JB300

Come to The Philippines, where everything for a single bloke is much cheaper than Thailand.
No visa hassles, just renew when it is due and pay your pesos.
My renewal today for a six month extension cost 6250 baht
English spoken everywhere, the only downside is Thai food is much better [emoji20]
 

Well now I'm all wiki'd up, is he a hero to you 'Brits', or you 'English'?

Now I'm a wiki expert lol

Hopefully I've helped you out so maybe you can return the favour...

Who's that Babe Ruth guy who changed his name to be the same as the "Candy Bar"?

Something to do with playing Rounders (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounders) or some such...

I did hear that he played in the "World Series" but am struggling to find any reference to my or 190 other countries taking part...

Lol... shall we just leave it as let's not try to make fun of each other's sporting legends [emoji1303] [emoji1303]

Lol, I'll leave it to my none English, British brethren to comment but nationality aside Bobby is a hero & I'd hope that the rest of my fellow UK's would agree with me...

I just did a google search so now I know, but honestly I had never heard that name before.

Yep  I'm a 'mericn

Lol, I thought as much, obviously he's a hero to us Brits (even more so to me as a life long Man Utd fan)

Please don't mention the "S" word... Football (the beautiful game) is played with the Feet [emoji1303][emoji1303][emoji1303]

Edit: You do know who Pele is yes? Bobby taught him everything he knew, except Pele could never get used to heading the ball (joking, Pele was a Joy to watch, I understand why people like to watch ballet watching players like Pele playing Football)

Before i go looking for it, who's Bobby Moore?

Seriously [emoji15]

You must be American (there are tribes in the deepest darkest Amazon forest who know who Bobby Moore is [emoji15])

rumour has it that the final details will be announced 30th February.

Good looking girl, but out of her depth in the Philippines...

[before anybody spurts their coffee out & starts bashing the keyboard that was a joke, brought to you courtesy of my Filipina Princess :))

Hannibal S1E01... was flicking through TV Shows on Exodus & struck me that I never really got into the TV series (despite being a massive fan of the books & thought the 1st 2 movies were excellent) because I probably only caught 1 in 3-4 words that Mads Mikkelsen spoke (take back everything I said about Hopkins).

So I'm going back to the start & watching them all, with Subtitles [emoji106]

I reviewed this one a little while ago and thought it was dreadful.

 

IMDB's rating of 5.6 seems generous.

Have you watched "Bull"?

I think I gave Ransom more leeway because I got quite into "Bull" though would be the 1st to admit Ransom was a struggle at 1st.

2 Episodes in, next one is make or break :)...

Just giving the  factual implication if the Thai tax man decided to tax Thailand resident UK pensioners whose only income is a state pension,  less than thb 10k year is peanuts...

 

You will find there are those in this postion who "borrow for a fee" the 800k required for the extension based on retirement given the GBP  8k year doesnt meet the 65k/m criteria 

Sorry, the "Wow" was a shock reaction not sarcasm.

I'm genuinely surprised to learn that guys on a pretty thin wedge already, might be hit even further by having to pay tax in Thailand.

Max UK State Pension works out at approx 28,500 THB pm, assuming a large chunk of that is basic living expenses, removing another 800THB pm could hurt.

Add in the fact that the Pension is frozen but expenses (& possibly the tax) are rising & it's a matter of when will it hurt.

Ransom... if you like "Bull" (the series, not the stuff that comes out of the back of a male cows bottom), you might like this one... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5809150/

Six.
 
After the build-up that True has been giving this series, I thought it was going to be the usual over-rated stuff we have come to expect.
 
Glad I was wrong! I just watched episode 1 and it looks like this is going to rock. I think it airs on True at about 10 o'clock tonight..................
 
(Series is based on the lives of, and loosely based on actual missions of seal team six) 

Because its all to with tax  thresholds/ tax residency / and local tax laws

 

1. A pensioner who lives in Thailand 180 + days is resident in Thailand for tax purposes 

2. Thai tax doesnt specifically exclude pensions 

3. UK doesnt tax the money 

4 Money brought in into Thailand " same year its earned"

 

Thai tax man would be within his rights to claim tax off this amount

 

Therefore back of a cigarette packet calculation 

 

Full UK state pension is 155 pound a week = just over GBP 8000 /yr or thb 338, 000/year or there abouts

 

Per thai tax table first 150 k is tax free, balance taxed at around 5% leaving around thb thb 329,000 , so in reality they would only be getting hit for around thb 9.5k/year which is not a bad deal and maybe the pensionerd shouldnt whinge so much 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, the only thing I can say is either don't remit your income within 1 year of receiving it or move to the Philippines, (easy to extend your visa up to 3 years without leaving the country or $20,000 USD in a bank gets you an SRRV and no tax on your pension income

Not starting (yet another PI Vs TH) debate & hope the mods delete this & the replies if it turns into one but if your finances mean you can't buffer a year (max approx £8k) then might be worth considering an alternative destination, especially one where you'll get your annual State Pension Increases (this is a thread about Brits yes[emoji106])

 
That seems very strange indeed. Since the UK itself doesn't tax the State Pension onshore UK I can't understand why they think it might be taxable in another country.

How is a discussion on US taxation even relevant to this topic ? 

You'll still end up paying whichever country's tax bill is max, e.g., Thailand's tax bill on your 20,000quid of "first dibs" income is 5000quid, but your tax bill from the HMRC on this same 20,000quid is only 3000quid. So, you only get to take a tax credit on your UK taxes of 3000quid -- meaning your out-of-pocket tax bill for the year is 2000quid more than if you only had to file in the UK. Works in reverse too, of course.

You do understand, of course, the significance of the two tax treaties with Thailand:  The US one explicitly addresses how Social Security taxation will be addressed, while the UK treaty is silent on State Pension taxation. Significant, I believe, but so sorry I had to introduce America into this discussion. Oh dear.

I can only speak to my experience of having an active (salary) income in Singapore & passive (rental, dividend, bank interest) in U.K. I'm non-tax resident in UK / Tax resident in Singapore and the DTA between the 2 goes...

1) Singapore is not interested in any income I earn outside of the country and doesn't ask me for any details when I do my tax return

2) UK only wants to know if I earn money outside of the UK & if this is in a country that has a DTA with the UK, as the answer(s) Yes they don't want to know any details.

I Guess the situation could be different in a country that taxes overseas income & different again if the US is involved, perhaps somebody can share their experiences.

Jim, accepting your point (which I never realised before) that "government pensions" only applies to govt. employee pensions, I wonder if the State Pension, and in fact all other income  paid in the UK is covered by this bit of Article 23 - 'Elimination of Double Taxation':-

(3) In the case of Thailand, United Kingdom tax payable in accordance with this Convention in respect of income from sources within the United Kingdom shall be

allowed as a credit against Thai tax payable in respect of that income. The credit shall not, however, exceed that part of the Thai tax, as computed before the credit is given, which is appropriate to such item of income. 

I think the last sentence means that if the rate of Thai taxation on that income is higher than UK, then there might be a liability to claim the difference - but perhaps you have some other interpretation of the whole clause.

Incidentally I also noticed elsewhere in the Treaty that income from "immoveable property", i.e. rental income is  only taxable in the country where the income arises.

I read that last sentence as saying that if you've paid more Tax in the UK than you owe in Thailand you'll pay no tax but cannot claim the extra tax paid from Thailand.

To be more clear: the bigger concern is that UK banks will be reporting to the UK Revenue, all transfers made to then from Thailand to individual accounts. So, when you sell your house/condo in Thailand, the one you didn't declare to the Revenue, how to get the cash home again!

I'm not sure when/how you would declare Non-UK property to HMRC (Hold my hands up, my accountant has done my tax returns since I had my old UK LTD company) but I do know you don't declare any overseas (from UK) income, capital gains etc... If you're living in a DTA country and are registered as Non-UK resident for tax purposes.

I've certainly never been asked for any details about any of my overseas income/assets, yet they ask for details of the pennies I earn in interest from my UK bank account.

6 hours ago, jspill said:

I wouldn't say Thailand is too poor to police it. It would be the easiest thing to walk into the Chiang Mai co-working spaces full of digital nomads. 

 

In fact they had some of those digital nomads in custody briefly then released them, they originally thought they were employees of Punspace, i.e. working in Thailand. If the police had an issue with working online (stuff like blogging, Youtube, etc. that has no physical presence in Thailand) then why were they released. 

 

https://asiancorrespondent.com/2014/10/thailand-immigration-officials-raid-chiang-mai-co-working-space/

 

And there are public Facebook groups like 'Chiang Mai digital nomads' and 'Bangkok digital nomads' with tens of thousands of online workers in, 'digital nomad summit' events, meetups, etc.

 

Quote

people living here in monthly apartments, buying vehicles, and spending large parts or more of each year here working and earning

Pumping large amounts of money into the economy, shock horror! Worthy of such scorn! 

Often they're spending their entire incomes here, so even though they aren't paying 10% income tax (it would be about that low) that 10% ends up getting pumped into small businesses anyway. They're probably doing more for Thailand than someone paying 30% of their income to a BIO company.

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[Edit: Don't know what's happened to the quotes here ^^^]

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To play devil's advocate, by that logic we should all be allowed to pay no taxes wherever we live as we would then be pumping more money into the local economy.

The problem is by not paying any taxes you're not contributing to the social/infrastructure expenses, Roads, Police/Emergency Services etc... (before anybody comments about the state of these in Thailand, if there were more taxes they could be improved).

FWIW I believe a lot of people working online would jump at the chance to be "Fully Legal" in Thailand & pay a reasonable amount of Tax (30% to an umbrella Corp sounds a bit high), but fact is that Thailand either doesn't see this "Opportunity" or doesn't want it (maybe they believe it will somehow harm future Thai jobs).

Not quite. Some income earned outside Thailand is not subject to tax unless it is repatriated to Thailand. I've not heard of an retiree having to pay Thai income tax just because their pension is remitted to Thailand and that's usually because as chiang mai says there are double tax treaties in place that ensure that the same income isn't subject to tax twice. If you're under the UK tax threshold and therefore paid no tax on your UK pension you won't be paying tax in Thailand either. However there are some forms of "income" that may not be taxable where they are earned and not taxable in Thailand either, either because it's eg. a capital gain or  you never repatriated the funds to Thaiand and declared them as income
 
https://home.kpmg.com/xx/en/home/insights/2011/12/thailand-income-tax.html

 
And you misunderstand what a reciprocal tax agreement actually is then, 
Under the agreement in force Thailand is not a signatory to this agreement with the UK, this agreement will allow automatic data sharing between signatory countries, ie names, address' and account details and balances of said accounts
 
Eg
If British national who is resident in the UK for tax purposes has a undeclared account in say Singapore, Blighty tax man is going to know about, in a similar manner Singapore national holding undeclared account in the UK, Singapore tax man will know about it, whether they decide to investigate the account is up to them 
 
This has nothing to do with reciprocal tax agreements, all a reciprocal tax agreement does is stop you paying full tax on the same money 
 
Eg  Teacher works in Thailand and is resident for tax in the UK, said teacher pays 20% tax in thailand on his money, on his UK tax return he can offset this 20% tax paid under the reciprocal agreement after providing proof, however if in the eyes of the tax under UK tax, the same amount would meant you had to pay 30% tax to HMRC, they are within theirs rights to ask for the 10% different - this is a very simple example and would very rarely be implemented
 
But from what i understand under Aussie tax rules this scenario is in play quite a lot with aussies who work overseas but maintain residency in Aus

 

Re your last point, I had exactly the same thinking: In my many years of working full-time, I NEVER EVER would have had sufficient free/vacation time to use a METV to Thailand. It's only now that I'm retired and keeper of my own time that I actually would be able to make use of it for extended travel.

Possibly it's different as you had a provable income in your government pension whereas the OP only has savings.

Be interesting to hear from anybody who's managed to get an METV on the basis of being retired but wasn't in receipt of a Pension (I.e. Are living on savings or income from property, investments etc...)

 
I think this is a regulation in Sweden.  In Australia, no need to be employed to get the METV.

I have never met a falang who was not a loser...
 
1.  broke and never happy
2.  complains all the time about everything
3.  smokes and drinks all day
4.  worst driver possible
5.  yells at people and then realizes it's his fault
6.  Has been here 10-years, and when leaves he then says how much he misses Thailand
 
I can only imagine him in his own country....
 

I stream (it's a hard life having 10GB Fibre [emoji14]) so will give it a whirl.


Having said that, I am normally on the same page as you when it comes to TV Shows so I need to make sure I'm in the right mood to give it a "fair" viewing [emoji1303]

Firstly I'm calling Troll on the OP but given he's elicited some decent replies I'll play along.

I'm surprised nobody has picked up on the "your only paradise" part don't know about the OP but (at the moment), I plan on moving to Thailand because I want to move there, not because I have to.

Expats (ok, at least us Brits) complain wherever we are (including/especially when in the UK but you should hear us Singapore Expats complaining about life here)

Fact is people with too little to complain about will always find something to fill the gap.