jayboy

You may well be right but I don't think we know for sure. To be clear, we are talking about 180+ day foreign residents in Thailand (with no Thailand originated income) who only remit funds from their home countries which originated pre January 2024 and are therefore non assessable and not subject to Thai income tax. I expect most in this category should in theory have submitted Thai tax returns in the past but the vast majority didn't, and there is no evidence the Thai RD expected them to. However in the current tighter tax climate I have yet to see any evidence that expats in the non tax paying category (see above) don't have to submit a return even if there is no assessable income to declare.I'm in that category and don't propose to submit a tax return for 2024.I don't yet have complete confidence this is okay but the downside is insignificant.

I was making a different point.In brief, anybody who has to resort to using ATMs or foreign credit cards in an attempt to minimize Thai tax is by definition a low earner.In which case there is no or very little tax to pay anyway.In other words it's not really worth it.

I think debate on this issue has lost sight of the reality regardless whether ATM withdrawals/foreign credit card purchases are taxable or traceable by the RD.The reality is that for the vast majority who believe using these methods is important for removing or significantly minimizing their Thai tax bill are by definition low earners who would have very little tax to pay anyway.

It's a victory for the Left.Shapiro is the more impressive man and also the favorite of the Democratic leadership.Kamala Harris, conscious of her younger supporters and the more progressive elements generally, may have become nervous about Shapiro's Jewishness and strong support for Israel.In my view Harris/Walz doesn't look like a balanced ticket but she has the wind behind her and will probably prevail in November.

To compare one situation with another is not whataboutery unless it is a deliberate attempt to deflect attention.I don't think that is the position here; it's more to underline selective indignation on the part of the established political and media class who regard the white working class as the very bottom of the pile, particularly the young and poorly educated. One cannot expect a great deal of penetrating analysis on this forum but I was struck by the remarks of the centre-right commentator Tim Montgomerie: "Britain now has a significant underclass (there may be a better word to describe it)? 10% to 15% of the population who are/feel completely cut off from the rest of the population. They are poorly educated. They are intergenerationally welfare dependent. They live in communities where anti-social behaviour is normal. Where family structure and virtue has collapsed. We all pay them money. We police them. But we don’t really care about them. We have no grand desire - let alone plan - to change this. We can afford this underclass - even though it means huge misery and lost human potential." It is these people that are fueling the current riots.Surely the big question - leaving aside the asinine forum squabbling - is how to we deal with these people, educate them, give the hope and make their lives better.To date the government hasn't appeared to consider any of this.It can be forgiven because the need now is to restore order - but what happens next? Will the problem go away by itself because the wicked Tories are no longer in charge?

No, it's a precise equivalence.Government might well have handled matters better but they did not cause the problem. Sure - the calm tranquillity of our cities bears witness to that.If pesky reporters ask questions about two tier policing, a Chief Constable smashes the microphone to the floor.

You say spot on , but it's far from clear what Dame Sara Khan has in mind.She blames recent governments for ignoring warnings and promoting civil strife through a culture war agenda (latter part is highly dubious). Surely, even accepting her premise, it's a bit like blaming an inattentive physician for a patient's cancer.The physician can certainly be faulted but the cancer acted independently.Wouldn't be worth spending a bit more thought why UK's very serious social problems arose in the first place.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/current-members By my count at least 15 current members have worse human rights records than Thailand.The Move Forward party should not be banned (actually it should be in power) but I don't see the argument in linking the issue to the UNHRC.

Not in Southern Thailand they don't.

I disagree.Let's look at the language that Starmer used - “Be in no doubt: Those who have participated in this violence will face the full force of the law,” Mr. Starmer said, noting that the police would be making arrests and that charges would follow. “I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves. This is not protest. It is organized, violent thuggery.” I believe that most British people strongly support this approach.But there remains a niggling question - why is this approach only used for white working class people while for other thuggish mobs it's okay to ignore or "take the knee."

Another irrelevant reference to my proficiency of which you are by definition ignorant and which in any case is irrelevant.Perhaps you have had personal experience of experiencing baffled expressions when you attempt Thai with a native speaker, just speculation but I seem to have touched a nerve.I of course agree there are some occasions when even a proficient foreign Thai speaker finds the interlocutor discombobulated - as touched on with examples previously.But general speaking, it's a reasonable assumption that foreigners who complain Thais don't understand their version of Thai - just don't have the facility they assume.

There is no problem with Kier Starmer's line on the thuggery (much of it co-ordinated by extreme right wing groups) in some of our cities.I believe he has the country behind him but there is no escaping the selective indignation involved. If some on what you describe as the political right draw attention to the application of different standards that seems completely legitimate.

But the reaction of Keir Starmer has been very different.If I remember correctly he and Angela Rayner bent the knee during the BLM riots.I loathe the white working class mobs distracting attention from the Stockport tragedy.But one cant help noticing different standards are being applied by the political/media establishment.

My level of proficiency in Thai is irrelevant and in any case from the forum's point of view is unknowable - as is yours.Your rather tortuously expressed, and if I may say rather commonplace point is regularly heard from foreigners, often though not always with an execrable level of Thai. For those genuinely interested I would recommend turning to Stuart Jay Raj who is illuminating in the subject.

That's a different point altogether.I agree that occasionally a Thai is shocked into silence when a foreigner speaks or attempts to speak Thai.If we are going to digress on this matter I would also add Thai airline staff/hotel employees etc who insist on speaking English.But my original observation holds.

We will never know. Still, I have known quite a few farang who speak excellent Thai (to the extent they are non distinguishable from an educated Thai) and a common feature is that they never ever boast about it.

Invariably when a foreigner is surprised that his attempts to speak Thai result in bafflement, his grasp of the language is rather less secure than he imagines.I've noticed this countless times over the decades.

A bloated and corrupt military that interferes constantly in politics.A feudal establishment that demands obedience on penalty of imprisonment or even death.The dominance of a few gigantic corporations that squeeze smaller concerns.One of the most unequal societies on earth with wealth concentrated in a tiny minority.Structural issues that prevent Thailand from breaking out of the middle income category. I agree the left/right labels don't fit but you have been somewhat selective in identifying the salient factors.Therefore a few other aspects to consider.

It's an inappropriate headline but so is your response. There is every reason to believe eligible resident foreigners should receive the same discount as their Thai equivalents.Everybody pays tax in Thailand and your reference to it is irrelevant.Nor is the matter of affordability of any relevance.Naturally foreigners would initially have to prove their residence status, but there are multiple ways this could be done - the pink card for example. My own view is that there is no targeting of foreigners involved.It's just indifference.

They will definitely go for Gripen for reasons that I would blush to expound on.

There is something distinctly "off" about this narrative

You should try and avoid descending into personal insults when your narrative is challenged.It simply means you have no case (or are incapable of making one) The fact that the Gaza conflict is "at hand" does not obscure the hypocrisy of the mobs in many major cities when there was no similar level of outrage over many other civil wars in very recent times. In the case of the Chinese genocide of the Uyghurs, many Muslim countries simply shrugged and continued kowtowing to China.Other genocidal movements in Chechyna, Congo, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, South Sudan,Yemen, Darfur and Ethiopia have raised nowhere near the outrage of the current hysterical anti-Israel mobs. One wonders why there is such extraordinary selective indignation.Is it because Jews were not involved?

You mean one particular alleged "genocide" not the other mass murders of civilians (500,000 in Syria alone) which are ignored because Jews are not involved.

If my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike.

Not as simple as you seem to think https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-community-approach-alone-wont-solve-knife-crime/