JB300

I thought a Pensions holiday was something companies took when their pension pots were doing too good.

Also thought it was something Gormless Broon forced on them to raise more tax when times we're good

It's because of Pension Holidays Pensions are in the mess they're in, they're not a way to get out of the mess.

Have they never heard of 7 years of feast followed by 7 years of famine?

How about have the police do their jobs?  Roving patrols, arrest those who break the law, and don't let them go with a 500B under the table fine! LOL

Had a problem with a dog constantly barking on the Patio of a Condo 2 floors down from me (why do people have dogs in Condos!) & I took to spraying a little bit of water on it which seemed to surprise it enough to stop barking.

Could also try a Dog whistle but key is to surprise them & make them forget what they were doing (I.e. Barking) which is what the shock collar should be doing but clearly isn't working.

 
Maybe it's because  to enjoying Soi 6  you require 3 basic things
there are more ,  but we won't go into that  on an open forum.
What you require is
Money,     a sense of humour and an open mind.
Only having one  of these won't cut it.
 

As far as I know the 30 days is granted for Airport crossing but 14 for Land.
That opens Vietnam as another possible option for home base coz the visa is a little cheaper again, and flying in has benefits. Or you could just circulate.
Of course this type of activity is what the Thais are trying to regulate around by the 14 day rule or trying to get higher flying expats to commit to a long term stay with upfront elite card fees.

so if i am born in the uk and am a uk citizen why do i need to answer , i should be classed as a uk citizen and it does not matter if i spend 6 months overseas What these rules smack of is if you want to use NHS and even if your a uk citizen born there and worked there for 30 years and paid taxes there then you cannot live abroad and retire abroad and come back if your ill and use the NHS in other words you are forced to live in the uk with its freezing winter and expensive prices and you cannot leave , its virtually a tactic of stopping you moving abroad , you might say oh well you can live abroad 6 months and live england 6 months and still get NHS , but that then means you must retain a property in the uk with all the expenses involved and maybe you dont want to rent it out but have to so you can pay the bills , this should not happen it should be enough that your a uk citizen born there and worked 30 years and payed taxes therefore i qualify for NHS full stop. just like now they have given freedom to take a lump sum pension , and the amount you get on a state pension is pathetic compared to other european countries 

Try that new police (Canadian) series Cardinal. Excellent.

I'm a self employed Brit who works all over the World. My income is paid from a raft of different companies/countries. If I was permanent resident in an EU country I'd have to pay tax either there or in the UK. Unless of course I was able to get a rebate based on the seaman's tax rules. Unfortunately that has become more difficult over the years as more conditions have been applied. Once retired I expect I would still be liable for income tax in Europe/UK if resident there as my income from investments would exceed the non taxable allowance.. As that thresh hold is currently only around GBP 12k a year I'm pretty sure I would end up paying tax to someone.

Hence while still working I'm better off in Thailand. Once retired and earning less I may need to rethink. Maybe paying some tax maybe offset by better healthcare/emergency services and cheaper wine, cheese, cars etc ? Or maybe staying in Thailand would be better due to lower Monthly costs and a local income stream.. Who knows ? I'm still trying to figure it out but luckily still have a few years work left in me :)

Cool [emoji1303]

Was thinking more about income from Pensions & Investments etc... but can see how it could work if you're a true Nomad & don't stay anywhere Long enough to be considered a Tax Resident [emoji1303]

Sounds really expensive for the sake of mostly convenience, really not much value in the scheme, especially with ongoing fees.

A bid to cash in on those with either loads of cash or not so smart.

It also is good for those with cash to hide or launder who otherwise might not be able to pass the income test.

 

Most of the options don't have any ongoing fees & convenience is exactly what you're paying for.

Have you never paid extra to use a Fast Track / Expedited service? I hate queuing/waiting so do it at every opportunity.

Biggest problem with the Visa for me is whether I really want to commit to 5-20 years in Thailand, especially as I have a partner/house in the Philippines & she's not too keen on the idea of living there, but I have 1 year until I finish this Project to work on that :)

In my case yes. I'd buy a house or apartment. Okay local council taxes and charges would be higher than what I pay in Thailand ( next to zero) then there would be water, electricity, insurance etc.
For me the real saving would be on clothes, foodstuffs, alcohol and cars. As in Thailand they are my largest costs.  The only downside for me would be paying a lot of tax..
Swings and roundabouts really..

If they want to attract more Chinese guys, they need to start opening some Karaoke places on Walking street.

Could make a few bob doing it [emoji1303]

They had to do something because it's made it to some of the worlds press (if you can call the Sun/Daily Mirror "Press")

but every journey starts with a single step so if they are serious about cleaning up the image of Pattaya then they will ramp up & drive it to be more like the Thai scene, behind closed doors & not in your face.

Hope I'm wrong, no place on earth like Soi 6 

Try earning the same money in thailand as you do in Singapore . 

That (& the fact that I pay much less tax) is why it's cheaper for me to live in Singapore than Bangkok.

But when this 2 year project is finished, I'm retiring (only doing this one as a favour to a mate) & will be out of here, I thought to Thailand but not so sure anymore.

Real estate is just one class of asset for investment among many, giving slow and steady returns for relatively low risk.
 
It's all to do with risk and returns, like the different investment strategies between retirement funds and hedge funds.
 
When you invest in property cycles, you have to go international. Different capital cities are at different stages of their cycles.
 
For example, Singapore may be bottoming out this year, after prices have fallen for over 2 years. The only obstacle is the additional stamp duties.

Ok. We just completed a visa run: Phuket - Singapore - Phuket.

We used the lowcoster JetStar.

 

1. At the Phuket airport the JetStar Airline lady at the counter asked us how long we're going to stay in Singapore (1 day) and which country we're flying to next (Thailand).
2. Then she asked for our Singapore Visa. Which we obtained through a online agent earlier that day. I assume she wouldn't let us board without it.
3. We arrived to Singapore and had absolutely no problems at the border.
4. Since we had no luggage, we checked in online and simply printed our boarding tickets at the kiosk in the Singapore airport the next day. No need to go to check-in desk (and possibly be questioned about a thailand visa / onward flight from Thailand).

Our whole visa run took less than 24 hours. 

 

Where are you from (passport?) Singapore only issues Visas for approx 30 countries, the vast majority of people get an SVP (Social Visit Pass) on Arrival so I can't see any airline asking to see a Visa.

Some do ask to see your flight out, have had a couple of incidents where I've had to explain to them that I don't need a flight out as I'm returning home #i bl@@dy live there# but less than 0.1% of people need a Visa to enter Singapore

 
You have always had exactly the same opinion of Blair as I have always had. I withdrew my support for the Labour party when he became leader.

Guardian - that explains a lot! Blair has never been correct or truthful.

But the biggest lie was that told by Heath to the people of the UK in 1972.

The EU is a scam, it's failing and it's time to get out.

In fact it was never time to get in!

...

Blair is delusional, was delusional and will remain delusional. He is completely out of touch with any reality and well past his sell by date. 

First (& only) time I had an adult argument with my parents (working class, staunch Labour supporters) was over Blair.

I had him down as a sycophant who would do & say anything to progress #his personal# Agenda (<deleted> the guy converted to Catholic to get his current job, what next? Convert to Islam to be the Shah of Persia?), parents hated the tories so would vote for any muppets the Labour party could stand up (including Michael Foot!)

Hate to say "I told you so" but boy do my parents have a worse opinion of Blair than I've ever had...

That took a few seconds to sink in :)
You've failed, it is too good for Worst joke as it made me laugh.

I would normally agree, except several of the links on the Thai Embassy Website in Singapore are broken [emoji14]

Cannot compare Thailand to Singapore.
 
Supply of development land in Singapore is very limited and is controlled tightly by the government. Thus, the range of property prices movement is state controlled.

For somebody who was on the side of Remain, Tony Blair coming out of the woodwork would have me voting against any plans to block Brexit or have a 2nd referendum.

It's that tossers fault Immigration is in the state it's in so he's as much culpable for Brexit as anybody else.

For somebody who was on the side of Remain, Tony Blair coming out of the woodwork would have me voting against any plans to block Brexit or have a 2nd referendum.

It's that tosses fault Immigration is in the state it's in.

Rental value x 12 months x 100/ the % you apply should give you what you want, e.g.
                                                                                                                                    15,000 per month rent x 12 months
                                                                                                                               = 180,000 baht/say 3% = 6,000,000 baht
 
This can be adjusted by the % you want to reflect to bring it in line with the market, e.g. 180,000 baht/ 4% = 4,500,000 baht
 
Other factors to be taken into consideration are the age of the building, i.e. the older, the higher the % to be applied because of maintenance and higher levies to be applied, the further away from the CBD, the higher the % applied and so on and so forth.
 
This is how I used to apply my calculations as an investor, real estate agent and property valuer for 25 years in the Sydney market, my primary method was always comparable sales within a given period, i.e. 3 months in a hot market, 6 in a normal market, also removing out of line sales, like inflated sales, inter-family related sales etc etc, whether this formula could be applied here, I don't know, but give it a whirl and let me know how you go, if you like.
 
Me personally, I wouldn't be buying in Thailand as I hear units/apartments/condos are a dim a dozen, if you are adamant you want in, I would suggest you rent to start with, you know, try before you buy, until you become more familiar with the market, buildings, demographics, sales evidence, and agents, and when you are ready to pounce, then you pounce.
 
Also forgot to mention but funandsuninbangkok mentioned it in an earlier post, buy into an established building, I don't know if you have them here, but in Oz you could order a strata report whereby for a couple of hundred bucks a company rep would go in and check the books to see where money has been spent, i.e. money in, money out (levies) and the history of the building, annual meetings, major repairs etc etc, last thing you want to be buying into is a "special levy" which was made at the last annual general meeting for 500,000 baht per unit for repairs to the cancer in the building, etc etc, that means as the new owner, you would be up for it.
 
As for new buildings, well do you know what your buying into, i.e. I remember valuing new ones back in Oz, not even having waterproof membranes down in the wet areas, no ones can see that because the tiling had gone down, and in some cases on the roof tops, then there was no undercoating on the main walls, just one thin layer of top coat, so when the builder shuts shop, where do you go, straight to the hip pocket. 
 
Most local agents tend to have a reputation, not the fly by night ones, and the more time you spend with them, you should be able to separate the snake, from the rat if that makes sense.  
 
Good Luck

similar topic:

 

Has anyone tried their new online visa application? Supposedly mandatory starting in March 2017.

 

I'm concerned you file online then told to wait until it changes application state but due to bugs may not do so [emoji14]

 

also curious if can fill online before arriving in Singapore or not

 

 

I've no experience of filing for a Visa online (Sg only has Tourist Visas for approx 30 countries, where are you from?) but my gf has used the "Extend" online application a couple of times & it's always given an answer the next day.

Singapore online stuff is very efficient & reliable so I'd be very surprised if it doesn't do what it says on the tin :)

How quickly this devolved into a PI v. LOS row. Chinese run on group tour. NAIA CEB and potentially CRK can handle big planes. BLL/DMK is the same place, leaving HKT and CMX as alternate destinations. Palawan can handle smaller planes. The ferry system is far bettwer in PI than in LOS. And Filipinos are far more adaptable. I would say pollution and corruption are about equals. PI has far, far better beaches. Public transpo in PI is much better, although it wouldn't matter because Chinese would be taking charter busses. But I would dare anyone to compare public transportation in Cebu versus Phuket. 

 

Chinese group tourism, much like Korean group tourism before them, is not so much about repeat performance, but more about bragging their experience once back home. Thailand is willing to suffer the group tour in hopes of capturing the mature FIP later on. I am not anti-Thai by any means, but a VOA might just change the dynamic. There will be winners and losers, for sure.

Agree with most of what your saying & whilst the airport cabbies in Manila are a bit shady, never had any problems with a Taxi in Cebu or Davao.

But the transfer between the terminals at NAIA is a nightmare, takes an hour & is something that you only need to do a couple of times before you plan your trips to avoid NAIA (although my last experience was transferring to a flight to Coron in Palawan & would grudgingly go through it again to go back there, wonderful place).

However, it wouldn't take much for them to get their act together & run some airside transfers between the terminals (gf did it on the way back from Coron as she only had 40 minutes to make her connection to Davao), would make a massive difference to the experience.

No arguments about the beaches or the waters (Chin deep in the sea off Cebu & you can see your toes)...

Plus the women there are much hotter (NB my MS #made# me say that but joking aside, I think they probably are more attractive to the Chinese than the Thai girls given their knowledge of English & the fact that they tend to be a little "Fuller", certainly most of the weddings I've been to involving a local Singaporean Chinese guy has been to a Filipina...)