Bluetongue

I wrote other, swimming pool and accessories, tea bags, cables, rice sacks, phone charger mat, no clothes or shoes, manicure kit, specialty rice

How many wealthy Thais with overseas assets and income are there ? How many old farang are here subsisting on adequate incomes from their previous country. I think A beats B by a country mile both in numbers and amount potentially owing.

So in your previous post you said ”Did you ever consider you MAY need a document from the TRD showing your pension is a government service pension, thus covered under a DTA? ” now your saying instead of me needing it from them, they are going to demand it off me. Which is it? You’re being quite argumentative over a really quite benign couple of posts. But to answer you I have sufficient information that I can access off my phone to verify the source of my pension. In the unlikely event that I have to show some clerk from the TRD this at the airport which you seem to think will be next year. I just don’t agree with you that it is this close. Are you suggesting that they will force people to lodge a return at the airport, or more simply just pay a large fine. If they do this they will have to announce it categorically in advance.

Well I’ve always said that if the RD links passport to exit stamp, then I would have to do something. Staying reasonably aware of such developments means that is unlikely that I would be caught out at airport. Has anyone ever been stopped because they don’t have tax ID? I know some have been stopped because they’re flagged for audit but they have been lodging returns. As far as getting a document from the TRD about my pension, I think you’re dreaming. What, I should just waltz in there and demand it?

In any case in the west the shop staff have no legal right to detain or touch the customer and the larger stores reinforce that policy, frightened of being sued. Of course that means if you’re brazen you get away with it. The cops end up with the video and maybe, it’s a long shot, they might decide something but the loss will never be recouped. I have a guess that’s how she rolls at home.

I’m glad that in the thousands of pages I’m still no clearer, I’m waiting for what I don’t know. What I do know is that I won’t be running into a RD office begging to pay tax on money that is either savings or as I believe a government service pension exempted by a DTA despite what some spiv working for some supposed expat accountant says

Whilst cash is still part of the ecosystem I will still use it here, it is more convenient at markets, small purchases and around the village. Where it suits me I will use online or scanning to pay. I’ve never had cash stolen but I have had cards stolen and used in tap and go situations. So with cyber crime netting billions as a previous poster quite cogently pointed out, I don’t accept any argument that cashless is somehow safer for everyone’s money. I don’t think elimination of cash will occur in my lifetime. But following generations may be served by the “don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone line” which seems proverbial in these times.

I’ve been here or coming here for 35 years. I’m an Aussie. For the first few years the USD was pegged at 25, the Aussie was usually stable at 20. Then mid 90s things started to change, the lowest I saw the Aud was 13 something not sure about the USD. Then when we moved permanently I was flabbergasted to get 32 something for AUD a large amount. The US was well over 40 from memory. That was about 2009. It’s really been a long slow slide since (except for Covid of course).

Lost count of the times I’ve been asked to do ATM transactions. Usually by adult relatives of my wife but occasionally by random people looking forlorn near an ATM or actually using one with no success. I am in rural area. I know I can do QR transactions when I want but I just prefer cash.

In Brisbane he could go to Centrelink and they would put him in a hostel place where he’d get his own room plus 3 ordinary meals a day in return for nearly all his pension. He could catch a bus to the shops for 10baht and steal as much Vitamin C as he liked, no one would do anything

I noticed a lot of mainly oldies outside the omsin gsbank KTB and the BAAC in my Amphur town today. I was told this is for the oldies without the phones and they’re getting the money on the 30th, this month. There was a big announcement on the loudspeakers yesterday, presumably that was it. No indication of any restrictions on what the money is spent on as was envisaged in the earlier entirely digital scheme.

Never had much problem with dual pricing. Hard to see how even in bad cases it could be a financial risk to staying here. But I guess once you’ve been around you know the prices in market type places. But I do try and get quotes on vehicle repairs/maintenance and then just scan it for the translation. Once you do that you can Google prices. Also be careful in those big shops where they have a million things and no prices. It sometimes seems they quote the first figure that comes into their head

I read on the Nikkei recently Thailand had the best two months on current account surpluses for years in June July. I had assumed that was the reason for the baht going up

Two further things. I get it that Thailand needs to increase its tax base and it seems they intend to invest in data matching and other capability to capture foreign sourced income. But do the math. Even if you took an extremely inflated view of what farangs might owe ie 500k people times an average of 50k each that is 25 billion baht, a drop in the bucket. Measure that against a low estimate of what wealthy Thais might owe ie 1mil people by 500k each that is 500 billion baht an absolute shirtload. I think I know what they will be focussed on. Secondly people keep saying, keep records just to be safe. I’ve always been very bad at this, never to mention detriment. I thought that was what this digital age was all about, they’ve already got it if they want, just saying.

So basically 20+ pages of more or less the same guff as the other enormous threads when the original changes were mooted. The only thing that had changed is their stated intention to try and upend all that and try taxing world wide income. The grey areas and minutiae are the elephant in the room. Most people’s circumstances differ in some way so you have to decide for yourself. Me I decided, to do nothing this year. I’ve potentially lost millions more baht out of currency fluctuations than tax. Certainly not going to be running into the RD trying to pay though. Eventually changes will come, I will deal with it then, or not.