Mike Teavee

It would be an increase in Health Insurance coverage for me as my policy has 3.5Million inpatients only so I'd need to pay extra to add on the 40K Outpatients 😞

Some suggestion (around the 3 minute mark) that you might need to have proof of Employment to get it as a "Digital Nomad" which makes a mockery of it being available for "Freelancers" Article here:https://thepattayanews.com/2024/05/30/thai-government-introduces-destination-thailand-visa-for-digital-nomads-and-long-term-workers/

Unless they've merged it with the Non-IMM O so the change in insurance requirements would apply to both now. Not what I want to happen but logically it would make sense for them to do so.

But there is also the potential impact of Expats:- Choosing not to retire to Thailand Spending less than 180 days in Thailand Not remitting large sums of money to buy property/cars Choosing to holiday more in neighbouring countries Simply remitting less Re: #5, I've already remitted what I plan to remit this year (GBP has been flying 🙂) and it's 25% of what I would normally remit (remainder of my spends will come from savings already in country), which leaves me with with the "Problem" of what to do with the rest of my income in the UK & this is where #4 comes in.

Has made it into the UK Press... Thailand makes sweeping changes for foreign travellers in record tourism bid https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/southeast-asia/thailand-digital-nomad-students-visa-b2552452.html

I think of more concern to a lot of people will be if in simplifying the 17 Non-IMM visa types to 7 types, they merge the Non-Imm O & OA retirement visas forcing non-Imm O holders to get Health Insurance. If they do then let's hope existing holders are Grandfathered in or they offer an alternative for people who cannot get Health Insurance.

Presumably it would need to be in Friday's Royal Gazette if it's to come in force by 1st June

Lol... It's actually very straight forward, interest is calculated on daily basis based on how much is owed in the account (i.e. how much you borrowed minus what you've put in there) & then applied to the account monthly. The settlement amount is whatever you borrowed + any accrued interest and is due at the end of the mortgage so there is nothing to stop you withdrawing up to the amount agreed at any point up until then as log as you pay it back by the end of the term. When they were 1st launched (Virgin One account in the UK quickly followed by Woolwich Open Account) they were nicknamed an "Aussie Rules Mortgage" so I don't know if a similar mortgage is popular in Australia.

Or maybe, Young in on Non-IMM O, Everybody over 75 gets a free LTR , (Can we make that everybody over 57, I'm only 58) 🙂

Why did I just get a chill down my spine!!! my Non-IMM O extension is due 26th September, think I do it as early as I can. And then a hopeful feeling again - Maybe I'll wait to see the new LTR requirements 🙂

I've been thinking about this a lot as I have a "Current Account" Mortgage which works by taking off anything you have in the account from the Capital owed when calculating Interest (E.g. I have approx. £500 over the amount I borrowed in there & they pay me interest, if I took out £1,000 I would pay them interest on the £500 I would then owe). So if I were to take £50K out, would it be savings (I put the money in there to pay off the mortgage 18 years ago) or would it be a Loan (It is a mortgage)? Either way it feels non-assessable. If I were to remit that £50K then add it back from selling some shares so I was in credit again (incurring 1 day's worth of interest) would that be me remitting savings/a loan or could it be seen as me cycling the share sale proceeds that I used to replenish the account. No chance of them being able to "Catch Me", just curious as to what people's views are on this, I believe I'm just remitting savings that I've had in a Bank Account since 2004 (only catch is the Balance would only show approx. £500), how I then go on to repay my mortgage is of no concern to Thailand.

A couple of the Expat Tax firms have recommended that the best way to "Gift" money to your spouse is to do it overseas & draw up a document (in the country where you're making the Gift) that clearly states the gift is to them & you have no vested interest in it. I don't think it's been mentioned that this needs to be notarised but obviously the more "Formal" the document, the more weight it would carry, as mentioned, this would be done in the country of gifting so not usually a problem to get it notarised if you wanted to. It's certainly not a Thai regulation, just a "Belt & Braces" approach to adding weight to the fact that the "Gift" is really a "Gift", i.e. if TRD challenged the Gift you'd have something to show them to prove that it was a Gift - No guarantee they'll accept it but the more formal the document the more likely that they would over something written on the back of a fag (cigarette) packet which is better than nothing at all.

If your wife has an account in your home country then it would be safer to make a Gift to her there (drawing up a document that details the Gift) and have her remit the money over. If she doesn't then I believe a Gift is a Gift & your wife would not have to pay tax on it if you sent her the money directly to her account in Thailand, however others have made an argument for it being assessable income for you even if you send it directly to your Wife so advisable to seek some help from a qualified tax accountant. As to whether you living in the house that she is buying with the "Gift" means you're receiving a benefit, I personally don't think it is as you could argue that you pay for all the groceries, utilities etc... but if needs be you could draw up an agreement whereby you pay your wife "Rent" each month (though this might mean she needs to pay tax on the Income) - Again, a decent Tax consultant should be able to advise how best to approach it. If the Gift is > 20Million, your wife would need to pay 5% Gift Tax on it unless you split it over different tax/calendar years

From the video inside the bar & other commentary it looked like the guy in the black shirt (believe it was actually blue ) who looks like he's trying to calm it all down outside was actually the one who didn't pay his bill (Hence White shirt was adamant he'd already paid his & wouldn't pay again) & he was also the guy who shoved the other Farang outside.

Don't get me wrong as they do look like Brits, but has it been confirmed anywhere that they are British or are people just repeating an unconfirmed fact based on their personal bias.

But it wouldn’t be declared as a Gift as it’s not yours to Gift, you would only declare half of it as a gift. In my Example of £100K in a joint bank account, the gift is £50K which if remitted is 100% a gift. if she remits her £50K on top of this, then that has absolutely nothing to do with Gifts.

I think you might be mixing things up a little, you can't gift something to somebody that they already own so in the case of overseas conjugal property you can only gift your half. E.g. I have £100K in a jointly owned bank account with my Wife, I can't gift her £100K as £50K is already hers so I would Gift her £50K which she could then remit into Thailand tax free. If she chooses to remit £100K then she is remitting the £50K Gift that I gave her (Tax Free) & £50K which has nothing to do with Gifts so would be subject to normal assessable income rules, but again, that is nothing to do with Gifts as that £50K wasn't a gift.

I selected "Wait and see what happens. Take no action. Carry on same as before." as that's the closest option to what I'm doing but it's not really accurate as I'll be:- Reducing how much money I bring into Thailand to ensure that I stay below the number where I might have to pay Tax Remitting money directly to GF's bank account ensuring that she stays below the number where she might have to pay Tax Taking more overseas holidays paid for on my UK credit cards & using the £7,500 I brought back from the UK with me as spending money there. Spending down the savings I already have in Thailand Estimate I'll be bringing in approx. 25% of what I would normally bring in.

lol, I remember that joke from when I was a kid but it went, Q) You have one green ball in one hand & another green ball in the other hand, what do you have"? A) Total control of the Jolly Green Giant https://www.exploreminnesota.com/profile/jolly-green-giant-museum/6465

I think one thing we can all agree on is a Gift would be free of Thai Income Tax for both the person giving & receiving the Gift if:- The Gift is made outside of Thailand (E.g. I gift my Wife £500K in the UK). The Gift is documented as a Gift (The more formal the documentation the better). The Wife remits a maximum of 20Million THB in any one year or she pays 5% Gift Tax on everything over this, In the example of £500K she could choose to leave approx. £65K / 3 Million THB in the UK & remit it next year, or she can pay approx. 150K THB Gift Tax) I don't know about other countries, but nowadays, it's hard enough for UK Expats to open a UK Bank account for themselves never mind a non-UK Citizen who doesn't live there, but people who are planning the move might be able to arrange to set up accounts before they become fulltime Thai Expats.

Capital Gains can be included (something that doesn't really make sense to me TBH)... Unearned or passive income includes, but are not limited to pension, rental, capital gain, dividend, and interest payments https://ltr.boi.go.th/#type But I'm not sure how you prove the gain if you don't need to report it on your home country tax returns.

Rebecca Welton from Ted Lasso 🙂

I've done no such thing as I still believe Gifts remitted into Thailand are exempt from Income Tax but we all agreed that we were not going to agreed to park it pending "Official" confirmation one way or another. As it's been brought up again, I will just state my argument for why I believe this & people can believe what they want until it's proven one way or another. The Thaksin Wife case shows that at that time there was scope for remitting Gifts tax free into Thailand with no limit on the amount that could be gifted, there was no income tax due on the Gifter at that time. The law was changed in 2016 to add the 20/10 Million limits, add a 5% Gift Tax for gifts over that value & put some criteria about what is & what isn't a gift, to the best of my knowledge there was no change to the fact that the Gifts could be remitted free from Income Tax I hear the argument about it being a big loophole that people can exploit but that's why limits were included & if anything I expect TRD will reduce these over time rather than abolish them all together. That's me out... (Literally, the GF is nagging me to go shopping)...

By snipping my post you've completely misrepresented what it said, I was answering the question around whether Gifts are conjugal property, there was no mention of the (what I thought was parked) argument about whether the Gifter needs to declare the Gift assessable income.

Were you doing something else with Immigration at the time or did you just go in to do the TM30? Others have reported that they didn't need to do a TM30 as they were on a Non-IMM O, returned on a Re-Entry permit & were returning to the same address, which is exactly my situation. Besides, it's absolutely ridiculous to expect somebody to report within 24 hours after they've just spent >24 hours travelling, I flew Business Class & it still took me till Day 3 before I felt up to going into town.