Mike Teavee

5 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

The io that advised you is wrong.

That doesn't help you as any random immigration office can do as they wish. 

However, I would at very least show them the actual law 2.1 2.2 posted earlier in this thread.

Chonburi immigration (Jomtien & Sri Racha) changed their rules approx. 6 months ago and for any immigration need (Extension, Re-entry permit, 90 day report, Certificate of Residence etc...) your TM30 needs to be dated after your most recent entry into Thailand (i.e. Your old one is no longer valid) irrespective of what Visa you are on or if you're returning to a place you've lived in for many years. 

Couple of links for background info... 

https://legal.co.th/resources/visa-immigration-law/thailand-immigration-law/tm30-making-thai-visa-extension-processing-more-complex/ 

https://ground.news/article/chonburi-immigration-bureau-tightens-address-reporting

Foreigners requiring service at Pattaya-Jomtien immigration (and Sri Racha) must have a TM30 form receipt in their passport dated since their last arrival in Thailand. A recent change in procedure at Pattaya-Jomtien immigration (and Sri Racha) means that all foreigners requiring a service must have a TM30 form receipt in their passport dated since their last arrival in Thailand. This bureaucracy is quite separate from the 90 days reporting for e…

And it has been mentioned on a couple of threads on here, e.g.... 

Deleted

14 minutes ago, sidjameson said:

I know I should drawdown. But at 56 find it difficult to start. This question will only get bigger as I age.

Interested in others experiences.

Never married & have no kids so have a similar dilemma. 

Spent my 20's with 1 years salary worth of debt on credit cards but managed to turn it around to own a house outright by the age of 35 & have been a committed saver every since

58 now & struggle with the idea of spending 100% of the passive income I get, never mind spending what I have saved (even the "Pot of Money" saved to pay for my living expenses so I could retire at 53) but am thinking that once my pensions start (2 years time) I'll feel more comfortable in having a guaranteed income coming in again & so start to spend more of the passive income...  BUT knowing me, having more income coming in will mean investing (saving) more! What else do you do with the income once you have enough to give you a good (not rich by any means) lifestyle?

At this time, I can't see me selling any of my assets without re-investing the proceeds but am hoping that age will gradually change my thinking & I'll start to wind these down whilst I still have time to enjoy the money. 

6 hours ago, ravip said:

LOL... That was always the intention! Sometimes success, sometimes disaster!

And sometimes you felt like your hand was going to drop off due to your blood being cut off at the wrist 😛 

11 hours ago, rwill said:

I watch some medical, investing, and chess channels.

I love logic type puzzles so Cracking The Cryptic, Bremster & Sudoku Sleuth give me a couple of hours worth of challenges each day.... Helps keep the old Grey Matter ticking over.

Also follow a couple of exercise channels notably https://www.youtube.com/@HT-Physio which helps keep the rest of me ticking over. 

3 hours ago, proton said:

Lets say you wanted to bring in a million to buy a car, or you are terminally ill and want to transfer several million from back home into the mrs account, how can you do that without paying tax? I know you can gift one million a year, but in the case of dying or death that would not be enough.

You can gift your wife up to 20Million per year & I believe that there’s no inheritance Tax on anything you leave to your wife. 
 

https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/thailand/individual/other-taxes#:~:text=The inheritance tax rate is,are exempt from the tax.

1 hour ago, gamb00ler said:

Since investment opportunities in Thailand suffer in comparison to most of the world, you could keep those funds outside Thailand.  It would seem likely that those funds would remain as non-assessable even after remittance to Thailand because they were earned/received when you were not a Thai tax resident.

True, but I want to bring over at least $250,000 to Invest (Buy a Condo) so I can get the LTR "Wealthy Pensioner" Visa, my pension (coupled with rental/investment income) may take me over the $80,000 PA threshold but I'm assuming it won't, plus I'd have to wait 2 years from my pensions kicking in (2026).

Either way if I can get the LTR then it seems my future Tax "Problems" will have gone away assuming current regulations don't change. 

Another option is the 25% lump sum will give me the $250K but, the UK Government is making it so difficult for small landlords (I only have the house that I bought to live in) that I'm leaning towards selling up anyway.

46 minutes ago, neeray said:

They DID ONCE TALK ABOUT banning Thais, as I recall (maybe I recall wrong). If they give Thais a free hand (pun intended), the loan sharks, which I read recently they are trying to reign in, will have a field day. Pawn shops will be overfilled, evictions will sky rocket, starvation will increase, crime will increase, the temples will need new rules to turn down loans, prostitution will increase (if that's possible). The downside of letting Thais play (and lose) in casinos is endless. Everybody knows already how Thais think they will get rich by playing the lotto and other gambling games.

Oh I agree with you but  just can’t see an elected government discriminating against its own people by banning them from casinos even if it is for their own good (which smacks of Nanny State). 
 

Given a choice between dropping the idea or banning Thais I think they’d choose the former.

I guess one answer is education & deterrents, unfortunately I don’t see this as being enough to prevent the things you described in your post for some people 😔

1 hour ago, 2baht said:

Get ALL your documents in order and it's easy, 45 minutes in Samut Prakan last week! And to think fools pay up to 30,000 baht agency fees for something they could do themselves for 1900 baht for visa and 3800 baht for multi entry! If you haven't got a spare 800,000 baht at retirement you must be a loser!

I use an agent & its 8K (800K in the bank all year round) + 4K for the Multi-Rentry so an extra 6,300B.

Worth it to me for the convenience, others may prefer to do it themselves, nothing foolish/smart about either option, it all comes down to how you value your time Vs your money.
 

if I was worried about what amounts to 525B PM then I’d be having 2nd thoughts about living here. 
 

As always, to each his own…

41 minutes ago, neeray said:

I recall once reading in a previous iteration about casinos in Thailand that locals would be barred from play/entry. I should hope so. At the one near me in Toronto, Canada, there have been a number of suicides by "addicted" players. One sad story worthy of mention is, a frequent player took her savings for her daughter's wedding to the casino on her final occasion thinking she could increase the $10,000 wedding fund. Subsequent to losing it all, she hung herself in the casino washroom.

Others have offed themselves in the parking lot after a bad loss.

I would hate to think of poor Thais losing the rent, mortgage or grocery money at the local casino. 

There would be uproar if they banned Thais from the Casinos so I can’t see them doing it.
 

When they allowed Casinos in Singapore, Citizens & PRs had to pay a S$100 entry fee to try to dissuade the “Poorer” people from going, but people who wanted to go still went & looked at it like they were starting off at -S$100.

To make it worse a 2nd casino opened shortly after the 1st & if people were losing in 1 Casino they’d often go over to the other one to see if they were any luckier there. 

4 hours ago, omnipresent said:

Is this true? I filed online recently to claim withheld tax on bank interest but didn't upload any papers. Are we meant to?

I don't know for sure as I've only ever filed (once) in person & I needed to show it so was assuming they'd want to see it for an online submission. 

Still haven't received my refund so have given up on it & not going to bother filing in the future unless I'm forced to. 

17 hours ago, John Drake said:

I don't know the retirement age for UKers and Australians, but if it's similar, that means they too would be among the people in Thailand on retirement visas needing to violate work restrictions in order simply to live here

Currently, UK State pension age is 67 (& wouldn’t give you enough money to meet the 65K monthly income method) & private pensions can be taken from 55. but you’re completely wrong to suggest that people have to work unless they have these as there are lots of 50-60 guys who have passive income from investments/Rent that more than cover the minimum 65K income and/or more than enough savings to cover the 800K in the bank. 
 

If they wanted to ensure people don’t need to work to live here then they would be better off enforcing the financial limits needed for the Non-IMM O “Retirement” Visa, but be careful what you wish for as any of us could find ourselves needing to use the “Loophole” through no fault of our own.

I say “Live & Let Live”,  leave the Visa Rules alone as you never know if while changing one thing they make a change to something else that impacts you..:  E.G. a lot of people would be screwed if they made Health Insurance mandatory for Non-IMM O holders, would you? I wouldn’t but I wouldn’t want them to do this as at the same time they could lift the age limit & I would be screwed! 
 

Totally agree that existing Visa holders should be grandfathered, unfortunately this isn’t what happened when they made Health Insurance mandatory for the Non-IMM OA holders. 

4 hours ago, n00dle said:

so far he seems to be correct.... unless you have evidence to the contrary.

Seems he was sent to jail for refusing to cooperate (speak with Police) & remains there having refused his wife’s offer to pay bail or any help from his embassy 

just seems to be refusing to acknowledge anything happened

1 hour ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

To be clear, for the retirement visa all they require is that you will not be working in Thailand... it does not prevent you from getting a work permit though which would allow you to work in Thailand, but the retirement visa does not...   People retire and work at the same time... in fact my father did... he retired from head of a public Technical College in one province - and was able to collect his pension and start working at another 

There is nothing to stop you claiming your Pension & Working elsewhere (or even at the same place) but you cannot get a Work Permit on a Non-IMM O "Retirement" Visa so you would need to switch to a Non-IMM O "Marriage" Visa or get a Non-IMM B / one of the BOI Visas (a couple of the LTR Visas allow you to work).

I would suggest your father either had a Work Permit or a Non-IMM O "Retirement" Visa but not both.

Irrelevant to this thread anyway as the Swiss guy was on a Business Visa despite what was printed in a couple of the papers, there would have been an absolute <deleted> storm if he'd been found to have a Retirement Visa at age 45. 

14 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

So can the Thai tax authorities, contact the UK tax authorities to check the tax status of a UK citizen residing in Thailand ?

I guess they probably could, but I can't see why they would & if they wanted to know that information are much more likely to ask you to show you're UK tax resident rather than ask HMRC. 

Even if you're claiming relief under a DTA then being UK Tax Resident alone wouldn't be enough proof, you would need to show that you've paid Tax on that income in the UK via something like a UK Tax Return or P60 etc... & these are things that you would have regardless of UK Tax Resident status.

19 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

Check out Utube on rents, but bet you'll find higher rent and lower quality condition than Thailand. Unless you want that third worldish experience, I'd pick Thailand every time to live. I haven't been to Subic since 2019, it's fun to visit, just not to live.

 

8-9 years back my Ex went back to Uni to finish her degree & over the years I rented 2 different apartments for her in Davao City, both we're >15,000 THB equivalent & would go for more like 5,000 THB in Pattaya.

1 thing you need to make sure is that the room has hot water & AirCon, I viewed rooms that didn't have them (or had them but the boiler/AC Unit was owned by the tenant & they were taking the units with them) so you were expected to provide your own or go without! 

Another example, 5-6 years ago I considered a job move to Bonifacio Global City & looking at the Condo prices for units within walking distance of the office, they were more expensive than what I was paying in Singapore for similar units.

BGC is a really nice place though, if I had to work/live in Manila I'd want to live in the BGC/Taquig area but for retirement I would choose Cebu or Davao & they remain my plan B from Thailand. 

This guy has some good advice on a range of health & wellness topics for >50s… 

15 hours ago, Stocky said:

We use Maxim a lot in Hat Yai, very reliable and you know what you're paying, so better than the laughable Hat Yai (No) Meter taxis, and cheaper and more comfortable than a local tuk-tuk. 

 

I've used Grab in Bangkok, with varying results.

Always used Grab in Hat Yai & found the drivers very reliable (Had 2 very positive experiences with 1 driver being very understanding when I booked the wrong "Central" hotel for pickup, another let us know that the restaurant we were aiming for had moved & took us to the right place. 

I haven't heard of Maxim before but will download it now & use it try it out on my next trip to Satun.

The Thais clearly didn’t spot the beach towel he’d left there early that morning…

15 hours ago, Celsius said:

 

you don't understand how Thais do numbers. I hope you are a newbie otherwise the post is embarrassing.

I’m confused, Thai’s do numbers like everybody else or were you trying to be funny (it didn’t work but then again it is 6:20am so my sense of humour might not have woken up yet)  - but 10,000 units X 146 is 1.46Million even on the Fahrenheit scale (Hey, my sense of humour is waking up 😊).
 

Edit: The only reason I made the post is because the author writes Millions instead of Billions 2 out of 2 times, once is careless but twice would seem to suggest that she genuinely meant Millions.