cliveshep

I got the same question but clearly as it is now March and you still haven't got an answer they are all asleep or hibernating. I'm going to 'phone them on Monday and ask as official advice says only GBP £ sterling is acceptable but I don't have a UK card any more and they don't accept cash I could get from a Bureau de Change. Google says they do accept Thai bank cards but I think better to phone and ask!

Thanks for that. Just looked on Google and no cash accepted BUT, and here is the crazy bit, contrary to what it appears to mean on the UK help pages apparently VFS take the payment in the local currency in Bkk. I'll phone the buggers on Monday and ask. It is stupid all the contradictory information from these government websites. Naturally I have a Thai debit card so if google is right they'll accept that - or not! As sooner or later every British Expat is going to have to deal with this I'll post the answer. But as so many have already renewed there surely one of them can explain how they paid?

Later in September or October I'll be paying for a British passport renewal at VFS Global in Bangkok. I'll be doing it in person. Guidance says they only accept payment in pounds sterling. My UK ban k debit card expires in June, they'll send a new one to my UK address where my daughter lives. She won't be coming here until November to bring it with her. Certainly not going to send it by courier as it would get "lost" on the way. The UK bank gave me loads of heartache once before so I do not want to involve them. My question is as VFS Global want payment in pounds sterling can I for simplicity just go to a Bureau de Change, change baht to sterling and pay in cash?

Logically, giving money to your immediate family with no demands or requirements can be nothing but gifts. Doing so to complete strangers can only be a tax evasion scam. So I think your idea is a fallacy.

My wife is only 41 so does that mean I cannot use her 60k? Well, I guess I can transfer 60k to her directly from the UK. As for gift rules, surely a monthly payment via WISE to a SIL is a gift, it is hardly payment for work, i.e. from a job so as said SIL is not married to me and not my responsibility then any money sent to her has to be a gift doesn't it?

Thank you so much. Right now I'm about thb14,000 over the threshold so the gift thing will pull the numbers down. You have no idea what a relief your answers are and I'm so thankful to you. Defo won't be filing any Thai tax return, one less chore.

Wow, does that mean I got 560,000 I can bring in tax free? Given my small pension if so that would cover it completely.

Sorry, old age plus a lot going on right now. Guess I missed it. No offence intended.

Can someone please help me out here? So many posts but cannot recall seeing anything definitive about actual allowances. I'm a retired Brit on a state pension, not large and much of it goes to support my wife's two spinster sisters. Given we are all struggling on one meagre UK basic pension and given the way the exchange rate has hit us badly I really want to know what allowances would be mine, and what the sisters. Thinking to transfer the pension in 3 sums, one to me, one to my wife (who is the one who spends it anyway as she is in charge of bills) and one to my sil. Thinking is if it is transferred from the UK to 3 people instead of just me the fees might cost a little more with WISE but all 3 would have allowances to set against the money. We just cannot afford to lose any more to uncontrolled bills. Trump has screwed the exchange rate it seems. So - what at age 79 would be the total amount I could transfer to my account before incurring a tax liability? Ditto my wife and ditto her sister. Some good and sound correct advice would enable me to split the pension sensibly whereas if I transferred it all to me as I have been doing and then disbursed it I could be into a world of grief perhaps?

She is 41 and does not work. Attempts to get a job fail because she is over 35 and Thai is an ageist society. Never mind she is fluent in English and has a UNI degree in Business Administration she is too old. So the idea was to work from home, she has heard of others making a living that way and given I am 38yrs older than her (we've been married for 14yrs and are still in love for those nay-sayers out there) she will need to support herself whenever I die. Sure she is beautiful still with great looks and figure and is smart and loyal but she has a poor opinion of Thai men and has heard bad things about Westerners so has discounted re-marriage. That is why if short term trading can work she would like to do it.

My wife is doing this and has an account. She uses only small money which after a few wins she always loses. She is practicing and reading lots of books and is wondering about joining up with a group but that seems to also be a no win exercise. Can anyone advise if joining a trading group is worth it or just another way to throw money away? She has to pay to join, and they choose all the investments but is they loose of course she loses. This is a subject I just don't understand so I'm looking for recommendations on groups or informed advice to stay well clear.

I'm confused. Can anyone explain please if a UK old age pension is or is not assessable income in Thailand? The UK Revenue Dept do take tax on my pension but only on the small balance after deducting the £12570 tax-free allowances. So they want £201 for year to 5/4/25 but next year estimate my liability to be £358. Why I wonder? Anyway, the question relates to Thailand's tax situation as I bring in my pension for I and my non-working wife.

There vis no way at my age I'm getting a migraine reading all 77 pages of this stuff. So, for the British expats on here who ae pensioners like myself I offer this UK-Thai DTA text: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80bddc40f0b623026953eb/uk-thailand-dtc180281_-_in_force.pdf Specifically article 19 which seems to exclude pensions if I read it aright, perhaps others might be more enlightened. I pay tax on my UK pension, which is Keir Starmer's way of clawing back the triple lock increases and maintaining a British Pensioner in poverty, bearing in mind they have also cancelled the Winter Fuel Payment lifeline for so many. For interest - any tax on my pension would negate annual increases as the personal allowances haver not increased in line with inflation or indeed at all for over 5 years so not only the Labour Party are screwing people but also the previous Tory mismanagement. Plus given the absence of other treaties UK Pensions are "frozen". For those Brits who understand - Guy Fawkes was a great patriot who suffered an unfortunate mishap. We need another more successful one today!

That sounds great, where did you buy it please and what specs? Can you link it for me?

My lovely smart Thai wife found this on Lazada - essentially old box new guts it seems. Specs are quite good I think, it has 16gb DDR ram, 500gb SSD. Cost with those selections is thb14000. I still need to buy a monitor. Link is https://www.lazada.co.th/products/dell-optiplex-7090-tower-cpu-core-i5-11500-max-460ghz-gen11-ssd-m2-nvme-windows-11-wifiblutooth-used-i5510585683-s23401263322.html? I like Dell, my previous 2 Dell laptops have been pretty good, bits readily available like keyboards, screens, HDD's, fans, all of which I have changed over the years here in Thailand. Decided not to buy another lappie as I got one eye with cloudy vision and the other not so good, I am 79 so nothing will improve and no money for medical intervention so a nice big 24 inch screen will serve better. Comments please - is it a decent spec for the money bearing in mind it is a Dell!

I'm married to a Thai girl so it's the 400k route I use. As for the World Wide income I'll keep my money in the UK and transfer to my daughter who will send it via Wise to the same recipients as my "cunning plan" so nothing for the Thai taxman as my daughter is living in the UK.

Microsoft say I can update from Windows 10 for free so I guess if I transfer my Windows 10 from the Dell to a new machine I can then do a genuine Windows 11 free update?

Seems most buyer problems come from Windows not updating due probably to fake licence key, the hardware seems to work fine with the chief complainer identified above grouching about wi-fi and bluetooth. For me - if it works then it's ok, I only want to use it at home with our very fast fibre BB and if it won't operate on the inbuilt wi-fi there is also a dongle one can use. Also I got cable I can use for the internet. Just need to think about dodgy Windows licence key issues, not sure I want to go down the keygen route.

Charlie H - thanks, I saw that and did skim through but it didn't directly address my concerns about cheap Chinese products so started a new thread.

Well, that's encouraging, thank you for that, much appreciated.

The ones quoted are all 16GB machines, I suppose the ram could be expanded but I don't do gaming and doubt my modest requirements would warrant expansion. They do have a 500GB SSD though. I got Netflix but tend not to use it, my son pays for it and gives my free use but TBH what I do is look at what is on offer and download what takes my fancy from elsewhere and delete when watched. More convenient than streaming.

You got that wrong pal, I was born in 1945!

Useless for a landline but NOT for a mobile with internet connection.

I have a delightful and loving Thai wife, she is a treasure so although on a meagre UK pension no way I'd leave her just because venal authorities wish to plunder my pension. BUT my pension already pays medicine for one person monthly and supports two with living expenses monthly. Normally I do bank to bank internet transfers once the pension is transferred from my UK bank via WISE to my Bangkok bank account. So if they choose to tax my pension in spite of a DTA in place, because UK tax is far less than what we are told Thailand will charge us, to limit tax liabilities I have a cunning plan (as Blackadder would say!). I see from elsewhere on this thread that the tax-free pay is 150,000 p.a, so my cunning plan is to actually transfer via WISE from the UK to myself, my wife, and the other recipients avoiding the money first landing in my BKK account. That way the 150,000 tax free rule will be applied on each of the 4 persons and no tax would be paid on any. We live quite modestly on under thb25,000 a month anyway so no probs. WISE charges on the 4 transfers would be a minimal extra over for 4 instead of current 1 transfer charge so not an issue. We have no debts, got our own truck and a car and a motorbike, a 5 bed-4 bath detached house in a walled village all paid for so it's just food and utility bills plus a bit for the vehicles we need to worry about. For those supporting others paying them from home country directly via WISE or whoever allows them to use the 150,000 tax free allowance so it does cut down potential taxation by reducing the taxable amounts by 4 x 150,000 (600,000) baht in my case. That more than covers my UK pension which is a bit pathetic, the UK are very mean to their pensioners.

Lazada have this one for thb5499.55 - Arecor F7แล็ปท็อปคอมพิวเตอร์สำหรับเล่นเกม240Hz 2.5K 15.6 ''Ips AMD Ryzen R7 5700U 8แกน CPU 4.3กิกะเฮิร์ตซ์16กิกะไบต์ DDR4 512กิกะไบต์ SSD 9000มิลลิแอมป์ชั่วโมงโน๊ตบุ๊ค - so thb2500 cheaper than Big C and far higher specs. Pre-installed Windows 11 Pro so no language problems and it has a dual English/Thai keyboard.