Yes and yes

@Tod ********

I heard immigration prefers 500K in a Thai account and might deny your application if it's in a foreign account or send you on a wild goose chase demanding authenticated bank statements and so forth.

@Will ***********

So far I've heard they want the money in a Thai bank account.

@John *********

Who is? This won't be enforced. You sound like a BBC viewing old grandpa who has been doing what he's been told since birth but this is Thailand, they can't even effectively collect income tax from their own population, that's why they tax anything considered a luxury or imported so heavily, otherwise the state would have little to no income as only 6% of Thais pay income taxes, yet probably 15-25% could in theory be eligible to pay, based on their incomes and earnings but they don't and since there's no enforcement mechanism nothing happens to them.

Same as not paying traffic tickets, which a court has now ruled do not need to be paid.

Mark Staples Agree with you fully. Besides there is no new tax law anyway. It all depends on your honesty and with a DTV visa the revenue department will shoo you away if you try to get a tax identification number anyway. They'll tell you that you can't get one as you're not on a work visa. Lots of people have tried to get one but failed. There's no need anyway, nothing will be enforced so there's no point in doing anything.

You can even get away with not doing your tax returns back home on time and nothing happens.

John Stanners No, you are as you fail to understand how the visa you're on worms. An extension of stay doesn't allow permanent residency. You can only spend one year in Thailand at a time before needing to renew your extension. If you aren't approved, you have to leave. Your retirement visa is in a sense also a tourist visa, even if classified as non-immigrant, you can't work on it and you have NO possibility of being allowed to convert to permanent residency.

At public hospitals, you pay the same rate as tourists do, whereas work permit holders pay less than you do.

@Alex ******

I try to pay with cash as much as possible but you can't completely avoid using debit and credit cards. Eventually, you'll run out of cash. Car rental agencies don't accept cash. Flights need to be booked and paid for using a credit card (unless you happen to go to one of the very few remaining old school travel agencies) and so forth. I personally prefer it if there's an option given. For car rentals, I know that cash can't be accepted but if it's a restaurant, I won't go if cash isn't accepted. On the other hand, sometimes I need to use a card and would thus appreciate it if the business accepts cards in addition to cash.

@Peter *****

Correct. I usually carry some cash, but not a huge amount. I tend to carry a fair amount of cash when departing Thailand for countries like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, which are more cash based than Thailand. I usually return with minimal cash because I consider myself a resident here returning home. I don't see the need for arriving with tons of cash; in fact, I'd struggle to do so, considering I've just come back from a country where I spent all my cash. When I return to Thailand, I might have 1000 or 2000 Baht left in my wallet and maybe a smattering of foreign currency I'll keep for my next trip to whatever county I just came from.

@John *********

Unless you have a permanent residency visa then you have to renew your permission to stay every year. Exceptions are for OX visa, elite and LTR visa holders who can stay multiple years before needing to do anything.

@John *********

No, it's you trying to deflect actually. You're trying to tell me that a DTV is the same as a tourist visa despite the fact one has to go through a vigorous process to obtain one and the visa is valid for unlimited entries over 5 years, which is far more generous than any other visa Thailand offers with the exception of the LTR and the OX retirement categories, neither of which are very popular due to their stringent application criteria and/or in the case of the OX, the fact very few consulates issue one.