SymS

It's more like a sword than a knife!

If tourism was really about 20% of GDP before the pandemic, maybe they have to focus on growing other sectors of the economy.

My Mate Nate. You did not say over what period, and I'm not sure he makes over a million per year,, but over a few years certainly. Anyway my point was that income varies a lot, and not all are "begtubers".

Income from YouTubers varies a lot though, just like singers... The ones who sing in the shower don't make anything, Madonna (or replace by a more recent singer) is making millions.

People can already do that through a few private companies in Thailand, by paying their own salary + a fee to those companies. The minimum salary for most nationalities is 50,000 Baht, but the service is costly as you basically have to rent office space, even if you don't use it. That means the tax rate paid is rather low, or even nil for people planning to stay long term as they can take tax deductions with some small long term investments. If the government could do this through a public/private entity that could be good (for nomads) and generate a bit more income for the government, but I don't think anything significant...

The government is about to launch a Special Tourist Visa to let people work in Thailand for up to 270 days... I'm not sure how this would work, or is the government just confirming it's perfectly legal to work on your laptop without work permit, as long as you're paid from overseas. I can also remember last time they mentioned the STV, the "digital nomad" had to be employed by a company with several million dollars in sales, so not exactly your typical freelancer.

The WHO estimates around 23,000 deaths related to road accidents in Thailand. Source: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/74e13296d32f4fe6a73930247a042134

That's the data to look at. But we need to keep in mind this reports the number of people hospitalized with COVID, but not necessarily because of COVID. Everybody gets tested before admission. Somebody getting treated for cancer may have COVID and be in the ICU for instance. If I remember correctly, John Campbell said 75% of ICU case were for other reasons, while 25% were for COVID, although I can't find this in the data here. As a side note, many media outlets don't quite understand reports and what the data there are reading means.

Social distancing may take a whole new meaning with Omicron. Two people staying in a Hong Kong quarantine hotel in separate rooms contracted the Omicron variant. They never left their room (as per CCTV recordings), nor had in contact at anytime, so they suspect it happened during food deliveries. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/omicrons-spread-across-hotel-hall-in-hong-kong-highlights-transmission-worry I say let's make it 20 meters! ????

There are some indications Sinovac may protect better against Omicron, because it was a full inactivated virus. If I had to take a vaccine now, I'd personally take one with a mix of Sinovac and another one, probably Astra.

There are many bureaucratic hurdles depending on the situation. I've been living in Thailand for 11 years, first married with non-O without working, then working while married, but I had to leave Thailand for four days to switch to non-B because the BOI could not provide documents, so It reset the clock to zero, even I got no interruption in the monthly salary. That means from the immigration point of view, I have only stayed in Thailand for 3 years so far. Since I'm not married anymore, I've planned to go via the permanent residency first. I have a master degree, a 100k+ salary, I can speak and read Thai (primary school level P5), no criminal record, and made yearly charitable donations since I've started to work. But when I went to Bangkok immigration, I was told I would not get enough points because I did not pay enough taxes, and I'd better try again when I've spent five years continuously on my non-B in Thailand. The reason I did not pay enough tax is because I invested into the RMF and SSF investment plans, and took the full 500K tax deductions. So the system punishes people who invest in Thailand... But that's what it is. The point system for PR is confidential, so the helpful lady at immigration could not reveal the details, and recommended me to get married, and even better if I have my own kid to get Thai nationality within one year. Your wife's kid(s) do(es) not count, as there's a DNA test.

OK.. That must be the new place I saw being under construction. My train did not go through that station...

That's weird if the train would stop at such as small station. Last April (last time I went to Bangkok), I saw a large station being built in Laksi (I think).

Where will trains from Chiang Mai stop now?

I apologize for not including the link for the image. I got it from CM108 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chiangmai108/posts/4728384380541088 They say it comes from the Department of Disease Control.

The Thai government says 2x Sinovac + 1x Astra offer the best protection (80 to 90%), while two Astra shots are less effective (70 to 80%), and I suppose that's the max efficacy after two weeks only, after which it slowly declines.

5555. OK fair enough. I always thought they were based in Australia. I made several salary payments in the past with them, no problem, although I've now switched to Wise as I need to pay in a currency that's not available in Instarem.

Sorry, no idea about XE, although I use them often for currency conversion. But I've noticed Instarem is usually better value than Wise. The downside is that they don't support as many currency pairs.

I'm actually impressed by his statements, as those are all reasonable points. And no, I'm not being sarcastic today...

I'm expecting him to change in mind like the rest of the politicians in due time.

Maybe it's important to look at the details. The vast majority of people who died are older and/or with comorbidities (e.g. obese, diabetic). The risk in kid is close to nil, although they can still get infected and transmit the virus to others. The efficacy of the vaccines is also pretty poor when it comes to protection against Sars-Cov-2 virus, even though they are indeed fairly good against COVID-19 (the disease), at least for the first few months. Those "vaccines" are not quite as benign as your typical vaccine. I remember when I got the other vaccines, I was not asked to sit 15 to 30 minutes to check for side effect, I was not ask to sign any legal documents before taking the shots.... There are plenty of side effects, for instance my girlfriend has to take two days off after her Astra booster due to headache, arm pain..., and a friend told me she could not possibly reimburse me 500 Baht as she had gotten the vaccine, felt sick, and could not work for a few days, which reminds me I'll have to check on that... More importantly, a small number of people, usually younger people and athletes suffer from heart attack, other serious conditions, or die a few days after getting the vaccine. That's an ethical problem, even it's good for statistics... But if one young person dies to save one hundred old people, one has to ask, if that's moral. It's a bit like the story of five people going to the hospital, four are sick and need organ transplants or they will die, while one is healthy. Statistically, it makes sense to kill the healthy person, get his organs, and save four people, but I hope most people will agree it's unethical.

The government blocking "service" is not very effective. A friend (of course!) showed me that typing https in the URL instead of just the URL or using http would circumvent the blocking mechanism, at least on mobile (Android Firefox). No need to thank me ????

The government decided to apply 7% on the full amount. The payment includes office rental in Thailand and (online) services provided in Thailand to an oversea company. I was told the tax office only decided to take 7% on the full amount starting this year.

Thank you very much for the information. I specifically purchased the share for their dividend, so I'll check if I can convert those to NVDR without cost. My broker is KTZMico (Krung Thai bank). Last Friday, I was told "Actually you have to sign many documents and attach the copied of your passport. It’s very complicated and waste of time." with regards to converting them to NVDR.

OK, The VAT is only on the PayPal fee, not the total amount.