Thailand Ranks World’s 3rd Digital Nomad Haven

[BadSpottedDog]

1 hour ago, Rosho said:

Intertag Ltd and partner IMT Group Co Ltd have a track record of 25 successful out of 25 BOI applications, this year. I have a Smart S visa myself and run these 25 Smart Talent visa holders under service contract. We don't use the non-B and work permit system, as Smart visa holders are exempt from work permits. Our Social Enterprise status and having a Thai partner in the tech industry seem to make it easier for us. Sorry to hear about your misadventures, I know from personal experience that some local lawyers can get it badly wrong occasionally. If ever you have new projects, we will be happy to assist you!

Thank you! I will keep this in mind! 

[happydreamer]

Digital nomads is so 2015 Chiang Mai.  Camp, Maya, ordering food all day and drinking americanos every three hours to get more wifi.

Then ride off into the midnight on your motorbike....

Good times

[n00dle]

7 hours ago, Mad mick said:

No why wpuld they !! They work for YouTube  ! US based company And paid by Google nothing to do with Thailand or any other country for that matter ,  paying taxes via :  example In 

 America or outside side America Youtuber work for Google " Simply as that ... if work as digital nomads for  their company that employees based in Germany or examples  US , UK  , EU , AU  paid inside country of Origin Working online " its life choice where they live perfectly legal work from & live is up to them ONLINE WORK  WORLD , ex: MARKETING , Sales , or  Advertisement all online from anywhere they choose 

you need to lay off the meth mate. 

[DLock]

38 minutes ago, happydreamer said:

Digital nomads is so 2015 Chiang Mai.  Camp, Maya, ordering food all day and drinking americanos every three hours to get more wifi.

Then ride off into the midnight on your motorbike....

Good times

Replace "americanos" with "Chang Beer" and you have 95% of Thai Visa posters.

 

Good times....ha ha ha.

[BEngBKK]

5 hours ago, ujayujay said:

He pays the taxes in the country where he is registered, smartass????

No. I work online and pay tax in th.

 

If you receive money in th you must pay tax.

 

If the money is paid into an offshore account you do not pay tax until you import the money to th

[n00dle]

8 minutes ago, BEngBKK said:

If the money is paid into an offshore account you do not pay tax until you import the money to th

And if you you have a buffer of one years worth of earnings you need not pay tax here at all.

[happydreamer]

25 minutes ago, DLock said:

Replace "americanos" with "Chang Beer" and you have 95% of Thai Visa posters.

 

Good times....ha ha ha.

I remember those days man.  Chang beer at Ta Chang on a Wednesday night.  Life was an adventure at that time

[bignok]

Most youtubers make very little. If you have 50,000 subscribers that would not give you much. They seem to spend many hours having second rate holidays.

[kinyara]

5 hours ago, DLock said:

I always enjoy the reaction to Digital Nomadism.

 

To see young people doing 3 hours work per day, blogging or creating content, without paying tax, and enjoying life as they travel, really gets under TV posters skin.

Really I don't know why, I'm all for enjoying the Asian tour when you're young but at some point they'll realise they have to face economic reality like everyone else. The fact the lot that you describe disappeared overnight from Thailand when Covid hit despite the visa situation actually working in their favour showed just how shallow, inconsequential and hand to mouth their existence was/is. Nothing more than backpackers with a computer playing at work, a million miles from successful ambitious entrepreuners with solid business models, ideas or qualifications.

[F Groenen]

5 hours ago, BadSpottedDog said:

LONG RANT WARNING:
This data is complete nonsense. Thailand is one of the most inhospitable countries for people who work in the digital space. I'm NOT talking about tourists who are selfie/youtube addicts traveling and making money off their channels either. All this hash tagged & social content are mostly NOT people living long term in Thailand. The metrics used to come up with this data are majorly flawed. I'm talking about legitimate work being done remotely.
In attempting to do authentic, but remote work on a project that would benefit Thailand, we've been down this path already. Our company was approved, but we were unable to add legitimate employees. It was TWO stressful years, 3 lawyers, and a lot of expense! All the legalities, paperwork, expense, and headaches from the BOI office, (& then looking at starting a standard Thai company) were either insurmountable or didn't work for us. The standard Thai company model in no way makes sense for the company model we needed.
We expected to pay tax here, and didn't mind that, but the requests and info required were ever changing and nonsensical, depending on who you were talking to, and largely misunderstood by the officers.
Real Life Example: A future employee went out of country to get a non B visa in order to get a work permit for our company. While trying to get him approved by BOI, they kept sending more questions back about him. Most of the time the requests were the SAME as the previous requests (even though we had provided requested info already). Another issue was that one of his past work contracts stated his duties included "software development", but on another contract, it said he is a "software developer". We were literally told by BOI that those two things are NOT the same. So I guess "picker of coconuts" is not the same as a "coconut picker"? ???? Anyway, his non B went unused, and we lost out as well.
This is what you get when you have people that are not trained in a specific industry they are making decisions for (mostly digital), then taking an antiquated, paperwork methodology and trying to force it into a digital system.
The process was so impossible, and antiquated that we just said, "screw it". Not worth it. Thankfully, we have the option of just staying on a retirement visa and NOT building software that would have benefitted this country, but many don't. Thailand only wants wealthy retirees and large companies. They have no clue how much Thailand could prosper from younger remote workers earning good money. 
Thailand did "attempt" this with the Long Term Residency program (also through BOI office), but if you're employed with a foreign company, you must provide the company financial records showing they earn at least 3 million USD per year, or the company must be publicly traded. Again, Thailand has missed the boat as the LTR program is only geared towards large entities as well. 
C'mon Thailand! Catch up! Rant over!
 

To add to your rant, even working for a large foreign company, the LTR-WFT is not safe. The large company can be held liable for having an employee in Thailand with all legal and tax implications. The BOI is refusing to document that the foreign company is not liable with a LTR-WFT employee in Thailand.

[BadSpottedDog]

56 minutes ago, F Groenen said:

To add to your rant, even working for a large foreign company, the LTR-WFT is not safe. The large company can be held liable for having an employee in Thailand with all legal and tax implications. The BOI is refusing to document that the foreign company is not liable with a LTR-WFT employee in Thailand.

I have not heard that! Good to know ... thanks!

[radiochaser]

10 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Required to pay taxes..  if found

Off topic of digital warriors in Thailand.  

Bought some stuff from a guy that sells on face book market place.   As I was collecting the stuff I bought, he complained about receiving a letter from the state of new jersey, telling him he owes taxes on over $50,000.00 of sales through market place.    

Made me think, that the tax agencies have people scouring the sales web sites looking for people they can tax on the income they are making from internet sales.   The above was just the state.   I expect that the American internal revenue service, if not already, will send him a letter as well, wanting their piece of the income pie!

Edited June 2, 2023 by radiochaser

[radiochaser]

9 hours ago, DLock said:

Replace "americanos" with "Chang Beer" and you have 95% of Thai Visa posters.

 

Good times....ha ha ha.

That leaves this Americano out of that generalization.   I drink sodas, water, coffee, fruit juices, milk, etc, but no adult beverages.   

[arithai12]

On 6/1/2023 at 6:16 PM, snoop1130 said:

The study analyzed 25,976 Instagram posts with the hashtag #digitalnomad and used geotagged locations to determine the popularity of countries and cities

So, only those people were counted? What kind of statistics is that?

Actually, wait a moment, I really don't care. What I care about is that in a few of my favorite places for drink or food here in CM there seem to be always the same people occupying the same table (often for four seats) with laptop and associated gear, having a cup of coffee that seems to last several hours, speaking loudly in some online meeting. I have noticed that a few of them are apparently teaching English. If they are such precious contributors to the local economy as someone here claims, they could at least order a little more, perhaps buy their own internet subscription, and maybe just maybe work from their own accomodation.