Mike Teavee

The table needs an additional column "Tax Resident in the year the income was remitted" - If "Yes" then I agree it would be Scenario 1 & Tax would be payable, if "No" then no Tax would be due.

No, the money would be remitted in a year that you were not Tax Resident so you would not need to complete a Return or pay Tax on it. If however, you remitted the money in 2026 when you were Tax Resident, then (DTAs aside) you would be liable to Tax on it. However, if you earned income in 2025 whilst you were not Tax Resident & remitted this to Thailand in 2026 when you were Tax Resident, you wouldn't need to pay Tax on it in. You can see how it's going to be essential to keep track of when money was earned.

Lol, I love the "While You Wait" part... Was once was working in a city I didn't know & I asked 1 of the girls in the office there where I could get a haircut & she told me of a place... ... and then said "And they'll cut it while you wait"!!! (What she meant was I didn't need an appointment).

I'm not bored, but I do tend to get up much earlier than the GF so my morning routine is:- 1. Easy/Medium puzzles from https://www.dailykillersudoku.com/ (The harder one I save for if we're having a night in & she puts on a crappy movie) 2. Watch ( & do if their solve time is < 45 mins) the 2 Daily puzzles from Cracking The Cryptic https://www.youtube.com/@CrackingTheCryptic/videos 3. Catch up on UK News Headlines (https://news.sky.com/) & AseanNow. 4. (Once 7am hits) do the daily Plusword (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/plusword/) & of course Wordle (https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html) - I do this as a "Competition" with my family back in the UK so it's a good way to ensure we speak daily. 5. The Guardian mobile app for the daily mini Sudoku, mini crosswords & sometimes the full crossword (No matter how hard I try I cannot get my head around "Everyman"'s crosswords :( 6. Daily Thai tips from Banana Thai & Learn Thai with Mod https://www.youtube.com/@BananaThaiSchool https://www.youtube.com/@ThaiwithMod/videos ... And then back to AseanNow whilst she gets ready to go out :) Edit: Apart from Cracking the Cryptic, my other YouTube viewing tends to depend on what I'm in the mood for at that time, examples would be... 1. Lockpicking https://www.youtube.com/@lockpickinglawyer 2. Card Tricks https://www.youtube.com/@CardMechanic/videos 3. Computer Security https://www.youtube.com/@davidbombal 4. Network Security https://www.youtube.com/@NetworkChuck 5. "Science" https://www.youtube.com/@TheRoyalInstitution

Took the GF to a local place (She had a craving for Somtam) last Friday, place was really busy but there was a group of tables with nobody sat there so we sat at one... Waitress comes over, pointing at the ceiling saying (In Thai obviously) "Snake Snake", looked up & there was a 6ft Python that had made it's way to the middle of the rafter on the ceiling!!! City Council guys were called & after a 15 mins struggle managed to get it into a bag... ... Somebody had snake for dinner that night :) IMG_5701.mov

I hope (& think) you're right but my plan is to do nothing until I know for sure & if worse comes to the worse, bring the money over in 2026 when I plan on being non-tax resident for the year. Presumably you're already paying Tax in UK / Germany on your income so wouldn't it be better for you to be Taxed in Thailand where the taxes are lower? When I was a UK Bank Employee on secondment in Singapore, both charged me Income Tax but I was able to show to HMRC that I'd already been taxed on the Income in Singapore & so got a full Tax Refund of the Income tax Paid in the UK (Which was nice :D )

I agree, it's highly unlikely State Pension will be taxed in Thailand, I think (hope) that the RD will recognise that it's already been Taxed (albeit at 0%) & so consider it fully Tax Paid, (TBH I haven't thought much about SP as I'm 110 months away from being able to claim it & even I don't plan that far out!!!) I personally believe they will do this for all Pensions where you can provide a statement of benefits/tax paid or maybe a Tax Return showing you've paid the tax, but again we can't be 100% sure so can only try to plan for what we're going to do if they do start taxing it. This is why I think that most guys have little to worry about, as I keep saying my main concern is the money from the sale of my house & the Lump Sum from my Private Pension so these are the things that I'm trying to plan options for.

That's a pretty simplified way of looking at it & might work for a "6 Man / 6 Month" project but you never have all the facts at the start of a large (Multi year / 100's Million GBP) projects so you plan for what you know and create, manage, maintain a risk/issues register to try to plan for contingencies based on risks/issues you can reasonably perceive. You can never plan for everything... A classic example was the Pakistan Government deciding it was going to unilaterally switch to day light savings time in 3 days time whilst I was in the middle of rolling out the Desktop/Server estate there for a Global Bank ... but you can plan for something... We knew there was a risk of something like this happening so built in a mechanism where we could tweak local desktop settings & switched the time zone to Bangladesh & back again a few weeks later when they changed their minds.

You're fortunate in that the UK-TH DTA is very clear on Government Pensions but as you say, it's less clear on other Pensions (Including State Pension) so you don't know whether there will be additional tax to pay on it (Like you I don't believe there will be according to Rule 5 of the RD's FAQ) BUT you are taking action to minimize any impact to you until you get the "Clarity" This is exactly what I'm doing with my income, Rental/Dividend & Capital Gains from the sale of my UK House which aren't clear in the DTA... I hope things will be much clearer in 26 months when I start to receive my Private Pensions!

I would have to pay Capital Gains Tax (I'm guesstimating 18%) as I've been Non UK Tax Resident for so long, other guys who maintain residency in the UK would have no CGT to pay if the house remained their "Primary Residency" (i.e. They've never rented it out). But even though I will pay tax in the UK, it's unclear how the Thai Revenue department would view this.... They could Say I've already paid CGT so nothing more to pay Say although I've paid CGT, the rate in Thailand is Income Tax rates so I need to pay the difference (For arguments sake let's say it's all in the Higher Rate Band so 35% - 18% = 17%). Say yes you've paid CGT in the UK so give us the 35% & we'll give you a Tax Credit to offset future CGT tax in the UK [Which would be of no use to me as the only thing I'm liable for CGT on in the UK is my UK Home]. This is where the "Clarity" is needed before I fully decide what I'm going to do, key thing for me is to have some idea of what I'm going to do once I get that "Clarity".

Sorry, I'd assumed it was a given but to clarify... I have No Fear, No Panic & am not having any Tantrums... OMMV "Other's Mileage May Vary", Ironically I originally added YMMV to the end of my post, but took it out as I thought it might have come across as aggressive towards @Mike Listerwhich I certainly wasn't trying to be. I was just trying to get the point across that people should maybe think about what they would do should things turn out for the worse & not bury their heads in the sand waiting for everything to be crystal clear as by then they may have already been negatively impacted - To Me that doesn't mean they're "Panicking", it's just the sensible thing to do, but that probably comes from my background in IT where we had to do contingency planning for everything we did. But what does that mean in real terms? There is a world of difference between what that statement appears to say (i.e. anybody from a country that has a DTA with Thailand will be exempt - What I hope for) & what the likely reality is (anybody from a country that has a DTA with Thailand & has paid taxes on income covered by that DTA will be treated in accordance with what's contained in that DTA) - Which is what I'm trying to plan for. I believe you're from the UK & if you've read the UK DTA it's a clear as mud what that means for the likes of Pensions, Dividends, Rental Income, Capital Gains etc... So I've decided on a very simple "Plan" for what I'm going to do until things are clear & then a couple of options for what I'm going to do should that clarity cause me problems, none of these options involve me packing my bags & moving elsewhere (certainly not back to the UK), but a very real option (& 1 I'm excited about as I love to Travel) is to spend 6 months outside of Thailand while I sort my lump sums out). I think most of us share the same "Plan" for the 1st part i.e. Bring as much cash as you can before 1/1/24 & minimum cash after that until things are clearer, I just like to have some sort of "Plan" for what I'll do once I get that clarity (lol, knowing Thailand I'm probably in for a very long wait so will add a Plan Z... Die before then).

I don't think anybody is packing their bags just yet, but (IMHO) it is prudent to have at least an idea of what you will do should any changes cause you a problem (I.e. Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst). I have no confidence in any changes being implemented smoothly so can only see it being kicked down the road OR causing chaos, so my simple plan for next year is to bring in no more than the 235K tax free element (60K Personal Allowance, 25K for Health Insurance & 150K at 0% rate) & simply spend down what I already have here (I keep 2-3 years spends in-country so can do the same in 2025 if necessary). My "Worse Case" plan for bringing in the capital gains from the sale of house in the UK AND/OR the tax free lump sum from my pension is to spend < 180days in Thailand in 2026... This might seem extreme to some, but obviously the potential tax on 2 largish lump sums could be significant so not only would this give me the perfect excuse to travel, effectively I would be saving money by doing so. Once I've brought over the lump sums I am hoping to switch to the LTR visa which would (according to current "knowledge") make me exempt from the tax changes so would carry on as normal bringing last year's income over, should I not get this Visa or it not make me exempt then I would (hopefully) know a lot more by then & plan accordingly, but leaving Thailand permanently is not one of my plans. There it is No Fear, No Panic, No Tantrums, just a clear (in my head) plan for what I'm going to do for the next 2-3 years.

No this was in the UK & was a few years back but I mentioned it as if somebody did go down a similar route then it could come back to bite them.

This sounds like the "Dodge" my mate used to use for his consulting salary & it was eventually closed down so he had to repay a fortune. Same scheme that Jimmy Carr was investigated for https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jun/19/tax-scheme-jimmy-carr-hmrc

It’s the total number of days in the calendar year so if you do the 1st 179 days you would need to come back no earlier than Jan 1st the next year.

I would send the money from your overseas account directly to the Wife. so it could become Tax assessable for her, but if it's declared as a Gift there should be no tax to pay. If you send it to yourself then you could be liable for Tax on it, whether you can then transfer it to her & negate this tax remains to be seen. Some good points made about IHT, in the UK, normally everything you leave to your Wife wouldn't incur any tax, however this might not apply if you're married to a non-UK citizen, I'm not married so have never looked into it.

If you're bringing in up to 20 Million to give to the wife to buy land then just transfer it directly to her from your overseas account & declare it as a "Gift"... No Tax to pay. Even if you weren't married & wanted to give 20 Million to your partner to buy land in their name it might be worth sending it as a "Gift" as the Tax will be a flat rate 5% instead of the sliding scale up to 35%. If it's up to 10Million you might even get away with no tax to pay if you can show it was for a "Special Occasion" (I wonder if Birthdays count). https://www.expat.hsbc.com/expat-explorer/expat-guides/thailand/tax-in-thailand/#:~:text=Inheritance and gift taxes&text=However%2C gifts received from a,year) are exempt from tax. In general, gifts are taxed at a flat rate of 5%. However, gifts received from a legitimate parent, child or spouse (up to THB 20 million per year) or in a ceremony or on occasions in accordance with custom and tradition (up to THB 10 million per year) are exempt from tax.

City is "Bang Lamung", but the Tambon will depend on where you live in Pattaya, e.g. I live in Wongamat so mine is "Na Kluea". NB the spaces in "Banglamung" & "Nakluea" come from the drop down lists & how it appears on the application form.

Boat Story https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23729238/ Two hard-up strangers stumble across a haul of cocaine on a shipwrecked boat. After agreeing to sell it and split the cash, they become entangled with police, masked hitmen, and a sharp-suited gangster known as 'The Tailor'. Edit: It's on BBC & Amazon Freevee

If you enjoyed Squid Games (I did), then Squid Game:The Challenge is even better. I’m watching it on Netflix (well worth the 169b pm for subtitles when the GF wants to watch her Thai Soaps) but am sure it’s available everywhere. The Devils Game is a similar concept, again I really enjoyed it but only because I love logic puzzles. PS for anybody who enjoys (Sudoku Related) Logic puzzles or Cryptic Crosswords, “Cracking The Cryptic” channel on YouTube is awesome - Need to try to keep the grey matter sharp in retirement 👍🏻

Technically if you spend >179 days in Thailand in any one calendar year then you are Tax Resident & if you spend < 180 days here you are not Tax Resident irrespective of what kind of Visa you use. Crypto Capital Gains seem to be one of the areas that they are looking to target, but again this won't make a difference to you if you spend < 180 days here.

I've been paying AVCs for the past 16 years, that's what HMRC called them so that's the term I use, this is the 1st time I've heard of VINs but a quick look on the government website seems to suggest they've adopted that terminology. It doesn't matter to me as I stopped paying in April this year as I now have 40 years NI contributions which is what I need to get a full State Pension having been contracted out for 20 years, self employed for 2 years & working overseas the rest of the time.

There is a 3rd option which is to spend every 3rd year being non Tax Resident in Thailand & bring over the spends you need for the next 3 years Using very simplified numbers, I spend approx. 150K pm in Thailand which means I have to bring in 1.8Million every year. After the tax changes I might need to bring in 2.5M (It's closer to 2.6M but I'm assuming 30% tax & ignoring banding or allowances) - so 700K pa x 3 = 2.1M, I can have a great 6 month holiday with that & whilst sipping a cocktail on the beach, raise a glass to the Thai RD department for funding it.

But even if you were Contracted Out, you can make additional AVCs to take your pension up to the full amount & this is approx. £10,600 pa, so nobody is going to be taken over their personal tax allowance by an 8% or so increase.

You can't "Opt Out", you are "Contracted Out" by the company you work for & as part of that they have to put the reduced Employer NI contributions that they pay into a pension for you so Private Pensions do come into it. Don't know about reduced Employee contributions as I paid the maximum NI contribution even though I was "Contracted Out".