Mike Teavee

And that's what you took from my post? Really!!! JF Sad... Still waiting for 1 reason why Mae Phim beach is a better place to visit than Ko Samed (Which was the OP)... Wait, what's that? you don't have one save for saving the ferry fare? Sad... JF Sad...

As exciting as Mae Phim Beach!? Let me get my coat/Bolt…

TBH the same can be said of Koh Larn… Even on Taewan Beach (probably its busiest resort) you can still walk chest deep into the sea & see your toes… Philippines blows all of this away though, in the seas down south (Cebu/Bahol etc…) you can pi55 in the water & see it coming out…

And if you don’t you go to Koh Chang?!?

Ko Samed is my/our favourite island in Thailand & I’ve been lucky enough to visit a fair few, including Koh Chang 1/2 dozen times… Might have more to do there BUT the beaches are sub-par & I’m being kind here. Doesn't matter anyway as the OP asked about Ko Samed which happens to be my/our (GF is from Satun & grew up on family holidays to Koh Lipe which makes Phi Phi look like an also ran) favourite island. (iIRC) Mae Phim beach is windy, smelly & has nothing there save from a wonderful view of the (Shell?) oil refinery but please share why it’s a better holiday destination for the OP.

Have stayed on Ko Samed a fair few times & not sure (outside of Special Holidays, e.g. New Year's Eve) I've come across many hotels in your budget range (& by that I mean hotels that costs that much) but I really like Samed Villa (NB Not to be confused with Samet Ville, I made that mistake 1 year & ended up in the middle of nowhere) It's right next to Silver Sands & Samed Pavilion & we've never had a bad stay there... I think the max we paid was 2,300b per night (Edit just checked & Agoda has it at 3,101b + taxes for an end of October stay so am guessing approx. 3,500b) that was at Xmas/New Year. If you're just looking for a nice hotel at the beach handy for Pattaya then I highly recommend Ennkai Beachfront Resort https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g2098164-d25369719-Reviews-Ennkai_Beachfront_Resort_Koh_Larn-Chonburi_Province.html... Again quite a bit under your budget (most we've paid was 4,000b pn during a holiday season, but have never snagged it for less than 3,000)... Really is a great place for a luxury holiday without too much travel hassles.

Can’t you use one of those machines outside most 7-11s (at least in Bangkok) to Top-Up or a site like https://mobiletopup.com/?l=en - used these a few times to Top-Up my AIS SIM, never had a problem. IMG_5313.heic

Lol, when was Kylie... Miss Kentucky ????????????

Apologies if it's already been mentioned but I started watching the Fall of the House of User last night & am really enjoying it so far... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15567174/ To secure their fortune (and future) two ruthless siblings build a family dynasty that begins to crumble when their heirs mysteriously die, one by one.

To be clear were you 4 days late or 11 days? Only there is supposed to be a grace period of 7 days after your 90 day report is due so it would wrong for them to fine you after only 4 days.

Is your mother still living in the house? & if she is, is she paying market rates for rent? If the Answer is "Yes" she is still living there & "No" she's not paying market rates for rent then HMRC could see that "Gift" as a "Gift that she still benefits from" so will tax the inheritance as if the house was still part of the estate. See https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts Giving gifts you still benefit from If you give something away but still benefit from it (a ‘gift with reservation’), it will count towards the value of your estate. Gifts with reservation include: giving your home to a relative but still living there giving away a caravan but still using it for free for your holidays giving away a valuable painting but still displaying it in your house Read further guidance on when a gift with reservation counts towards the estate’s value. @davee58 I don't know how much you "Gift" to your GF but you're entitled to give away up to £3,000 pa (covered in the article linked to above) so that's the 1st 11,000b pm covered, am sure a reasonable argument could be made that any remainder was for costs involved in maintaining the house you do live in when you are in Thailand.

It's going to be complicated may have to shuffle and put all the taxed pensions in one account. then ring fence the UK tax free bit in a separate account It depends on how you define "Tax Free", HMRC doesn't consider the income you earn below your Personal Tax Allowance as "Tax Free", it considers it taxed at 0% (Nil Rate), so technically you have "Payed" the tax required on it.... Same is true with the 1st £1,000 (soon to be reduced to £500) of Dividend Income & £1,000 of Bank Interest. So if the Thai Revenue Department views this in the same way then there will be no more Tax to pay on it according to rule 5 on their own website... 5. What happens if the rate of tax stipulated in the Revenue Code is different from that of an agreement? - Apply the rate which is more beneficial to the taxpayer. https://www.rd.go.th/english/23520.html This could be the reason why the original statement said that nationalities covered by a DTA would have no more Tax to pay.

The challenge for Brits & Aussies are that our Tax Year doesn't line up with the Thai Tax year so we can't produce an "Official" tax return in time for the end of March Thai filing deadline. E.g. I normally receive my Consolidated Tax Certificates (confirmation from my broker/bank how much dividend income/interest I received during that Tax Year) in July which is already 3-4 months past the deadline. Then there's the problem that this return is "Split Year" according to the Thai Tax year so they would need to accept my (supported with dividend warrants & bank statements) etc.. breakdown of income earned 1st Jan - 5th April from my previous UK Tax return & 6th April - 31st December from the latest return - I can't possibly see how they have the bandwidth to go through all of this so expect they would put the onus on me to have this somehow certified as being true & accurate.. No thanks... I already keep 2 years spends in the bank over here so easier to just have a 6 month holiday somewhere every 2-3 years during which time I'll top up my accounts & bring no more than 235K (my Tax Free allowance + Deductibles) money across in years that I spend > 180 days in Thailand.

UK Tax Resident check will tell you whether you're Tax Resident or not... https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence#:~:text=for tax purposes.-,UK tests,days of the tax year At it's simplest, more than 183 days in the UK = Tax Resident, less than 16 days in the UK = non-tax resident, but in between these it depends on your history/"Home Ties"... E.g. I know I can spend at least 40 days in the UK as I've been Non-Tax resident for > 3 years but think if I spend > 90 days I'll be tax resident because I have 2 "Home Ties". BUT all that aside, being UK Resident & being UK Tax Resident are not necessarily the same thing, if I was to go to the UK for 91 days and declare myself UK Tax Resident I still wouldn't be UK Resident as I don't live there.

Lol, I actually fell asleep for 10-15 minutes during it... Best laugh was this was in the 4D Max cinema with the moving seats/atmospheric effects etc... ???? Felt a bit like John Wick 3 where the whole point of the movie seems to be to set-up the next one.

See rule 5 on the RD Website... https://www.rd.go.th/english/23520.html 5. What happens if the rate of tax stipulated in the Revenue Code is different from that of an agreement? - Apply the rate which is more beneficial to the taxpayer. Which I read as saying if you've paid any Tax on the Income in your home country & Thailand has a DTA which covers that kind of income, then Thailand will not tax you again on it even if the Tax rates in Thailand are higher.

I honestly thought the Video was a decent look at how somebody could approach breaking their budget down for a life in Pattaya, anybody who takes it as "Gospel" when it comes to retirement budgets & doesn't tweak it according to their needs should probably think again before retiring anywhere, never mind Thailand. I do agree about food costs though, we eat at home a lot & I'm a very fussy eater so we spend approx. 30,000b pm (2 people) on groceries (includes 6-8K for Beer & Wine as eating at home means I don't go out drinking too much), live with my long term partner so 0 cost (save for the odd tip/lady drink) on girls. I would say that my monthly costs are more like 150K pm but this includes expenses (Investments) in the UK of approx. 30K pm, so 120K on average, this is below what I'd planned/budgeted for (100% due to the fact that I did 1 extra year at work before retiring) so I'm comfortable with it. “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery” I think I could easily live (a Single) life here on 60K, but if I had the choice I would probably carry on working until I could afford another 20-40K. End of the day it's "Too Each His Own", I know (older) guys who have a much more "Livelier" life than I have on less than 1/2 of what I spend ????

That's one view, maybe another is people have built their lives here based on an understanding of their income/budget & that might now change so understandably they're concerned. For the avoidance of doubt, I'm fully Tax compliant in my home country (which is where all my income comes from) & plan to be so in Thailand.

No, if you're entitled to UK State Pension you'll get it, "Foreigner" or not ???? If you are (or at least were originally) a Brit, I do think it will be frozen though as they will just look at where you're living... rather than your "Nationality"

TBH I didn't get it (at all) so maybe somebody could explain

As discussed previously, if that's your only income in the UK it will be taxed at 0% up to £12,570 (currently) & according to Rule 5 https://www.rd.go.th/english/23520.html you won't need to pay any additional tax in Thailand on it. It will be interesting to see if you get a "Frozen" pension (i.e. your pension will stay the same as at the date you claim it & you won't get annual increases), I'm assuming you will (as us Brits who are not Thai Citizens get/can expect) but I don't know if you are/were British and if the same rules apply to you.

Lol, my GF (has a degree in IT so speaks English very well) is the absolute worse teacher of Thai that I've ever met & if she isn't deliberately sabotaging me from learning Thai she's doing a very good job of it. She's from Satun (Way down South) so whilst she can speak & understand "Central Bangkok" Thai, she tends to speak the Southern dialect... E.g. instead of "Nit Noi" (a little bit) she will say "Nit Neiow" (obviously phonetic), when we visit her family they give me blank stares when I say "Nit Noi". Still laugh at the time on Koh Samui when the Thai Restaurant owner asked me to translate for her ????

If you watch the video, he explains quite clearly that the 1,500b for an agent is amortised over the year... As you do with annual expenses when setting a monthly budget. Your costs are just that, "Yours", no one else is going to have exactly the same costs as you, living in a 5K room or a 15k hotel room is my idea of hell, I'd rather stay in the UK than do that but that's just Me. The point of the video is to give people an idea of what kind of expenses they can expect & anybody with an ounce of common sense would know to tweak the numbers as appropriate

The Maldives (Laguna Beach Resort 3), whilst being a very nice condo resort with awesome pools, isn't exactly in a prime area (I described it as the "4rse end of nowhere" when I did 5 days there) so it's going to be quiet at the best of times, visiting off season you're going to find it very quiet.

Thanks, that's a hugely important piece of information as it would seem to mean that any income covered by the Double Taxation Agreement/Treaty that has been tax assessed/paid in your home country would not incur any additional Tax in Thailand.