KhunHeineken

What's your definition of a "rush?" Do you think I mean millions of pensioners? Of course not. As with everything, if new restrictive, costly, prohibitive laws are coming in, people submit their application, for example, before the laws come in. Example, you have a 65 year old single Aussie guy who has recent retired and who has had two holidays to Thailand a year, for the last several years, except for covid. He has always wanted to retire in Thailand, but isn't quite ready yet. He is then informed that "grandfathering" is only on offer to those outside of Australia for 3 months or more, and receiving a pension, as of 1st July 2023. He then leaves Australia in February 2023 in order to qualify. Wouldn't you? Then there are the guys who are 62, 63, 64 who can survive on savings until 65, who might also jump to set up the "grandfathering" for the future. Wouldn't you consider doing the same, especially as people are living longer, and non-resident tax rates are so high? Can you see how grandfathering, in this instance, makes an incentive for people to leave Australia? Perhaps your definition of a few more is my definition of a rush.

Did he ask to borrow some money from you? ????

TFN's are like a Driver's License number, you only get one. If you need to start the ball rolling before you return, go into your online Australian bank account. Fair chance you told your bank your TFN, otherwise they would have taxed your interest at 48%. You should be able to dig up your TFN that way. Hell of a time to be returning to Australia, after 15 years away. Good Luck.

I agree with your summary. The RBA's baby steps to try and kerb inflation is too little, and too slow. The Fed raised by 0.75 yesterday. The RBA will use the excuse that they are treading softly so as to not push Australia into a recession, but they are still fueling inflation, whilst waiting for a miracle to prop up Australia's housing market. You are correct, if they do what really needs to be done to reign in inflation, then they would be increasing rates higher, and faster, but if they do that, Australia's housing market collapses, and there will be homeless people all across the country. Don't increase rates, watch inflation continue to grow, the AUD slump, and imports, which given Australia doesn't manufacture much anymore, increase significantly. Australia's housing market is as you say, a Ponzi scheme which is now holding the country to ransom.

Negative gearing had a big role to play in it. Mum and Dad investors got onto the gravy train that they could use the Australian tax payer to help fund their investment in residential housing. Negative gearing was originally about having investors supply houses for renters. It became a rort where people went on to negative gear a small portfolio of properties, as there were no limits on it. Now, in 2022, look at the result, fueled by a decade of cheap money. Australians had a chance to vote against negative gearing, but there were too many voters on the gravy train. Negative gearing has a role to play, but it should have limits, like no more than two investment properties per title holder, or no more than $3 million worth of property, or something like this. There was something like 25,000 houses in mortgage stress across Australia prior to covid. That figure will quadruple, if not more, over the next 12 to 18 months. Greed and easy money saw them borrow to the hilt, because they could. Now they are facing rapidly rising costs, and negative equity. The cliff is fast approaching for many.

Are you not twisting the other way? You think expat pensioners will have nothing to worry about, and that is fine, and I think these changes may have some impact, and will be designed to do so. I hope you are right and I am wrong, but Australia has nearly $1 Trillion of debt, and if expat pensioners get a free pass, there could be a rush of pensioners retiring overseas, causing more money to leave Australia's economy.

Please post a link where you have seen the word "grandfathering" in any of the proposed changes. I know I haven't. I said in another post, "grandfathering" could cause a lot of people to retire before the date these changes take place. Why would the government want to turn tax payers into tax recipients, over night? Example, someone wants to retire to Thailand next year, they'll go early so their pension is not taxed. Why is your opinion worth more, or less, than my opinion? I've never said pensions will be taxed at non-resident rates. I have said they may be taxed at non-resident rates. Who knows? It was only a heads up for retired expats, many of whom have other income than just the pension. I see you are going with "The Paul Hogan Theory." My point is, the computer data bases will simply scoop up everyone, small fry, large fry, and every fry in between, but pensions may be exempt, or may not be exempt. Will pensions be deemed as income? Who knows? Many pensioners have some income to supplement their pension, if not current pensioners, certainly future pensioners with some super. What becomes of that supplementary income if or when these changes come in? Why 1st April 2023?

Best to get that "odd one out" onboard then. ????

Huh? They are proposed changes. They haven't been passed yet. Everyone knows this. I posted a link to show the new Labor government is going to pick up where the past Liberal government left off, in relation to these proposed changes. I was hoping Labor would leave them dead in the water. That's not to be. Talk about behind the times? Is English your first language?

I'm not pushing anything. If we took an informal poll of expats on this forum and the question was: "Do you have other forms of income to supplement your pension?" What percentage do you think would say "Yes" as opposed to "No?" Is this thread ONLY for those who say "No?" Are you a moderator that decides what each individual member of this forum's pension / income status is, as to whether they are on topic or off topic here? What about part pensioners? Are they off topic on this thread? Is a part pension still not a pension? I can start a new thread about it, but after 143 pages of varying pension information, I don't see the point.

It all depends if the government views a pension going to an Australian living overseas as an "income" or not. Like I have been continually saying, despite personal attacks, flames, abuse, ridicule etc, I posted the proposed changes as a heads up. Whatever we have all been doing up to now must be going ok for us because we are all still able to be overseas. I hope these changes, if or when they come in, have minimal impact. The key words from the agent for me in your post are, "There's no guarantee about anything." For me, this tends to diminish the "weight" that can be put on the rest of his advice, at this stage. Of course, you cherry pick because it suits your narrative, but even the agent can not "guarantee" the outcomes of the proposed changes.

Feel free to put me on your ignore list.

Somewhere over the last couple of decades houses, which should have been "homes" for Aussie families, became "investments" for all property owners, especially with negative gearing. Fast forward to 2022, and you have the situation the housing market is now in, which is not unlike what happened in America in 2008. I wonder how exposed some Aussie banks are.

It all depends if the government views a pension going to an Australian living overseas as an "income" or not. If not, no worries, but if they view it as an income, then there may be some issues for a lot of members. In any case, there are many members deriving a small income from investments in Australia, whilst also receiving a pension, or part pension, and these changes are very much relevant to them. Do you think these members should be excluded from the old age pension thread because they earn a few dollars from other sources? Do you think it's "warped" that the income earned in conjunction with their pension is relevant to these proposed changes and this thread?

This forum is mainly for expats living in Thailand, with this sub-forum mainly for Australian expats who reside in Thailand on a pension, many of whom may derive an income from other sources as well. Eg. rent, shares etc. If you don't see the changing of residency rules for taxation purposes as any interest to readers, well, good luck to you. ????

As another member says, you can view it, and even if you can't, the link title and first paragraph, which can be viewed without a subscription, simply shows the current Labor government will pick up where the previous Liberal government left off on these proposed changes. I was hoping the new Labor government would disregard the proposed changes.

With the cost of labor being higher, and electronics being cheap these days, I agree with other members who say buy a new one. They are not that expensive. At your age, you may find the new screens a lot easier on your eyes as well. In the mean time, you could plug your computer into your TV and use it as a big monitor, or maybe you have a small TV that is not used so much and you can repurpose it to a monitor.

I had the same problem a few years ago. It ended up being the restore point setting was set to 100% so all new restore points just kept getting saved and building up, when you only need about the last few. The fix for me was deleting all restore points, moving the setting slider from 100% down to about 5%, creating a new restore point, and I got back all my storage. Depending on your HDD size, you could even go lower than 5%. Check it out. It could be the same problem.

Posted the same link on another thread, but it's more on topic in this one. The new Labor government will continue on with the proposed changes, but will review the amount of days. https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/assistant-treasurer-flags-new-tax-residency-rules-20220826-p5bd1v It's more focused on how long you are inside Australia, but the flip side for many expats is how long you are outside Australia.

Looks like the new Labor government will also be picking up what the last Liberal government left for these proposed changes, but will review the number of days. https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/assistant-treasurer-flags-new-tax-residency-rules-20220826-p5bd1v It's more focused on how long you are inside Australia, but the flip side for many expats is how long you are outside Australia. It's no so much about losing portability, but IF residency status MAY effect pensions. Came across this online petition about it, but it's closed now. Obviously there's quite a few expats showing interest in these proposed changes. https://atlaswealth.com/news/australian-tax-residency-change-petition/

It hasn't come in yet, so it's not fact, but the proposed changes are fact. My posts are not about frightening anyone, but more about alerting them to the proposed changes so they will be prepared.

Privacy. VPN's are not just used to have a local IP address to get around geo-blocking. VPN's also mask your IP address from the websites you visit. Being in Thailand, and using a Thai VPN server, should be a slightly faster connection than using a server many thousands of kilometers away.

Try all the servers your VPN company provides in the UK. If the problem exists with all of them, contact the company and request they refresh their IP address. Apparently, this is no small task, but eventually they will have so many complaints they will have to, especially with popular websites like BBC.

Go into the settings of your browser. There will be a "Remember Passwords" setting that you can enable.

There's some products out there that you may or may not consider. https://www.trendmicro.com/en_au/forHome/products/homenetworksecurity.html https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/syfer-one-device-complete-network-protection#/