Antonymous

The company structure for the sole purpose to purchase a property is illegal. The fact that it has been widely used by foreigners to circumvent the law is certainly no guarantee that it won't come back to bite at some time in the future.

As a Thai, there is no reason to purchase a property with a company structure, unless perhaps they actually wanted to have a limited company to operate a legitimate business from that property. In which case they would need to change the Articles, change the shareholders. With a company they would then have to pay for an annual audit and follow other company laws.

So if your Thai buyer does not want a company, he/she absolutely must insist on buying the property from the company without any encumbrances associated. In that case it is usually a 50/50 split of transfer tax and stamp duty at the Land Office. The seller always pays the business and other tax. There may have been a capital gain (profit) on the sole asset of his company that will be subject to tax.

What the seller then does with his shell company is up to him. It has nothing to do with the Thai buyer of the property. Perhaps he'll try to buy another property with it for example.

The decision when/whether to retire is a very personal matter and there's no one answer to fit all.

For many people that don't have sufficient savings or a pension lined up, there simply isn't a choice and they must continue earning a living through their labour.

Then there are some who have been employed so long that their occupation has become their 'life' in itself - they haven't developed or don't have the capacity to develop interests outside of work.

For some of my friends who have already accumulated a big nest egg, they don't want to give up work because they have a high powered job or business that gives them status and they are afraid to lose that.

For me, I chose to retire at 50 at a time when I calculated (very large and detailed spreadsheet) that with careful investment of my accumulated savings I could live out a comfortable life until my mid-90's without the need to work again. I didn't have a large sum, but I knew plenty about money management and which investments within Thailand were likely to meet my financial goals. I have lived in Thailand 30 years and have invested everything in Thailand. It has been a great choice. Those investments have delivered beyond my expectations and already the capital growth far exceeds my rate of expenditure so my net worth has been increasing since I retired, not being depleted.

I could not be happier with my decision to retire young (or to live in Thailand). I can do whatever I choose and my time is spent only on things that make me happy. Some things that I can enjoy fully at my age now may not be possible when I'm 70+ and that's one of the major good reasons to retire as soon as you have the means to do so. It should be said though, that if you are someone who gets bored when faced with 'free-time', early retirement probably isn't for you. You have to be self-motivated and able to develop hobbies and other interests to fill your time.

In Thailand health insurance is useful even if you have plenty of money to hand.

It is essential if you don't have any money.

Unfortunately, as we know, many people, especially older folk, cannot afford the premiums. In that case living here will always be a gamble. That part is your choice.

9 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

It seems more prevalent on this forum than others    (where many ex TV posters are switching to).

I have seen this unnamed 'other forum' mentioned half a dozen times by different members now.

Which forum is it? This is a genuine question. Surely it isn't something top secret. There is still SOME free speech allowed on TV/aseannow. Please name it.

Uh-hu. So, wouldn't it be simpler to take a look out at the weather and flick a switch to turn on or off the irrigation system as needed? What value has the smartphone added here?

What is the point of these reenactments if it isn't to incite such scenes?

STOP THEM right now.

Maybe the same that some Thai women look for in foreign men. Subservience, dependability and money (earning capacity).

14 minutes ago, jollyhangmon said:

 

... dayum, an entertaining bunch these blokes I'll say, albeit on a rather low intellectual level ...

 

'U-turnus Maximus' we could call the current episode, perhaps?

 

Ah yes, but that's because there's more than one Biggus Dickus.

A terrible tragedy for any family to bear.

Seems to have been unsupervised. They were on holiday in a strange place. Perhaps the girl had never been in a pool before. Should be a lesson there for pool owners to put up protective barriers around these child hazards...

On 9/14/2021 at 1:14 PM, Jeffr2 said:

Thais are lining up and begging for the vaccine. They care. Sad you don't. Makes the rest of us expats who care look bad.

I live in a tambon area with a population of about 5,000 people, all but a few are Thai. So far there have been a total of four cases of residents who tested positive for Covid (it is well known, discussed everywhere hereabouts). All recovered and none with serious conditions.

There has been only one death and that was a lady, described to me as healthy beforehand, who died within 48 hours of getting a first vaccination. I have been unable to get the official stats on what proportion of our local population have been vaccinated, but can say that within my village the majority have refused. NOBODY is "begging for the vaccine" here.

In a post just above yours another poster said that 20 out of 20 of the Thais he knew were not vaccinated too. Yet here you go spreading misleading wild claims about Thais begging to be vaxxed. If you really believe that you are sadly deluded.

As for the OP, the problem he may face is being able to travel to Thailand without being vaxxed. Once he is here it is perfectly possible for him to find himself a peaceful and beautiful rural location within an hour of a major city where he can live a happy life where he will not be hounded to get vaxxed. As do I.

In the case of Chiang Mai, for example, there are several excellent private hospitals that are most definitely NOT overrun with Covid patients, where he will be able to get world class medical attention should he ever need it.

Anyone who has had a good education where they learned the art and the value of debate, and especially older generations who were taught to think for themselves long before social medias started funneling only news and opinions that suit your online profile, should be open to differing opinions and to genuinely 'agree to disagree'.

The less well educated and particularly a whole generation of younger people who are glued to devices and apps that act as echo chambers, just can't seem to accept this.

This cartoon appeared in the Jokes forum recently. It isn't funny at all, but it does portray quite cleverly how people become partisan, usually through propaganda and manipulation.

We choose our friends. If he no longer (sounds like he never did) supports the opinions you hold dear and that offends you, you don't have to spend any more time with him.

1 hour ago, lom said:

They were able to nab her without using the BMW..

Apparently it got stuck on the beach and they had to follow on foot.

This is nothing but marketing hype by a flagging and probably increasingly desperate real estate developer. For sure Sansiri is heavily dependent on Chinese and Hong Kong buyers, hence the reference to foreigners in this spiel, and there may well be a boost from that quarter next year, but will it be enough to revive their fortunes?

Interesting note in Wikipedia:

"Sansiri has recently come under public criticism again for its poor quality of construction, while claiming to be the “Number one and most trusted developer”. Customer complaints are met with lawsuits for defamation under the criminal statutes of Thailand, however, assuring little or no customer complaints reach the public eye.

Analysts and Media Reports have recently noted Sansiri’s slide from top to bottom of the 10 ranking property development firms in Thailand.^"

3 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

First of all make a good administration in the country. Than they know were people live and with who. Now you can be in the blue book in Chiang Mai and live in Bangkok, and nobody knows what you are doing. So solve that problem first. Register people where they live, with who and what they do for a living. Than you can help the people  much better. Now I see that some families living with 5 or 6 all apply for the welfare, but they have earn a lot of money too, but nobody knows so in fact they don't need it. So in fact than more money can be given to people who need it more.. But the  peoples administration now is terrible 

There is a form being sent around houses in Chiang Mai right now. We received it from an assistant to the puyaibaan recently and asked to fill it it fully. There is a long list of questions asking for the names, ages, occupations and qualifications of everyone staying in the property.  So far so good.

Then a page of intrusive questions requesting the amounts of income received, per individual, broken down into main income source and then all secondary income sources including for example selling online, rental income, interest from banks, etc. Plus data on the usual outgoings (amounts and types of your expenditure). Plus questions about the state of each individual's health and details of any illnesses.

Someone comes around to collect the completed forms. No sealed envelope. Absolutely no explanation of who will have access to this information (it will be read by every nosey parker in your vicinity for starters). No mention of security or safety of your data (clearly there is none whatsoever).

I ask you, would you complete this form honestly? Would you complete it at all?

My wife asked around the neighbourhood and found that the official in a nearby village had completed all the forms for everyone in her village by herself and made up all the figures. This presumably saved the hassle of having to go door to door and arguing with everyone to get the info!

And this is the reality. This is the state of Thailand's 'good administration'.