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On 6/29/2025 at 6:12 AM, newnative said:

       Just did a quick search on Hipflat and found rental listings for pool villas in Pattaya starting around 25,000 baht a month.  That's pretty reasonable, and just one source checked.   I think a buyer or a renter will be able to find something in his price range as the variety and the amount available is so great here.

     Pattaya has a huge construction boom going on right now with houses.  And, as I said in an earlier post, they are building at all price ranges.  You can buy a non-pool small single family home on a small land plot for less than 3MB.  Plus, plenty of homes to choose from in the 10MB to 50MB range.   If your budget is 150-200MB, Pattaya also has some houses to show you. 

    You are right, though, that prices for similar housing look to be somewhat cheaper in Hua Hin.  Spouse and I like to watch lots of real estate videos when we are exercising and that seems to be the case.  Chiang Mai also seems to be somewhat cheaper, from what we see for sale there on videos.  For us, with a Bangkok getaway condo, we like being able to get to it from here in less than 2 hours, and with an easier drive than Hua Hin's.   

The drive from BKK to Hua Hin is very long 3H plus sometimes 4H so Pattaya is way ahead regarding travel time I agree. So for people who travel regulary from BKK, Pattaya is the better option. 

On 6/26/2025 at 10:15 AM, newnative said:

     Agree.  One of Pattaya's biggest strengths is its huge selection of housing to buy or rent, at really all price points.  Especially great is the selection of pool villas, most notably on the Darkside, both to rent or buy.  There are new projects galore to choose from, plus lots of very nice established projects.  

I found it easier to rent a pool villa in Hua Hin then renting  a villa in Pattaya Darkside or Jomtien. Prices were 50 to 100% higher in Pattaya. Downside of Hua Hin is that there are only flights to Chiang Mai and a trip to BKK takes 3 hours plus.

On 5/1/2025 at 1:58 PM, Ben Zioner said:

Property ownership,

High quality english speaking health care,

No bar fights,

Cheap wine,

Outstanding food,

Nice Chinese educated ladies,

Can have a good conversation in English anytime you want,

 

etc..

 

 

The big downside of Malaysia IMHO is that there are no "high end" pool villas to rent. For about 1000 to 2500 USD per months there are tons of options in Thailand but next to nothing in Malaysia, same for the Philippines (exception maybe tagatay) only very limited options as there are simply not enough expats (I guess). 

10 hours ago, Ricohoc said:

 

Probably bit off more than they could chew. Again. 

At least no one in the article mentioned the ww taxation again.

Article in PM stating that TH could ease ease taxation on remitted income ...

As usual do not shoot the messenger 🙂

6 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Really?

Would it make you feel better if I would list some good things which they did?

The war which Putin started in Ukraine puts him in the bad category for me.

And Trump, just his latest stupid Gaza Rivera comments are enough to blow up that whole region. I think that is pretty bad. And obviously there are many many other items to add to that bad list.

Bost of them can't be trusted and should not be trusted. It's good to stay away from both of them.

No character is black and white... you said it yourself. Picking out one trump potential! action does not make a whole person bad. Maybe watching too much ÖRR aka Rotfunk? Cannot argue much for Putin agreed, but russians here would remark he made his country strong which I strongly disagree with.

Trump was reducing medication cost and lowering corporate as well as income taxes.

6 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Luckily most Europeans don't have such a limited black and white view like you.

Putin is bad. Trump is bad. There is no question about that. Now it's time for the Europeans to find their own way. That will obviously be difficult. Appeasing Putin and/or Trump is certainly not a good idea.

BTW your statement Putin is bad, Trump is bad is as black and white as it gets 😉

On 2/7/2025 at 3:45 PM, oldcpu said:

 

I am not convinced that the case for the Thai RD help line.  Just the opposite.

 

Definitely NOT useless. Very very very far from it.

 

As I already noted, I give that help line far more credence than I do a local RD tax office, and more credence than the youtube bloggers/professional tax advisors who have not asked that specific question of the RD.  Instead the blogger/tax advisors give their own interpretations, and I have already pointed out cases where the tax advisor/bloggers (on their website) clearly were wrong (or best case misleading). 

There has been no official promulagation if credit card expenditure is taxable or not. So how can a level 1 support answer a question when the higher echelons have not made up their minds? Maybe the TRD helpline can help in filing in the paperwork I agree but not on how to calculate the p&l of an SP500 future or if cc spending is taxable.

On 1/31/2025 at 7:25 AM, oldcpu said:

 

Well - as noted, user Guavaman asked on the Thai RD Help Line did LTR visa holders (ie for LTR-WP, LTR-WGC, and LTR-WFTP), whose only income was remitted foreign income, did they need to file a Tax return?

 

Best that I understand was the RD told him NO. (ie for LTR-WP, LTR-WGC, and LTR-WFTP).  If there was some caveat that it only applied for income earned in the current tax year, or did not apply for income earned in the current tax year, they would have clearly warned of that caveat.

 

Best that I understand from user Guavaman's post, the Thai RD applied no such caveat.

 

Again, I suspect the tax advisor companies did not bother to ask the Thai RD this very question.

The Thai RD Help line will be utter useless in our special situation like the german helpline is useless for me here in Germany with any out of the ordinary circumstances.

On 1/29/2025 at 9:58 AM, oldcpu said:

There are many threads on taxation running in parallel on AseanNow.  On one of the threads, user Guavaman reported that they phoned the Thai Revenue Department help line and asked them a number of questions one being:

 

 

That's good news IMHO!

 

     EDIT:  I assume this applies to LTR-WP, LTR-WGC and LTR-WFTP visa holders.

 

It did thou send me off thinking of a hypothetical scenario.  

 

I obtained my LTR visa in 2023.  Lets say in 2033 I elected to switch to a Type-O non-immigrant visa (that is not my plan - I am just speculating).

 

Is money accrued in the past when on an a LTR visa, but left outside of Thailand (in savings) ,  considered by the RD as  income if one has switched to a Type-O visa?

 

I speculate worst case it might be, so i am going to do a book keeping such that I can prove my German pension (which is not protected by the Thai-German  DTA) was brought into Thailand when I was on the LTR-WP.  And show that any savings I have outside of Thailand is from my pension incomes that the Thai DTA exempts from Thai taxation ... ie Canadian pensions (or similar Canadian remunerations for example.  

 

That way I ensure I don't get stuck with paying tax on German pension accrued after 1-Jan-2024 (por-161/162 relevant date) when I bring such into Thailand , as I can show i already brought the money into Thailand.

 

This is all hypothetical, but it may impact my book keeping ,and maybe impact some bank transfers to Thailand.

 

The easiest way IMHO is still to receive gifts from relatives or friends abroad. You could also arrange for a loan you gave someone without interest and he is paying you back month by month. I have no clue how Thai IRS will handle several investments on top of each other over 10 years, my first guess would be they do not care and just look at the last investment. Over 10 years also to be super safe the last year you spend only 180 days in TH and realise all your profits and that year. All your income is then tax free.. or at least should be according to the current laws which of course could change any year.

22 hours ago, JackGats said:

The International Driving Permit according to the Vienna convention is valid for 3 years (unless your driving licence expires first). The International Driving Permit according to the Paris or Geneva convention is only valid for 1 years if my memory serves me right.

I had to explain to the guy in the german idl department that TH switched to the Vienna convention around 2020 cause he wanted to give me the Paris convention IDL which is not valid after 2020, make sure everyone that you get the Vienna convention IDL from 1968 for Thailand. Technically they could consider it as driving without dl and then you are in some deep s... when it come to insurance claims.

On 1/25/2025 at 7:46 AM, oldcpu said:

 

Possibly this belongs in another thread, and I think I mentioned it, but thinking back, I am very impressed with the Phuket Department of Transport licensing section's staff.  There are so many people going to that government building for licences, that the line goes far far out of the building's aircondioned area, along the side of the building (in the heat/sun) and around the corner.

 

As one might expect, the people waiting can get tired and short of temper at time ... maybe a bit grumpy/bitchy.

 

The staff at that office are incredibly professional and polite, and so if one is polite and professional in return, they do seem to try harder to help one, within the restrictions of what they are legally permitted to do.   While I dread visiting that facility due to the lines, the quality and expertise of the people working there does help a lot to make up for the waiting.

How much would the help of an agent be to get a thai driving licence and is the licence "legit"? Thanks!

On 1/24/2025 at 12:37 PM, oldcpu said:

 

I wish it was three years - but sadly only 1 year.

The 1968 IDL version is needed in TH and this should be valid three years imho. I have mine from GER and it is 3 years valid. TH changed to the 1968 version of IDL around 2021.

2 hours ago, oldcpu said:

 

I picked up my International Driver's Licence today.  All went very smooth once the LTR visa aspect was sorted.

How long is the IDL valid? Three years I assume. Thanks!

2 hours ago, Pib said:

 

 

Thanks! Should be possible to sell and rebuy the bond before the 5 year period IMHO 😉 Nevertheless cumbersome and expensive spread + other costs etc. I would only recommed to buy the bonds with a non thai bank outside of TH but this is just me remembering the malaysia capital controls end of the 90s.

4 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

I would think there is some kind of document available from META like an account statement or something that would reflect the payment with additional details.  

There is no statement from META. as META is not paying me anything directly. It is the buyer of my stocks that is paying the bank and then the bank pays me (clearinghouse in between as another layer). The same goes for dividends they are paid by the bank to me and the bank receives the dividend from META (clearinghouse again in between). There is no direct link between me and META and no META documents.

12 hours ago, SHA 2 BKK said:

Thanks for that.  I renewed my 5 year licence last year in Phetchaburi no problems with my LTR. 
 

However my wife was refused a tax refund at the airport last year on purchase as Thai Customs treats the LTR Visa as “non tourist”.   
 

TIT

Usually you need to prove that you live outside of the country you are leaving to get the tax refund. I assume your thai wife was living in Thailand? I assume that in a year when you have lived under 180 days in TH you (the farang) could get the tax refund.

5 minutes ago, Pib said:

I seriously doubt they will accept "bank statements" to prove cap gains as incoming money usually don't have a detailed description of "what kind of money it was" like this is cap gains money,  this is pension money, this is just a Christmas gift from grandma, etc.    You would need to provide a document from the company/agency actually "paying out" the cap gains when it something like stocks/mutual funds type gains.

Bank statement clearly details bought META for 100K USD in 2023 and sold it for 400K USD in 2025 so the info is there. There is no cap gains statement from the IRS in Germany as everything is dealt on the bank level.

Anyway my german IRS statement comes 2 to 3 years after I realized cap gains in a foreign account however but that would be too late. I understand that bank statemends are a kind of grey area as well for BOIs acceptance. If I live in Thailand on an extension of stay or OA visa there will be no IRS statement as well.

On 1/21/2025 at 6:09 AM, oldcpu said:

 

I qualified for the LTR-WP via the $40k US equiv income per year + $250k US equiv invest in Thailand.  To meet the $250k US equiv I needed about another 1.5-million THB of investment, so I purchased a 2-million THB , 7-year Thai government bond.

 

My plan for year 2028 on the LTR-WP, when I have to renew,  is to switch to the $80k US equiv income from the $40k US equiv income (and sell or let expire my 7 year Thai government bonds), and I am setting up (restructuring a bit) my finances to 'just' meet that income level (and not exceed by very much).  If I exceed the $80k US equiv income by even a bit too much I get hammered by Canadian taxes. 

 

However given changing exchange rates (between Cdn$ and US$), there is always a chance I miscalculate when restructuring and fall a bit short of the $80k US$ annual income.  So as I backup I also plan to have in reserve easily accessable funds to  buy another 2-million THB in Thai government bonds in case I miscalculate on the income amount prepared.

 

So in my case, I plan to do some financial restructuring in preparation for year 2028 for my LTR-WP renewal.

 

I also hope to switch to using my foreign (Cigna) European health insurance instead of keeping $100k US$ equivalent in a bank for self-health insurance (where for BoI at present I am using the self-health insurance route). 

 

I wish one of those who obtained a letter from their health insurance company, claiming they met the appropriate health insurance requirement (for the LTR visa) that they would post the EXACT WORDING of said letter (with any private aspects blocked/whited out). 

 

Thus far no one has done such - but rather only provided some rather vague descriptions of purported said health insurance letter's contents.

 

.

 

Thanks for your post! Could you kindly elaborate some details of your investment in Th government bonds? Is a foreign bank acceptable as correspondent bank? What is the yield of the bonds, is it ok to buy 1 year bond? Thanks!

On 1/21/2025 at 4:06 AM, Pib said:

I'm not sure if @JohnnyBD is saying/implying is saying in his quoted post below there has a been a change in LTR WP  "income requirements regarding cap gains" based on the very recent HQ BOI announcement about the hopefully soon to occur and Cabinet approved changes to the WGC, WFTP, and Dependent LTR visa categories.  

 

But where JohnnyBD provides a current snapshot/quote from the BOI LTR website regarding the "red text" talking cap gains for the WP category is really no different than what has been on the BOI LTR website for a long time....at least going back to mid 2024 where it also mentioned cag gains in red text. 

 

The 1st snapshot below taken from the BOI LTR website 31 May 2024 talks what kind of income is acceptable to meet the LTR WP visa category....it shows "cap gains" even back then.   However, since then the red text about cap gains was actually toughened-up a little to specify it must the "realized" cap gains vs just saying cap gains which a person could say that means even "unrealized" cap gains (a.k.a., gains on paper only which are unrealized...gains a person has never really realized by selling to actually realize the cap gains...gains that typically become taxable....get the gains sent to his bank account or maybe immediately reinvested like a lot of people do with mutual funds each year).    See 1st snapshot at bottom.

 

Additionally, when looking at the WP Required Docs "Income Evidence" checklist currently posted on the BOI LTR website as of 21 Jun 2025 it still the same checklist from 24 May 2024.  See 2nd snapshot for more details.

 

Summary: I don't see any changes to the WP category as maybe JohnnyDB is implying.   @JohnnyBD, if you were not implying such then please accept my apologies.  Cheers.

 

 

 

 

1st Snapshot...a snapshot from the BOI LTR website "31 May 2024" talking what kind of income is acceptable to meet the LTR WP visa category....it shows "cap gains" even then.   However, since then the red text about cap gains was actually toughened- up a little to specify it must the "realized" cap gains vs just saying cap gains which a person could say means even "unrealized" cap gains (a.k.a., gains on paper only...a person has never been realized by selling to actually realize the cap gains).   

 

 

 

2nd Snapshot from BOI LTR website 21 Jan 2025 regarding evidence of income for a LTR WP visa.  This is a snapshot of the BOI LTR document dated 24 May 2024 which is still currently used as of 21 June 2025. Heck, it don't even mention cap gains, realized or unrealized....but actually "realize cap gains are accepted.

 

 

 

Thanks for your post! It was my understanding that so far realized cap gains were a kind of grey area if acceptable as income. Glad that now this is clarified. I am hoping that they accept bank statements of the realized gain. It states cap gains must be in the same year as the application so that would make the bank statement the only possible documentation as usually the income tax declaration is in another year.

On 1/21/2025 at 2:27 AM, BrandonJT said:

The 1 million in assets and the 500k investment in Thailand remain as requirements while the yearly income requirement is gone.

Ouch I would not invest 500K USD in Thailand... just my 2 cents as a guy with no ties to any country.

8 hours ago, henryford1958 said:

My condo bans EVs from even parking, or charging, there.

Is that common in Thailand? Thx

6 minutes ago, Pib said:

No changes for the Wealthy Pensioner category.  Just the WGC, WFTP, and Dependent LTR visa categories are affected.

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply! For the WGC the website also still states 80K USD yearly income for 2 years.

On the WP category it now explicitly states 80K realised cap gains/dividends etc is acceptable which is great.

On 1/15/2025 at 11:14 AM, Pib said:

Bangkok Post 15 Jan 2025 version of the LTR requirements easing.   See weblink for full story...a partial quote also below.

 

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2940265/thailand-eases-visa-rules-for-professionals-wealthy-foreigners

PUBLISHED : 15 Jan 2025 at 12:40

WRITER: Bloomberg News

Thailand eases visa rules for professionals, wealthy foreigners
 

Thailand's cabinet this week approved changes to the nation’s visa rules to make it more attractive for skilled professionals, investors and wealthy foreigners to secure long-term residency permits.

 

The changes include the scrapping of a minimum annual income requirement for those seeking visas in the wealthy global citizens category and a reduction in the minimum revenue requirement of companies allowing employees to work from Thailand.

 

The long-term resident visa holders will also no longer face any restrictions on the number of dependents they can bring in, the Board of Investment (BOI), which oversees the program, said in a statement Wednesday. Parents and other legal dependents can reside with the visa-holders as opposed to just four dependents allowed earlier.

 

Thanks for this great information!

This info is however not (yet) reflected on the website.

So what would be the new requirement, 1M USD for wealthy pensioner?

https://ltr.boi.go.th/

I was hoping for the 80K nonsense to be cut a long time ago. 1 M USD should be sufficient to cover all expenses for 5 years in Thailand 😉. They just demand 800K per year for the extension of stay so 1M USD should be enough.

Thanks again!