scratt

Morning,

Ok.. so our company is set up and my visa is in progress. Whee!

Apparently I need to file VAT and Tax returns each month.

We are based in Nonthaburi.

Both my partner and I are learning Thai and are more than happy to file the paperwork ourselves but we need someone who can show us how to do the paperwork and talk us through it the first few times.

I also want to get some advice about the best way to deal with certain tax issues.

If it is reasonably cheap it may be something we could farm out to an accountant permanently and that is something I would like to consider. I feel that if you are planning to live here for any period of time it is always good to understand these things yourselves eventually.. but am obviously aware that it can be a minefield to start with..

If anyone can recommend someone who is an accountant who they have had experience of and is in the Bangkok / Nonthaburi area I would be so very grateful.

Cheers,

scratt

p.s. How do those Quote thingys work anyway!!?!

Press the QUOTE button at the right corner of the message box, and you can quote a poster's message.

Cool! Thanks for that! Was trying the QUOTE button in the little block at the top when you write a message...Not getting much joy that way! Thank you!!

Now has anyone got any info on my other question!

All the best,

scratt

"It is adviseable to pay yourself enough to result in at least 18,000 baht per year in personal income taxes - that's about 30,000 baht per month."

This is of great interest to me..

I have just set up a company here and am applying for a Work Visa...

No problems so far, and lickily we have enough assets / cash..

However, My wife and I (both Farrang) don't need 50,000 Baht a month to live!

We own our condo, have a car (and UBC paid up for a year!! Hooray!) and basically need living expenses.. Food etc..

As we all know you don't need 50,000 Baht here to eat.

I would love to be able to pay us around 25,000 - 30,000 Baht per month and pay the appropriate taxes...

Can anyone explain how it is ok to apparently ignore the Immigration rules and pay yourself less.

We are very concerned with staying legally here and paying our fair share, but not having to pay taxes on unwanted / unneeded income.

Thanks, to anyone who can help,

All the best,

scratt

p.s. How do those Quote thingys work anyway!!?!

Hello...

I am part of the team organising a massive Extreme Sports Boogie in Thailand for 2005.

ESCAB 2005.

Extreme Sports Cafe Asia Boogie 2005...

We are currently putting together a portfolio of Pilots, Skydivers, Kitesurfers, Freedivers etc.etc..

We need people on the ground, in the air, to compete, take part and train and to help us organise this mamoth effort...

We are interested in any and all input at this stage. Thanks.

If you are interested please get in touch [email protected]

Thanks,

scratt

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More info on the web site www.extremesportscafe.com

NOTE - Apparently if you are TA there are some problems accessing this site because of their lazy international caching - The site recently moved servers and they are still referenceing the old, now emtpy one.. Sorry if this affects you.. please bear with us.. We have emaild TA / true.

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And you know what I love... Bangkok Bank's slogan is "Caring for you wherever you are".

Unless you are trying to draw money out of an ATM in one town and your account is in another... and then you must pay that wonderful "commission" we hear everywhere.

Commission when paying your electricity bill anywhere but the Electricity Office.

Commission on your phone bill unless at the 'true' office or wherever.

Again, not such a huge issue... but perhaps banks that you are a customer of could offer this as a service... Just a thought.. That's how it works in the UK.

To be honest once you know the system it is fine, and to be honest the 10Baht commission is cheaper than everything other than a Songtow to get to the right office..

It takes a bit of getting used to that's all... But the bank commisions on simple internal electronic transfers are from the dark ages!!

When we bought our condo we were unable to get any paperwork for the land office at any Bangkok Bank, other than Head Office right downtown because our account was in Surin.

We were even told that we couldnt open a new account in Bangkok Bank in Bangkok because we were foreigners without work permits at the time!! This I know is wrong... but you cannot argue! How on earth did we manage to open the one in Surin, if that is the case!!

(That's another story! The teller at Bangkok Bank did initially actually refuse because it was "too much trouble." He then suggested Thai Farmer bank down the road!!! So I said in a clear voice "Oh well I'll take my 2million to Thai Farmers Bank then...". Luckily the Bank Manager heard and reprimanded the teller who had suggested this and opened my account personally!! Whee!! )

Anyway - I digress!! When we paid the seller for the condo in Bangkok, to a Bangkok Bank account we had to pay a 'transfer fee' to get the money from Surin Bangkok Bank to Bangkok Bangkok Bank...

I don't mind any of it... such is life, and Thailand has so many great things over the West... that's why we live here...

But Man o Man Bangkok Bank need to change their slogan!

They blantantly do not 'care for you wherever you are!!'

In fact compared to SCB, who I also have an account with they are absolute rubbish.

I use SCB for day to day expenses... but be warned they do not have so many connections outside Thailand.. so transferring money into Thailand to SCB is expensive..

What we do is send the money to Bangkok Bank and then transfer it using an ATM to SCB... who are more than happy to lend money, give interest to foreigners (on Work Visas) and even issue Credit Cards... oh yeah.. and give you internet banking WITHOUT a work permit..

Long live SCB and let's hope they sort out some more international relationships soon... Then we can leave Bangkok Bank 'Caring for everyone everywhere' back in the dark ages where they belong...

scratt

Julia says, "Thanks for the offer... your concern is much appreciated!"

But we feel that a trainded profesional would be safer all round.

The insurance required for this kind of job alone is beyond most individuals budget!!

scratt

Hello!

I have two questions. Wonder if anyone can help....

1) My fiance and I (neither are Thai) own a condo in Bangkok. We are currently setting up a company and are currently on Non-Immigrant Visas. I wll have a work permit shortly.

I want to buy a car on finance. I have been told that with my offshore income (paid into our bank account) and the length of my banking history finance on a car should not be a problem.

I want a car as soon as possible and it may be a month or so before the paperwork is complete.

Would we be able to use the condo as security for a car loan now without a work permit?

I am also considering borrowing to buy the car (although we can afford to buy it outright) to 'use' some of the excess money it appears we must pay ourselves on a Work Visa... I was wondering if there may be some way of getting a tax break by doing that or the following...

2) Because we own our condo and some land (via our company) up North we do not need 50,000 Baht a month to live on. If we have to pay ourselves this money we are effectivly overpaying ourselves and paying tax on income we do not need!!! What I would like to do is reduce our wages. But I am not sure if that is possible.

I had an idea of re-investing some of our salary into our company. If I did this in the UK, for example, we would get tax relief. This is acceptable to me and a good use of our excess salary.

It also means we are not paying tax on money we do not need!!!

We are also still investing the money in Thailand.. Does anyone know if this is acceptable?

Thanks,

scratt

Hello!

I have two questions related to this thread..

1) My fiance and I (neither are Thai) own a condo in Bangkok. We are currently setting up a company and are currently on Non-Immigrant Visas. I wll have a work permit shortly.

I want to buy a car on finance. I have been told that with my offshore income (paid into our bank account) and the length of my banking history finance on a car should not be a problem.

I want a car as soon as possible and it may be a month or so before the paperwork is complete.

Would we be able to use the condo as security for a car loan now without a work permit?

2) Because we own our condo and some land (via our company) up North we do not need 50,000 Baht a month to live on. If we have to pay ourselves this money we are effectivly overpaying ourselves and paying tax on income we do not need!!! What I would like to do is reduce our wages. But I am not sure if that is possible.

I had an idea of re-investing some of our salary into our company. If I did this in the UK, for example, we would get tax relief. This is acceptable to me and a good use of our excess salary.

It also means we are not paying tax on meony we do not need!!!

We are also still investing the money in Thailand.. Does anyone know if this is acceptable?

Thanks,

scratt

Hi Kringle,

Yes it will work fine for you... If it doesn't your money back!! Now there's something you don't hear in Thailand EVER!!!

You will need to call TA and get them to check your line is ok for ADSL and to have them turn it on. It takes about 4 days. Well it did for me, anyway!

As for you lopburi!!! Thhhhrrr!! Check out the Zyxel site... up until recently it was fully supported on Mac... I have three generations of drivers on my machine downloaded from their site.. I checked very carefully before I bought it... It is just a quirk / bug in OS X 10.3 on the Mac that means it will not work... and I have not got the time to worry about what happens when us Mac users get 10.4 etc. etc..

All the best,

scratt

sorry got a flood control error and then this got posted three times!!!!

sorry... got a flood control error and this turned up three times... read the last one please!

Yo!

Looks like a lot of people have looked at this but no one has replied...

So maybe loads of people have the same problem...

I have ditched my Zyxel and went to Pantip today...

You can pick up single port routers for about 1800 Baht.

I got a 4 port router for 2900 Baht...

Totally platform independant, as I am sure you all know.

Configured the whole thing in five minutes through the browser...

Fantastic... online surfing now at silly speeds!

Whee...

Anyone want to buy a 4 day old Zyxel ADSL 630-11 Modem.

In the True box... work great with PCs but not with Macs!!

Cost 2000 new... will sell for 1200... Not bad eh!!

Wow!

Thanks everyone....

Can I just ask is BNH anything to do with Bumrungrand?

If not can I have some details of that....

Big thank you once again... I will pass this all on to my other half...

All the best,

scratt

Good morning.. (Pink Face!)

My fiance has been using my computer to trawl around the web and try to find a good hospital in Bangkok which will do Smear Tests and other girlie stuff....

I thought there might be someone out there who may be able to offer some advice. (Pink Face again!!)

The places we have found so far seem to need you to have a full check up - including things like kidney function etc. etc. before they will do a reasonably priced check up of anything periodical / gaenocological..

Any advice would be much appreciated,

Scratt!

Heres my two pence worth...

If you open a Bangkok Bank account in a different area than you draw money out of you will be charged commission each time... Found that out to my cost when I bought a condo in Bangkok using my Surin Bank account..... Very expensive moving the money down here and we also could not get the paperwork done without going to Bangkok Bank Head Office downtown....

Siam Commercial Bank were more than willing to open an account for us in Bangkok with tourist visas and 1000 Baht.

Bangkok Bank in Surin were the same but Bangkok Bank in Bangkok need work / resident visas...

However, Siam do not have as many relationships with banks outside Thailand as Bangkok Bank... A transfer from Swtizerland to our Siam account went through two different banks in the UK prior to arriving here and attracted UK size 'commission' charges on the way... A transfer done on the same day from the same source arrived at Bangkok Bank untouched...

Other than that I have found Siam to be more helpful and more friendly to date in major cities..

Both were very good in rural areas...But that seems par for the course in most coutries and most businesses.. so no suprise there.

Hope that is helpful to someone...

Scratt

Hello...

I am trying to get my Zyxel modem, suppied by True and listed as compatible to work with my Macintosh.

I am currently using OS X 10.3.3 and have tried installing the latest drivers from Zyxel.. but the modem just does not show up anywhere other then System Diagnositcs..

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Scratt

Thanks for that....

So it is just as bad as it could possibly be then......

You are charged for idle time....

Bearing in mind that the ISP is only being charged for data throughput they are on to a pretty good thing then.......

All the best,

Fred!

Ok!

I tried to get JiNet and after waiting for a month was told that there is no ADSL in our area....

This seemed strange considering we are in Muang Thon Thani and Jasmine are just down the road.... plus 'true' are on Chang Watana and boasting about DSL... plus my next door neighbor has it, and I, like them, have TA (or 'true') phone lines!!! Hmmmm....

So I chased it up...

Apparently you cannot get the Unlimited International package with Jasmine (JiNet) here because the hardware for them, it, DSL is not installed in MuangThonThani.....

So I chased it with TA...

Apparently there are only two servers...erm..well.. serving on our road...

Nokia... which is full.

And the other one.... which is 'true's.

Well that seems fair...

So I cannot get the unlimited access package with Jasmine....

But I CAN GET THE LIMITED 40 hour package with 'true'.... Wheeeee!

So I have got bored of going and buying internet cards and paying to dial up and getting the odd modem error and consequently running up my phone bill and SLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW access.... so I have signed up......

What niggles is this sinlge PC connection limit.

When the operators have it totally sewn up so that your speed is limited, your download limit is limited etc. etc. why should they care if you had 100 PCs connected? I ask you....

OK. 100 PC is a bit silly and it might cause problems... but not if you did the routing at your end... but oh no... if you want 2 - 4 PCs connected the price goes back up to silly figures...

Ok... So I have accepted that.

I will connect my Mac, and then my girlfriends Mac and my office lap top separately.. Cos.. hey I am not paying to connect and re-connect.. so no great hassle... OK!

What concerns me because I actually understand the internet is this....

How do they charge you by the hour for international access?

The internet does not work that way..

If I am online all day and check my email on a foreign server once every five minuntes... what does that mean?

Well it means I send some requests and then get an answer back telling me I either have mail, or don't...

If I don't thats it... I have been connected abroad for a few miliseconds.

If I do... I pull the mail down... DSL... Fast... So let's say a minute or two...

Then I go back to idling.

That is assuming I am not surfing.

If I am pulling huge files down (but not more than 70MB a hour or I get disconnected or fined) I can understand being on for an hour or so.. and being charged for that...

If I am surfing I will pull a page down.... quite quickly then read it.

Then another... and so on...

Form what I have read, also, perhaps the pulling down of a page will be more like half a minute than a few seconds!! But it is still not a huge amount of an hour, now is it?

And I am not connected offshore all this time.

I am only connected for short bursts....

So how do they bill us?

Do they add up seconds?

Do they add up mili / micro seconds?

Do they just bill us constantly from the first connection offshore until we disconnect?

(I would be willing to bet money on that one!)

Do they bill us (like the old cell phone companies) for each part of an hour... even if we only use a micro-second to check our email....

Do you see where I am going?

Does anyone know... Do you get to check your allocated and time left as per inet-easy?

Do you get an itemised bill. LOL!

I may be asking a silly question... can anyone put me straight?

Has this occurred to anyone before?

Am I missing something?

Why don't they just bill by the MB?

This current limiting of every option and rules which strangle any sensible use of the internet is ridiculous... I think most of you agree, from what I have read...

For example I am typing this now, and it has taken me a while... but I am not connected to this forum while I am typing, am I?

I am not sending, or recieveing any data, am I?

This system is like billing us in inches for the amount of apples we use!

It doesn't make sense.

Ah.. feel better now.

But if anyone can tell me I am talking c&$p and put me straight I would love to know.

Cheers for ya time,

and Happy Songkran!

scratt!

Absolutely,

Just moved over here from the UK.

Empuria used to my home DZ, and Netheravon in the UK.

Knew about the recents happenings in Thailand with the DZ here, but had also heard the DZ and 'scene' over here was unusual, shall we say!

But yes, add my name to a list of people interested in helping out, being involved etc. etc. Even if it is just a like minded group heading off to Malaysia in a truck!!

All the best,

scratt.

p.s. My condo is on the 18th floor and I may get desperate enough to consider a BASE jump soon....

Thanks Dutch,

And I am glad this thread has taken a more positive turn...

As skydivers, we do accept the risk that comes with the exhiliration... and we do all take it very seriously when someone is injured... that is not to say however that the following week we will all be back at the DZ jumping again... but we do still remember those who 'bounce' and try to learn from what lead up to that... which in a sport which is as calculated as skydiving is can generally be traced back to an error of judgment, ether in preparation or while in the air.

My fiance had a horrific accident the year before last, hitting the ground right in front of me after we had had one of the best skydives of our life. She is only just now getting her full mobility back, hence our move to Thailand to 'retire'. We are able to joke about it, as all skydivers do about pretty much everything... but there is the right time and the wrong time to do it, and you have to have some knowledge to do so without ruffling feathers.

But on the flip side... was I cheesed off to find that the DZ was no longer open out here!!!!

So you can see, it is something in the blood.... my other half would still love to jump and I do!

Great to hear of your experiences..

scratt

I wonder if any of you are skydivers?

I wonder if any of you have ever been involved in, or had a serious accident.

Thank you to the original poster for the information... but I wish the rest of you would grow up.