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Excellent post identifying a valuable consideration - Saving prior to 2024 can (might) be used as a buffer against possible tax on remitted funds.

This helps a lot - Your response to atpeaceb with a very good question - for previous years taxed income, but now in savings - It is unlikely to be taxed when remitted to Thailand after 31st Dec 2023. Therefore any such saving pot that has been held by a retiree outside the country can be regarded as a potential buffer against tax.

Mnnn - Actually you bring up a good point about ISA's - That is, if tax protected vehicles in the UK will be respected. Most of the funds deposited into an ISA would be from earnings and would have been subject to Tax prior to deposit and If rather than used for making an ISA deposit the funds had been sent into Thailand, normally this would be DTA protected, hence unlikely to be Taxed in Thailand. However if in the tax year when funds are taken out of the ISA they are then remitted as resident in Thailand - Will the Tax free vehicle change the taxable status of the initial deposits which have already been taxed. For example, for taxed income deposits of £100K in an ISA with an increase of say £5K tax free inside the ISA, then £20k is withdrawn, transferred out when resident in Thailand - Will this be treated as mixture of taxed/untaxed or will all withdrawn funds be considered as not taxed since its coming out from a tax free vehicle in the same year as it arrives in Thailand. I suspect no one knows right now, but worth watching as further details emerge.

Ahhh - Good Clarification Response - You have highlighted that it is very important to consider - "If you are over age 65 for example, your TEDA is circa 350k baht which can effectively be added to the 150k zero rated tax band giving you around 500k baht tax free"

Mike Lister is correct having Knowledge is strength. Rather than, 'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.' George Orwell 1984.

Good information about the Tax clearance certificate - Also I think you are right METV tourists would be a big issue and rather confusing expecting Tax to be considered on Exit. There are around 2.6 million foreigners long term resident in Thailand and if eliminating the people from Lao, Myanmar and Cambodia (1.8 million), then about 800k other long term foreigners is a healthy number to start new Tax investigation activities. However probably initially the more important priority will be actual Thailand nationals, sufficiently wealthy who have been repatriating overseas funds at zero tax.

Thanks for that - I appreciate the feedback. I have factored this into the Tax calculation (But just for TEDA - Single personal allowance) arriving at £475 Tax to pay. Also thanks to pauku1 the numbers in the spreadsheet look reasonable and are very useful in order to start some outline Tax planning. As you rightly point out there are other allowances (Credit Mike Lister) - Taken from one of your previous posts TEDA = Tax Allowance, Deductions & Exemptions PA1 = 60,000 (personal Allowance for the tax filer) PA2 = 60,000 (deductions for spouse) OAE - 190,000 (over age 65 years exemptions) PD - 50% of pension received, max 100,000 (deductions for pension income received) ZR - zero rated for tax - 150,000 (the zero rated tax band in the tax tables) The big surprise is possibly for anyone new to Thailand and who requires 800,000 Baht (Retirement) to satisfy the Visa requirement and gets charged (estimated using only single person 60K personal allowance) £800 in tax just to satisfying this requirement. There is going to be a lot of armchair accountants that will try and figure out ways to eliminate this tax - One way would be to ensure the transferring of any funds are in the Tax year prior to arriving. Possibly also for anyone who is already long stay, leave the country for greater than 180 days (in the same Tax year) and buffer their account with a large lump sum for the non tax year. Obviously a lot of effort and a lot of funding.

It might be a good plan if you have the lifestyle option to move funds into Thailand in the tax year that you are not resident just to stay under the radar. but if its just about the odd time visiting and being over the 180 days by a few days or even a few weeks these type of infrequent occurrences is probably not going to be worth the effort for the Tax to capture. The more likely first targets will probably be low hanging fruit, such as long term recurring tax paying expats on NON-IMMIGRANT VISA "O" who must provide full details where they live and a financial statement annually.

Nice Work - Thanks for doing the upload - All sensible and considered information while working as a group benefits everyone when something new like this needs better understanding.

While some tax might be saved through Dual Taxation relief, in the case of a UK pensioner this might not be as clear cut as identified in the article, which says… "John’s pension, while now subject to tax in Thailand, might find some relief through a double taxation agreement between the UK and Thailand." The double taxation treaty means that any pension income, should it be private pensions or state pension, is taxed locally in the UK, but can not be double taxed by Thailand. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80bddc40f0b623026953eb/uk-thailand-dtc180281_-_in_force.pdf In the agreement between Thailand and UK, within the section that relates to UK personal allowances, how they will be treated in Thailand in set out below. 4) Nothing contained in this Article shall be construed as obliging either Contracting State to grant to individuals not resident in that State any of the personal allowances, reliefs and reductions for tax purposes which are granted to individuals so resident. Rewriting this in more straightforward simple words, Thailand is not required to give tax benefits, like personal allowances, to British passport holders who are living in Thailand and receiving income from the UK. The UK tax free Personal Allowance for the tax year 2024-2025 is set at £12,570. If the personal allowance is not made available in Thailand then the basic state pension, which would be normally below this personal allowance when paid in UK would not be subject to UK Tax, but when when paid in Thailand (if personal allowance is not given consideration) Tax could be payable on all income not taxed by HMRC, which could be the total pension amount. Quickly looking at the Thailand Tax rates - Personal income tax (PIT) 150,001 to 300,000 = 5% (£3,300 - £6,700) 300,001 to 500,000 = 10% (£6,700 - £11,100) Then pay 15% (PIT) rate (between £11,100 - £16,700) A rough and dirty calculation - If all of Pension coming in from UK was say a total value of 500,000 Baht (about same as New state Pension) and if no personal tax allowance is given consideration, while including the statutory 60,000 exemptions, but not including child or spouse or health exemptions, Taxed on 440,000 Income - The Tax payable would be 21,500 (£475). Obviously this is 'Only' if the personal allowance (Single person) is not made available for UK pension payments sent to Thailand. This is not Tax advice since I have no idea better than the next, what the Thai Revenue will decide - This is only meant to identify what might be possible and is not meant to be anything other than a personal contribution to understand some of the potential issues for many UK pensioners living in Thailand.

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With 122 Google reviews Overall 4.4/5 rating in Google Places First review on Google Places seems to set the tone for most of the rest : https://g.co/kgs/jaxHdpX "This Thailand embassy is freaking amazing . Very well organized and very accurate with information they provide regarding the documents you need to prepare for them unlike the Hanoi Thailand embassy ,I hope I am spelling his name correctly Cedric was very friendly and helpful and made the process of getting my tourist visa effortless. Originally I was in Hanoi Thai embassy and dealing with them was an absolute nightmare, so I decided to come to Manila to get my Thai visa here and I am extremely happy I made that call. Thank you and I hope I see you guys again."

Worth Noting - Thanks NextG

Goof info NickyLouie Thanks for contributing.

Thanks for the heads-up scubascuba3 Appreciated.

Yup - That did cross my mind. I am just a novice on a bicycle and wanting to just drift around for 5/7 miles a day discovering the less crowded areas. The last time I was in Bangkok the cycles in Lotuss / Big C started at 3,000 Thb and hence selling at the end for 1,000 Thb really means a daily rental equivalent is about 65 Thb per day or 100 Thb if I gift the bike.

For one month I want to explore the outskirts of Pattaya on Bicycle, but all I could find online are rental shop for motor bike rentals. That said, when I have been before in Pattaya I've never seen anywhere hiring out bikes , or tourists riding them, just expats with their own bicycles. Is there any Bicycle for rent in Pattaya? - I am guessing that possibly Hotels / Guest houses might do this?

A basic binding contract must comprise four key elements: offer, acceptance, consideration and intent. The offer and acceptance of rent seems to be met. The considerations involved in the intent are not clear. If the email you received specifically says that the offer of rental has been made on the exact same terms as the first contract then the considerations in the first contract must now be met and you must pay the remaining rent amounts. However it should not be automatically assumed that these terms are the consideration within the new contract. The second term of rental would be strongly argued as a contract, but from your email the terms in the new contract are not defined in detail. The email and response you gave for acceptance will constitute a contract and the considerations contained in the email will constitute the considerations for that contract. It would be required by the landlord to argue that first contract considerations are implied and have been accepted by both parties. For considerations defined as Implied this can be very difficult to prove unless the evidence is clear and likely result in a lengthy process to reach a conclusion. The important issue for your contract obligations seems to be what is contained in the offer email and your response email for acceptance making specific reference to any considerations or what a court would believe to be implied. Having said all this - It will be better for both parties to reach a negotiated conclusion. The landlord probably feels that they have a full legal right of a contract to force your payments, but its up to you to show a threat of implied considerations has no detailed prevention stopping you for example finding a new tenant and subletting until the end of the contract. Whether you do sublet or not is up to you, but this is more about showing the landlord that there are no specific detailed considerations which you are required to follow in this new contract. it may change an entrenched position by the landlord accepting that its in their best interests to find compromise rather than hold out for the full term of payment that they initially believe to be owed simply because this consideration was defined by in first contract. There is no magic formula, rather communications and ability to state a reasonable case of your own legal rights are good a predictor of finding a satisfying compromise.

Yup Agree, the process is not straightforward. At one point I had apps that were recommended by the GP practice and they did give me access to my records, then later I moved across to the NHS online service.

Good info ....and fast response!

Good info - I guess as long as you have been registered with a GP at some point and you need to get inpatient treatment within the same health trust area then there would be little reason to believe that treatment would not be available. I am assuming that "becoming a non-person" means that you and your records are not showing up on the online service and this might be that you simply need to first complete the online registration and then you and your records would appear. In order to maintain an inpatient access it seems the important issue is that you remain registered with the GP. For a proactive removal by GP or inpatient admin at the hospital I am not sure they have a process that tests for residence status after a set period of time. Other than directly telling GP that you are no longer suitable for GP registration there seems little that would be done to have removal from registration. it would be interesting to know if there is any linked process when informing DWP that you now reside overseas in Thailand if this then translates over to removal from GP registration?

Nine years ago I was refused an extension non imi O based upon retirement because the proof of earnings letter from the British Embassy was 'not correct' - I asked what this meant and and was told nothing more than the same statement when wanting to understand what this meant. I asked the immigration officer to speak with British Embassy and they refused. I visited British Embassy and asked them to talk or write to immigration and they refused. I sent a letter to the head of immigration, at immigration headquarters Bangkok asking for investigation to understand what was 'not correct'. I received the same letter I had sent in the same envelope with a covering sticker to my address. The envelope had been opened and sellotape was used to close the envelope. There was nothing else sent, but on the back there was written in hand and in English, 'return'.

When I made the application 4 months ago - The bank statement seemed to be the most important documents and the single reason for rejection of accepting an application. I needed to re-present 3 times and use documents from different banks I held accounts. I met 2 other people that had their Bank accounts rejected for similar reasons to my own. If you are saying that you do have the last three months of statements and that the next statement will not be available until the next week after you apply for the visa, in my experience this would be OK. I was rejected because my statements did not have an address on the Bank account PDF printout (not something that immediately obvious when looking at your own bank account PDF), then on the second occasion because the printout was from a mobile account, then third because the account was a screen print of the laptop screen (not the PDF statement printout). My advice would be to ensure the Bank statements/ PDF printed documents has your name and address and covers the length of time identified. It matters little that you are not perfectly up to date by a few weeks. Be aware that you will not actually be allowed to show other backup proof of what might be missing on the printed accounts by other means which is not actually printed ( my attempt was that I showed my real time Bank account on my mobile because it matches the transactions on the rejected printout). Other people at this time had the same issue and tried to show their online account via their mobile phone and were rejected.. I eventually succeeded by providing PDF printouts from one of my banks that I never use with no transactions on them, up to the date from the previous month which was a few weeks past, but with a balance that was sufficient for the application. Most Importantly if you can provide account documents that actually cover the period time required and they actually look like bank statement (not screen prints) this seemed to me when I applied to be the most important considerations and a few weeks missing will not be an issue.

swissie - You have a talent for words and you paint a subtext many of us all feel after the passing of Ubonjoe, an outpouring from the soul and I recognise that feeling. I am saddened by the passing of a man I never met, Ubinjoe and I find it difficult to articulate what I feel. All I know is that he changed my life in so many posts while also helping thousands of others while he selflessly did so.

Reading about the death of your wife at 55 was hard to do - I wish I could have given you more than just one 'thanks' for sharing your painful experience.