theblether

I agree with the broad sentiment of your comment but here's the brutal truth. Successive Thai governments have targeted long-stay in the country. The review that's coming up is long, long overdue and I regard this tax situation as secondary for a simple reason. A lot of you commenting on this thread quite simply won't be in Thailand if the review follows recent patterns. Some of you will leave because you won't qualify to stay. Others, and possibly the majority, will leave because they are sick of the persecution, even if they qualify to stay. Let me be clear - I don't know what's coming down the line, however, it will be astonishing if there is not a new mandatory insurance policy. There will be ways around it, but not at zero cost. Some of you will be forced to purchase a worthless "levy policy." Even the levy policies have limitations. However, the word of the day is PERSECUTION. The last couple of times that expatriates left in waves wasn't so much cost increases, it was the interference in regular lifestyles. The damage done by the TM30 DEBACLE was unbelievable. People rightly felt persecuted for having the cheek to travel around the country on vacations. You were under threat of LEGAL PENALTY if you failed to report to the TM 30 office within 24 hours of returning to your home province. This is not the Thailand we signed up for, and while that policy has been effectively withdrawn, the PERSECUTORY UNDERTONE has remained, including the scandalous springing of mandatory insurance onto O-A retirement visa holders. This taxation proposal is just part of a long litany of bad news for retirees. Get ready for a mass exodus, and if you are on the edge of purchasing a condo or making some other major financial investment into the country, I suggest you wait as what is coming down the line IMMINENTLY may also see you heading for the airport.

All people need to know is that the requirement for mandatory insurance was sprung out of the blue on 0-A holders, with some people given as little as one months' notice to comply. And the vast majority of people using the 800,000 baht method are not 0-A holders and have their cash deposited in a Thai bank.

100% a foreign currency grab, virtually all deposits were placed in Thai baht with Thai banks. You were the exception that does not disprove the rule.

People don't know that the drive for the 800,000 baht deposit was a foreign currency cash grab after 1997 financial crisis. The number of farangs that fell for it is off the scale. Name another financial deal where paying up front is more expensive than paying monthly? You really need to twist in the wind to justify that.

It's possible. Here's the problem. The last time there was a review it had a brutal outcome. I don't know, no one knows.

There were 80000 people on O-A visas given a months notice to obtain insurance without grandfathering. I'.m a busy man, I apologise to forum members for mixing up O-X and O-A. I will not apologise for warning forum members that this review has the potential to be far more serious than avoidable taxation scenarios. ps - the 80,000 figure was announced by the Thai government.

On the subject of insurance causing O-X to fail. What do you think the chances are of mandatory health insurance not being included in the upcoming review?

You are correct. O-X failed partly due to the insurance requirement. Remind me of the retirement visa category apply from overseas, was that O-A?

Fair enough, I did say I needed someone with a better memory than me. I did think that the failure to grandfather the O-X visa insurance requirement was brutal - again, from memory, 80,000 people held that type of visa and they got a months notice to obtain insurance. One female pal ended up paying $6,000 a year for limited coverage. She tolerated it for a couple of years then repatriated. Anyway, my point is that people are getting hot under the collar about the taxation situation. The result of this imminent review could be extraordinarily painful.

I need someone with more knowledge or a better memory than me - from my recollection the last time the conditions were adjusted existing retirees were "grandfathered." That meant that they continued to qualify under the old requirements. People who did not have a retirement pension had to qualify under the new regime. I don't know what the adjustments will be. I think I can safely say that the financial requirements will not be adjusted downwards. If you are on the edge of applying for a retirement visa get on with it as you may receive a shock when the review is announced. More recently, the O-X visa requirements were adjusted to include mandatory insurance. The Thai government gave very little notice of the new requirements and put many people into an impossible position as they could not source legitimate insurance policies due to pre-existing conditions and their age. They did not grandfather those new requirements. Will this review be a nothingburger? I doubt it.

Okay - you need to bookmark this link - this is critical to retirement planning, especially for people planning to retire soon. https://www.thaigov.go.th/news/contents/details/83599 This is the crucial passage: 2.) Medium-term measures (consisting of 3 Measures starting from September - December 2024) include: 1. Grouping and reducing the code governing visas for temporary stays. (Non-Immigrant) from the original 17 codes, remaining 7 codes, which will begin operations within September 2024. 2. Adjust the criteria and conditions for receiving a Long Stay visa for the elderly who wish to spend their final days in Thailand. It will begin operations by September 2024.

The results of a government review into retirement style visas.

First, you'll be amazed at the number of people who do not anticipate changes. Second, it could well be a Black September. The last financial review was devastating to upcoming retirees. I don't know what is going to happen. My admittedly off-the-wall prediction is a statutory fee for retirement-style visas. It would be a simple tax to collect. People are unaware that the highest tax compliance category is airport tax, with 99.7% collection rates. Imposing a higher anual fee for retirees would be simple and many would rather pay than get entwined in the Thai tax reporting system.

May well be except every new policy actually enacted has been aimed at reducing long stay for poorer individuals, and opening new visa streams for high net worth or highly educated, entrepreneurial types. We'll know in September when we discover the promised outcome of the review into retirement status which surely includes financial requirements.

I warned you about this ten years ago when I pointed out why you shouldn't retire to Thailand. Expatriate crisis on it's way ( again ).

Please tell me this is not a serious reply. I quite like a bit of witty trolling but this is not on.

Aww man, there's two of them. It's hilarious that a thread about the poisonous Alex Jones has drawn out the Democrat Dunning-Kruger brigade.

I detest Alex Jones, he's a poisonous, mentally disturbed town clown. However, the village idiots that constantly comment on this vile fool are just as bad. There's something wrong with your head if you wake in the morning eager to continually post on threads about this guy. Get a life.

I support independence but not the SNP. All they are to me is a useful Trojan Horse. All they had to do was empty the bins and enact law & order reform. Instead of ensuring that no one serves less than six months in prison they allowed male rapists into female prisons. Absurd. They deserve to pay for that calamity alone. I'm choosing to not vote in this election. This next four years will see us back in 1976/79 territory. Horror show upcoming to the point my family is cashing out. Don't be shocked if for the first time in history the pound is worth less than a dollar under the Labour government. And don't be shocked if it goes under 35 Thai baht. If you have spare capital in the UK and live in Thailand move it now.

Oh dear, Hunter. Oh dear Democrat conspiracy theorists. What a disaster. Biden's DoJ and FBI have verified the laptop. The last thing Hunter needs is a court case where its proved specifically that it was not manipulated. And it wasn't. The contents of that laptop are a horror show for Joe. Hunter is looking at more charges. His best option would be to cut a plea deal as he is looking at jail time. And Joe is looking at the worst family crisis since the death of Beau. An utter horror show.

Stretching again. Public polls and one July Trump campaign poll. You are desperately delusional if you believe that had an affect on the November result. By the way, Hunter has dropped his manipulation case against Guiliani. https://www.nationalreview.com/news/hunter-biden-drops-lawsuit-against-rudy-giuliani-over-abandoned-laptop/

A few years ago this forum had genuine big hitters. These days I regret to say the intellectual standard has collapsed. Now we have digital scum linking to Wikipedia- a source banned by amazon.com as being unreliable. In that link this digital scum clown forgot to point out that it says " no proof was found." You are surrounded by insignificant, hysterical lunatics. Even Biden's DoJ calls them conspiracy theorists. A brigade of vocal halfwit. A total embarrassment

Did you read that link? Are you genuinely that stupid?

Flat out lie. You are lying. You are a liar.

You've never seen me troll. Pm your degenerate hysterical pal and ask him about me. I regard people like you as the digital scum that you are.