Comments by "Marvin Fine" (@torontovoice1) on "Thailand’s Big Tax Changes for 2024" video.
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That was a very confusing video. Not that the concepts went clear, because they were. I just don't understand the whole logic of the whole way of thinking. If you're living on a fixed income, let's say for example you had a pension from a company in North America and you wanted to live in a jurisdiction that was cheaper, then people do consider all these other options. Thailand is one but there's other ones like Panama and Costa Rica like you said. But these are all corrupt third world countries. So if you're a multi-millionaire, why would you want to live in a corrupt third world country? The next you spoke about spending $100,000 a year in Thailand. On what? I mean a lot of people do go there for the two-legged entertainment, but I can't understand how somebody would spend $100,000 a year in Thailand. And you yourself said I like to live frugally. Well if you do like the frugally, then living in some of these emerging markets will enable you to achieve that goal. But what's the purpose of money if you can't use it and spend it to have a high quality of life? And then the big one is what do you do when you get sick? Now you might talk about how many people go there for medical tourism and so on, but I don't think the male clinic or the Cleveland clinic have offices in Thailand or Malaysia or any of these other emerging markets. Sure if you break a leg and you need a cast or you need something that's routine, it should be fine. What if you need open heart surgery, back surgery or other type of complicated surgery? Your life can be ruined forever easily with a bad surgery. That doesn't mean that the Cleveland clinic doesn't do failed surgeries. They certainly do, but they're not spoken about. But the chances of having a failed surgery at the Cleveland clinic versus a clinic in Thailand is completely askew. But I think the biggest thing that a person would be concerned about would be getting shaken down in one of these corrupt countries. You know if you live frugally like you claim you do, you don't really stand out anywhere, and no one's going to likely bother you. But in another video you mentioned earlier you said you went up and bought $150,000 Mercedes-Benz! That does not sound like frugality to me. There's nothing wrong with of course doing that, but you know I think you make an impression in the local market when you have people living in abject poverty and the you're driving around a big customer Mercedes-Benz. And then I think about the logic and philosophy of this entire approach. Let's say you had I don't know 20 or 30 million dollars. What's the purpose of having it he can't spend it and use it, and enjoy a very high quality of life? I just really don't understand these strategies from a logic point of view. How do you have all these homes in all these countries unattended. I remember I looked into buying a home in Panama and the realtor told me very expressly if you don't live here the entire apartment will be deteriorated. I guess you have to have someone coming in checking on it if you weren't there, and you have to run the air conditioner at least to get rid of a lot of the humidity. Otherwise everything in the flat would be destroyed. Anything made out of wood would swell, and there would be literally all kinds of other problems. There shouldn't be a problem in Canada for example having a home it was largely unoccupied especially if it's in a condominium building where you have all kinds of services that will go in and check on the apartment and that sort of thing. But again you would have to be living in a tax residence country that had a treaty with Canada so you didn't trigger tax residency in Canada. And a number of those countries like you mentioned in Europe do have tax treaties with Canada such as Cyprus Malta, grease Italy Switzerland, etc. And then getting back to Thailand for a moment, I don't understand why you would want to live there if you were making a million dollars a year in Hong Kong. What's the purpose of money? As I said very confusing philosophically. I'm sure there's lots of people that are dreaming of making seven and eight figure incomes, and they're looking for strategies where they can not pay tax. And to that extent, your videos are extremely helpful and instructive. But the other thing that I bang my head against the wall about his what percentage of people have these portable incomes. Obviously if you are a freelancer doing high tech I can see it. But what if you're a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant. You have to be licensed in these jurisdictions in order to operate. And, many of them have rules that you're required to be a resident in order to be licensed. Now in fairness, you can do international tax planning and consulting without being licensed anywhere. But what multi-millionaire is going to hire you when you have companies like PWC and others who have incredible reputations around the world?
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@neonomad1939 the answer to your question have I ever been to Malaysia or Thailand, the answer is no. But going to a place and getting sick or having a medical procedure there is not the barometer of determining the skill and efficacy of a particular country or medical facility. Rather, I rely on indexes which are published by reliable sources showing the quality and skill of particular medical institutions. You might want to look at the Newsweek top 250 hospitals in the world. You'll see countries like the United States, Canada Germany, Switzerland, Israel and other Western countries comprising the first probably 25 listings. Then you go down the list. So looking at a particular facility as to how modern it is, the type of equipment they have, etc. Does not point to the fact as to the level of quality or expertise of a particular facility. Rather, it's the people. And you know when you need a serious medical procedure done, your life hangs in the balance. Sure if you had a broken leg and you ask someone to put it into a cast, it probably would be okay. Likewise, if you needed to have the biotic or normal type of medical intervention, you also not have issues. In fact probably lots of procedures would be without issues even if you went to the most backwards places. The difference is when they start the procedure and they run into a problem, what will the team do?
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