4MyEgo

Slap yourself man, have you forgotten where you are, no harm in dreaming I suppose...

We all knew that, yet here we are, he was moved aside (intentionally), so that the pigs can get right into the troth and do as they do. He is a real threat to changing Thailand, I just hope that he continues to get the full support of those who voted him in as the next PM and that he gets in as PM next time around, but no doubt, someone will make sure he doesn't.

Or what ?

I noticed that they have watered it down to make more profit, call me paranoid, but I noticed the difference just after Covid restrictions were lifted, suffice to say, I believe they did this to recoup the losses during Covid. Well that's my take on it.

https://www.resmed.co.th/

I'm with you on that, heard about this a year ago and here we are, nothings changed.

Everything (property) in Sydney goes up in value over time, that said, a studio wouldn't suit me as I would be bringing the wife and 2 kids over for 8 weeks each year, so the kids will require a room, a studio would be depressing, especially when coming from a very large house. One also has to think about resale, e.g. more buyers looking for 2 bedders, than 1 bedders of studio's, that said, I also know that the majority of studio's are under 50 square metres and banks won't led to anything under that.

I wouldn't need the wife then, suffice to say, she has a roll to play, as I do, I am the ATM, or as she puts it, broken ATM

Every immigration office has different rules, so stick with what your immigration office requires. For the past 7 years, my immigration office has always required, embassy verified translation of PP from the very first application, to the end of my old passport expiry date, e.g. expired in November 2023, I then went and saw them in September 2023 when I received the new passport and had them transfer the stamps to the new passport. My marriage extension expires at the end of this month (January) and I called them as I wasn't getting any answers here on the forum, and the immigration officer advised me to bring all the docs as usual verifying my PP (old), and the new PP, but next year I won't require the verification papers of my PP (old), just my new PP and all stamped pages along with my photo page.

My Passport expired in November 2023, I had the new Passport in September and had the stamps transferred then, my marriage extension expires 31 January 2024. I have since spoken to immigration and they advised to bring the papers I have been using, i.e. copies of the old passport translations (Oz) and the new Passport and next year I won't need to use the translation papers for the old passport, as the new Passport will be a continuation of the old Passport, if that makes sense.

I don't believe it matters. I will take copies of the old paperwork and passport, that should cover it.

Fortunately for me, we know how to enjoy things on the cheap with the wife also making cut lunches, why waste it when you don't have to.

Agree with you on that, the governments have nothing else to prop the country up with, so they create schemes to keep everyone in the property market, they of course receive the stamp duty on transfers, plus the capital gains tax on sales, not to mention foreign vendor taxes, on top of land taxes. There will come a time, that there is a correction, however having been in the industry in all facets of it, I haven't seen that correction since entering it in 1987.

You have no idea what your talking about, not all properties (units) go down in value, the smaller the block, the better, close proximity rail for the City e.g. within a 15km radius is another plus.

I am pretty sure the Sydney market where I would be looking to buy can increase 3.5% per year for 2 years, besides, repairs and maintenance would be minimal, if any as I would be buying something already renovated, or partly renovated, besides a hot water system, not much can go wrong with a unit. Naturally you would put it on the market 3-6 months before you decide to return and settlement can occur around the time you are anticipating your departure with portability in play. I have never lost on a resale on property in Sydney, you just have to know where to buy, when to buy, and know which are the agents you buy from and the agents you sell with. Worst case scenario, if it doesn't sell, I can borrow against it and use those funds to trade until it sells, that or lease it and pay tax on it, but leaving it empty would be a better proposition while using the borrowed (line of credit) funds to trade until it is sold.

I am about to apply for the annual marriage extension and am printing off my usual truck load of documents and noticed that every year, for the past 7 years I have had to print off copies of my passport translation, i.e. government stamped copies of my passport confirming it's authenticity. The question I have now is, as I have a new passport and had the old stamps transferred to the new passport back in September, will they still require me to get this new passport stamped by the issuing government office as the old one was, or do I still provide them with the old government stamped copies of my old passport and provide that to them with my new passport. I would assume that they would want everything as per normal, plus the new passport, but hey, you got to ask the question, after all, we are talking about over zealous immigration officers from my experience over the years.

Ah yes the annual run around and mountain of repeated paperwork for those got nothing else to do immigration offices to approve us an extension. As everyone mentioned and you are aware, you will require a new Kor Ror from your Amphur, 20 baht, wife gets ours while she leaves me at the bank for an hour waiting to get the letter of adequate funds in account from a few months prior, usually get photos across the road as well, if I don't have any from previous years, and then we go and drop it all off with a smile the day after, but not before getting my bankbook updated on the day, e.g. ATM withdrawal of 1,000 baht, then walk into bank and ask for bankbook to be updated, then get 2 copies of bankbook page to go with the other photocopies of the bankbook pages. Don't forget to take ALL of your paperwork and (more) just in case they ask you for more, plus the exact amount to pay, i.e. 1,900 baht, otherwise you more than likely won't see your 100 baht change. I hate this time of the year, but have it down pat, however it still takes at least 10 hours by the time you print everything off, go to where you need to go and drive to immigration and home. To think I have better things to do

Mother in-law should have taught him to iron, wash his clothes, and cook when he was younger, then booted him out when he finished his studying, either school or Uni, as we did with ours, so that they could look after themselves. She sounds like a doting mother, got to feel for the wife, she should GTF out of there, ASAP. My wife does everything, including the plumbing, not because I won't help her, she just won't have it, however of late, she agrees for me to hang out and bring in the clothes, clearing the table after dinner, bringing in the big water bottles after delivery once a week, driving the kids to school and putting the garbage out. She only agreed to this change about a year ago as I told her that I my rear end was getting sore sitting on it most of the time not doing anything, that said, it did take over a decade for her to agree to the change. I have to admit that It was VERY hard ALL of those years being told that I can't do anything because I was a useless, good for nothing farang, only good for making money. Yes I know, they broke the mould when they made this one

Living in a caravan for 2 years has got to be hard for anyone, that said, I would want to live within a 30 minute drive of my daughters place and a couple of mates that I know, for when getting together. My objective would be to enjoy the 2 years while there, e.g. train rides, site seeing, beach walks etc. Buying a 2 bedroom unit would be perfect for me as the wife and kids would have somewhere to stay for March/April school holidays when they come over for the 2 year period, and me going back to Thailand in October when the kids have school holidays shouldn't be an issue with Services Australia as I believe they allow you a 2 week trip per year and if that is the case, I would only be away from the family for 5 months at a time, which I believe is doable. While the unit will have strata levies to pay, plus council and water rates, the initial outlay, plus stamp duty and legal costs, should be recouped when I sell after the 2 year portability period is granted, that said, the outlay won't be generating me an income, but will save me about $40,000 renting for 2 years after taking away $12,000 for the above outgoings. It would be pointless making $40,000 a year on the money that I would outlay o the unit, as I usually make per year, because most would reduce the pension to nothing, suffice to say, they have you cornered every way you turn.

Hey, now there's a job you might consider doing when your there doing your 2 year stint, cause havoc.

That's a tough call, suppose you have to weigh it all up, but the rent free situation would provide you with around 30,000 a month there, as for here when portability kicks in, is another story, maybe 20,000 baht a month say, still better than a kick in the teeth. The above said, if you received $300 a week, you would want to make sure you could live on that for the 2 years. I think you should be right, and if you could, all you lost was 2 years of being here, so unless you have family here, it would be a personal choice and whether say 20,000 baht a month, so to speak would improve your quality of life here for the remaining years you would have left to kick here, now that could be anything from 2 to 22 depending on genetics and lifestyle.

Yeh, probably why, they most likely wanted to punish you with finding you a job. My M8 does live in the north, past Newcastle, could be that his nearest Centrelink office is far away, e.g. an hour or so, but not sure if that has anything to do with it, he did also send me a screen shot of the questionnaire which seemed pretty straight forward to answer.

Finally, someone who sees things as they are. I have been here 8 years as a non resident (so that makes me a tax resident of Thailand), however, I don't earn an income as far as anyone is concerned. I remit at least a million baht a year for living expenses. My money is in my overseas bank account (savings account), which of course is linked to my share portfolio account, any shares that pay dividends are fully franked i.e. (tax is already paid at 30%) and taken out when I am paid the dividend, besides my country has a DTA with Thailand. The only thing is when I buy and sell shares (often), I don't pay any capital gains tax, now if the Thai government wants to chase me up on that, they are welcome, fat chance though. Too many people here worrying about nothing, the government saying tax residents is to cast out a large net to scare most about the remittance of money, in my opinion, it won't effect expats in the slightest, so just go on about enjoying your life here and don't change anything until the fat lady sings, that or keep worrying about nothing, "up to you". Now back to where I was enjoying my life

M8 of mine is 63 and been on the dole for years, he said all he does is goes online (not sure how often) and fills in a questionnaire and lodges it, and that's it, questions are like, have you sort employment etc etc. I wouldn't dream of going on JobSeeker for 2 years, better off going back at 67 and getting the age pension, more in it and more subsidies from what I have read, biggest problem is finding affordable accommodation, because as I said above, it could take up to 4-5 years to recoup your outlay, just being there for those 2 years getting the aged pension, in other words, whatever you earn is down the drain on rent. Living expenses are a normal day to day event anywhere, here the rents are super cheap, but in Oz, well you'll be going backwards unless you can rent a room, caravan etc etc, that is unless your math is better than mine (recouping) the outlay.

The more I look at returning and doing the numbers, the more it isn't worth it for most, i.e. unless they are in a position to buy a cheap unit, say for $400k + stamp duty and legals, say $20k on top of that, yes, yes I know most guys don't have that kind of spondoolies to splash around, that said, if they did, that would say them around $30k on dead rent, e.g. one would need at least $500 per week for anything half decent, i.e. $26,000pa x 2 =$52,000, take away outgoings and what rental subsidy you would have received, and you would have saved $30k on your outlay, then you sell it after the 2 years at a break even point of say $430,000. In all of this time you would be receiving the full pension and life would be ok, that said, you got to have the bacon to cook it and eat it, apart from that, the only other options are to rent a room, a caravan (waiting lists) or sleep in a car. The only way feasible for me is the above, otherwise, going nowhere as it would take a minimum of 4-5 years to recoup the money outlaid to get the aged pension, so you go from 67 to 71/72 before you actually start getting your aged pension in the hand, so how many more years have you got in you after that. Depressing I know, but that is the reality of leaving Australia, they stick it to you and turn it a few times to make sure you won't come back, i.e. unless you have some capital.