briley

To add to HighChol - anyone who earns money in the UK pays tax on the money they earn in the UK.

If you are non-resident than that is the end of the matter. If you are resident you also get taxed on your world wide income (allowing for double taxation agreements)

If you work one month on one month off you are in the UK for over 92 days so are resident and pay tax on your world wide income.

The interesting bit is that you can go to the UK, earn £6,000 or so and pay almost no tax (about £80). Come back to Thailand and £500 a month (average) is 35,000 Baht a month - enough to live on quite comfortably (ignoring airfares)!

Read the Inland Revenue web pages to get the correct answers.

If you plan to live outside the UK and only work there a bit to reduce your tax then

Domicility does not matter in this case - anyway UK authorities make it almost impossible to lose UK dmicility.

Owning a house used to matter - 30 years ago.

The only rule for non-resident is to be in the UK for less than 91 (92?) days a tax year on average over the last 4 years and not in the UK over 182 days in any one tax year.

UK tax authorities will not treat you as non-res in first year unless you have a job and contract overseas, otherwise they want to see that you are out of the country. But once proved you get all the benefits (and drawbacks) from the time you leave.

First and last years of being non-res are treated differently.

Incidentally days of arrival and departure in the UK do not count, but this is a concession only and if you have too many of them then they will count! (Stops those living in France and travelling to London each day claiming to be non-res)

To answer my own question - just for the record-

Shop on Ratwithi, inside the moat. Between UN pub and Moon Muang (same side) near Moon Muang. Shop with 'camera repair' sign.

The repair was not perfect nor cheap, 500 baht to re-align the prisms. Still cheaper than a new pair.

Shop on Ratwithi, inside the moat. Between UN pub and Moon Muang (same side) near Moon Muang. Shop with 'camera repair' sign. Some very old stuff there - and I mean old. Owner speaks English.

Or cross over the moat, just before Ridges hotel a big shop there.

It really depends on the machine, but a big bike allow all day and a Honda dream 2 days.

A lot of rest time is needed, and shelter time from storms.

Worth doing as you see much more than in a car or bus.

This from my own experience.

Our Condo has no insurance at all - it is entirely up to the owners to insure. Most don't.

If the building falls down most people will lose everything. But Insurance is relatively high around 5,000 for 2 million of cover - that is 0.25%

UK insurance costs me about £150 for £250,000 of cover, 0.06%. Relatively much much cheaper.

This comparison is very simplistic but in a country where many are on less than 5,000 a month insurance is a luxury.

PS NZI insurance papers turned up this morning for those who read my comments before.

QBE - don't know of a web site, just their office in Chiang Mai.

After the inability of NZI to get me to take a policy I've decided I want a company with a local office.

I plan to do the rounds today, rain willing.

NZI - I tried online to find that it reverts to e-mail and then mail. I started to buy a policy 3 weeks ago and I still haven't got the paperwork to enable me to pay - despite wanting the policy to start 7 days ago. I am going to go elsewhere - although their product and price did seem very good.

QBE (Queensland) has a reasonable policy at 5K for 2 million of cover.

No English version of the SEIC page?

My understanding is that if Land Registry register the condo in your name then it is yours, no money is outstanding and the decision can't be challenged.

So if this is true then you can do it yourself - but you must speak excellent Thai.

My main things to look at are:

Don't pay any money before the papers are ready to be finalised at Land Registry, just show a bank cheque beforehand and hand it over on signing.

Make sure the condo you buy is the one you look at. All number on the papers are old Thai numbers.

Ask the condo management about outstanding fees, don't just rely on the condo form.

As said before ensure you have a Thai who speaks good English and Thai to help you and whom you trust. Tend to agree that rules out using a lawyer!

Someone said flying to Macao and a ferry was cheapest?

I believe that full time education after 16 counts for years of contributions, but only after some date. Mine (from the 60's) did not count.

Forms are not at the Embassy, but they are on the web site. You can do the forecast on the web by registering with the UK gov portal, but they will only send the code required to a UK address and it must be used withing a few days of receipt, so someone in the UK must e-mail you the information.

Anyone able to PM me with an invite to demonoid.com? Not much I can offer in return!

They have an older, non-copywrite, file I want.

Thanks.

My recommendation?

Provided you have paid 30 years of contributions stop paying. If the law changed doesn't go through (should do within 5 years) then you pay the higher rate, won't be that much more, normally about 20-50 pound more.

You might have paid enough even under the old rules. If you paid from age 16 to now (age 59?) then you have paid 43 years. You only need 39 years contributions (40 years but one is given free!) to get 100% pension.

Well worth completing a form to get a pension forecast.

What airline offer can vary, but what EU law sates is that if you are on a BKK-LHR flight and are bounced you get Euro600 compensation, meals and hotel, re-booked on next flight etc.

Correction for the link:

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/p...ts/index_en.htm

Warsaw convention applies, updated by the Montreal convention?

Think the OP has a good question. If you fly BKK AUH then you have no guaranteed compensation if you are bounced or the flight doesn't go.

If you fly BKK LHR then you get the guaranteed EU compensation.

So if you fly BKK LHR via AUH - on a single connecting ticket and you are bounced in BKK do you get the EU compensation?

I think you should but the airlines are loathed to pay the compensation even in Europe.

When in Chiang Mai immigration I saw a notice saying 90 day reporting is 7 days BEFORE expiry and not after. Got my wife to read it to ensure I hadn't mis-understood

Someone was having problems as they were in the 7 days after period - think they were let off with just a warning.

Isn't today a municiple holiday for Chiang Mai?

In the UK emergancy medical treatment is free for visitor - so don't insure for that!

I've two pairs of binoculars that need to be re-aligned- the prisms have moved a little.

Is there anywhere in Chiang Mai that can do that sort of job? It isn't a DIY job, I've tried

This project looks like it might fly, and even produce a small profit for the management whilst reducing costs for owners and tenants.

Thanks for the advice - lots to look at.

Motorbikes have needed stickers for a few years now.

I did get a feeling that True was the only option.

I do like a local hot spot near me where the router is open but you land on a page that requests your password and username - means there is some software running that can ensure only one person is using the password. From what I know of routers many people can log on using the same password.

In addition I'm hoping that the software can control the usage of the internet and maintain statistics, so the bandwidth is evenly shared.

JCMR's website has some interesting information.

Thanks to all for information.

I'm thinking of one wireless access point on each floor conected to a good, (high memory) computer.

I'm trying to look into installing a WiFi Internet access point in our condo block to be able to re-sell Internet access to the owners/tenant's.

However I haven't got a clue as to where to look!

I know it can be done as my WiFi picks up a nearby hot spot that asks for a password etc.

Anyone with any suggestions as to who to provide the connection (would need to be reasonably fast), how to do it, what it would cost, where to get information Etc Etc?

Link is here

You want the Java SE runtime. THink you have to go from there as you need to agree to the licence, but you might like to try this as it is the link that I am currently downloading with no problems, from Chiang Mai.

Qatar is good, and I do like the 2-4-2 seating as I travel as two.

Timings to Manchester are good. The enlarged Doha airport is better than it was.

Don't like Abu Dhabi airport, small and noisy and the Ethiad Manchester connection is middle of the night.