Mike Teavee

The big difference is with the Elite Visa you are paying 900K for the Visa & so it's no longer your money (I believe you can purchase it without even bringing money into Thailand), but with the LTR you may need to bring in $250K "Investment" if your Pension is below <$80K pa & this money is still yours (e.g. you could leave it sat in a bank account if you liked). TBH I'm not concerned about it as if they were to start taxing expats who bring Investment money into Thailand it would kill foreign currency investment & as I say, there seems a simple enough way around it (Don't be Tax Resident in Thailand in the Year that you bring in the money).

It's actually the other way round... if the money was part of a "Taxed Pension" then I don't believe the Thai govt can take any as I would already have paid tax under the UK/Thai DTA (Double Taxation Agreement), it's the fact that it is tax free in the UK that is concerning me. Bitcoin etc... seem to be one of the main areas that the Thai govt is looking to start taxing gains from so is probably the last thing you should do in this scenario... But that aside, the point is to bring in >$250,000 investment to support my LTR Visa application so needs to be "Out in the Open".

Will start receiving my private pension(s) in Feb 2026 & the current plan is to take 8-10Million THB as a tax free lump sum and use it to buy a Condo/support my LTR Wealthy Pensioner application but if Thailand is going to take approx. 3.5Million Tax from this then obviously that won't be happening. I wonder if I can do a Hotblack Desiato (https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato) & spend 1 year Dead (to Thailand) to get around it. Joking aside, as a single guy who loves to travel it wouldn't be hard for me to do a year or 2 where I spend < 180days in Thailand & bring the money in during that time.

Rental contract maybe?

Lol, that's not Bangkok, it's Naklua Soi 16 (Pattaya), can see the Riviera Wongamat Beach in the distance...

OECD's Common Reporting Standard... https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/common-reporting-standard/

Interesting... None of my UK Banks could share my account transactions information with Thailand as they are not aware of my Thailand Tax Identifier Number, 1 (Virgin One now Natwest) has asked for it & was ignored as I didn't have one at that time, the other (Barclays) has recently started to close accounts for people who are Non-UK resident for other "Operational" reasons so have never asked for it. My Singapore Bank (Citi) knows I live in Thailand, even sends me new Debit cards here, but has never mentioned needing to know anything about my banking/Tax details here.

But surely the whole point of them requiring copies of your foreign bank account statements is so they can see the source of the money that you are transferring into Thailand. E.g. if they see an entry of £3,000 being paid into your account on September 1st from your pension provider and then a transfer of 132,000b from that account to your Thai Bank account on September 2nd they could match the 2 and say it’s “Income Earned” from your pension provider. BTW I can’t see them doing this in practise as it would be a massive amount of work to collate all the data of where income came in from (especially if it went back to previous years) & then try to match it with monies sent, just saying that it technically would be possible to do so.

Guys In the LTR Visa thread seem to have some concerns about it... Post contains a link to a Thai Enquirer article that seems to give a different take on what the new regulations cover/target... https://www.thaienquirer.com/50748/new-tax-regulations-raises-questions-and-concerns/

Looking at Article 11 of the DTA it seems you could be taxed on income from Dividends...

Less than 150,000b pa! - How do you live on 12,500b pm! (No don't answer that)!!! For anybody who's interested here are the current Thai Tax Rate bands...

Sometimes have a similar problem but it seems to go away on it's own (with the help of a few Tylenol) after a few days so would be interested in hearing about where you go & your experience in getting it treated in Pattaya.

I've always thought that the guys using the >65K pm income method for their retirement extensions are leaving themselves open to having to pay tax on it. Obviously some income streams like state pensions may be exempt but private pensions would seem to be fair game, even if they've already paid tax on the income in their home countries.

Could be they claim it & force you to reclaim it via a Tax Return in Thailand or your home country or both.

30+ years since I read the book but I seem to remember the story behind that scene was that one of the last things she saw before being blind was a Tiger so I can only imagine how it must have felt to her to touch one.

Assuming you have a TM30 registering you at the address (agent or owner should provide this) then I don’t think you’ll have a problem getting a CoR if renting for 1 month… just provide your contract / AirBnB receipt - make sure you know/state which Bank you need the CoR for. Again, If it this were me, I would take any doubt/hassle out of it by getting an Agent to do it for me, costs 200b more but that’s cheaper than a Bolt Central Pattaya to/from Jomtien IO.

Lol, absolutely correct again & for anybody who's interested, here's the scene from Manhunter... Now it's going to bug me why I got an image in my head of a Blind Black girl stroking a tiger when I thought of that scene :S

Ignore me, I've just remembered that Red Dragon is a remake of Man Hunter but I remember Ralph Fiennes as Frances Dolarhyde more so the above clip came to mind Funny but the black girl who played FD's GF in the original movie also came to mind when I thought of that scene... so I sort of 1/2 remembered them both ???? If I had to choose I'd say Manhunter was the better movie.

I think you're thinking of Red Dragon... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289765/ I thought Ralph Fiennes was excellent in this...

Requirements for opening a Bank Account are now (Since March) Need to have at least 30 days (some agents can do it with 20 days) left on your permission to stay Need a Certificate of Residency from Immigration (NB This has to include the name of the Bank that you are trying to open an account for). It sounds like you'll have no problem meeting the 1st requirement, not sure how hard it will be for you to get the CoR, where will you be staying during your initial 3 months? Also might be worth considering that there are currently lots of rumours about potential tightening/changes to the Retirement Visa/Extensions so might be an idea to get your Non-IMM O Visa in Dec 2023 & then hopefully you'll be "Grandfathered" in should any changes happen next year [Though there are no guarantees that there will be changes or existing holders will be grandfathered in]. If it were me (I hate bureaucracy & tend to err on the side of caution when things look like they could change to make my life harder) I would enter Visa Exempt (Tourist Visa will do the job just as well) & get an agent (in Pattaya Maneerat on Soi 13/2, aka Soi Post Office) to:- Get a Certificate of Residency - 500b. Open a Bank Account - 3,700b (if <64, 4,700 if over), NB 500 of this stays in your account as an opening deposit so it's really 3,200/4,200b cost. Do the conversion from Visa Exempt/Tourist Visa to Non-IMM O Visa & get the 1 year extension (so good for 15 months stay) - 23,500b Approx. 27.5K & you're all set... I know some people will say you can do all this for 3K (& with enough effort/determination you probably can) but I view this as part of the retirement "Setting Up" costs & so should hopefully be easy enough to budget for before you retire. I.e. it's not like it's an unexpected 27.5K expense out of your budget when you're already retired.

The Sixth Commandment Follows the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and the extraordinary events that unfolded in the following years. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20916306/ Can't believe this was based on real life events!!!

Triple lock: State pension could go up less than expected next year The work and pensions secretary has refused to commit to raising the state pension to match official overall earnings figures. Under the government's triple lock pledge, next year's pensions are meant to rise by the highest of 2.5%, prices, or average wages. Data released earlier suggested this was likely to be 8.5%, the average wage figure for the summer months. But Mel Stride said he could not commit to using it for the calculation. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66786874 From what I've read elsewhere it sounds like they're considering excluding bonuses from the average wage increase which would reduce the planned 8.5% rise to approx. 7.8%

If that's the one where Brian Cox plays Hannibal Lecter then it's excellent & (IMHO) much better than Silence of the Lambs. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091474/

As has been mentioned already, mandatory Health Insurance wasn't grandfathered for existing Non-IMM OA holders nor was the requirement to keep 800K in the bank for 5 months (2 before extension, 3 after) & not go below 400K at any point in the year for existing Non-IMM O & OA holders - Although this technically wasn't an increase to the required amounts, people now need to keep spending money in the bank on top of the 800/400K so in reality there was an increase. BUT I think the biggest area of concern for some would be a clampdown on "Agent Assisted Financed" extensions (something which Big Joke hinted at in the original news item & was the intent behind the changes to the 800K/400K rules which he introduced) and that could see a lot of people heading for the door. Personally I can't see it happening, nor would I wish it on anybody, but if I was in that position I would be thinking about a "Plan B"... Just in case.

I'm assuming there's a way of searching for your entry & doing a screenshot of it that is acceptable to immigration as numerous people get TM30s from their hotel when they need to do something at immigration.