mudcat

Ah, tax season - comes after the holiday season to wipe away that smile. My wife is a U.S. citizen and, as a Thai, is surprised at the U.S. government's intrusiveness. As my wife plans to move all her financial assets to Thailand when she inherits if I pre-decease her, we have been working together for her to file her FinCEN114 (FBAR) report. She will not need to file taxes as her interest earnings will be below her standard deduction even after beginning Social Security. As there is no tax filing she is also exempts from filing f8938 even though her Thai assets would otherwise require it. To prepare and file her FinCEN114 she updates her Thai bank books and identifies her interest earnings and high balance in each account. She enters each payment and balance into a spreadsheet using the appropriate December 31st exchange rate from the U.S Treasury (below) to convert her total baht interest and high balance to U.S. dollars (rounding her interest total and rounding up her high balances). She then opens a a template FinCEN114.pdf that has each bank account with their address already entered. She enters a new filing name for the year e.g. XXXX2022 on page 1 and enters the tax year on page 3. She then transfers the high dollar balances for each account. She saves the file as FBAR XXXX2022.pdf, moves to the home page and completes the filing information (name, email, and phone). She saves all the spreadsheet and pdf into a single folder along with all emails from [email protected] After receiving my LTR-P visa last year I no longer maintain enough of a Thai bank account to need to file FBARs any longer and took the ThB830K and bought us a new car. As I am a >20-years older and my finances in the U.S. have a number of moving pieces we are using a tax service (MyExpatTaxes) because they will hold my wife's hand to complete our married filing jointly if I am unable to help. I have stressed the importance of staying compliant for the day when she can file for spouse or survivor Social Security benefits. Get the correct exchange rate for FBAR (and we use if for Schedule B as well) https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/treasury-reporting-rates-exchange/treasury-reporting-rates-of-exchange

If you have a camera and a photo shop to print 4x6 photos you can prepare photos at: https://epassportphoto.com/ Their free service produces a properly composed and framed 4-photo 4x6-inch jpg that you can crop or print to cut. I always print the following sizes for various Thai requirements so I have them at hand and don't need to run around. Looking for 2x2 inch - try Thailand or almost any country. Looking for 4x6 cm - try Greece - visa or passport Looking for 4x3 cm - try Japan - alien registration

I believe that this observation/question can be answered with my wife's universal response: "People Say"

The passport expiration issue led us to renew our U.S. passports for the next ten-years and then transfer my extension to the new passport the day after we received the passports back. I remember some people reporting that it was impossible to change passports in the middle of an application. Not a problem as there is no cost until you are successful.

Sorry, here is the blank TM95 TM.95 blank.pdf

The TM95 has one clear reference the need to report if resident for more than a year and what I consider a clarifying statement that a report is due each year

The Daikan inverter unit we have has Powerfull setting to get the temperature down sooner. I believe this forces the compressor to run at maximum. Check to see if the model you are considering has a similar option.

Has anyone received from BOI the allowable methods of >1-year in the Kingdom notification? Other 1-year reports allow mail in and the Royal Gazette states any IO can accept the notification. Sorry if I missed it, somewhere in the 57-pages.

Stop the rampant wage theft (paying less than minimum wage, violating work hours, late checks, and phony 'deductions). Make it clear to the worker that they and their co-workers have the right to the 10% Service charges we the customers have been paying.

For myself, the benefits of a LTR visa far outweighed the modest costs. Known Costs: Submit Agency Pension letter, Social Security Benefit Verification, and Brokerage IRA statement. Pay one-time 50,000 Thai Baht fee. Two trips to Bangkok (initial and at 5-years) Sign, date, and submit TM95 annual address report (assume they get yearly addresses by mail set up) As I am 74-years old possibility for an agent to do annual notifications and/or extension at five-years. Benefits: No more 100 km round trip to the immigration office to extend my Non-IMM O stay with all that entailed. No more keeping track of 90-day reports and wondering if the application is working today. No more running to the local immigration office for a re-entry permits or hoping the airport office is open. Cash out the 800,000 Thai Baht Bangkok Bank account term account and buy a new car. Adjust my health insurance to protect my assets rather than any future immigration requirements. I am assuming that use of an agent for those with 'simple' cases will be at a reasonable cost for reporting and extensions.

Rouge is what your maiden aunt colored her cheeks with. Think you mean Rogue as in the Nissan SUV and other miscreants.

If she won't agree to reason some late afternoon park it near the market with keys in the ignition and the windows open. Problem car is now hers to deal with and you can move on.

We recently bought a Toyota Veloz to replace our eight-year old Chevrolet Spin (also 7-seater but missing many of the automotive advances over the last few years, particularly in terms of safety, e.g. blind spot and crossing traffic monitoring, side airbags, and IsoFix car seats). No long trips as of yet as still have red plates so no real world experiences (and remember to request an English user manual - no charge but they wanted a copy of my passport). A factor for us was Toyota's reputation for service and the much better retained value should we sell at some point in the future. It feels and looks much bigger even though the measurements are not much different. I understand the Honda BRV is being updated so I would do some research on it and see if delivery will be a problem (it was for their Mobilo when we bought the Spin).

I also closed my term account (mine at BBK). I had always described the ThB800K for my non-imm O (retirement) as a parked car without any keys, so when I got the stack of bills I turned it into a new car (Toyota Veloz). Anyone want a good but inexpensive family car? 2014 Chevrolet Spin with 80K km - very clean with all service records - it will get your family out of the back of the pickup into air conditioned comfort with 6 shoulder belts and one lap belt at the bargain price of ThB200K including 9-months of first class insurance. If interested PM me.

Not seeing the actual application your friend submitted it may be that they selected 'Option 1' which requires health insurance with the 10-month validity 'gotcha' or 'Option 2' that requires a form of Social Security that includes health care (not sure if anyone has gotten BOI to accept TriCare or the civilian version of Tricare). To have one's liquid assets considered (not sure what form their assets take - mine were in U.S. IRAs). To have the BOI consider assets, one needs to select 'Option 3' and leave 'Option 1' and/or 'Option 2' unselected. Wealthy-Pensioner p 3.pdf

It sounds as if you have health insurance in your home country and have a travel/long-stay policy in mind. See if you can qualify using your assets to avoid the expense of purchasing a Thai policy or an overseas policy and coordinating policy expiration date 10-months in the future.

I do not remember any screen numbers during the process - but now that I have my visa it does show Screen 8

I did discuss that Roth IRAs are not subject to tax or early withdrawal penalties (if one is 59 21/2 or older). I included and boxed the graphic from my consolidated statement (attached) to demonstrate that the value was sufficient to assure that I had sufficient resources to avoid being a public burden.

I am also concerned about what happens as I get truly aged (not there yet, but I can see it coming). The OA offered a much simpler set of requirement for maintaining and extending my stay . I sent a email to BOI asking that they consider explicitly the visa holder, if unable to attend because of disability to include the TM7 verbiage allowing for that eventuality: When it comes time to obtain stamps for the second five-years of the visa after the BOI has reviewed the qualifying documents it would be very helpful to those of us who are older that accommodation for disabled or handicapped visa holders to have a family member or an agent to attend at BOI and OSSC be included in your form similar to the phrasing that Immigration uses for annual extensions on their TM.7 form (attached): ค ำเตือน NOTICE 1. ผู้ขอจะต้องยื่นค าขออนุญาตด้วยตนเอง APPLICANT MUST SUBMIT THE APPLICATION IN PERSON เว้นแต่ ผู้ป่วยหรือผู้พิการที่ไม่สามารถมายื่นด้วยตนเองได้ WITH THE EXCEPTIONS OF HANDICAPPED PATIENTS OR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES I understand that the BOI may have little experience with the older population applying for WP visas, but like many long term residents I saw this as an opportunity to have an easier time complying with Thai Immigration requirements. The program offers us a easier path forward than Non-IMM O extension based on retirement or marriage to a Thai national. It would be a shame that such minor details such as where annual reports need to be made or failing to build in accommodation for handicapped or disabled holders would discourage many applicants by replicating the same sort of troublesome details that seem to be built in to mainstream Immigration rules. I may be one of the oldest LTR Visa holders - I am 74-years old and will be 79-years old when my visa needs to be extended. None of us can predict the future, but I can easily imagine that trips to Bangkok may become difficult or impossible over the ten-year visa validity.

I chose to qualify using my brokerage account, including my Roth IRA. The consolidated statement had a three-year lookback chart as well as a current valuation - this may have given them some assurance that the account was stable (or at least as stable as any account can be these days). I don't consider this option as self-insurance, rather I see the health insurance I maintain here as protection for my assets from medical expenses. After I retired I kept my employer provided Kaiser HMO plan and after 65-years old their Senior Advantage plan, but these plans required that I be out of their service area for no more than 6-months, so I dropped when I relocated in November 2020. Check with your HR if any of the options they offer will provide coverage if you are living full-time here once you are 65-years old - you may have better luck with traditional Medicare not dropping you as they are not tied to a service area like Medicare advantage plans. In any case Medicare will not pay for regular, non-emergency care overseas, so you will at some point need to straddle the Pacific Ocean or keep an accurate calendar.

I submitted my IRS transcript which is non-editable with Social Security number(s) showing only the last four digits. Be helpful to point out the lines showing the income you wish to be considered, e.g. Social Security full benefit, pension, and any IRA distributions.

Traveling to Bangkok annually for a ministerial report of address makes no sense, and is counter to the approved notice from the Royal Gazette that aublumberg kindly posted and I repost here. The notice we receive from immigration is on page 4 ant the TM.95 we are required to file is page 16. T_0024.PDF

I doubt that the TM.95 is intended to be used only at One Stop Service Center, as the notice of when to review states: Any alien who has been granted a Long - Term Resident Visa (LTR Visa) and permitted to temporarily stay in the Kingdom must notify a competent official at a local or central immigration office of his/her address every year.

Sorry about attaching the wrong TM - here is the TM.95/ TM.95 blank.pdf

Thanks aublumberg. Here is the TM.95 extracted as a one-page acrobat pdf TM.94 blank.pdf