Mike Teavee

I have a "Current Account" Mortgage (Essentially any money in the account is offset against the mortgage owed when it comes to calculating the interest each month, e.g. I have a little bit more money in there than I owe so they pay me approx. £2 a year in Interest). So could I send any of this money to Thailand & legitimately say it's Savings (The money originally came from my taxed salary in the UK) & then replenish the money from dividend/capital gains income which have been taxed appropriately in the UK (I do a Tax Return every year)?

It depends on whether any part of the $15,000 was interest.

Generally the LIFO (Last in First Out) principle is applied so if you had £10,000 in your account, received £10 in interest & sent over £100, £90 would be savings & £10 income/taxable. Will be interesting to see how the RD approaches it & I can't wait to see how they're going to understand the local Tax regulations for the other 194 countries in the world, no doubt we'll have to have any supporting documents translated to Thai ????

I sort of agree with you, but the basic premise of Tax Law in Thailand is if you spend < 180 days in-country in any one Tax/Calendar year then you are not Tax Resident & you are not liable/eligible to even have to file a Tax Return unless you earn an income in Thailand. So if I leave here at the end of 2023 & pop back for a short (< 179 days) holiday in 2024, Thailand has no claims under it's own Tax regulations. Might cause me problems in the UK (I'm not Tax Resident there either) but trust my accountant there to do my UK Tax return (The only place I get any form of income from) more than I would anywhere else.

No that's the mother in law's, she's sick of having her transport stolen...

Lol, that was the character Hedley Lamarr, played by Harvey Korman ???? Apparently Hedy Lamar sued Mel Brooks for it & it was settled out of court in her favour.

Not sure which bank you're with but Barclays T&Cs say all account holders must be resident in the UK... https://www.barclays.co.uk/important-information/living-outside-the-uk/#:~:text=An incorrect address could affect,to be in the UK.

Just curious, do your friends that stay there say anything about using the short cut from the back of the property towards the beach at night only I’ve read a couple of reports of people having problems with Soi Dogs at night. No problem for me as I always have an extendible umbrella in my bag when I’m going out which is enough to make them think twice but I was thinking it might be a problem for some people.

It depends on where the 40K came from, if it came from income, dividends, capital gains etc from previous years then DTAs aside they seem to be saying you could be liable for tax on it. I used the example where I got £100K “Pension” handed back to me when I changed jobs in Singapore, transferred this money to the UK & invested it in shares to give me some income now I’m retired (without a pension for another 2.3 years)… No tax has been paid on the principle (Employer made all the contributions) so technically if I sold the shares & remitted the money to Thailand it looks like I could be liable for tax on all of it.

Thanks, I quoted the annual fee per SQM but typically it is quoted on a monthly basis so 53.57 pm is a better metric. Given the quality of the common areas & facilities (4 swimming pools, 2 gyms, children's play room etc...) I think that's very reasonable but I wasn't impressed with the build quality of the actual condo unit itself so don't think I would ever buy there.... Would be happy to go back there as a renter though. Edit: For a really great view of Riviera Wongamat Block B, check out this video (FFWD to 1:25 if the music isn't to your taste)... Unfortunately I no longer have the raw footage that was shot from a few angles but he opens way to late & was lucky not to have seriously injured himself.

Because I was only renting, it's the owners responsibility to pay the common fees.

I lived in a 2br 2bth 70sqm unit at Riviera Wongamat & would get the bill for the common fees (obviously I didn't pay it), IIRC it was a little over 45,000b pa so I would guess 650b per sqm.

All of the Riviera Projects (& The Palm) officially allow small dogs & cats & the management/security are very strict on any rentals less than 30 days, plus the entrance doors at Riviera Wongamat require Facial recognition for which you need to register with the management office so no >30 days contract, no facial registration, no getting in the front door.

In the UK it’s where you are at midnight that counts, so if you landed at 23:55pm but didn’t get through border control until 00:05am you weren’t in the UK on that date

No, the rules are very clear... < 180 days in any 1 calendar/tax year = Non-Tax resident. Besides it's relatively straight forward to open a bank account even on a Visa Exempt if you're willing to pay an agent 3,700b (4,700 if >64).

As has been posted already, if you're from the UK & not an Ex-Civil Servant/ Armed Forces then your Pension is not covered by the Double Taxation Agreement & so could be liable to Tax in Thailand. I've decided that if the worse happens & I am liable for Thai tax on my UK Savings/Income (I've filed a Tax Return every year since I was 18 so know I've paid whatever taxes are due in the UK ), I'm simply going to do 1 year in every 3 as a non-Tax resident in Thailand & bring enough money over that year to live on for the 3 years... Let's see them tax that.

My answer is NO... Any changes will start from next year so anything you bring over before then won't be taxable.

The more I think about this, the more it blows my mind as to how I could honestly report where any money I remit to Thailand came from & what Tax was paid on it. E.g. I worked in Singapore for 10+ years & the way Pensions work there is when you leave (or change jobs) they give you the money that you've accrued in your pension for you to do with as you please, after the 1st 6 years I changed jobs & transferred a large amount of "Pension" money to the UK to invest for when I do retire. No tax was due in Singapore (Employer made all of the contributions) or the UK so if I were to sell the shares & remit the money to Thailand would I be liable for Tax on it even though both countries have a DTA with Thailand? Seems to me the only "Safe" approach is to just alternate between being Non-Tax resident in Thailand for 1 year in every 3 or 4 & bring enough money across in that year to live on for the other 2 or 3 years.

Think it was recommended on here months/years back but I’ve just started watching Scott & Bailey, big fan of UK Police Dramas so really enjoying it. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1843678/ Newer recommendation landed on Netflix today… The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar https://m.imdb.com/title/tt16968450/

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If you've lived in the US for so long then surly you have permanent residency there (as a Brit you have to have or you'd only be able to stay 6 months of the year) so the Embassy should allow you to apply for a Non-IMM OA, have you tried a different Embassy? Failing that have you tried applying for a Non-IMM O in the US? This will save you the job of doing the conversion in-country so you'll just move straight to doing extensions. If you do want to do the conversion in-country & want to use an Agent then it costs approx. 25,000b in Pattaya for which you'll get the initial Non-Imm O & 1st 12 month extensions (i.e. you'll get 15 months permission to stay), personally I'd recommend going this route as it can be very tight timewise (need at least 15 days on your permission to stay, I believe Phuket needs 20 maybe even 25 days) especially if you haven't had the 800K in the bank for at least 2-3 months. People might be able to share personal experiences if you can state which Immigration Office you plan on doing the conversion at.

& I have my mortgage with Virgin One (now part of NatWest) who wrote to me to ask me for my Thailand Tax information* so I’m assuming they’re ok with me keeping the account, but I do use a UK address for all correspondence. *The mortgage has a small credit on it so they pay me approx. £2 pa in Interest

That makes sense as your Financial Advisor is unlikely to be able to advise you properly if you’re non-UK Resident. Simple example, a common recommendation would be to max out your ISA allowances, but non-UK residents (for Tax) are not allowed to open a new ISA or add funds to an existing ISA so he could be offering you advice that could cause you problems with HMRC.

I don't have any evidence just recall a thread discussing it & somebody saying their private pension wouldn't allow them to pay to a Wise account, I did ask the same question as it is just a UK Sort Code / Account number so I can't see why the couldn't pay directly to it & pointed out the article quoted early in the thread was > 8 years old when Wise didn't have their own Sortcodes / Account numbers... Still best to check with your pension provider just in case. Ironically my pension is from my 26 years working at Barclays so if they do close my account (Which still says "Staff Account" despite me leaving them 10 years ago) then it will be their problem where to pay it when it becomes due in Feb 2026.

Transferred from my Barclays account to his Natwest Account or paid by me on my UK credit card (I pay for our annual trip home to visit family) & he pays me back from his (taxed) income in Thailand. Works out well for both of us as we use the XE mid market rate which is higher than I would get transferring money over & lower than he would need to pay to transfer THB to GBP.