Moonlover

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that point. It's a long time since I held ISAs. So I guess that the enquiry from your ISA provider was in connection with this NYC business that going on everywhere. But you seem to have accepted my statement regarding tax residence so I guess we can call that touché. 🙂

Then instead of reading the crap on this forum (and there's lots of that), try a mindfulness course.

Thailand is not considering making you tax resident. If you stay here more than 180 days in the year you are tax resident. Those of us who live here permanently have always been tax residents, The fact that the TRD have never involved in their tax affairs is neither here nor there. (pardon the pun) Your ISA company are quite right to query you on tax residency because only residents of the UK can hold ISAs. https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts

I share that view with you, but we're not his family. Tradition runs deep in the Irish soul.

Yes that is quite true, but the very fact that the family are going to such lengths to have his body repatriated is indicative that they prefer the traditional way. And burial is still the most common way in Ireland.

He came from Ireland. Good Catholics don't do Buddhist cremations.

This is totally irrelevant to Robby's death. All divers check the contents of their cylinders for pressure and gas mix if using Nitrox which many do nowadays. Even if the pressure was a bit low, (which sounds like bar stool gossip to me) it would have no bearing on the cause of death.

Sorry but I've heard or read it all before and some! By taking that one small sentence out of my post, your response becomes completely out of context with what I wrote. Thank you for your effort, but you're barking up the wrong tree.

I'm forever reading about the 'new rules' on this forum. The fact is, that as far as us retired expats are concerned, there are no 'new rules'. In theory we have always been liable to taxation, however it's clear that the TRD have, thus far respected the terms of our DTAs and left us to get on with our lives. Plus the bonus of having us bring lots of extra money into the economy and in many cases supporting families as well. IMO This situation has not been created by TRD, it's come about by certain meddling amateur tax advisors on this forum (and we all know who they are) and greedy professional tax advisors looking to make a killing. I do not believe it's a case of not been thought out properly. I don't think it was even contemplated in the first place.

I've no issues with that. For pensioners, which I'm sure would constitute the main the main group that is quite easy to do.

And just to add to that, were the TRD to go chasing around tracking down all us 'miscreants', they would find that most retirees won't owe them any money. Most of us are protected by DTAs in various forms or are drawing pensions that cannot be taxed in any other country anyway. The yield IMO would not be worth the effort and I wouldn't like to contemplate the anguish it might cause amongst the community. Let sleeping dogs lie is, by far their best policy.

No I haven't had that experience because I've been nowhere near a TRD office. But I did read this back in September 2023: 'The program will begin January 1, 2024 and apply only to tax residents in Thailand meaning tourists and short term workers will be exempt. Also exempt will be those who have been taxed in a foreign country that has a standing Double Tax Agreement with Thailand' And the more I read, the I more hear and more I see, the more I believe it to be true. I also read recently that in a poll conducted by the Thai Enquirer, 58% of expats polled said they have not registered with the TRD for a TIN and do not intend to do so. So I am in good company. (I hope) https://www.thaienquirer.com/50744/thai-government-to-tax-all-income-from-abroad-for-tax-residents-starting-2024/

Perhaps you, and others who think that death from hypothermia is just a bit of a joke should read this article. Deaths during these cold spells are all too common in Thailand. And sammiieuk, you didn't answer my question: 'why only Thais?' https://ddc.moph.go.th/uploads/files_en/34320210406072042.pdf

Your experience, which I'm not questioning, still does not mean that someone with an undiagnosed heart problem would have problems on their 1st dive, which is what you claimed.

How could you possibly know that? Diving is, by and large, a very relaxing activity. Someone could be diving for years with an undiagnosed heart problem. If Robby's death was related to diving, the problem would manifest during or shortly after the dive, (I've known of one such case in Cyprus) not hours afterwards. (Ex PADI Dive Master with about 4,000 dives under my weight belt)

Complete nonsense! The human body can become hypothermic in temperatures as high as 100C. Add alcohol into the mix and that threshold becomes even higher. As I understand it most of the country has been seeing night time temperatures in single figures. Death by hypothermia is perfectly feasible at the moment. And why only Thais, have you got something against them?

If the motorcyclist had been riding on the main road (as you call it) where he should have been, there would not have been an accident, despite the car driver's stupid behaviour.

I presume you are not a motorcyclist. First up the 'hard shoulder is NOT where we are supposed to be riding and it's a very dangerous place to be doing so. One has no 'wiggle room' at all when things get dodgy as they often do. The safest way to ride on a road such as this is in the middle of the left hand lane and travelling at the same speed as the traffic around you. That way you have a chance of either braking or manoeuvring out trouble. I've been riding here for 10 years now and I have never been 'forced off' the road as you suggest happens. Whilst I agree that the fault was primarily car driver in this accident, the motorcyclist put himself in harms way by his foolish and unfortunately all too common riding habit.

This ruling came in at around the same time as we saw the enhanced anti money laundering laws being implemented. It is probably to prevent a Truemoney account, which is relatively easy to open, being used as a mule account.

And here's a nice simple plan. Open an account with Wise and start sending money to your Thai bank account. How simple is that? Confucius said: 'Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated'. He sure was right there.

We will just have to wait and see won't we.

That's because I have never used Revolt nor do I know what they charge. So I can't comment can I.

8 deg C this morning, just before sun rise in Sakon Nakhon. (which claims to be statically the coldest province in Thailand) I had to visit the bathroom at 5am and it was b-b-bloody cold in there! But it's great now having just returned from a hour's walk out in the cool fresh air blowing in from the South China Sea. And it seems that there's more to come yet.

I actually think that Trump might just have a chance. Not because of his diplomatic skills, which IMO are next to zero, but because he could just find that he'll be pushing against an open door. Russia has big problems. The economy is a mess, the military are getting war weary and ever closer to revolt with many desertion's. Influential business people are complaining and beginning to openly criticise the war and even Putin himself. Putin badly needs a face saving way of getting out of the mess he's led his country into and Trump, despite his bombastic approach to just about everything, might just provide the way that he needs. Fortune often favours the bold.

Ok, good. Now that we all understand that! (err do we?) In its prime role, the one in which it was conceived and intended, Wise is absolutely perfect. I started using them following the demise of the embassy income letters some 4 years ago. I've been doing 2 or 3 transfers from my UK bank account via Wise ever since and they have never let me down. And it's even more convenient now that they have developed standing orders for transfers. I can just sit back and watch the money roll in. What is they to complain about? Nothing as far as I'm concerned.