jayboy

I had experience of fraud when my Thai credit card was charged with about $4000 for electricity charges in a Caribbean country.The amount appeared - online - on my credit card account and I immediately disputed the charge.The charge was then put into suspense while an inquiry was launched.This is initiated by the Thai CC company but all the work is done by Visa (in my case) or MasterCard etc internationally.About three weeks later I was told by the credit card company that the suspended charge had been removed.

I was never told the findings of the Visa investigation, not that it interested me much once the charge had been removed from my account.I am still however puzzled how my details were obtained given that the card had been only recently been issued and had mostly been in my safe.I recall I had used it just once with a very well known Thai supermarket chain.

I was phoned subsequently by a representative of the Thai CC company suggesting I should be careful with my card - not showing it to anyone, not sharing it and being careful with websites asking for details etc etc.Given the circumstance - see above - I was tempted to tell him to stick his advice where the sun don't shine.But he was polite enough so I didn't.

On reflection I think there is at least an outside chance that my details were stolen by someone in the Thai credit card company itself.I now rarely use it and through the app can lock it - which is pretty much its permanent state.If I do use it the companies have to be major ones with excellent reputations.

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

 

I read the book first when he published it for free download on his website - nobody wanted to print it.

I knew a couple of the places and a few of the characters of the book. IMHO it described the situation at that time very accurately.

 

When Stephen Leather finally found a publisher for the book years later it was really hard for them to find a girl with long black hair for the cover page. By then, most girls had color in their hair.

Finally, they found the perfect girl in Angelwitch when Matt still owned that place.

The good old times.

Er, so what.My original post makes the points I wanted to get across.

Incidentally Leather, though he has sold millions of his potboilers, has a lousy reputation for sock puppeting.Google if interested.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/05/nick-cohen-cheating-authors-journalists

On 6/22/2024 at 2:51 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

 

Just go in a bar and look for any farang sitting at the stage with his mouth wide open.

Then it's up to you if you just give him that book or tell him that for a price of only two lady drinks, he can educate himself.

 

Apart from that, I also have the printed version. And maybe every couple of years I think it's a good idea to read it again.

 

Just in case there is still anybody out there who didn't read it yet, this is one of the first paragraphs:

 

PETE
I don't know if it was love at first sight, but it was pretty damn close. She had the longest hair I'd ever
seen, jet black and almost down to her waist. She smiled all the time and had soft brown eyes that made
my heart melt, long legs that just wouldn't quit and a figure to die for. She was stark naked except for a
pair of black leather ankle boots with small chrome chains on the side. I think it was the boots that did it
for me.

 

 

 

It's not a very good book - clumsily written and populated by horrible characters - and far less illuminating about the bar scene than the author believes and many reformed sexpats claim.

It's dated and hard to get hold of but for my money Jack Reynolds" "Woman of Bangkok" has better drawn and more sympathetic characters and better conveys the car crash impact of infatuation with a Thai bargirl.

22 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Thanks but do you - or anyone else - know of the specific hospitals/clinics where the new vaccine is available? I believe it is available at the Thai Travel Clinic at Baht 1800 approx.

Does anyone one know if COVID-19 vaccine (omicron XBB. 1.5) is available at any of the major Bangkok hospitals?

1 hour ago, Mike Lister said:

I am not just a little inflexible, I am extremely so, especially when I say things such as, I filed tax returns because I was required to do so by law. Even though the same posters tell me repeatedly, over many months, that I didn't need to, I don't relent and finally take their side and agree that I was wrong, despite the continuing onslaught of criticism, I hold my ground. You can do that sort of thing, when you are certain of your facts. Similarly, when you don't watch an embassy tax video and explain why, there's little point in changing your story to agree that you should have watched it, even when reminded that you didn't some ten times or more. Some of us are comfortable and secure in the knowledge that we have and only find it necessary to deal with an issue once, rather than regurgitate it constantly in the hope the answer will change.

Ah well I tried. Good luck to you and thanks for the great contribution you've made on this subject and which I have always acknowledged.

37 minutes ago, Ben Zioner said:

This is not what I am saying here. I suggest that they will audit people in the forthcoming years, this is where someone might get caught with a post jan 1, 2024 indiscretion and then inevitably become subject to a full investigation of the 10 previous years if he hasn't made tax returns. Mike would be investigated only for 5 years since he filed tax returns.

 

In other words: be extremely thorough from now on.

It's always a good idea to be careful on tax matters in any jurisdiction.It's now as we all know particularly important to keep records.

You have now introduced  a new factor - "someone might get caught with a post jan 1, 2024 indiscretion." Of course as from 2024 the new circumstances suggest careful adherence is needed to what is required by RD.I expect the practical details will become much clearer over the next year.But I don't think the RD will be going after retired expatriates with (almost always) relatively modest pensions.Your talk of 10 years investigations of elderly pensioners is  - how to put it politely - somewhat exaggerated.

Thanks to many members but particularly Mike LIster we now have a pretty good understanding of the subject, but as always the devil is in the detail - and it will be at least another year before full clarity is available including , critically, what RD actually expects of resident expatriate pensioners.Dare I say it but one or two people seem to have the proverbial bees in their bonnets and lean towards scaremongering on a very flimsy basis.

1 minute ago, Mike Lister said:

I'm glad you are comfortable speaking on behalf of everyone else and knowing exactly how everyone else manages their finances. I'm also happy that you have such an effective crystal ball!

Of course I don't speak for everybody and of course individual circumstances are different. I am also surprised you refer to my crystal ball since I have frequently said that on practical implementation of the new tax policy we must wait and see.

36 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

You keep raising this point repeatedly and others keep commenting on it, despite you understanding full well that there was and still is a legal requirement for people such as myself to file a tax return each year, because my pensions were/are paid directly into my Thai bank every month. Anyone else who remitted their pensions in the same way, using same year income, had a similar obligation and that must number people in the thousands. Please stop trying to denigrate and humiliate me for following the tax law, I'm tired of it.

I believe most retired expatriates have their pensions paid into an offshore account (often in the Channel Islands if British) from which they remitted to Thailand.It was therefore possible to preserve the fiction - where necessary - that remittances to Thailand were derived from past savings.All offshore money is fungible and in any case the Thai authorities had no interest in pursuing.In your case the pension was remitted directly to your Thai bank account but even in this situation if you had not filed returns there would have been no comeback.We all know that has changed now and we await to see the practical implementation.

7 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

How do you think it should be "expressed" then? 

That's not for me to say,

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

One further point. I suspect most foreigners who might be interested to apply for Thai PR are aware that the rejection rate is very high. When I applied the regulation was that 50 foreigners could be approved from each approved country. but the reality is that only very small numbers actually get approved.

 

for the year I applied the total number of applications approved was 5 (five).

I had always thought that Immigration advised candidates who didn't meet PR criteria at an early stage there was little point proceeding (or to come back another year if circumstances changed). Consequently I have always assumed those applicants who met criteria almost always got through to Ministry of Interior and subsequent approval.I also understood in reality the national quota - i thought it was 100 - was never an issue for Westerners; of course times have changed and there might be many more PR applicants than in the past.Having said that the easier - and cheaper - path to citizenship might also be expected to have reduced PR applicants.So who knows?

49 minutes ago, scorecard said:

then he said he wanted to talk to 2 or 3 of my Thai staff and he asked for 3 names of my direct staff and their tel. numbers and he asked if they could all speak English

Thankfully I was spared that.But I think Immigration was satisfied that my company was making a solid contribution so no need to delve further.In my earlier post about absolute essentials I should have mentioned university degree, the more famous the better.

12 hours ago, advancebooking said:

Age has nothing to do with PR or citizenship. It has no relevance.

Actually it does since it forms part of the points system for PR, I believe 10 points out of 100.Can't recall exact details but I think it's weighted towards those in middle age with fewer points for younger and older people.But overall you're right - it doesn't count for much.

Actually I'm skeptical about the application of the points system.Basically one has to fulfill some minimum criteria and that's it.But one has to look and sound okay, ideally earn quite a bit more than the minimum salary quoted and have paid lots of tax.I think quite a few people waste time on getting letters of support and collating charitable activities.

31 minutes ago, topt said:

Now that loophole has gone and Thailand has signed up to CRS the playing field has potentially altered somewhat. 

Exactly.That's all I have ever said.Yes there was a bit of Nelson's touch about the loophole especially as money is fungible, but the Thai RD wasn't interested.Now things have changed.

18 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

Many of those people should have filed a return each year, in previous years, but did not.

But the RD did not expect retired expats to file a return and in the real world there is no penalty for not doing so.Almost nobody did except a few whose motives are obscure (reclaiming interest maybe) or simply didn't understand the system.Pleas for common sense on this subject get nowhere but it's all water under the bridge (unless some genius advises that RD gauleiters will be chasing down elderly expats for the returns not filed in the past). Of course going forward there's a different environment and many will need to file returns now.

4 hours ago, simple1 said:

So what, Brexit failed in it goals. Naturally Farage also holds responsibility as he just walked way when it got voted in. How anyone can justify voting for Farage in  the upcoming election is beyond me; same mould as trump.

You are commenting on a different issue.The matter under discussion was the accusation that Rishi Sunak made his money betting against Britain as a hedge fund manager.The Bloomberg link provided referred to events when Sunak was already in the House of Commons.

Actually talk about hedge funds betting against currencies or countries reflects misunderstanding of how these funds work.They definitely take long or short positions,but they do not create the weakness that leads to speculation.I could spend a lot of time explaining this but I doubt there's an audience and it's off topic.in the Asian crisis some people blamed Soros for "betting against the Thai Baht." But Soros wasn't the problem; the problem was the US$ peg and the unsound practices in the Thai financial sector.

A French friend advises me that his compatriots resident in Thailand can cast votes electronically at the French Embassy in Bangkok.Unlike the Brits no need to mess around with postal and proxy votes (though that's an option for the French as well). However conscientious British voters are there's a good chance our completed ballot paper will be too late to count.