Mike Teavee

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I would like to say yes on the basis that when they become Tax Resident the following year they would have no cause to complete a Tax Return for the previous year that they were non-resident. BUT, just in case, my current "Plan" is to sell my UK house, take the 25% Tax Free lump sum from my pension & remit it all to Thailand in a year where I'm Non-Tax Resident (2026) 🙂 When I think about this "Plan" I'm always reminded of Hotblack Desiato (Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy) who spent 1 year dead to avoid taxes, wouldn't quite go that far but am happy to spend 6 months on holiday in various places if it saves me a lot of money in Tax.

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 😔

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…

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.

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.

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.

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

If this guy's Visa has been revoked, I can't believe there is even a question about whether the 2nd guy's should be as his actions were far, far worse. So far it seems the he (2nd guy) has remained silent about what he did (not much he can offer as a defense really) as he seems to believe if he stays silent he'll just be sent packing, boy is he in for a rude awakening.... Som Nam Naa for those actions.

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.

30,000 + Passport Fee!!! Try 11,000 (12,000 if you want the "Jumbo" passport) which includes the passport fees, eg... https://thaivisa-express.com/uk-passport-application-thailand/#:~:text=The cost of an adult,passport and our service fee. For proof of address, just go into your Bank & ask them to print any letter in English with your address on it (Bank Statement should do the trick)

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.

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…

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…

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.

$1.46 Million for 10,000 condos puts the average price at $146 per unit which sounds about right for some of the shoeboxes that are going up nowadays!

Yes you do need the 800K in the bank at least 2 months before your extension is due but would be best to say which immigration office you’re using so people can give you a more accurate response. E.G. About 5 months back Jomtien IO changed their requirements so you now need a TM30 dated since your last entry into Thailand when doing your extension, previously any TM30 was ok.

I’d word this part differently… “That pension will have been subject to the UK tax process & taxed at the 0% rate).

As this is not your 1st extension, (technically) you need to show that… 1. You maintained 800K in your account for at least 3 months after your previous extension. 2. You maintained at least 400K for 7 months after that 3. You have had at least 800K in the bank for the previous 2 months. So (Technically) a 12 month statement is required. Practically it depends on which Immigration Office you use, some want 12 months others might be happy with as little as 3 months, best to go in & check with them if you can.