rishi

There are more places offering free wifi in chiang mai than there are phone booths.

... I know I'm an extreme minority repeating myself, but I still don't see any downturn watching the Bahts rolling over my counter - quite opposite.... There are more tourists in Chiang Mai than any other October if statistics were based only on patrons in my shop. However, they don't go shopping in the night bazaar nor the sunday market. The don't eat at restaurants were you'll feel starved if you didn't spring at least five hundred Baht, and they don't mind spending the extra effort it takes to figure that guesthouses at the outskirts of the "mine-field" can be even better at a lower costs than those listed in the outdated Lonely Planet Bible. --- And hey, some of them even bring along their own girlfriend and don't touch alcohol --- Quite understandably that a lot of business owners, frequenting this board, see a downturn.

Soft butter up from about 89 baht to about 189 baht in less than a year.

Do things by the book, as much as possible, no trouble, no open gates for the suckers...! as simpleas that!

UTTER CRAP! - I actually did believe in this mantra the first couple of years I ran a small streetlevel business in Thailand and actually did act accordingly. - That does NOT prevent copyright scams of the kind that is widespread in Thailand. Have you ever run a streetlevel business in Thailand - potential victim to police accompanied setups like described in this thread as well as others linked to? - If that's the case - what kind of business and for how long?

I have had more backpackers the last few days, but many seem the type to boost a lot more books than they buy.

... had to return to this thread after leaving it - but I do sense some sort of prejudgment of the kind that'll make you a potential non-survivor. Backpacker = shoplifter. How the heck do you know they were backpackers would be the first question - did they actually go into your tiny bookstores carrying backpacks while shoplifting?

I heard from a friend who's wife owned an internet cafe that they got shaken down for a hefty fine for having "copied" Thai music on one of the computers in her shop about a year ago. It was their habit to clear down the publicly accessed parts of the hard drives frequently to get rid of the garbage that people leave and one day after they just had done this routine it seems that a couple of guys came in and dropped some files on a machine. They were followed in about an hour or two later by some "officials" from the copyright police along with some real coppers who confisated the computer and served them a summons. At first he thought he would have to drop someone a couple of grand but it ended up costing him nearer 25 if I recall. How real the officials were he never found out.

Funny how things get "moderated" as time goes by. As usual, the best gossip in town originates from TV:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/What-s-Name-...on-t142566.html

Sorry, if I'm bursting anybody's bobble regarding Doomsday - sofar, this October has been the best in my four year existence as CM-business owner.

What kind of business?

I have had more backpackers the last few days, but many seem the type to boost a lot more books than they buy.

... so, you do have noticed the trend? - That's the first step towards survival ...

Of course, a big pension doesn't hurt anything!

Indeed, indeed! But I suspect many pension returns will soon be --- if not already are --- more than disappointing. Depends on the type of benefit plan. And there are those in Chiang Mai living off personal savings while anticipating retirement pensions at a "certain age." And there are those who never were qualified for pensions who have been living off personal investments. In any case, take personal investments or pensions, and I suggest that there might be a rather gruesome impact upon the expat community in Chiang Mai. I am curious about evidence.

Do you ever bother, Mapguy, to notice which thread you're in? - What the heck does pension returns have to do with whether or not business owners have had an up or down season?

Sorry, I'll back off - you're right of course - reduced liquidity on pension plans has a lot to do with how well old fashioned businesses catering mainly to a TV retiree audience and easygoing tourists will do.

Sorry, if I'm bursting anybody's bobble regarding Doomsday - sofar, this October has been the best in my four year existence as CM-business owner.

Used to eat at Salsa once in a while on their old location. Enjoyed the meals as a pleasant break from the usual stuff. Although I sort of miss them - I can't possibly be moved to go that far out just to get something to eat.

The Midtowner.

Thanks CMSally.

I'm pretty sure that it's just the toilet. The other toilets work fine and it has been plugged since a party we had.

Our water tanks are also attached to the moobaan so we never have to drain them.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Does anybody have a phone number?

I recently had a similar problem with one of our toilets due to me pouring a bucket full of dirty water into it which for some reason (unknown to me) still had the servicing utility rag embedded into it.

I did do an empirical research on how well a 3 m snake, dearly bought at HomePro, would do with respect to solving the problem - (I can offer you a partly unused toilet snake for 70% of HomePro's current price which you know better than I - although I'm no fool).

However, after having wasted several hours on such a mundane issue and thereby loosing a lot of income, I finally decided to to let the wife call a "professional" that solved the problem for 500 baht even without me having to loose more money by watching him ... Let me know if you're still in the business of requesting contact details.

Question: Do you need a work permit to do work or to be employed?

If it's the former then you could pass money to your wife who would then employ you TO DO NOTHING. Pay tax on the income received for NOT working in Thailand

Actually, your wife could employ you in her role as a Thai citizen, provided she fulfills some certain requirements regarding previous tax-records. There were a whole bunch of threads regarding this issue some 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year ago which included a lot of contributions from some Bangkok based professional who unfortunately isn't contributing as much to this board as he previously did. However, lots of gold down in the TV-vaults to be discovered by whomever can be bothered to investigate

As for the importance of fully paying up the "registered capital" here's my experience: I did have the required sum available in cash and since my prospected business would need that kind of sum in any case I had no reason to do other than just getting the capital properly booked on the company's bank account as actual money properly poured into the company in the shape of hard cash. Thus, I'm the proud owner of a company bank account book showing that the registered capital was fully paid up and deposited on the company account book even prior to any (potentially questionable) deduction of expenses or claimed assets.

Ask me which authority has ever asked about copies of the company's bank account book (which is the only evidence of to which extend the registered capital is paid up) --- after more than 4 years the answer remains 'none'... Sofar only the bank and I know about transactions on the one and only company bank account which thus constitutes the one and only documentation of how the REAL cashflow in and out of the company has been going.

This, however, is all local and individual - do not take it as a guarantee that the local authorities at your place won't request hard cash on the table before issuing the desired WP.

Thats why in sevral posts I said something like. Hire a qualified professional to assit....

... and not just a professional, but a professional who is familiar with "preferences" at particularly THAT office, you'll be visiting ... (money can be saved, though, if you know someone in a SIMILAR situation as yours and who've RECENTLY visited THAT particular office - and the advice given by local "amateurs" isn't unlikely to be even more useful, than advices given by Bangkok based professionals contributing to TV.

I'm by no means an expert on how the related laws can be interpreted, but frankly - the setup you're describing sounds pretty much as an example of what the the more newish amendments to those laws were supposedly meant to prevent.

Why is this topic in the news section? - And there isn't even a current election day or holiday associated with it ...

- Is there any way to go around this 2m baht capital requirement for the company? I know only 1/4 of that is to be liberated at the company setup, but this is still too much for me to invest at one go. How about the 3/4 remaining? Are they hanging up in the air indefinitely? Or do they need to be paid within a limited timeframe?

The 2 million baht capitalisation is not what you think it is. It only costs a few thousand baht per million of capitalisation to set it up on company formation and then you can reflect its value in your annual accounts as, for example: capital assets, trade marks, intellectual capital, etc.

Now, - that's a nice way to say no ... The only other way I can think of for OP - as he describes his situation - would be to get "under the wings" of an existing entity to which it would not matter that this new employee would require 2 M baht registered capital to employ - on top of what might eventually already be registered to secure WP's for existing foreign employees.

Is it possible to not work, yet pay tax on 40K baht (and get receipt), and still qualify for the 12-month extension of stay? Basically, from Thailand's perspective, they probably could care less if I work... what they really want at the end of the day is tax revenue. Is this legal? A loophole?

It would be of no surprise if there has been at least one example of someone who has got a 1-year extension on some immigration office somewhere in Thailand based on only that - so (academically spoken) the short answer would probably be, yes ... In real life, however, the more interesting question is how lucky do you feel?

Your assumption of the importance of tax revenue in this context is basically wrong - the immigration officers down at your local office couldn't care less about how much tax you are paying - that's not their department. Their objective is to ascertain that your presence in Thailand is perfectly legal - at least regarding their own regulations. Although proper tax-documentation play s a major role in regarding wether you meet income requirements they're happy to accept a receipt for zero tax revenue as long as the supporting paper works show that gross income meets the requirements.

As for proper documentation of Thai based income one should be very prepared that not only are the docs explicitly mentioned in the policeorder required but

also documentation "hidden" in the circumstance that any immigration officer is in his perfect right to request whatever documentation he might deem necessary to establish that your actual situation meets requirements. Its all local and individual to which extent this or that office® may ask for additional documentation.

I've recently got my fourth non-0 spouse dependent extension - the last 3 have been on grounds of Thai salaries of 20,000 for each partee in this marriage. At the first extension of the 3, I brought along only tax receipts PND 1 (employer's withheld tax reports) and workpermit together with the general docs for being a married couple - everything mentioned in the police order for my situation, actually. They requested copies of bankbook, bank's balance doc (for both Thai wife and I). Employers company registration, employers list of shareholders, employers list of objectives, employment contracts for both wife and I stating our salaries... Had no problem producing all this so don't know if extension would have been refused otherwise.

Second year I brought it all along, which they accepted. Third year they accepted everything except the bank account documentation - not required any more, they said. This all happened in Chiang Mai which is generally known to be quite reasonable, but obviously do take documentation seriously.

Any TV member who starts yet another thread on hamburgers, breakfasts, pizzas, etc., should be marched directly to jail with no internet rights for at least 12 months. Maybe they should be given 12 strokes of the cane as well.

I guess any TV memeber who makes stupid, inane or pedantic posts should be locked up as well. Blinky Bill excepted of course.

I see you have reverted back to your old Bikini Bill avatar - that's a noticeable improvement to this board, IMHO.

This week? --- Sorry, can't help you out on such a short notice. Try to extend your query, and there might come up at least one result.

For most of us, what matters is inferior, local clerk decrees - not royal nor ministerial decrees. These are only of academic interest. The remark "K. Janya is the Labour Department Official who signs the work permits in Phuket" is the one with practical bearings (for wp-appliers in Phuket province only, fortunately for me).

According to the following post, about 2,500 Baht per month:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?s=...t&p=2144776

--

Maestro

I think the mentioned amount is based on outdated grounds. Tax around that amount (a few dimes less in most cases) used to apply to an income of 40,000 Baht. However that was when the tax-exempt limit was 100,000 baht. This limit has recently been raised to 150,000 baht, which for most 40,000-income cases mean that there now are exactly 50,000 baht less to pay 10% of (or 416.67 baht/month less).

Actually, the raised tax-free limit means that in cases where man and wife each contribute 20,000 to their combined income, no tax needs to be paid to meet extension requirements.

Here's some Phuket plots for sale listed. Some of the plots are listed by agents, that may or may not be able to assist finding something meeting your requirements:

http://www.asiapropertyworld.com/Property-...for-sale-Phuket

This site has a few plots listed. Although they are all listed as for sale - who knows?

http://www.asiapropertyworld.com/Property-...for-sale-Phuket

Not a bad idea with a thread about the improvements (to some) that actually are carried through by the municipal authorities in this city. I do not get around that much so let me contribute with a small, local project which I've chosen to consider an improvement because plus'es are more plentiful than minus'es, although the latter do exist.

I live on some secondary "main" street in the inner moat area. I used to have an extraordinary pedestrian friendly sidewalk passage all 100 meter from my place up to the closest primary street in the area. However, user friendly as it was, that side of the street wasn't but a dull, ugly stretch of concrete and cement. And no shade throughout most of the day. Two years ago the municipal "engineers" came around and hammered their way through the cement every 4-5 meter on that stretch of sidewalk and freed about 1 sqm of nature at each point. They planted some 1.5 meter skinny trees at each spot, which now two years later are big enough to give some shade and make the neighborhood greener, although still have some years to go before becoming remarkable.

I like the trees. The dogs like the trees. I consider them a pleasant addition to the neighborhood. An extra benefit is that now the sidewalk is impassable which provides a good excuse for walking on the outer side of parked cars and thus can avoid the trouble of stepping up and down the 20 cm raised sidewalk at driveways en route.