end of the bridge.

4) On arrival at the Laos border, fill in an arrival card and a visa application.  You will need one passport size photograph.  You can give a guesthouse as your address in Laos (eg Saylom Yen guest house, Saylom Road)  You don't have to stay there.  They won't check.  Leave the space for a Laos contact blank.

Join the queue for a 15 day 'Visa On Arrival', which costs 31 US dollars (including a one dollar farang fee) which you CAN pay in baht (1,500), whatever you may have heard.

5) Don't change too much money.  The baht is accepted almost everywhere around Vientianne (which, btw, is pronounced Wiang Chang).  Since the exchange rate is about 230 kip to one baht, you would have to carry 230,000 kip in 2,000 and 5,000 kip notes if you change 1,000 baht.  This will not easily fit in your wallet, and you don't want that many notes in your pocket.

6) Pay an entry fee into Laos - 10 baht.

7) The tuk tuk drivers want to take you into Vientianne for 250 baht.  You want them to do it for less than 80 baht.  If it's raining, or if you're a coward, you might be able to get a taxi for 100 baht, but this would be a shame, as the white knuckle tuk tuk ride is part of the whole Vientianne experience.  Your tuk tuk driver will stop to pick up other passengers along the way, and then do his best to get you all killed.  Have fun.

8) Assuming you survive all the way to Vientianne, ask the driver to drop you at the Thailand Visa / Passport office so you can get your bearings.  Keep saying "Thai" and "pass-a-port" a lot while miming a passport stamping.  He'll get it.  The Visa Office is open from 08.30 - 12.00, Monday to Friday for the receipt of visa applications.  As such, it should be possible to apply on the day you arrive, but in practise, it almost certainly isn't, as the queues are enormous.  

10) The Saylom Yen Guest House (214246) has rooms from 6 US dollars...  200 - 250 baht without air conditioning, 430 baht (ish) with air conditioning, and it's close to the Thai Consulate.  To find it from the Consulate, turn left at the Lao Viet Bank, go past two internet shops, and turn left again.  The cafe on the corner serves vile coffee and excellent bread, and is popular with ex-pats.

If the Saylom Yen is too grotty for you, try the the Hotel Chalernchai nearby.  500 baht for aircon and cable TV, apparently.

Syri guesthouse also comes highly recommended.

11) The best advice has always been to arrive at the Visa office at least an hour ahead of closing time, but since the guards now take 1,000 baht bribes from queue jumpers, it is now suggested that you either start queuing at about 06.00 if you don't want to pay the bribe.  It is possible to queue from 08.00 and still not be seen by 12.00.

Fill in the application form supplied by the touts (you will need two photographs) but do not accept their offer to help (for a fee).  Join the queue at the consulate entrance.  Punters are admitted ten at a time, and then they take a number.  If you don't have a number by 12.00, you'll probably have to come back the following day.  As such, I recommend you don't even bother to try beginning the application process until the day after you arrive.

A Non Immigrant B Visa costs 500 baht.

11)  Return to the Visa office the following day, and be prepared for a long queue again, before collecting your visa at around 13.00.

12) Take a tuk tuk back to the Thai - Laos friendship bridge.  Try to find someone to share with to split the cost.

13) Spend your spare kip in the Duty Free Shop.

14) Take a free taxi to the bus station, not a 20 baht bus to Udon.

15) Take a tuk tuk to the train station.  20 baht a head.

16) Last I heard, the train to Bangkok leaves at 19.15.  If you have time to kill in Nong Khai, try the suprisingly nice bar amonst the ramshackle roadside shops and cafes opposite the station (assuming it hasn't been destroyed by flooding).  It sells beer which is cold and food which is edible.

Thing To Do In Vientianne

1) Eat.  Vientianne has more restaurants than it knows what to do with.  Navigate by the fountain circle, where the posh restaurants are.  The Kop Chai Deu Restaurant  and Bar on Setthathirst is fairly good.  The Italian was closed when I was there, and I'm still waiting for someone to give me a report.  The French Cote d'Azur Restaurant, on Th Fa Ngum, near the river, comes highly recommended, especially for steak lovers.

2) Explore.  You can get anywhere in Vientianne fairly quickly on foot.

3) Find me a decent map.  I lost mine.

4) Er...  that's it.

iTV (a local Thai TV station) aired a documentary on Saturday, February 22, about a Thai man who was scammed 200,000 baht by a Thai lady in another town via email, who he met on a dating service.

She sent him her photo and mobile number, spoke politely, offered a relationship and implicitly sex, and cried on the phone saying she needed hospital money or she would die of leukemia. After sending the money to her bank, he got suspicious. An iTV crew with a private investigator tracked her down.

She was a fat and ugly lady with a computer, photos of pretty ladies in her room (some who she knew), and lots of money.

This is not uncommon, as well as similar scams using email, mobile phones, landline call centers and proxies to answer the phones. Expats overseas are more vulnerable, but the scammers do these kinds of things to Thai men, too.

These scams hurt innocent Thai ladies "by association" (nationality). Many Thai ladies are sincere. However, the email scams are on a rapid rise.

There is another article about Thai lady email and telephone scams on the Thailand Private Investigations website at

http://www.ThailandPI.com (the owner is a former Thai journalist but the website is mostly English)

iTV might do a follow-on story, because the lady was caught alone, not very cooperative, and it appeared that she had some accomplices.

Unfortunately, the iTV programme is in Thai.

--SCT

Hmmm... but  very expensive place..

What about Nana Disco?  

As a subsciber of UBC, I am astonished how they can have the power to interrupt the broadcasts on CNN, BBC, CNBC and other channels to show the blue UBC message screen and play that annoying elevator music.

Whay don't they just play the commercials instead of breaking the programs.

If that censur department idiots at least could understand and diversify what is programming and commercials.... Sometimes they turn on the regular broadcast several seconds into the news programs!

Is there really no alternative to this unprofessional UBC?

Bring your US g/f to the nearest Thai consulate in the US and explain the situation. Worst case would be a double entry Tourist visa, which will take her 6 months forward (incl. extensions).

If the consul is sober, , he might give her a Non-Immigrant O visa, and that can be anything from single (90 days) to one year multiple entry (visa run every 90 days).  Try to convince them to give her a multi.

Leave the work permit issue for the time beeing. That would require a NON-B visa and could accomplish the case if you try that now.

The only ISP:s in Thailand worth the name is Loxinfo and CS Internet. Period.

KSC, Inet, Anet - all is crap!

Farang fatigue strikes again.

Does anyone else think that, on the whole, Thais would be much happier if foreigners simply arrived at the airport, emptied all their money into garbage bags, then got back on the plane and left?

I have had exceptions to this, but my experience has generally been that Thais are tired of rich foreigners invading their country, but still want all the money that comes in via tourism. The same thing in Tunisia, which gets lots of Europeans.

I was extending my Non-Immigrant visa last week. I got it initially from the infamous S&A Visa Co in BKK (Vince). The immigration didn't want to extend it first, but they finally did. They told me not to use these agents anymore, and that they "gonna catch him soon".

So it looks that S&A are in the deep shit. Anyone had problems with agents??

I will travel to Thailand in december for researching a business in Phuket. Shall I apply for a B or O visa at the Thai Embassy?

++Luma++