PS Vietnamese banks give 12% per year on term deposit accounts starting from 1 month. The VND hasn't moved against the USD in the last 6 months.

Close to 30% loss in 4 years though

Actually this is an interesting topic.

What if you are a farang who retired here, and then decided to go home for whatever reasons. You want to take your assets with you including the 800K in your bank account to fund your visa. Is what I'm hearing is that the Thai government will not allow you to move your own money back to your home country via SWIFT transfer?

its at the managers discretion if transactions over 10,000 or 20,000 are allowed to proceed or not

but you can bring in MILLIONS and nobody cares

This is not strictly true

Whenever you transfer 20K plus into Thailand you should for your own sake go to the bank

& retrieve the FET form that shows you brought it in from outside Thailand.

At anytime thereafter if you decide to leave (and if you have any $$ Left ) and want to transfer your money back out of Thailand

you need to show the FET proving that amount was brought in from outside.

i transfered in several million a few times and it ppears on my bank book as a international transfer from another country

i would have thought that this alone would be proof enough to allow me to transfer at least that much out (+ any interest accumulated on that much )

of course ,TIT ,so if theres any loophole to mess you about ,they will probably use it so id have no objections to taking it all out in bkk and changing it to EUROS and leaving the country with that

That was my thought too.

I'm just guessing, but "Foreign Exchange Transfer"?

I doubt if the treasure department would accept a photocopy of your bankbook. If you simply ask at the international desk of your bank they will be happy to provide you with everything you need for forward planning.

Note traveling with large amounts of cash equivalent, or putting dodgy paperwork has its risks, both legal/taxwise and practical. Just do it the straight and simple way is best if you can.