cliveshep

So I'm on a UK State Pension, which my Thai wife and her two older sisters share as none of them has any income at all. Assuming that the Thai Authorities ignore the Double Taxation treaty with the UK (they cannot be trusted really can they?) I figure the safest way is to claim 4 x 150k tax free allowances by transferring 25% of my pension via WISE from my UK bank account to each one once a month. All of them will then have an income under the 150k a year threshold. The wife can keep her share to pay bills by bank transfer, I transfer to her from here anyway, I'll just do it from the UK. No tax due on that amount as 25% of my monthly pension is not a lot. The pension is not a lot, the UK are renowned in Europe for the smallest pensions anyway, pensioners get a choice of starve or keep warm and some years back so many froze to death in their homes that following a national outcry the Government gave all eligible pensioners a Winter Fuel allowance, not a lot but it helped. You Americans now got yourselves a Trump, we Brits got ourselves a Keir Starmer as PM and a Labour Government, So the first thing Herr Starmer did was shout "Sieg Heil" (they got elected after 16 years of Conservative rule) and cancel Winter Fuel payments with immediate effect to release money to pay demands by the Rail workers Union who were threatening strike action. Labour love Unions, these workers already get £70,000 plus a year, pensioners up to £12,000 a year which is still taxed. So dividing that by 4 means none of us get past the Thai Tax free pay threshold. The sisters can keep their normal allowance from me and give the rest back in cash we can use to pay bills. It will cost a mere £100 or so extra in WISE fees a year to send it in 4 parts - peanuts. We can pay the utility bills cash in Big C if necessary.

Help needed please - a contact number for a reasonable mobile, i.e comes to my home - car mechanic in Khlong Sam Wa Tawan Ok. Job is simple and if I was more fit I'd do it myself. It is to adjust valve lash otherwise known as tappet clearances on a Suzuki Carry truck. Truck is under cover, I got the valve-cover gasket, plug tube seals and dielectric grease for plug caps. I also got a compressor and all the tools so just need the man or woman to do the job competently. I also got metric and imperial feeler gauges - no need for fag packets, and the correct gaps for inlet and exhaust in both thou of an inch or decimal parts of mm. Anyone know of someone capable near me they can put me in touch with? It is sounding like an ancient Ford tractor right now!

Update - went to CM and because of age and bad legs got a priority ticket and taken into a booth. One other guy getting chemo in hospital was also there. So showed the IO the paper and said WHY was I rejected. She said you got to apply BEFORE 15 days. So I said but but but in your own CM manual it clearly gives a 7 day window from 15 days to 7 days before expiry. No she says, must be in the few days before the 15 day before expiry. After 15 days it will be rejected. Then looks at my TM30 in my passport. Says this has expired. Rubbish I say, it is not a licence or a limited period item, your laws say if I spend one night away from home in a hotel the hotel must fill in a TM 30 and when I get home my wife must also fill in a TM 30 BUT I say I have not been away from home since the date of the one in the passport. No says entitled I.O - its expired and you need new one. But I am not the one to fill the form in, so poor wife has to get sundry papers to prove who she is and where she lives and fill in forms whereupon I get a little slip stapled into my passport. Need to do it again in one year says I.O as it expires. Gives me TM47 receipt after filling in another TM47 form. It is a stupid system, fill in application for TM67, they acknowledge receipt of details so I have complied with the law in telling them where I live. They then refuse to accept that until they issue a receipt or as we have seen reject it yet law has been complied with - they have been notified, just turn an official blind eye to the notification if it suits them. Clearly also the I.O's don't even read their own manual which according to a note on the top of the paper says it is issued by CM. So really no excuse for insisting on different date and time rules. If the system refuses me again in 90 days less 15 - 17 days I'll post another one straight away. F***k struggling through traffic to CM and being unable to park because of the eternal roadworks just because of a moronic system where even the I.O's. ignore their own system and make up their own rules. Pressed all my angry and frustrated buttons this fiasco has, totally unnecessary. If I was criminally minded I would not bother to fill in any of their forms and just live quietly under the radar and chances are they'd never find out until I died. I'm trapped because I am law-abiding trying to live under constantly changing rules and entitled I.O's.

Given the comment about syncing TM 30 - I assume THAT doesn't expire does it? Not done one of those for a few years and as never been away from home overnight don't need to since the 1st one when we bought current home and stopped renting.

Atari 64? Oh dear, do wonder I'm in the doo-doo then.

They apparently never explain themselves or give reasons and they didn't this time. The guidance manual does say top right it is a CW document but they are the main one anyway aren't they? As the document clearly shows only a 7 day window and I submitted one day outside that I assume that is the reason for the rejection.

So if doing the 90 day report online one only has a 7 day window - outside of that any notification will automatically be rejected. This is total ordure. WTF is wrong with these people? I and my wife got to drag in a 2hr journey now to CW because my last application was rejected - due on 10th and made all innocent of their changes on the 4th. Had they actually let me know with their acceptance of my application at the time I could have posted it as I used to do. Also as I have problems walking it is far from a joke as CW involves walking and standing around. I'll go in tomorrow reluctantly as my hips and back will cause endless misery for days after. The changes and restrictions are something for everyone to take note of - well done Howerde for linking this. I'll link it again to emphasise and stop others getting caught out by the I.O's sudden change. https://bangkok.immigration.go.th/en/tm47online-manual/

For information - my age precludes donation of my body and even if it did not being overweight with hypertension also would have precluded it. I think I'll have to consider putting the lot into her personal a/c as soon as it is transferred from the UK every month and get it put back 2 months before extension of stay. So long as she keeps a tight rein on spending it should work as she is quite trustworthy albeit spends money if she can as any woman does. Preferable of course is to withdraw from my account straight away and not tell the bank I'm dead but if authorities do check and match date and time she could be in a world of grief and that scares her. Side note - does the 400,000 have to be in a bank or could it conceivably be in cash for Immigration?

Many thanks to all the members who responded. To address some points or questions:- I made a will, got a Government official plus SIL to sign and date every page as a witness and signed every page myself. There are two copies. I used a modified standard Thai will form, modifications being to simply delete non-applicable clauses, keeping it simple. It is written in both Thai and English and translations have been checked. My wife has both copies and it clearly states that she is the sole beneficiary and that I have instructed her to clear my account on my death. I also clearly state that she has my pin numbers and passwords and has done for the last 10 years and that there are no other beneficiaries except her and my grown adult kids have rejected all claims. I do all my banking on-line, both UK bank which holds very little and my Bangkok Bank account. She has passwords and pin numbers to both accounts and the records will show that all transfers - and there are many every month - are made to her alone, I've told her to carry on the transfers until the account is empty. I make no other payments except one payment to her family monthly, all bills she pays - I transfer money, she pays. The reason is as she explained years ago - little money is ever left in her account, if I were to lose my bank card or an ATM scammed me we'd be stuffed, by only paying her by internet transfers my account is protected. I use a computer, not a mobile phone which I feel cannot be trusted in security terms. I have considered a joint account but feel it is probably better to let her do internet transfers and only after she has done them to call whoever she has to call over my case. My set limits for transfers are daily 0.5 million and 450,000 on internet transfer so she'll only need to do one and if God is gracious and I can still do it before last gasp even better. I think prepaying the company as Sheryl has suggested is a great idea and I copied that excellent post to my (LEGAL) wife (we were married in a UK Church) and will get her to make enquiries. If they were to undertake to do everything that would be great for my wife.

I'm 78, realistically my time is limited. I'm concerned about my wife being in trouble when I die, we got the 400,000 assuming she can get hold of it, she is a signatory on the account - seen under UV light on the book, but not sure if she can transfer the money legally if I'm dead. So does anyone know if she transfers my money to her own account using my laptop as we do all the time is it legal after my death, it's certainly legal when I'm alive. Next advice - she says it will cost most of that amount to dispose of my body and that is exorbitant - all she needs is the cheapest cremation, no monks wailing or chanting, no food, no flowers, we are both Christian but it seems that it is only in a temple that a body can be cremated. So advice please, we live on my UK pension and they are not generous, far from it!

O(k guys - update here. Went in last week with 2 sets of everything just in case. Asked the document checking "lady"(boy) if two sets were needed - answer yes. So got bank letter, two copies of that, two copies of updated bank book's last page, 2 copies of their extra 3 pages of forms about if I over-stayed yabba yabba and for wife asserting yes still married etc, presented these two massive 30 page bundles and were told we would be called. Well, we were not called and in the end thoroughly fed up because we were on-site in plenty of time for our appointment, but now long past that time and found an empty booth with an IO sitting in it and asked her why others were now in front when we were missed out. She looked at our appointment form, took our bundles of docs and said she'd do it for us. First thing she did was hand back one bundle - not need she said. But but but we said - doc checking told us....yes she said but I don't need 2 sets, they are wrong! So whether right or wrong she took one set, yakked and joked with my wife, then called us to go inside to a supervisor who simply handed back my passport and said finished! What says I? No sweetie? (like dentists do for children!) So she laughed and joked could I still chew candies if I had my teeth still when the I.O who did the paper work shushed her saying she'd offend me but as I laughed they laughed and all went good. Also good because the booth we were supposed to to in was staffed by a right miserable I.O my wife remembered from last year as rude so we didn't need to sit in front of her! So go back for extension stamp on 5th April now. All over for another year!

I always scan all documents and print them out in colour producing one legible set for my annual extension but last year they upset my wife by demanding an additional set in black & white at Chang Wattana. She got mad because she is the one to go downstairs to get 25 pages of copies, which by the way, are as usual almost indecipherable with pictures mostly blacked out of details. As we had a booking time this made us late. We were not the only ones caught out by this, lots of disgruntled ex-pats vocalising their thoughts on the Thai Imm Service which were far from complimentary. I did not disagree! So my question is - in order to prepare now and not get caught out again - is this now a requirement of the Imm Bureau as when printing I can always print a legible set in B & W so the I.O's are happy bunnies? I.e two sets, one of which (if not both) must be in black and white?

Why would you pay for a free site when you can download ad-free using Clip Grab? Anyway - confession time - lack of comments button etc is/was my fault as for some reason I must have increased the screen magnification and YouTube retained the setting. Made the magnification less and hey presto I got comments etc back again. I only found this out while accessing the site from Firefox instead of Opera because I wanted to make a comment and deciding the font was too small increased magnification whereupon the comments section and button vanished. Decreasing magnification on Opera restored it too.

I sent the money to my wife, Wise sent it to me instead which is why 12 hours later on the web page my wife's transfer showed "pending" as money not received. I complained to Wise but they are probably Thai as they promptly blamed me in spite of the evidence to the contrary saying I must have clicked my own account - which I did not. I sent all the print-outs and screen grabs off their web site in proof but they ignored them. You cannot win with some banks as no matter what facts and proof you have they got their own "truth", I later deleted my wife's account as she lost her purse with i.d card, bank card and driver's licenses. Took a few hours of driving around to get all three replaced, a lot easier than it would have been in the UK. I told her to get a new account as well as someone put a small amount of money into her old account although she had blocked the card. She did that and a new account in her name was set up on Wise with a new account number. I tested it and money went through fine. The reason for splitting my pension between my account and hers is to avoid a transfer amount that at the end of the year would attract a tax liability for either of us if the venal Thais go ahead with ignoring the double tax agreement with the UK and taxing my pension..

Is anyone else having issues with transferring money from a UK bank via the internet to the UK branch of Wise? Normally it takes seconds to arrive at Wise and seconds for Wise to send it on to a Thai bank but so far a transfer showing up on my Lloyds account as having been paid has not appeared in the Wise account for forwarding. It's a bit worrying especially as, although only a relatively small amount, we need it to stay solvent and in 2 days a larger amount needs to be transferred. Is this exceptional or are there often times when the money takes a long time to get to Wise? First time for me so far! Checked bank - defo states on my statement the money has gone to the Wise account saved in my payee list, nothing changed as far as I know with Wise.