Babcock

I'm particularly peeved about Hollande's plan to introduce a 15.5% social tax to foreign property owners on top of the existing 19% capital gains tax when selling french property.

This is paid by french tax payers but who live in France and who enjoy all the benefits of the french social system.

I know someone who has lost his job as a director in a company (it went bust) and he will now receive 100% salary for 1 year and 60% salary for second year from french government.

This was under Sarkozy. The french tory.

Capital gains tax in Thailand on sale of properties is 2.5%.

their is no capital gains tax so please dont post nonsense theirs a 2.5% transfer tax a 0.5% stamp duty and if its owned less than5 year a3.3 % business tax and thats on whole sale price or land office valuation and not on any gain. SO if you buy a property for 3 million and sell it 3 years later for same you pay tax on whole 3 million. I really get pissed off with ops here talking through their rear end

Well, pissed off you may be.

Worst case scenario on proceeds from sale of home here would be 6.3%

Compare and contrast was my point.

The thai rich just keep getting richer.

Perhaps we should try to join their club.

Meanwhile if like me you own property in France Hollande wants us now to pay 34.5% cgt.

That's not just rich people paying that tax though is it? That's anyone owning a home has to give 34.5% capital gains to the french government.

Just to bail out the speculators?wanke_r bankers.

Is this civilised?

What does this have to do with anything? This is a red herring that occured almost 30 years ago, and that's assuming that it is indeed a fake document and not just a mistake on the copy.

But this whole thing is nothing but a smoke screen to deflect attention away from all the wrong doings going on with the PTP, Thaksin and the UDD.

Concentrate on the real issues.

The real issue is:

Did Mark's father, like many Rich Chinese / Vietnamese father bought a fake document on his behalf 30 years ago.

Please note that it was and still is, a common practice, and nothing to be shame about.

Have you ever wonder why most poor Thais keep picking up the RED ball while the rich Chinese keep picking up the BLACK ball; during the lottery?

You don't need a statistician to work out the improbability. No need to read the Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy too.

There are things about that family I really don't like.

In England someone like Abhisit entering politics would be ridiculed as a rich public schoolboy twit.

Don't try and compare him to Cameron. He's not in the same league.

Him lecturing the UN on "sufficiency economy" for the poor but not for him, not for the feudal barons etc etc.

Just look at his party and its members throwing tantrums with the speaker, childishly stealing his chair and he, Abhisit pressing false charges with the Constitution court.

Clinton, a democrat, dodged the draft for the Vietnam war.

It was fair game for the republicans to go after him for that .

Bush got an easy job away from the fighting with civil defense.

The democrats went after him.

Fair do's.

I'm particularly peeved about Hollande's plan to introduce a 15.5% social tax to foreign property owners on top of the existing 19% capital gains tax when selling french property.

This is paid by french tax payers but who live in France and who enjoy all the benefits of the french social system.

I know someone who has lost his job as a director in a company (it went bust) and he will now receive 100% salary for 1 year and 60% salary for second year from french government.

This was under Sarkozy. The french tory.

Capital gains tax in Thailand on sale of properties is 2.5%.

]French President Francois Hollande hailed Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's "commitments in favour of democracy and freedom" as they met in Paris on Friday, his office said.[/b]

Hollande's aides should really have told him about Yingluck's red party committing serious breaches of UDHR laws on human-rights, when they allowed the home-addresses of dissenting judges to be distributed to angry street thugs. Maybe Hollande has a different definition of "democracy and freedom" than UDHR do. Maybe he thinks that government thugs making citizens afraid to live in their own homes, is a symbol of democracy and freedom.

Hollande started out working for Mitterrand who was a hapless communist, and whose far-left polices led to a huge economic disaster in France. Hollande is the same kind of champagne socialist as his communist mentor was. I'm not surprised at all that Yingluck is viewed so kindly by these freewheeling communists.

"communists!"

I think you mean socialists.

Don't worry. Socialism is banned in Thailand. Phew!

Found last night.

2 disks in a pink taxi.

If you have you will be able to identify them.

I think you will be local to us.

It is not important what happened after samak had to go.Point is democrat friends here in Thaivisa say document faking to avoid military service is a minor thing,or smear campagne,well it is not and if it was known before then i think Abisit would be still in UK,never got the chance to be PM of Thailand,of course only if u measure with one standard

I think I bought some of that 'smear champagne' from Tesco's once.

Actually I said about a week ago that if Abhisit has broken any law relating to his draft, then he should be charged with it. Nobody is above the law, is what I said.

My point was that this story is a potential 'issue' but it is by no means an important issue in a developing nation that has a lot of deprivation and serious infrastructure problems.

PTP should be focusing on making Thailand a healthier and more equal society, instead of avoiding those issues all the time in favour of slimeing Abhisit non-stop or absolving Thaksin non-stop. It really is only PTP who make Thailand into a two-person manufactured personality pantomime.

I would prefer PTP to focus on their elected job of governing Thailand.

The other fact that dwarfs this minor 'draft dodge' issue is the fact is that if Thaksin was ever charged with the full list of crimes he is guilty of, the jailer would lock him up and throw away the key so far you'd never see it land.

Samak was not a good man and have a dog mouth (that's what they call him in Thailand).

Mark is a handsome, with fragrant mouth.

So it is only right that the court sack Samak, if the law say he disqualify.

It is only right to forgive Mark even the law say no Sor Dor 9, no govt post.

I get the impression that a number of thais maybe looking for visas have ended up erroneously on this web site and you would foot the bill.

Whatever the rabble manage to drum up to besmirch this good man's name, at the end of the day Mark is worth 100 of the entire corrupt cabinet of lemmings even if it came to light that he cheated in Oxford and personally gunned down the mob.

Though we all know where it's coming from. Just cannot let it be, can he!

The general view amongst the polulace is that Abhisit couldn't lie straight in bed.

What about indian takeaways?

Do they exist? Can I call up and order a meal.

I'm just not into pizza deliveries or KFC anymore. Never had before I came here.

is there a lost and found forum on Thaivisa?

How do we report something found?

"You go and an illegal act to prove that it can be done" has to be the most idiotic argument of... I don't know, this week?

That I could get up, get a knife and stab someone in the chest is not possible until I do it?

Anyway, of course soldiers shot at people; in all probability some innocent or way outside the scope of the RoE.

The thing is how some... individuals, try to use that to whitewash the actions of the Red Shirts. It doesn't fly.

Just because the Allies bombed Dresden doesn't absolve the Nazi regime from what they did.

Cue the usual suspects rushing in screaming Godwin's Law!!!!

and talking about how easy it is to commit a criminal act such as buying a high powered weapon without the ability to back it up is hyperbole at the very least, and there is nothing wrong with highlighting this by other posters

But army always argue that some of their weapons were rob / stolen by the red shirts' men in black.

So the kills of 92, mostly can be proved that it was carried out by army weapons, could be done by the hand of the men in black.

I understand this, but how do you explain nobody from the army witnessing the shooting, surely they would have seen this, the van wasn't just shot once, it was peppered with bullets yet the soldiers nearby saw nothing, don't you thing that is a little strange?

the fact is the army, as was their want at this time, opened up on some innocent people in a van, unarmed and posing no immediate threat. anyone that says the army will not do this i will just remind them of their shooting their own man on viphwadi road when he was coming to help them in convoy with others,

I've watched the video of the incident.

The team on motorbikes overtake a bus and run slap bang into a road block manned by the army.

It's an elevated road I recall, anyway no civilians about and they shoot down their own man.

It's all filmed from behind the bikes like using a telephoto lens.

Army rebuttals on a taxi driver killed

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Army on Wednesday issued a statement rebutting its involvement in the killing of a taxi driver during the 2010 political mayhem.

In the statement, the Army said it wanted to clarify a prosecution testimony given at the judicial inquest on the death of Channarong Pholsrila on May 15, 2010 in front of a petrol station on Ratchaprarop Road.

The statement outlined that the incident happened after when the Army had deployed its forces in the live-bullet zone on Rang Nam Road, part of the operations to encircle the Ratchaprasong rally of the red shirts.

But unidentified gunmen launched an attack forcing the Army to retreat to Ratchaprarop 14 Road. This exchange of gunfire was prove about the existence of armed men other than the soldiers.

During the gun battle, the local residents alerted the soldiers about the shooting death of Channarong and another injured journalist.

The Army had dispatched a medic team, accompanied by a news photographer, in a rescue operation.

Before reaching the scene to recover the body and evacuate the injured, the medic team encountered a fierce attack and the news photographer sustained gun-shot wounds.

At the inquest, the witness testified about Channarong being shot at by an assualt rifle. But the testimony made no mention about ballistic checks.

-- The Nation 2012-07-18

See, I told you already.

The men in black did it.

Best prove ever.

Army rebuttals on a taxi driver killed

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Army on Wednesday issued a statement rebutting its involvement in the killing of a taxi driver during the 2010 political mayhem.

In the statement, the Army said it wanted to clarify a prosecution testimony given at the judicial inquest on the death of Channarong Pholsrila on May 15, 2010 in front of a petrol station on Ratchaprarop Road.

The statement outlined that the incident happened after when the Army had deployed its forces in the live-bullet zone on Rang Nam Road, part of the operations to encircle the Ratchaprasong rally of the red shirts.

But unidentified gunmen launched an attack forcing the Army to retreat to Ratchaprarop 14 Road. This exchange of gunfire was prove about the existence of armed men other than the soldiers.

During the gun battle, the local residents alerted the soldiers about the shooting death of Channarong and another injured journalist.

The Army had dispatched a medic team, accompanied by a news photographer, in a rescue operation.

Before reaching the scene to recover the body and evacuate the injured, the medic team encountered a fierce attack and the news photographer sustained gun-shot wounds.

At the inquest, the witness testified about Channarong being shot at by an assualt rifle. But the testimony made no mention about ballistic checks.

-- The Nation 2012-07-18

See, I told you already.

The men in black did it.

Best prove ever.

I seiously doubt any medic team was sent!

I had the pleasure of meeting him once. Really nice guy. Great artist. RIP.

Yingluck said a committee would be formed to follow up on immediate and long-range plans closely to ease the crowding

I wonder if Yingluck's committee will mention that Yingluck's brother caused most of the serious runway problems we are seeing today, with his nepotistic and corrupt carelessness and grand-larceny.

Not really, but don't let the facts get in your way.

Why don't you start with the principal contractors. Wonderful Italian-Thai consortium with 2 major japanese construction firms. Those contractors controlled the construction and the site inspection.They were responsible for quality assurance. ITD is a public company, so you can go and look up the major shareholders.

Do you realize that there is a quasi monopoly on cement in Thailand? I suggest you read up on who controled the primary cement suppliers for the runways.

I am always amazed when people mouth off on the subject, but don't make an effort to see who was involved. And here's a tip: Public criticism of one involved party would land you in jail.

I remember being told that samak, the recently deceased ex pm owned one of the cement companies used ( you're thinking of Siam cement I think), but the same person thought thaksin was directly responsible for the massacre at the mosque.

The congestion when I came through the other week, several hundred passengers queuing to enter Bangkok

Was deplorable.

3 pm and outside no-one queuing for taxis as I came through fast tracked.

Had the passport control been on a go slow or just as usual out to lunch?

Taxi touts everywhere. It really is a joke! I Thai on an escalator passing asked me if I want "taxi" laughing.

Well American football fans are now happy with ESPN returning, but being English I would like to see some cricket. I suspect that the Australians, NewZealanders and some other nationals would like it too.

There is enough sports channels showing a lot of sports that are no way near as popular as cricket. I would even upgrade my subscription to see this sport especially the T20 and one day games.

Any support for this.

I agree with you Pormax, cricket and also rugby union are far more popular than a lot of the sports channels featured.

Was a sad day when sat tv lost Supersport

Also just for the record, i was hoping that they would reintroduce Fox News. I know a lot of people will shout me down about this but i like to see both (Conservative and Liberal) points of view. CNN is just as one sided as FOX.

Rugby has its own channel on True! Much as I would love to see cricket, I can't see it being popular with the Thai customer base.

Although being 'liberal' myself, I'd love to see Fox News on True. CNN is full of dreary 'features', while Fox at least as some life even if the likes of Hannity, O'Reilly et al make my blood boil. I'd pay good money to see Fox cover Obama's re-election!

I stream the cricket through a laptop onto the TV.

Where online do you get the cricket?

To follow up on the above debate, the democrats were not only wrong but criminal to start the whole legal action.

They know it was baseless and without merit and likely to start more trouble in the street but they went with it anyway. Why ? Because Abhisit is widely seen as spineless and out of touch with the country and his own party, so something has to be done to show that he was doing "something".

As some have already point out, the democrats have nothing much to propose to improve the lot of the Thai people, the current administration is doing a excellent job for that. Everybody, from the USA to the IMF, is praising Ms Yingluck for her actions to restore Thaiand good name on the international scene. So the only way for Abhisit to stay on the headline is to stir up trouble. Our only luck is he is as incompoetent for that as to win election.

What infuriated and showed the claims made by the democrats and the pad were baseless was the absence of any specific allegation merely a general smear campaign

And the democrats refused/ ignored requests to provide any evidence for their claims other than the well worn claim about getting thaksin his money back and the ott claim that it was all a plot to remove the constitution with the king as head of state.

When you see the pad's current claim that it's all about handing sovereignty

To the US and western big business ignoring of course the work of ASEAN praised by the IMF and you see these loose cannon lackeys of the elite making ludicrous childish claims against this government.

In this atmosphere why should yingluk bother debating with abhisit.

If he was still pm Thailand would probably be at war with Cambodia now to steal the oil wealth in the sea for certain families.

Just departed thru the airport a few days ago and no problems leaving, thru immigration in about 15 min.., we where a bit late departing but the airplane arrived late. When I arrived from the Philippines earlier thru immigration in about 20 min no hassle. In the end all you can use to measure the airports performance is your own experience.

Yeah lets see how it impacts you... All the things they say about the airport are true of course but at the end of the day passengers care mostly about the experience. I frequently fly between SFO from San Franciscos relatively new international terminal to BKK. BKK compares favorably: Less wait for luggage, MUCH less wait for immigration, MUCH friendlier immigration officials, better services re food and shopping on departure. In Fact BKK wins over SFO in pretty much any category you choose to look at.

Better than Swampy are Changi, Incheon, maybe HKIA. But all these are internatioal airports that are known to be near the top of the list. BKK is not the best airport in the world - they had the chance to do that, but screwed up thanks to all the problems mentioned in the article, mainly corruption of course. But BKK isn't the worst either.

And its the only airport I have ever arrived on in an international flight where I went from the airplane into a taxi in 15 Minutes. I know its not always that fast but it can be....

It took me about 25 minutes to go through from heathrow the other week however I had a premier pass.

The queue for immigration in the 1st hall were horrendous.

First time ever I came out for a taxi and was first in queue.

Get rid of king power.

Get rid of the taxi, tat touts (all still there!)

The facility is mismanaged and the corruption is nothing to do with "reds" but Hiso mafias.

Poor materials used in construction?

No evidence yet found and it was thoroughly checked out when was it 2007/2008.

Check out Wikipedia if you don't believe.

Truth is the 2nd terminal was due to have been completed by now and construction on second runway underway but oh yes we had a coup and the main focus of attention was "get mr T!" and nought happened just a steady slide into incompetence and corruption repeated in all the tourist resorts.

Look at Phuket now. Murder resort of Asia.

So much rubbish posted in response to this story. The problem of cracking and stripping (where the bitumen comes away from the concrete below) is common. The issue here is the maintenance schedule. The sky is not falling. It is not the end of the world. Once the maintenance schedule is sorted everything will be fine. It is normal to have runways closed for resurfacing and repair work. I believe Sydney airport had a runway closed for nearly a year with maintenance and repair works taking place.

My understanding from posts from the other paper that they have found an area 60cm square sunk 5 cm.

I mean if that's true this story's a joke.

Quite true. We don't know if they are dealing with a mountain or a mole hill. One would think that if the sinkhole were only 5cm, then it wouldn't interest the press enough to publish an article.

EDIT: This is from the OP

AOT closed the west runway from 8.30-9.30pm on Thursday night for repairs after two sinkholes were found. One was 60cm wide, 60cm long and 5cm deep. Eleven flights were affected, seven of them Thai Airways International (THAI) flights, which were forced to delay their landings. Four other flights were diverted to U-tapao, Don Mueang and Chiang Mai airports during the closure.

I get it but if only it was the thaksin camp you had to be afraid of, that they truly were apart from the population whose nature would never consider any forms of corruption and that this newspaper, the nation, only ever acted out of a sense of civic good...

I tend towards the c-ck-up conspiracy rather than.

How can 200+ in 2011 and 55+ year to date in 2012 repairs to runways requiring closures be termed "normal?"

I recollect that there was quite a controversy regarding runways problems (majorcracks, sinking, etc.) way back before the airport opened. I cannot remember if it was The Nation or Bangkok Post; however, one or the other did a great series of articles outlining the problems and possible corruption associated with the contracts and original runway construction work. Welcome to Thailand.

The nation

And they were forced to retract their story a year later and apologize for false reporting.

And after the democrats had delayed the opening of the airport for 1 whole year but by then it didn't matter because there had been a coup and the army general who took over the airport his first decision was to sack the bod and his second to award his regiment $5000000 from the coffers of the airport.

He then ran the airport into the ground, didn't claim rent from Kingpower for 1 year (loyal supporters) and refused to make repairs to the airport runway as

Did the junta leader as they hoped a failure at the airport would reflect badly on pm thaksin who could be scapegoated for any failure.

A bit like what is going on here I would wager.

Again it's on Wikipedia and other external media outlets.

I told it before: it's not the bad compaction of the reclaimed land; it's the sub-standard quality of the sand (too silty) that causes the problem. The drainage capacity of this sand is too low and compaction pressure by heavy sudden loads (be it a compactor or an aircraft) is taken by the water particles, not the soil grains, with all the consequences.

May I suggets that the certificates of soil-aptness be checked (which were issued during the Thaksin I and II government by crooked soil laboratories working for TRT nominees) be thoroughly checked and these particular "substandard" soils be identified where they were used for reclaiming the swamp with 4 meters... (something which unfortunately is no longer possible). Remarkable and coincidently the sand was coming from borrow pits, all belonging to TRT MP's and Thaksin cronies. This "sandy soil" was bought at an incredible price... And that's why this Suvarnabhumi airport has costed three times its normal price. No one can put the link anymore with the actual problems in the runway but these problems will continue to exist for many more years to come. This will NEVER be a good runway if the 4 meters reclaimed sand was sub-standard, which becomes more an more clear now. Corruption and greed, the two most known characteristics of the Thaksin era... are now costing its toll. And this man still runs free...

You might want to look at Wikipedia

Because they claim that when tests were carried out earlier on the composition of the runways after cracks had appeared back in 2006 they claim that the materials found were of the correct materials.

Overall the airport was found to have a 1% failure rate which is negligible

However a figure of 30% graft in an earlier posters blog is about the going rate and doesn't surprise me.

Even the last government

Sought more than that for the Bts extensions.

Then we have king power etc etc and the gangs that divide up the turf

So much rubbish posted in response to this story. The problem of cracking and stripping (where the bitumen comes away from the concrete below) is common. The issue here is the maintenance schedule. The sky is not falling. It is not the end of the world. Once the maintenance schedule is sorted everything will be fine. It is normal to have runways closed for resurfacing and repair work. I believe Sydney airport had a runway closed for nearly a year with maintenance and repair works taking place.

My understanding from posts from the other paper that they have found an area 60cm square sunk 5 cm.

I mean if that's true this story's a joke.

I noticed today that the work they are doing at the immigration is to extend the passport control area.

Previously the queues snaked out of the passport control area all around the check in / departure area so the chaos was obvious to everyone.

With the extended passport control area they will snake the queues around out of view so nobody will be aware of the chaos.

Arrived from uk through swampy on Wednesday

4th July at 3pm and I've never seen so many people queuing for immigration at the first checkpoint. 300-400 queuing and it was hot.

Fortunately for me I had a premier pass went to second immigration checkpoint and sailed through and our bags were straight out on the conveyer, collected them and no queues for taxi. I was straight off.

Only thing next to me was they were shooting a video of a passenger walking up to have his passport checked by (wait for it) smiling immigration lady.

Had the main immigration people just gone off for lunch or a go slow at 3pm?

The taxis had no customers and the carousels we're deserted.

How do you know what Jeng did was sanctioned by the government? OK, he's an MP, and should face severe reprimands by PTP, but that doesn't mean they knew what he was going to do.

First off, to correct the above, Dokjik is not an MP, but a Yingluck Cabinet appointee.

Red Shirt Leader and Deputy Secretary-General to the Interior Minister Yoswaris "Jeng Dokjik" Chuklom

Naewna Newspaper (article in Thai)

http://www.naewna.com/

As many Red Shirt Leaders he's awaiting the processing of multiple criminal charges that he has been indicted for.

He has not faced any reprimand from the PTP for his deplorable action of inciting others to threaten judges and their families.

To date, I'm not aware of ANY Red Shirt that has been reprimanded by the PTP for their action.

Instead, it's been just the opposite. The Red Shirts get promoted by PTP... such as in their placement on the Pheu Thai Party-list of MP's and in case of Natthawut, Deputy Agriculture Minister in the Cabinet.

In this case of Red Shirts .... there's a perfect opportunity for Yingluck to reverse the established policy and condemn the acts of the Red Shirts who attempted to break into a school where Abhisit was giving a speech.

As seen multiple times previously with the Red Shirts, they hurled verbal abuse and hurled physical abuse by throwing water bottles at the stage.... which prompted police to escort Abhisit out of the area.

We await for Yingluck to condemn and fire Dokjik at the least. Directing her Justice Ministry to pursue criminal charges (to go along with his laundry list of previous charges) for his criminal act would be most appropriate.

We also await for Yingluck to at least admonish or decry the Red Shirts for their violent activities a few days ago.

And no, the mealy-mouthed comments by her here don't do that.

http://www.thaivisa....y/#entry5447273

.

Boohoo the very thought of it. Radical change.

The rose tinted glasses fall off.

The golden past.

The tug of the forelock.

Abhisit trying to educate the United Nations about Sufficiency Economy.

On another thread "Charter court urged to drop amendment inquiry"

Abhisit:

"Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said that as a witness opposing charter change, he will submit a written statement by tomorrow."

Is this not the same Abhisit who opposed the Coup rewrite of the 1997 constitution?

No change eh?

Cake and eat it.

I know what he should eat.

He shoud be forced to eat his words.

That's why the redshirts are there. to bear witness to this scoundrel.

See they don't want your "sufficiency economy."

Like people everywhere they aspire.

To better education

To free movement of labour

To ownership

To inclusion

Creepy elites telling people what to do don't make it anyhow.

The future can be good.

aspire.

We were so wrong.

Thailand must soon decide to follow the democracy path or wrap itself in its flag and fossilyze

Abhisit:

"Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said that as a witness opposing charter change, he will submit a written statement by tomorrow."

Is this not the same Abhisit who opposed the Coup rewrite of the 1997 constitution?

Cake and eat it

What about the law for those who bring in substantial funds?

I remember meeting an american who owned beach land that he could develop.

The virtues of PAD and the the Democrat Party I suppose. Anyone who read the masterpiece of the Bangkok Pundit yesterday must have fallen from his chair. The PAD accuses the US of wanting to use U-tapao to carry out biological warfare and this is another piece in the process to please the xenophobic neo nazi elite. When do Western countries wake up and enforce pay the Thai elite back in the same currency.

Who is the party in power right now proposing this legislation?

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

Who appointed this ombudsman?

We've just been reading about The two rulings involving former foreign minister Kasit Piromya and Deputy Agriculture Minister Natthawut Saikua.

Definite partisan rulings against the former yellowshirt foreign minister and for the current redshirt minister

Here for all to see is the thai elites attitude to those foreigners coming from democratic countries.