Do I Need A Work Permit To Day Trade?

[fxm88]

Hello! I am a 30-something American staying in Pattaya on tourist visas and 30 day stamps. I would like to know if I need a work permit to "day trade". In your house it's probably not a big deal but I would prefer to go to one of the trading rooms e.g. Thanachart in the North Pattaya Tesco-Lotus or the ABN AMRO near dolphin circle. Will I be paranoid that the boys in brown might show up to raid the place looking for illegal workers? The ABN AMRO is a little secluded but the Thanachart has big plate-glass windows into the mall.

Thanks!

[gharknes]

Hello! I am a 30-something American staying in Pattaya on tourist visas and 30 day stamps. I would like to know if I need a work permit to "day trade". In your house it's probably not a big deal but I would prefer to go to one of the trading rooms e.g. Thanachart in the North Pattaya Tesco-Lotus or the ABN AMRO near dolphin circle. Will I be paranoid that the boys in brown might show up to raid the place looking for illegal workers? The ABN AMRO is a little secluded but the Thanachart has big plate-glass windows into the mall.

Thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have investments outside of Thailand and access my portfolio online, can't see how looking after your retiremnt money could be interpreted as working, they are my investments personal to me, nobody else could do it for me.

[meelousee]

Hello! I am a 30-something American staying in Pattaya on tourist visas and 30 day stamps. I would like to know if I need a work permit to "day trade". In your house it's probably not a big deal but I would prefer to go to one of the trading rooms e.g. Thanachart in the North Pattaya Tesco-Lotus or the ABN AMRO near dolphin circle. Will I be paranoid that the boys in brown might show up to raid the place looking for illegal workers? The ABN AMRO is a little secluded but the Thanachart has big plate-glass windows into the mall.

Thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have investments outside of Thailand and access my portfolio online, can't see how looking after your retiremnt money could be interpreted as working, they are my investments personal to me, nobody else could do it for me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's cool if it is YOUR investments and not selling or buying on behalf of someone else. If you do and get caught without a THAI broker your cooked.

BTDT

[fxm88]

This would be trading Thai stocks on the SET with my own money in my own account with a Thai brokerage at their branch office which has been set up like a daytrading office: workstations with computer terminals hooked into your account in the broker's trading system, phones, maybe some TVs tuned to finance channels, a big board showing stock prices, etc.

In America, for instance, the Tax agencies make some (fuzzy) distinctions between investors and day traders: they consider day traders to be a business (which for tax purposes that can be a huge benefit, see http://daytrading.about.com/cs/educationtraining/a/tax.htm).

What about Thailand? Where might they draw a line, if any, between an investor and an business? Would the immigration authorities and the tax authorities even agree on that line? Perhaps a relevant analogy might be if an individual was buying and selling heaps of gold as the price moved around -- a poor analogy because the price of gold in the shops doesn't change throughout the day and the high commissions would kill you. Or the real-estate speculators who "flip" (i.e. buy and quickly sell) condos -- another poor analogy because that market's not very liquid.

In any case, I'd certainly not be taking any jobs away from any Thai investment managers because I'd never let them manage my money -- for fear that they'd have my money fully "invested" in whiskey and massage girls by the end of the week.

Edited September 1, 2005 by fxm88