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Bluetongue

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  1. I encountered the exact same response years ago. Last year they came and visited me for the first time, 4 of them, one sat in the car with the engine running. They said my map was no good even though they got to within 200 metres of the house before they rang up and I had to rescue them. They were scared of the dogs and generally left with alacrity. This year I got asked to supply the GPS coordinates as well, so I found my house on satellite view and dropped a pin on it. I was happy because I hadn't noticed that feature before.
  2. I'm still a bit confused about residency. The guide states that you are a tax resident of Thailand if you are here for 180 days in a calendar year, no if's but's or maybe's. Why then does the DTA between Australia/Thailand in Part 4 Residency (pasted below) appear to give some discretion about this? Have these rules been amended at some stage? As an almost doddering old fool I am struggling with interpreting these things. Article 4 Residence 1. For the purposes of this Agreement, a person is a resident of one of the Contracting States: (a) in the case of Australia, if the person is a resident of Australia for the purposes of Australian tax; and (b) in the case of Thailand, if the person is a resident of Thailand for the purposes of Thai tax. 2. A person is not a resident of a Contracting State for the purposes of this Agreement if the person is liable to tax in that State in respect only of income from a source in that State. 3. Where by reason of the preceding provisions, an individual is a resident of both Contracting States, the status of the person shall be determined in accordance with the following rules, applied in the order in which they are set out : (a) the person shall be deemed to be a resident solely of the Contracting State in which a permanent home is available to the person; (b) if a permanent home is available to the person in both Contracting States, or in neither of them, the person shall be deemed to be a resident solely of the Contracting State in which the person has an habitual abode; (c) if the person has an habitual abode in both Contracting States, or in neither of them, the person shall be deemed to be a resident solely of the Contracting State with which the person's personal and economic relations are the closer. 4. For the purposes of the last preceding paragraph, an individual's citizenship or nationality of a Contracting State shall be a factor in determining the degree of the person's personal and economic relations with that Contracting State. 5. Where by reason of the provisions of paragraph 1, a person other than an individual is a resident of both Contracting States, it shall be deemed to be a resident solely of the Contracting State in which it is incorporated, created or organized.
  3. I'll be contacting them with a query regarding future tax residency of Thailand, at this stage I am not, in 22 0r 23 anyway although it is almost certain I have been in the past 15 years for some of them. However I have never changed my original declaration made in 2014 to Comsuper that I was an Australian resident (believing that I was better off as such). Whether it is worthwhile or wise for me to go back over old ground with the Australian Tax Office is a matter for deliberation.
  4. I have no doubt that the accountant is an expert and probably most of what he says would be correct for most Australian taxpayers. However here is a cohort of over 60 government and military pension receivers whose pension is mostly taxable (due to some long ago Treasurer deeming unfunded superannuation benefits as having come from an untaxed source.) Some years ago it was 400000 people, it would be less now due to attrition. The point being that such people have to lodge with the payer, usually Comsuper, a declaration which asks if you are or are not a resident of Australia. If you are not you lose access to the tax free threshold and will be taxed 32% on the portion considered to be from an untaxed source (most of it). This money is deducted prior to payment. Thailand has no right to tax this money under the DTA . The only way to get a refund of some or all of this money would be to lodge a tax return in Australia, as was quoted in this example where an accountant lodged amended returns, which the poster referred to as representations. However I don't believe the example covers this income. I don't know whether I'm in the knee jerk or coin drop phase but at this stage I have no intention of going to the ATO with such a question
  5. I'm wondering how these arbitrary 180 day of residence rulings will be affected by time spent in other third countries for instance on holidays. Possibly silly I know. If one was not a tax resident of Thailand or the home country what happens? I have done this, departed from Australia for an extended vacation through Europe and then returned to Thailand. Presumably the whole idea of it is that you have to be resident and file somewhere. In my case I prefer to use the the tax free threshold in Australia only available to residents (for tax purposes)
  6. Gee these DTAs are a fun read. Australians who are on the age pension or another pension or annuity would be liable here. Unless its a pension from Government service. While those on just the age pension should be zero tax once the various deductions kick in, those on more generous amounts may have something to think about. Particularly as most superannuation benefits in Australia are tax free from the age of 60 on. (Except those unlucky enough to be in the anomaly group which is too much to go into here.) Personally I am not a Thai tax resident for 2023 but it seems I will be in 2024. However I won't be rushing in to get a file number. I have little luck with Thai officialdom out here in the sticks anyway, and quite frankly I couldn't be bothered. Of course some requirement at the Airport or Immigration makes it a different matter. Everybody's circumstances vary so don't take my advice. If I did need to transfer a large amount this year I'll just send it to the wife. She has no tax number, nor any dealings with them and I suspect many Thai's don't. I really don't see how any time soon they could have the wherewithal to force tax returns out of people like me who would be able to arrange things to not have a liability. What is the point, really, of getting a whole heap of mainly old blokes to file complex returns which will result in very little net gain?
  7. Getting my pink and yellow was a saga which I won't go into. I have had the pink ID accepted at the bank for transactions but they want the passport for the annual letter. The local village clinic accepted it when I was getting a daily dressing change on a wound previously I have paid a small amount however it now appears to be free. I was going to use it at the district hospital where I went to get a rabies shot and the wound originally dressed, however the wife informed me that the card says I am an Austrian not an Australian and opined that there could be trouble/confusion down the track. So I didn't find out whether that treatment would have been discounted. I was going to go back to the Amphur and get them to fix it but apparently the problem was in the translation of passport that I provided so I would probably have to go through the whole thing again, dragging the Poo Yai Baan down there etc. So as I got the DL with it I'm happy to leave it as it is, I don't think anyone will ever notice.
  8. Like most I assume that I wait for the fine print. As far as Aus goes they changed to this 180 day rule recently but its based on financial year ie July 1 to June 30. Before you could self assess, and I always got to the statement that said contact the tax office, I never did. Now I have been in the habit of doing about 6 months here and 6 months over there. Perhaps the pencil necks who now run the world would like me to pay as a resident in both countries, as I have done 180 days in both. The idea that people should run their lives on some arbitrary bureaucratic determination of what residency consists of is ridiculous and the fact that all countries seem to be doing it is proof that the politicians have been convinced to go along with it. So there must be more money in it. One of its stated aims would be to catch the super rich but of course they will be alright. As Kerry Packer, an Australian business once said to a senate tax inquiry, " of course I minimize my tax, anyone that doesn't needs their head read, you aren't spending it well enough to make me want to give you more than I have to". And their judicious spending of our money has only gotten much worse in the intervening 30 years.
  9. Women in shops in Australia have eyes in the back of their head. When they see the hunter killer lone male shopper coming down the aisle, they'll stop, look at things, even pick them up and put them back, it happens to me a lot, but anyway. I think what the OP may be talking about is the Thai habit of entering a place where customers are being served and immediately engaging with the staff about what they want, usually then waiting their turn to be served, although queue behaviour here might not always be orderly
  10. Interesting OP. Imho low wages for basic and unskilled work, cheap food and locally produced goods and women (mostly) with desirable characteristics are the things that make it easy to stay here. The new Government wont be changing the women. However they are likely at some stage to try to increase wages which will have upward pressure on food and goods. I have always tried to have a bit of leeway for this sort of thing and indeed my income from different sources has gone up. The gorillas in the room are the exchange rate and China, and I can't predict either except I will try. Over the medium term I think the Chinese will want more and more food imports from Thailand and the baht is likely to go up. Situation normal then.
  11. Yes its not mandatory. I've been to dozens of these things. The cynics are saying it's all about face. I don't agree. Yes wealthy people make a big show but its the same ceremony, where the boy has become a man. Often poorer cousins or family friends will piggyback so that costs are lower. I've seen some quite poignant moments, where the mother has broken down, the child washes the parents feet, I reckon it's pretty cool, can't understand why anybody living here would not enjoy one of these every now and then. I've seen them stay as monks for a year, a few months or a few days. Sometimes grown men will do it because they never got the chance when they were younger. I had my farang friend come to this last one, he has been coming here for 35 years,lived here for about 10, he'd never seen this and was really impressed. Yes the music is too loud but it gets turned off early enough.
  12. My nephew just had one the other day. The shaving ceremony was done at the temple with many other novices, this saved the expense of having a function at home, the family still took food along and shared it with other families and guests, but there was no alcohol. Then at home that night a self catered function took place at home with small amount of alcohol, the mother and aunts brewed Sato which the band and others drank. Then the following day we all accompanied him to the temple for the robing, where his supporters literally carry him inside after they all toss the coins which have been painstakingly wrapped in colourful ribbons in the weeks and months beforehand. Also everything must be supplied, his robes accoutrements, flowers, presents to the monk, the announcer, parking attendants yada yada. This can be pared down with a smaller function, right back to all of the different elements being carried out at the wat The most expensive versions in Isaan are "tot jeen" where it is a catered 7 course meal with the caterer supplying everything, table service, stage, dancers, speeches etc, lots of alcohol and several hundred people, also be no change out of 250k. It's hard to say what locals think of the lesser version, not as many of them turned up that's for sure. For their envelope with 200baht or more they want the meal and the lao.
  13. What solicitors aren't going to ask for anything up front from the kids either. The approach of open combat and the narrative that the wife is greedy may not be the case, it all depends like I said on what has occurred over the years and how they get on, whether the children have lived their life on the assumption they are going to inherit Dad's millions. Anyway as I said much better to leave the lawyers out of it if you can, yes worth taking a big cut. Unrelated I had a big third party claim, the lawyers cut stunned me. I would avoid them like the plague.
  14. I could understand a farang couple with sufficient resources to stay at the beach coming here with toddlers and strollers, but getting round Bangkok on public transport with them I couldn't imagine anything worse. Put up with anything for cheaper drugs I suppose. Really unless you do what the Thai does general run of the mill things are not that cheap here, maybe they miscalculated their budget. That wouldn't be hard as I understand mental arithmetic is no longer a thing.
  15. I saw some of the footage from what I assume the OP is on about. It was in Western Sydney. Probably a good hour or more on the train from the city, if they were even running. So the protestors were a small group maybe 10 or 15. The leader of One Nation in NSW Mark Latham was speaking at a church alongside some other speakers, it was part of his election campaign. He often talks in disparaging terms about the gender issues being taught to very young children in the State Education system. Lately these sorts of protests have been very well attended by both sides and the progressives are usually very well prepared with megaphones, chants and tactics, as evidenced in the centre of Sydney next to the University one or two days before. On this occasion they were completely outnumbered by a large number of people, mostly males maybe Lebanese who were behaving aggressively. The police also in very small numbers were forced to huddle around the protestors in between some cars. The police tried to get Latham not to speak but he went ahead anyway. So really I don't get the OP no one was trying to convert anyone it was just the typical deal these days. Yesterday in Auckland NZ a very large number of progressives, aggressively and somewhat violently forced a womans right speaker from England sometimes known as Posie Parker to cancel. Police were nowhere to be seen. So I don't hold with the notion that the progressive tide is being held up at all, quite the opposite. I may not agree with some of it but in these times old fart's opinions count for zip.
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