This would be so much better! Although the people they need to track presumably wouldn't.. What they should do is charge significant penalties for hosts that miss the TM47. Silly getting us to chase. Fingers crossed..

Thanks very much all, clear as mud, fingers crossed!

How will this replace the TM30? Am I wrong in the impression it is a (web) form you fill in once on arrival?

Thanks very much. Is there one for visa transfer? Or does this implicitly cover both? I think I have two steps.

The Elite office can help me, but will charge me 4000 Baht to do so. The Elite advertises "unlimited government concierge", but the actual contract specifies just one assist for free, the rest are 2000 each, and they want 2000 for the stamp and 2000 for the visa. The advertising is dishonest in my opinion. (I don't know about the current new Privilege adverts or terms).

@Dan *******

that's horrendous! they book through booking.com, (and are owned by the same parent company I believe), but I hear about this much more with Agoda than booking. They should not be allowed to describe their bookings as reserved, people spend a fortune on holidays and you're very reliant on them.

Agoda are typically the cheapest, but they use the most confusing tactics to extract more money from you, and they cancel confirmed bookings at the last minute most, I think, going by fb complaints - they've never cancelled mine but they have snuck in charges.

@Chalante ******

which embassy / newsletter pls? Google turned up lots.

They bribe immigration officials, and to find a compliant official often get your visa in a remote / rural office, so you are then tied to that agency until you leave as the local office won't renew. Also the gov occasionally cracks down on widespread corrupt visas.

If you look at the linkedin article above, it gives details of the different DTAs. In the UK for example, the gov pension is tax free but not private pensions. The countries that are totally tax free are a tiny minority (three countries?).

Worth remembering that if you contributed to a pension, you did not pay tax on that income, hence it is taxed on withdrawal.