Lacessit

While having my scooter serviced, I realized the Thai driving license had actually expired about six months ago. Same went for my car driving license. I had been driving on expired licenses for that long. In my condo, there is a Thai woman who facilitates official stuff. She got my Thai pink ID card for me previously. She said she could fix it for 500 baht, and did the usual pages of paperwork for me. 10 minutes at the DLT to identify what red, green and yellow traffic lights are. I resisted the temptation to say many don't seem to look at them. Nobody batted an eyelid about two licenses being expired for six months. Two brand-new driving licenses, 5 years. 1700 baht, including her 500 baht commission. Cheap at twice the price. In Australia, they probably would have been bringing out the handcuffs, and/or disqualifying me from driving.

Let's accept there are 1 million Australians living overseas. How many of those are retirees, and how many of those are drawing a full or part pension? Let's say there are 150,000 retirees living overseas who are drawing the full age pension. The tax clawed back would be $7224, or a bit over 1 billion. Certainly not the billions in savings you are claiming. The part-pensioners like me will make damn sure their income-earning assets go elsewhere. The ATO can't have it both ways, someone who is non-resident and gets income elsewhere can't be taxed on that income. Frankly, I think you enjoy scaremongering and being negative. On ignore now.

You have some realistic links to the number of expats world wide, or are the billions of dollars simply pulled out of one of your body orifices? Permit me to doubt the amount of money saved would be worth the effort or grief. You seem to forget those pensioners forced to return to Australia would be very vocal about the change in their circumstances. Both major parties are acutely concerned about the rise of independents, as witness Abbott getting booted out of his seat. An issue like that would be meat and drink to them. I also doubt if a Labor government would make such changes, they are not skinflints with welfare spending. Scotty from Marketing has worn out his welcome, he's a leader like I am a neurosurgeon. I have a plan B. Tax my part pension, because every other asset I have earning income in Australia would be removed from the grasp of the ATO.

Actually, it was Centrelink International who decided to stop my PBS benefit when I was in Australia in 2019. Just a voice on the line to the officer in the Belgrave Centrelink office. I have yet to see anything in writing which explains or justifies that decision. Your experience is positive, I'd rather put my hand into a bucket of scorpions.

You are probably correct in everything you say. At my age (78) I simply can't be bothered jumping through Centrelink hoops for a few dollars.

You may be right. So where are these pensioners, going to live, under bridges and in tents? Australia has enough of a homeless problem as it is. IMO it would be a bridge too far for Australia to be the only Western country to deny its pensioners the right to live abroad if they choose to do so. Australian politicians have learned messing with people of pension age has painful electoral consequences. If there is any sense left in Australia, ScoMo and his bunch of lying incompetents will be booted out at the next election. Albanese is looking better every day. Your scenario is possible, but unlikely.

There are online calculators which will tell you how much pension you are entitled to when you feed in the information on your assets. If it is substantially different from what you are receiving from Centrelink, and in their favor, time to make a move.

You should never underestimate the capacity of a bureaucracy to cock things up. It is what keeps them employed.

I have an issue with a loan I advanced to my son. For some reason, the online system flags it and I have to sort it out at a Centrelink office. As you probably know, their phone service is inferior to jungle drums. It may be $5-10 a fortnight I am missing out on, I don't care. So I've failed to report changes in my assets which would mean my pension would be adjusted upwards. What penalty could they impose for that, quite apart from making themselves look ridiculous on mainstream and social media?

If I was to report my assets online, I run the risk of Centrelink screwing it up somehow. I last reported my assets at a Centrelink office in 2019. It's not relevant anyway, as my assets are slowly decreasing. My policy is to say nothing until asked. So far, no-one has. My OAP (part) is paid into an Australian bank account. When I have accumulated $20K - $30K, I transfer in a lump sum to Thailand. I've only been asked once why I wanted the money, and I responded for living expenses. In wars, it is the people who stick their heads above the trenches to take a look that get shot. That principle applies with bureaucracies as well.

Chunky Branston pickle goes very well with rosemary ham and Mainland tasty cheese in a ploughman's sandwich. That's the full extent of my support for the UK economy.

I did enjoy cod, chips and mushy peas in Scarborough many years ago, quite tasty. Having said that, I don't know why Brits think it is necessary to boil cabbage until it turns grey.

The COVID pandemic has put a lot of new hurdles on international travel. Previously, expats could move back and forth quite freely between their home country and Thailand, using budget airlines. So no, I don't think so.

You are now worth $550 million? What are you doing here?

Treatment for Stage 1 cancers is usually successful. There does not appear to be any information on the odds of successfully treating this person's Stage 4 cancer, FAIK he may only have a 10% chance of survival. Which means the $240,000 could be a total waste of money. In his shoes, I'd be asking for a happy pill and exit.

I would say in another month, if Putin cannot force a Ukrainian surrender, he will be surrendering himself. There is only so much his citizens, the oligarchs, and the army can take before they turn on him, he totally miscalculated the depth of Ukrainian resistance, and the response from Europe and the US. Begging for military assistance from China shows how desperate he is. I remember the final scene from the film "Citizen X", when the serial killer Chikatilo is executed with a single bullet to the back of the head. As a mass murderer, Putin deserves no better.

Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal in return for a guarantee of Ukraine's sovereignty, we all know how that's working. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions are actually theft of Ukrainian land by Russia, when Stalin emptied them in his famine of 1931-1932, he transferred Russians in to replace the Ukrainians he had killed by starvation. It's quite remarkable how some posters on this thread present Russia as a victim. "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." ( Winston Churchill )

It's nice to know I have your seal of approval.

HIV does not care if the infected person is white, brown, yellow, black or polka-dot. If you are saying HIV infections are more prevalent in some nationalities or ethnicities, no argument from me. Probably still rife in Africa, as the infected person has very limited access to therapies, and condoms are scorned by males there.

Getting paid in rubles is not my idea of making money.

I don't know, just dressing neatly, being polite, and looking as if I have some money seems to be enough.

They get more than that, if we are classified as non-resident for tax purposes by the ATO, any age pension we get is counted into our taxable income on a 32% tax rate. Talk about giving with one hand, and taking away with the other.

I've never seen free car rego in Victoria. Discounted, yes. Thanks guys, I am suitably humiliated by you listing all the items I forgot.

The odds of acquiring HIV from women are exactly the same as acquiring it from men, when unprotected anal sex is involved.

Yes and no. I've achieved a lot in my life, in hindsight I was probably sublimating a very strong sex drive into other forms of work and play. There is no point to listing my achievements, most would not understand them and think I was boasting. Suffice to say the last time I had any debt was 1974. I had my share of financial disasters with Western women, and survived them. If I had my time over again, no relationship with any Australian woman would have lasted more than 11 months. When I came to Thailand about 12 years ago, I was like a kid let loose in a lolly shop. Still am, although I have slowed down considerably.