Bluetongue

On 4/10/2024 at 6:43 PM, Upnotover said:

https://www.bot.or.th/en/news-and-media/news/news-20230309.html

 

You've provided me a link which says nothing, well done

I've never heard of the 50k limit, I'm certain I've done transfers above that either at an ATM or online K

Hi

Well the office at Pong Nam Ron is no longer functional for extensions, re-entry permit or 90 day report. I've never had much problem in 15 years, they wont issue any residency certificate for a drivers license. Never been any suggestion of corruption. I put this down to a constant stream of Thai employers getting piles of Cambodian passports processed. Plenty of opportunity there I would think. Also quite a few Africans, something to do with the gem trade, I cant imagine their paperwork is always in order either. On a good day 10/10 sometimes 7/10. Not that many farangs.

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.

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.

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.

On 2/3/2024 at 12:09 PM, TigerandDog said:

There is 1 question you need to ask yourself:

 

#1. are you a tax resident of Australia OR Thailand. Based on your comment it appears that you are a tax resident of Thailand.  Therefore under section 4 of the DTA ComsuperAustralia CANNOT legally tax you. With regards to Comsuper, have you ever made aware that as a tax resident of Thailand under the terms of the Oz/Thai DTA they cannot legally deduct the 32% tax from your pension and that Thailand is the ONLY state where you are liable to pay income tax, and that they need to be making representations to the ATO on your behalf to recover the tax that has been improperly deducted.

 

My guess is that Comsuper are either not aware of the DTA and it's provisions or that when you have advised them that you are a non tax resident of Australia you have not made them aware that you are a tax resident under Thai tax law and that the terms of the DTA prevent them from deducting any tax from your pension. 

 

I'd be contacting Comsuper and asking them why they aren't complying with the Thai/Oz DTA. It would be interesting to hear their response to that enquiry.

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.

On 1/31/2024 at 12:43 PM, TigerandDog said:

I had a lengthy telephone conversation last week with a tax accountant in Australia who specialises in the Australian tax treaties.

 

There was some good news for some and also bad news for some.

 

#1.  The first thing he pointed out was that expat Australians permanently living in Thailand (viz. more than 180 days in Thailand, therefore making them tax residents of Thailand not Australia) who have been filing annual non-resident tax returns in Australia and being slugged 32% tax are being taxed illegally by the ATO under the terms of  the Tax Treaty and are eligible to claim a full refund of all the tax paid for those tax returns. He also advised that they should have an Australian tax accountant submit a $0.00 tax return and declare it as a FINAL tax return so they no longer need to submit any future tax returns in Australia, until such time as they become an Australian tax resident again. He cited as an example the case of a client that had been submitting non resident returns in Oz for many years. He made representations on behalf of the client and was able to have $900k refunded to the client by the ATO.

 

#2. Under the tax treaty if we are deemed to be a tax resident of Thailand, then the ATO cannot legally tax you.

 

#3. As a tax resident of Thailand, especially now with Thailand banks bringing their systems into the 21st century and exchanging data with all the countries that are part of the global reporting system, we will be required under Thai tax law to not only submit a tax return in Thailand declaring the funds we transfer into Thailand but also all income, if any, earned elsewhere in the world.

 

#4. Despite this not being a great piece of news, the up side of it is that the tax rates here in Thailand are significantly lower than those in Australia.

 

Based on the information I was given I did a quick gestimate of what tax, if any, I might have to pay here in Thailand. So after estimating my annual pension payments received and interest paid to my bank account, and deducting the tax that is automatically deducted from the interest and claiming the over 65 increase in the tax free threshold and teh personal deduction of 60k THB I estimate that I will only have to pay 7k THB in tax (approx AUD $300.00). So all in all not so bad compared to around AUD $9k if I was lodging non resident tax returns in Oz.

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

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)

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

On 4/4/2023 at 4:20 PM, AlexRRR said:

Wife would have to make herself known and hire a solicitor, costs likely to run in to 100,000's of $ which could come out of the estate if she wins...thats assuming the kids fight it which they would.

 

Law in AU if wife is seen as a legitimate beneficiary would likely obtain equal cut of estate, lot of press in AU over the years  when one child cut from a will only to fight it and end up getting a cut. So no she isnt going to get the lot also no guarantee that costs would come out of the estate, if hes worth a lot kids could drag it out for ever, solicitor is likely to ask her for fees up front which is likely to put her off once she realizes the costs of doing business in AU.

 

If i found myself in a position i was dealing with my fathers greedy widow id fight and drag it out, shes going to in-cure a lot of costs before there is a resolution hopefully that will do the trick.

 

 

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.

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.

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

I don't think the human race is going to be around for too much longer if we keep destroying our environment and overpopulating the planet, so it's probably not going to make much difference as to how healthy it is or not.

I think I was reading that the world has just about reached peak population, it hit 8 billion, but not expected to ever get to 9, in fact the fruits of the China one child policy are expected to ripen into a massive population drop for them. So we have a shrinking gene pool and population, whatever we get we deserve.

I don't think its necessarily right to ignore something just because it doesn't affect you directly. It seems that gender fluidity is becoming more popular, but most of the heat in the debate seems to be concerning the males wanting to be females not the other way around. I have concerns about the long term viability of such behaviours given that there has always been a very small element involved but now growing. My own opinion is that is not healthy for a species. That doesn't mean I want to argue about it though, as that would be pointless, you can see that here. Society has a way of working these things out.

I live in a totally rural situation, I currently look after 4 dogs, one is nearly 13 years old, she is quite clever. I've noticed that most of my neighbors dogs live til about 7 or less so considering all mine are older the quality food probably makes the difference, they mostly get fish and rice but I supplement with dry. We go for walks dusk and dawn, I consider them to be honest loving companions, those that die are buried, unlike being thrown into the creek, I couldn't afford vets bills all the time so I try to manage things but yeh. Don't know if I'll get more probably donate to the shelter that keeps coming up on my feed.

Chantaburi is where the durian industry is more dominant perhaps than Isaan. A lot of farmers move from one tree to another chasing the $. A lot around my place have recently gone from lamyai (Chinese demand way down for 3 years due to Covid, but now going back up) to Durian which has a solid domestic demand as well as export. However imo a lot of them don't know what they are doing, as was the case with lamyai too, as there is great discrepancy between the progress the new trees are making. Meanwhile the price of lamyai skyrocketed over new year. Also the observer talking about middlemen, there are a great number of shops selling fertiliser and agricultural chemicals for which the need is overstated. If one poor small plot farmer tells others to put this pink hormone or whatever on the crop, they will all go and buy it, 1000 baht or more for a small bottle. Or the fertilsier they put too much on when the lamyai is small as well as too much irrigation, then when the fruit really needs irrigation and fertiliser at the end, they've run out of water and money. I've seen them go for elaborate anti bat and bird defences such as lights, noise, nets all to stop a tiny portion of the crop getting taken. And a lot of farmers go to great lengths to plant bananas and malagor which they have no intention of using, I saw a guy cut down and pile up thousands of pieces of bamboo which sat on the ground never was used. I saw a farmer up the road tend rubber trees for must have been ten years, it seemed ready to me, he cut it all down and planted lamyai (another 5-7 year wait) I was particularly bamboozled by this one so I asked him why, he said he couldn't get tappers, I privately thought, not surprised, small money, horrid living conditions and have to steal to make it work.

8 hours ago, liddelljohn said:

Good planes but quite ancient not competetive against  4th and 5th gen fighters   , they make good advanced trainers though and will easily deal with Cambodian  burmese and Laos airforces if electronics  upgrades are latest from elbit and  latest missiles

Last time I looked at Janes (a while ago) the Cambodian Air Force consisted of 6oo personnel and its 2 planes, I think King Airs were on permanent loan to Hun Sens security detachment. No danger from Laos either. Not sure about Burma. Interestingly I live on the Cambodian border and every now and then at night a fast jet, presumably Thai, does a run roughly along the border, must be just to s*** them off

One thing is if I am finding it increasingly difficult to deal with Government, banks, paypal, wise, super funds, pensions, providing only digital ids etc etc, my IT and English challenged wife is surely going to find it incredibly difficult. This is just the way things have gone now in Australia anyway as I imagine across the west. So much so that I intend to leave most of it here so that there are only minimal, low value requirements to deal with authorities in Australia which I hope to convince my non challenged nieces or nephews to deal with as executor, last tax return and such