Keith5588

My plans have now improved after reading different members advise and listening to the video. So assuming that I am able to sell my house. 1. I will make sure to spend less than 180 days in Thailand during 2025. 2. I plan to transfer enough money to Thailand this year while non resident to buy a house and also living expenses for a few years to avoid the need to file a tax return for a few years. In the next few years I will make sure to transfer less than 120,000 THB. Thank you all for helping me Keith

@chiang mai Thanks for your advice and all your other posts in this thread. I agree totally about “spreading the risk” or “not putting all your eggs in one basket”. You also give good advice about buying a house in Thailand. It is risky which is why I have been renting the past 7 years. I think your advice is good but of course everyone’s circumstances are different. I have never had children and now have no immediate family in the UK. My Thai gf and has looked after me well the last 8 years and her family are good hard working people, buying a house in part is a way to leave something to her or more likely to her 2 sons. Probably the worst thing I could do is leave my assets in the UK for the UK gov to eventually take a high %. I also like the thought of owning my own house and preparing for when I am older. I am naturally optimistic but I hope also a realist and do realise that things can go wrong in Thailand, unwanted noise is my biggest worry. I might end up continuing to rent. Thanks for the good wishes. @oldcpu Thanks for all your advice. You have helped me decide. I will definitely transfer some of the money from the sale of my house to Thailand during 2025 when I am not Thai resident. Thanks for your comment concerning Wise. @Liquorice Thanks for the video link. I have now listened to it and I think it is very good. It answered several things I was unsure about. For one, I wondered about having bank accounts offshore to the UK like Isle of Man but I have had no experience, in the past I think there were tax advantages but now with information sharing I think that the advantages have gone, but if this video it mentioned that IoM does not have a DTA with Thailand which could be a big disadvantage …….. so that has stopped me wondering. The video had a lot of other information that I have noted. @KhunHeineken Waiting is not really an option for me as I have a lot of other things that need to be done which are best done while in the UK. Also it will become more and more of an effort as time passes to go to the UK and deal with all that is involved with the selling of my house.

Would love some advice to help me fully decide what to do this year. I have read most of this thread and have learnt a lot so thank you all so much. I am a 71 year old male from the UK. I have had a relatively simple life in that I worked for the same company for 40 years in the UK. I came to Thailand in 2017 after giving a Letting Agency control to manage my house. Until now I have not been back to the UK and love life here in Thailand. Each year I declare my income including rent to HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) I feel for several reasons that it is now time to sell my house. I plan to go to the UK in the very near future, probably March this year to do that. I bought my house in the UK in 1980, lived in it until 2017. Hopefully I will sell it in 2025. I plan to spend the first 2 months decorating my house before putting it on the market so I guess I will need to spend about 6 months in the UK, so it will not be any inconvenience to make sure I spend less than 180 days in Thailand during 2025. So let’s assume that I receive £350,000 for the sale of my house and I pay £5,000 CGT. I do also have savings of over £300,000 and proof that I had that in savings accounts at the end of 2023. My intention is to buy a house in Thailand in the future. As an aside I have looked into the details of buying a house in Thailand, I might have more to learn but I would look for my girlfriend of 8 years who I fully trust to buy the land freehold and also have a Usufruct contract. I know the area in Thailand that I wish to live and I like the thought of having my own house, all part of preparing for when older. My question’s are:- 1. Can I transfer all of the money from the sale of my house to my Thai bank account via Wise in year 2025 or future years without any need to declare it to the Thai tax department? Basically it will not be assessable? 2. Should I definitely make sure that this year I spend less than 180 days in Thailand to be on the safe side? 3. Keep the money from the sale of my house in a UK bank or Wise, somewhere that I can receive a higher interest than in Thailand. Would I be confident that I could then transfer this to Thailand in a future year without paying any Thai tax, that it would not be assessable for Thai tax? 4. Should I forget about transferring money from the sale of my house to Thailand and just invest it in the UK. I would still want to look to buy a house in Thailand but could move my savings across confident after reading this thread that it would not be assessable for Thai tax? I’m very interested what others would do in my situation. Thanks in advance Keith

Thanks @Jaggg88 I agree with what you write except I would want a UK bank as well as Wise. I cannot give any firm reason but I think someone on a forum stated that their private pension provider would only pay into a UK registered bank. That may not be correct but better to be safe than sorry as they say.

@mrwebb8825 Because sending a letter to Thailand is more expensive, takes longer and is less reliable than sending within the UK.

@mrwebb8825 I did write above "My friend has a large family and usually very busy, I think he would continue to help but he is also thinking of downsizing to a smaller house". I haven't used a mail receiving / forward company but I would like one who scans and sends me the front of the letter they receive. I would make notes and envisage after the first 2 years for most I would just instruct to destroy most letters knowing that it is say just a yearly statement and for anything important the company has my email address. I will be in control and independant. I am not sure what the future will bring, maybe I will give the mail receiving company a run for 2 years and if I am not happy then stop. Maybe as you think I will just register my friends address with companies if my friend is more than willing for that. Concerning renting out my house and having Royal Mail redirect my mail. I have already stated that I have done that in the past and they will only do it for a few years. It is a personal choice but for me, at my age, I feel that it now makes little sense to keep my house.

@Letseng Thank you for the information, so sorry that you had the kidney injury. I decided to self insure and so do not have any health insurance myself. I guess you need to add up all the costs of staying in Thailand compared to going home to Europe. I guess living costs will be higher in your European country but dialysis free. Private hospitals in Thailand will be very expensive but I gov hospitals very reasonable. I hope you end up not needing dialysis.

Thank you @OJAS I have been declaring the rent I received from my property to HMRC. Actually over the past year I have received little rent much as I have had a lot of repair and maintenance jobs done. I will declare the details for Capital Gain to HMRC, actually I think they would be informed as well. I think I am lucky in some way as I have enough savings to buy a house in Thailand and they are savings I had before 1 Jan 2024. So I have made a note to transfer these savings to Thailand and reinvest the proceeds of selling my house in the UK. I plan to spend 2 months decorating my house before putting it on the market so I will plan to spend 187 days in the UK, so less than 180 in Thailand during 2025. I think that means I could transfer the whole proceeds of selling my house to Thailand during 2025 if I wanted to, but this is something I would need to check. Myself I don’t think the Thai revenue department will investigate the average retired expat. Thanks a lot for the link to the guide, Mike Lister has done an huge amount of work writing that. It looks to be very good, well written. I have the bookmark and will look at it when I have time.

@VBF Thanks for your thoughts on why some UK banks have closed accounts, you are probably correct. It’s very difficult to speculate when banks and the government seem to be making illogical decisions all the time. Thanks for your explanation about the offshore accounts, it reminds me of speculating about working offshore for the higher pay and tax advantage when I was very young, but I never did. You also explain the past secrecy of these banks, I also thought I had heard that it now much more difficult but I didn’t know why, thanks for explaining. I have just Google searched to find out what Private banks are. From the very little I have read they would not suit me, I might be able to qualify for one but it would be putting “too many eggs in one basket”. I think my plan of having quite a few bank accounts will give me enough peace of mind as it would be unusual if all were closed.

An update to clarify my own query. I have had replies from all the mail forwarding companies and can confirm that the address you are given or can select is not unique to you. It will be an address shared with many other people. At least two said they provide a unique client ID number which you can add into your address if you wish. If not they will just sort by the addressee’s name. So I would advise if your name is John Smith take special care to use the provided ID number prominently.

@Letseng Thank you for your message and thoughts. Can I ask your age and why you think you may be better off returning to your country in the EU rather than staying in Thailand?

@VBF Thanks for reminding me about my UK Driving Licence. I renewed it in 2023 and it expires in 2026. I will be in the UK next year and plan to renew it if I can renew over 8 months before it expires. I will check but it’s now not that important to me. If in the future I ever visit the UK and if I don’t have a UK Driving licence I believe that I can drive using my Thai Driving licence. I haven’t considered bank accounts in the Isle of Man / Channel Islands. Up until now I plan to open accounts with some of the newer online only banks like Starling. Chase, Revolut, and of course Wise, hoping these will not send any letter post when instructed not to. Also that they will only ask for proof of UK residency when initially opening an account. I could be totally wrong! I am quite ignorant concerning opening a bank account in the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. I have assumed that these accounts are used by wealthy people to help avoid paying some UK taxes and so they probably need to pay more or meet high deposit amounts for these accounts, but again I might be totally wrong. But you have a good point that they might be better for expats, I assume they would not close accounts dependant on where you live. On this thread it has been mentioned that Halifax has closed an account because the holder cannot prove they are living in the UK. I am aware that this has been happening but I cannot understand why. Many expats that have left the UK formally worked for many years in the UK and have assets in the UK, and they need a UK bank account. I have read that for some bank accounts that have been closed the reason cannot possibly be money laundering so I am at a loss why they close accounts. Can I ask do you know how the Isle of Man / Channel Islands bank accounts are better for UK expats? Maybe I should start another post? Thanks for the good wishes.

A bit of a summary Thanks @Nemo. You are now the 3rd person using ukpostbox. I have had another look, it is £12 per month if you select a Pool, Dorset address, £21 if you select a Central London address. So for me £12 per month and if pay for a year it states 2 months free. The other processing charges look reasonable e.g. for forwarding a letter £0.90 per item + postal cost. Myukpost seems to be a bit more expensive at £20 per month + £1.50 per letter handled. @scottiejohn I have just had another look and if I select the £20 per month plan it states “Price fixed for Lifetime” so I am guessing it was £12 when you started. I sent messages yesterday to ukpostbox, ghostmail and myukpost. Only myukpost have replied and they replied quickly and I have just sent them another message to clarify some charges.

@Virtualrecluse I don’t think you will have a problem applying to renew your UK passport. I renewed my UK passport a couple of years ago in Bangkok. The processing company that works for the British Embassy needed copies of all pages of my existing passport, my email address, my current address where I was living (I think) and payment. I think your passport states where you were born etc. but not your UK address …… have a look in your passport. I’m not an expert but having a mail forwarding address would not give proof of residency, no utility bills etc. but they will only enquire about that if they have a reason to I guess.

@scottiejohn the link you posted takes me to https://www.myukpost.com/ and I think they now charge £20/month so you now have a good deal I think. My mistake and appologises @sandyf stated "I also use Ukpostbox" and I thought it was the same as you. Similar name but different. I now see that someone else mentioned Ukpostbox. My mistake.