[Pickpocketed on the MRT]

@RuamRudy

I think you will find the details you need here:

 

https://www.mrta.co.th/en/lost-and-found-centre/11131

[Post Paid SIM for Child]

You might want to look at a 1 year pre-paid sim card. Most companies sell them for something like 1,900-2,000 baht paid in advance for the year. It depends which sim you choose, but some will offer a set amount of data per month, while others (such as True) offer an unlimited data plan for the year (slightly more expensive). Some also offer free calls within the same network.

 

Unlimited data is attractive - not because he needs unlimited, but because you won't get any surprises and also because there is no chance of him being out of data when he needs to contact you.

 

In terms of making calls most people use Line app to call nowadays anyway, making the actual telephone a bit prehistoric.

 

You can get these sim cards from Lazada or Shoppee.

[Questions about UK Affirmation references, translation and the MFO.]

39 minutes ago, torrow said:

Is the embassy going to contact these people?

 

No.

 

39 minutes ago, torrow said:

Also, what's the easiest way for getting the translation done and sent to the MFO. I've heard, if you use the service recommended by the embassy, they will deliver it to the MFO for you.

 

A good translation company will:

 

1. Get the documents they need from you (copy of your passport, copy of your partner's ID card, the affirmation, etc.

2. Translate the affirmation document

3. Make an appointment for the legalisation at the MFA (or get an express appointment if time is short, at a cost)

4. Take the translation to the MFA and get the document legalised

5. Either contact you so that you can call into their office to collect everything, or post the documents back to you via EMS

 

This is the easiest, because all you have to do is attend the translation office at the beginning, supply the documents and pay. Up to you if you attend again in person to collect the documents.

 

Remember to take your passport and your partner's ID card with you when you attend the office. It will save all kinds of problems.

 

Personally, I use Express Translation which are located at BTS Chit Lom.

 

http://www.expresstranslationservice.co.th/cms.php?id_cms=6

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/wVGBe3Uj6QLiC9d76

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/NWXuG1vN45Ya2npo6

 

[Receiving TrueMoveH Text messages abroad ?]

Have you turned on roaming on your mobile telephone? You will need to do this to receive TruemoveH SMS. It sounds illogical as you are within the UK and you are not roaming - but it is necessary.

 

What I do is before I need to receive an SMS I turn off mobile data on my mobile phone, then I turn on roaming on my mobile phone. I request the SMS, then once I have received it I turn mobile roaming off on my mobile telephone and turn mobile data back on.

 

It sounds the wrong way of doing it, but give it a try.

[Loan bill to fund “digital wallet” appropriate and transparent – Julapun]

2 hours ago, Pouatchee said:

so only 2%... how much is that? millions, billions, trillions?

 

If 2 per cent is 500 billion baht then 64 per cent would be 16 trillion baht, or about USD460 billion. The US currently has something like 34 trillion dollars of public debt, which is something like 74 times the amount Thailand has.

 

I'm not saying this is good or bad, just giving the numbers.

[Buying land/house at the land office. Can one pay cash?]

1 hour ago, advancebooking said:

Most likely to buy land or house at the land office.

 

Maybe, but maybe not. There is always a lot of cash flying around at this time of year as debts are repaid, bonuses given, new investments made, loans given, etc.

 

1 hour ago, advancebooking said:

I wonder if the average Thai minds accepting cash as part or full payment for a property transaction

 

No. They would just be happy the deal has been successfully concluded.

 

1 hour ago, advancebooking said:

If withdrawing large amounts of cash like this I wonder if the bank has to report this to the AML office in Bkk?

 

The AML reporting limit for cash transactions is anything over 2 million baht in cash.

[Mine and others' rights.]

No, the person who gave the deposit is not entitled to their deposit back. All you have to do is make sure that the condo is available to rent to them on the day they agreed to move in. If you keep your part of the agreement and they do not keep theirs then their deposit is forfeit.

[Word Association (2023)]

Backwards

[School Threatens to Sue]

 

Yes, the school could sue you for damages in the Civil Court, and the damages would amount to the cost of hiring a replacement teacher to cover the contract you broke.

 

Would they do so? In reality it would depend on (a) How much money was at stake as they would have to pay to hire lawyers and lawyers in Thailand are not cheap, and (b) Whether or not the school believed you were still in Thailand or liable to ever return to Thailand.

 

If, for example, the school believed you had left Thailand and were never likely to return, there would be no chance of them suing you because they would be spending money with no chance of ever getting it back. Perhaps you had to return home to look after an aging parent with long term health issues. Who knows?

[Registering a business in Thailand]

It depends on a number of things. First of all, are you in need of a work permit in Thailand? Would you like your newly created business to provide that? Secondly, do you have to issue invoices from a company registered within Thailand, or can you digitally invoice from outside of Thailand?

 

The best financial solution for you would be to keep your consultancy offshore and send digital invoices payable by, for example, Stripe. This would lower your administrative overhead to as low as possible.

 

As soon as you incorporate a Thai company you will be on the merry-go-round of monthly accountant fees, annual auditor fees, having to provide copies of your business registration, personal income tax, social fund, corporation tax, etc. It can get tedious very quickly.

 

If you do register a business in Thailand it has the potential to supply you with an annual Non-B extension of stay for the purpose of working for a Thai limited company and a work permit, but these are complex to obtain and many Thai businesses pay for an agent to do this for them.

 

If, on the other hand, all you had to do in Thailand was attend business meetings, you would not need a Non B visa or extension of stay, or a work permit. Technically, if you did your consulting work outside of Thailand you wouldn't be working in Thailand and you also wouldn't be paying Thai income tax.

 

Of course many people consult in this way by typing reports on a laptop while they are within Thailand and absolutely nobody knows if they don't tell anyone. Absolute sticklers for rules might travel to, for example, Laos for a couple of days to write their report and press send to transmit the email while they were there.

 

If it were my choice, I would legally structure everything offshore and save considerable administrative expense and taxation.

[Our tenant wants to register her company for VAT. Revenue dept visited them.]

4 hours ago, advancebooking said:

I was wondering why my wife should supply this? Is this correct. If you have recently registered for VAT can you give an opinion? Or is there a website outlining the requirements?

 

What the Revenue Department (RD) are asking for is very normal. Technically your wife does not have to supply any of this, however as a good landlord she really should, because if she doesn't she could cause the restaurant to go out of business and then she would lose what is probably a good long-term tenant.

 

The RD want copies of your wife's documents as presumably she is listed as the owner on the title deed. Consider that the RD can get this information themselves extremely easily themselves if they have to. The land plot is viewable online using Land Department software, which gives the plot number. One email/phone call from the RD to the Land Department gives the RD the owner's name and ID number. One further email/call to the Department of Provincial Administration gives the RD your wife's house book details.

 

The RD don't want to do any of this though. They want the business owner to bring all of the information to them so they have to do the least work possible.

[Last month in the Consular team #6]

Thank you once again for the update. As usual it is good to hear from you.

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and all of your colleagues at the Embassy. Thank you for all the help and assistance you have provided British Citizens this year and the wider work that you have carried out.

[Continuation of Thai government health cover after retirement]

1 hour ago, Jaunty said:

Thank you for the great advice. A retiree told me that one needs to have one's name on a Tabian Baan in order to be eligible for the above. I am married but do not think this is necessary.

 

You don't need your name on a tabien baan to register for social fund, to pay social fund contributions or to claim from the social fund.

 

In the above situation you would already be a participating member of the social fund, it would just be a matter of changing your contributions from Section 33 to Section 39.

[Continuation of Thai government health cover after retirement]

It is possible; voluntary contributions can be made under Section 39 of the Social Security Act B.E. 2533 (1990). You need to have been employed by a Thai company and have been paying social fund contributions for a minimum of 12 months before your date of retirement.

 

You have 6 months after your date of retirement to successfully apply to your Social Fund office to make voluntary contributions. The monthly contribution/payment you must make is 432 baht per month, and it will need to be taken from your Thai bank by direct debit (which means you will need a Thai bank account).

 

As long as you keep paying the contributions, your coverage will continue. This is especially helpful if you intend staying in Thailand in your older age as health insurance of any kind can be really expensive or even impossible to obtain at older ages.

 

Just do not let your bank account run low by mistake and miss an automatic payment.

 

It depends where you are, as some Social Fund offices are quite used to this scenario, but others will not have encountered this before and will mistakenly believe that a non-Thai can not voluntarily pay to maintain their social fund status.

[I think I found a solution to this tax nonsense]

1 minute ago, Mike Lister said:

I think they are more interested in sustained use over time.

 

My previous post was about non-Thai citizens who are tax resident in Thailand, ie those in Thailand over 180 days. Can you see how in all of the legal loopholes I mentioned nobody pays the bill in Thailand.

 

You previously said:

  

15 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

This is because it's where the bill is paid from that's the key issue.

 

In all of the examples I gave in the previous post the credit card bill wouldn't be paid in Thailand. So would there be any income tax liability the the money spent on the credit card using the examples I gave in the post above?

[I think I found a solution to this tax nonsense]

12 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

I agree that Thailand is not taxing worldwide income. However, there is little difference between transferring cash from say the UK to Thailand and having to declare that cash as assessable income, and buying things on a credit card in Thailand using money from the UK and then paying the bill from here in Thailand. In both cases, the funds originate from overseas, and are spent here in Thailand.

 

I do see where you are coming from, however there is currently no effective way to tax money spent on a foreign credit card in Thailand. Even if this was the case there are way too many ways to legally avoid any such tax.

 

For example, what happens if you visit Laos for an hour and pay your credit card while you are there? Or what about if you pay your credit card while you are on a boat 13 miles offshore? What if you pay your credit card while you visit a foreign embassy in Thailand while you are queuing up to get a visa application form?

 

What about if you pre-load your credit card when you are not in Thailand and then spend the pre-loaded money in Thailand? There is no bill to pay. What if a trusted person had access to some of your funds in the UK and paid the bill for you? What if the trusted person paid the bill with their money, and then you repaid them at a later date? What if you repaid them in the next tax year?

 

What if you had a direct debit set up with your UK bank to automatically pay your credit card in full each month? What if you were a supplementary card holder on someone else's account and they paid the bill for you?

 

In none of these cases would you be paying the bill in Thailand. There are so many holes in this that it would be a nightmare to implement even if this spending was considered income in Thailand.

[I think I found a solution to this tax nonsense]

2 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

Well, it's just that if Thailand adopts the same approach as the UK with non-doms, those credit card transaction would represent income that should be declared.

 

At the minute Thailand is not taxing worldwide income, so no problems there.

 

2 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

This is because it's where the bill is paid from that's the key issue.

 

Perhaps in other countries, but not in Thailand, and that is what matters.

[Options: Transferring Funds From UK For Condo Purchase - Advice Needed]

6 hours ago, ravip said:

Does #1 apply to all International transfers other than Pounds Sterling?

e.g. USD from the US, French Francs from France, Norwegian Kroner from Norway etc

 

Yes and no. You must remit foreign currency to Thailand, but you do not have to remit the same currency as the country you remit it from. Also, you do not have to remit the same currency as your nationality.

 

As an example an American could remit Euros from Japan, a German could remit USD from the UK and a Chilean could remit Malaysian Ringgit from the Turks and Caicos Islands. All of these are acceptable.

 

This is because the Thai government wants foreign currency reserves and they are not too fussy about what foreign currency they hold (although naturally the major currencies will probably be remitted more than minor, obscure currencies).

[Substantial increase in income requirements for UK Visas.]

I added youtube videos of the Home Secretary making his statement here:

 

 

[UK statement to the house - net migration measures - did I hear right? Family visa financials doubled, NHS charge up 66%?]

NHS surcharge to be increased to £1,035:

 

 

 

Family visa financials to be increased to £38,700 starting spring 2024:

 

 

[Pattaya police explain alleged bribery in child prostitution case]

3 hours ago, proton said:

All this is just a side show, the problem of bars in Pattaya offering underaged girls goes unchecked, apart form the odd token raid by the cops. The people behind it are known but cannot be named it seems.

 

If you want to name and shame people before they have been convicted in Court and before they have had the benefit of representation then you are correct, you won't be naming them on Asean Now.

 

I will remind you of Forum Rule 7:

 

You will not post defamatory or libelous comments. Defamation is the issuance of a statement about another person or business which causes that person or business to suffer harm or loss. A statement does not have to be false to be defamatory. Libel is when the defamatory statement is published either as a drawing, picture, painting, motion picture, film, or letters made visible by any means or by broadcasting, dissemination or propagation by any other means. Defamation is both a civil and criminal charge in Thailand and elsewhere in ASEAN.

 

This is a longstanding rule. We have no tolerance for people using our platform to publish their own defamatory comments.

[Pattaya police explain alleged bribery in child prostitution case]

Posts in contravention of our Community Standards have been edited.

 

Please do not name businesses in Thailand that may be facing ongoing legal issues. Asean Now is not a soapbox for you to use to defame others.

[The price of Christmas (food).]

Villa have Heinz 310g for 149 baht.

[Options: Transferring Funds From UK For Condo Purchase - Advice Needed]

1. You must send pounds sterling, and it must be exchanged into baht by a bank in Thailand. Do not, under any circumstances, get your British bank to send Thai baht.

 

2. Your bank can transfer any amount of money, but perhaps not by using your banking app. Call customer services and see if you have to go into the branch to complete the transfer.

[Does the amphur and the embassy share a divorce with immigration or not at all?]

Moved to the Marriage and Divorce forum.