Oxx

28 minutes ago, KNJ said:

Also 3.7% is not great

However, it is prudent.  Research has suggested that historically a 4% withdrawal rate is unlikely to lead to your pension running out.  Subtract 0.3% to cover platform fees and you get 3.7%.

Coincidentally, the most conservative strategy for pension income is only to take the natural income, and this is achievable with this withdrawal rate.

28 minutes ago, SpeakeasyThai said:

Invest offshore?... where and how?

There are plenty of countries where you can open an offshore brokerage account and (if non-resident in the UK) avoid UK income tax, with Luxembourg, Singapore and Hong Kong probably being the safest options.  You need to check whether the broker fully covers all the markets on which you want to trade.  My broker in Singapore, for example, doesn't cover all of the London Stock Exchange - just the major markets.  Also, many brokers don't offer investments in funds - only in shares and ETFs.  Some brokers allow you to invest in individual bonds.  Others don't.  You need to do your research first.

Account opening can usually be done online, but you'll need to post off proof of identity and address before the count will be activated.  Alternatively, if you happen to be visiting the country, you can open the account in person, which is quicker and easier.  (No need to get notarised copies of one's passport, one just shows the original document.)  When I opened an account in Singapore I didn't need to get my proof of address document translated since they had Thai staff working for them.

Once the account is up and running, you wire money to the account and once it's received, you can start investing.

I made a few calculations to see just how severe the impact of the new tax would be, making the following assumptions:

• Portfolio of £500,000
• Income rate of 3.7%
• Annual QROPS fee of £1,000

Under the old regime this would generate an annual income of £17,500.

Under the new regime, after 5 years the income will be £12,875, reflecting the reduced capital value of the pension pot.

In the first 5 years the income will be taxed.  If (a) you have no other taxable UK income the income will be reduced to £12,700, whilst (b) if you've used up your personal allowance and the £2,000 dividend tax allowance you'll receive only £10,100.

With a SIPP your income would be £17,400 and £14,800 respectively for (a) and (b).

In conclusion:

1. The new tax has removed any benefit of opening a new QROPS for expats living outside the EU.
    
2. If you have no other UK income, a SIPP for a pension pot of this size would result in a negligible reduction in income (£100/year), the lower SIPP charge offsetting the income tax payable.  However, the larger the pot and/or the higher your level of other UK income, the worse off you will be than if you opened your QROPS under the old regime.
    
3. There is a significant incentive to reduce UK taxable income.  So, for example, the pensioner should move all investments offshore, and sell any rental property and reinvest offshore.

The restaurant owners don't "own" the listing.  Start by going to the old restaurant's reviews and click on "Improve this listing", then from the dropdown box at the top of the page choose "This restaurant has permanently closed".

I doubt, however, the problem is the address.  It's more likely that the review doesn't include enough supporting evidence (e.g. website) to demonstrate it really exists and is distinct.

The moderators are very inconsistent, and even simply resubmitting the review might do the trick.

This may help https://archive.org/details/301tnc

Atorsan is off the market.  The only generic atorvastatin currently available here is Chlovas.

1 hour ago, carlyai said:

For the Microsoft products, I think you can download and English language pack.

In my experience (which is admittedly not recent), the language packs for Office are incomplete, leaving parts of the text in Thai.  They are also not free.  Far better I think to do a clean install in English.

Install an English language version of Office and Chrome.

If Windows itself is in Thai, you'll need first to reinstall Windows, this time with an English language version.

I've recently reinstalled LMDE 2 with Cinnamon, and now I can't toggle keyboard language between English and Thai.  The "Keyboard" applet shows both "us" and "th" which makes me think I've successfully installed the Thai keyboard layout, but when I select "th" the applet immediately flips back to "us" and the keyboard layout doesn't change.

Any thoughts? (I've already tried uninstalling the Thai keyboard layout and reinstalling it.)

Thanks.

47 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Simvastatin is cheaper yes - but it is not the same medication.

True.  However, it's chemically in the same group with an identical mechanism of action.  For the vast majority of people it will work perfectly adequately at a fraction of the cost.  Unfortunately, doctors tend to prefer to go with the latest medicines which are more profitable for the manufacturers and so more heavily marketed.  If the OP hasn't tried simvastatin and there isn't some specific reason for his/her not using it, then it would be an obvious means of cost reduction.  Being cautious he/she should probably discuss this with his doctor first, but personally, in his/her circumstances I probably wouldn't bother, then get a liver test a few weeks after, just in case.

"Puride" brand allopurinol 100 mg, 10 tablets for 8 baht.

Cheaper than atorvastatin is simvastatin - though you need to double the dose (i.e. 20 mg rather than 10 mg).  "Bestatin" brand simvastatin 40 mg, 10 tablets for 30 baht.

1 minute ago, elliss said:

     Less  money  for  my so called , loved ones . 555

But who do you love more, and which is more deserving of your hard earned cash? Your "so called loved ones"? Or Theresa May and her heartless mob? 

Ever keen to grab more money from its citizens, the government is hiking the cost of obtaining probate dramatically.  Currently the fee is a flat £215 (or less if made by a solicitor).  However, the new fees will be tiered, so for example, the new fee on an estate worth £500,000 to £1 million it will be £4,000.  Further details of the nasty, money-grabbing scheme at:

http://www.moneyobserver.com/news/01-03-2017/probate-fee-rise-new-inheritance-tax-large-estates

3 minutes ago, Rob13 said:

Rats can go pretty much any where there's an opening. Put the poison somewhere the rats can sniff it out and the dogs can't get to it. Behind the fridge in the high cupboards etc.

Thanks.  However, my concern is that the rats might go somewhere to die where the dogs find and eat the dead body.  I'm not concerned about the dogs' getting to the poison directly.  That I can deal with (behind fridge, high cupboards, as you say).

19 minutes ago, Aforek said:

what disturbs me is when a word in Thai ends with written " L " and pronounced "N", why the translator writes "L " ? . Phonetics reproduces   sound , not alphabet

It's not supposed to be "L" if the author uses the RTGS.  However, most people use their own schemes for representing Thai words in the Latin alphabet.  I've seen at least a dozen versions of ถนนเสรีไทย around here on public road signs.  (Serithai, Saerithai, Sareethai, Seritai, etc.)

There's a conflicting imperative, which is the Thai penchant for trying to preserve as much of the original language's spelling (or rather, mostly consonants).  This is carried over into Latinised versions of the spelling.

Is there such a thing as a dog-safe rat poison available in Thailand?

I've tried stopping rats coming into the kitchen and so far been fairly successful, but now they've found a new way in that I can't track down.  They're inside the cupboards, so a trap isn't going to be very effective.  Is there a poison I can buy here that will kill the rats, but if my dogs find and eat the dead body isn't going to harm them?

Thanks.

52 minutes ago, Nepal4me said:

I would also add:  How about using a J for จ instead of using CH for both จ and ช for god's sake.

Not, for the very simple reason is that in many European languages "J" is pronounced like the English "Y".  Jawohl?

58 minutes ago, Nepal4me said:

Thais when they use English words but mispronounce them in the reverse way.

Thais will pronounce Toyota or Taiwan as ตaiwan or ตoyoตa rather than ทoyoทa.  Not great examples as I would understand those examples but you get the idea.

I trust that you know that "Toyota" and "Taiwan" aren't English words.  What is far more relevant is how the Japanese and Taiwanese native speakers pronounce them, not the English.

18 hours ago, al007 said:

Can you not subscribe on line

Your statement I took to mean "subscribe to an online edition" - otherwise it would be totally meaningless in the context of the topic.  There is no online edition to subscribe to, hence my answer "no".

2 minutes ago, sendintheclowns said:

I miss it...but that was back, during the annals of Grocer Ted and Heathco.

Is there an online edition to subscribe to?

No.  But there is a website with a few of the comic items (but not the serious journalism).

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/

7 minutes ago, al007 said:

Can you not subscribe on line

No.

11 minutes ago, evadgib said:

For HMG or supporters of the 'knew all about it' myth to be given any credibility they should have been told while still at school.

And there should have been an option to opt out of that part of National Insurance that went to funding pensions.

On 27/02/2017 at 7:12 AM, abab said:

Casino is really the best brand of any imported products from any country in Thailand. Pizza included ! Find me any other better frozen pizza as an evidence that you know nothing ?

Sorry, but the Casino frozen pizzas, whilst they have decent toppings (even if they can't be bothered to remove the stones from the olives), the bases are not even as exciting as eating cardboard.

There are plenty of places deserving of at least one star in Bangkok, such as Sra Bua, L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Le Normandie.  I rather doubt there's anywhere outside the capital with similar standards.