Mike Teavee

I know but it wouldn't really be fare to ask her to give up her job/income & not replace the lost salary so 15K pm it is (or was it's 20K pm now but 10K goes into a savings account for her) On the bright side, I did manage to get 500g of my favourite cheese for 280THB the other day though ????

Reasonably sure I know where you mean & if I'm right it's a very nice area so 9.5K for a 1br is a very good price there. I always go for 2br units as (pre-covid) my parents come out to stay with me for at least 1 month every year so I need a br for them sleep in (more accurartely I'm shunted into the spare room). As an aside, one of the strange things I've noticed about condos in Thailand is that a 2br unit costs more than twice what a 1br unit costs so I told the GF to try to find us 2 x 1br units (ideally on different floors ????) when we were looking for a new place. If/When you do move out of Bangkok, can highly recommend the Wongamat area, it's very quiet (don't live here if you want/need a lot of bars) but 60THB/15 mins in a Bolt Taxi & you're at Central Festival in the middle of Pattaya.

Thankfully (as my “income”was about 50k THB pm last year) there are other ways e.g putting 800K in the bank or using the combination method (say 400k in the bank & 32,500 income). I wouldn’t move here unless I could meet 1 of those 3 requirements but there’s possibly more guys here who don’t (or don’t want to) than do & they use an agent to help “meet” the requirements

Whilst I agree with you interms of rarely needing to use the BTS, the fact that you're near a BTS station means that you're close to restaurants/bars/shopping centers etc... as these tend to spring up around the stations so you don't need it (I could go months where the only times I went up the BTS steps were to get to the Tesco Lotus superstore on the other side of the road). I did have a conversation with the GF about the fact that we were probably paying a 5K premium pm to be so close to the BTS & we hardly ever used it but when we looked at new condos around Bangkok we decided we still needed to be within 500m of a BTS or MRT station to have everything we needed on our doorstep. Now I've moved to Wongamat I take Bolt Taxis everywhere (Central Pattaya is approx 60THB away) but I need to as I no longer have 3 large shopping centers & 2 fresh markets on my doorstep (in fact we only have 2 Family Marts & 1 Lotus minimart since the 2 7/11 shutdown)... Where's the bloody BTS when you need it ????

We'll have to agree to disagree but if you're paying income tax in Thailand on earnings not directly earned here you're doing it all wrong...

Jesus you must be living on the cheap if you can do it for < 400 Euros a month! House paid for or not it would cost me more than that in cheese alone. But if you're offering me a swap for 400 Euros worth of French Red.... Where do you want her delivered to?

Wrong Wrong Wrong... I have no where near the kind of incomes but still had accountants that sorted out my (vastly more complex) tax return for me... Give it up fella, the guys you're ta;lking about have very different financial problems than we do....

I'm by no means rich, but I'm using money I earned > 12 years ago to fund this years spends... Do you really think that "Rich" people give a seconds thought to which year the money was earned? Even if they did earn it this year (sort of implies living hand-to-mouth), the "Rich" have accountants that will make it look like it wasn't End of the day, anybody with any kind of Wealth wouldn't give a moments thought about Thailand's income tax save that they could use it to save money in their home country (I do), the taxes that might hurt them are ones on improrted wines/cars etc... I could never see myself paying 4Million THB for a BMW that I could buy for £40K in the UK, no matter how much money I had, it's the principle of the thing.

Sorry your edit appeared after my reply... To be clear the "RIch" can earn as much money as they want/can & as long as none of it is brought into Thailand in the same calendar year as it was earned will pay 0% (Thailand) tax on any of it... So if Elon M/Jeff B/Bill G decided they wanted to hang up their spurs & retire to Thailand whilst still earning a $squillion per year, Thailand would tax them nothing as long as the money they bring over in this calendar year (1/1 -31/12) was earned in a previous year.

Better than 20% VAT we'd pay in the UK ????

I honestly doubt there are many truely rich individuals who couldn't point to overseas monies to prove that they didn't bring any monies into Thailand in the current calendar year but if there are, I'm sure they have creative accountants that can prove that they didn't ???? For us plebs, as long as we can keep at least 1 year's spends in our home country before bringing it over then we don't have to worry about Tax in Thailand though I now would like a refund from the tax I paid on interest in the bank...

Everybody who works in Thailand should pay Tax in Thailand but we're not talking about that, we're talking about internationally wealthy guys so even if they're employed & still earning a salary outside of Thailand, it's nothing to do with Thailand. To use your example, somebody like Johnny Depp spending 2Million THB pm that he earned from Edward Scissor hands wouldn't need to pay tax even if he makes money from other income steams (outside of Thailand) this year, but if he made a movie & moved the money here this year then he should pay tax on it... Fact is you only need to pay tax on income in Thailand if you earn it here or you earn it elsewhere & bring it into Thailand in the same calendar year

Why would they be liable for Tax after 180 days? I live here year round & the only tax I pay is on the interest from my Thai bank account & I only pay that because I can't be bothered to register for a Tax ID number to claim it back. If you earn money outside of Thailand & don't bring that money into Thailand within the same year (1st Jan - 31st Dec) that you earned it then there's no tax to pay. Some people (Anybody remember @Nam, what happened to him btw, as I haven't seen any posts from him for a long time) retire to Thailand because they don't have to pay tax on their worldwide income.

Neither have I, in fact all my mates here are on Non-B (Work Permit) or Marriage Visas, I'm the only one that's here on the Non-O "Retirement" visa (& I have no problem doing my annual extension) My point was that if you are "Rich" then Thailand offers you some very easy routes to live here (as do many other countries in the world, including UK, EU, US, Singapore etc... it's just their definition of "Rich" might be different). .

Then you'd know that staying in a 2Br 1 bth corner unit as close as you can get to a BTS station (Ideo Verve) for 20K (Pre Covid pricing, I took the unit in 2018) is a good deal & you'd know the building is anything but a dump... Again, where do you live & how much do you pay so we can compare apples with unicorns. Edit: Can get 1 of the smaller 2br'/1bth units for 15K at the moment (I could have stayed in mine for the same but wanted a change so moved to be closer to the beach/sea) https://www.hipflat.com/projects/ideo-verve-sukhumvit-tpmbtn but if you're retiring somewhere, it's probably not a good idea to base your rent on Covid Pricing as this is unlikely to last beyond the next 2-3 years... FWIW the Unit I moved to rents for 45-55K pm in non-covid times & I'll be out of here the moment the landlord asks for > 30-35K pm... Figure I've got 2 years by which time I'll be ready to move anyway.

If his Birthday is 29th Feb won't he only be 15 then ???? @Taboo2Damn that's a long time away but it will feel like it passed all too quickly when you get there so be sure to enjoy it as well as working towards bringing the date forward

Can I ask which part of Bangkok you live in? - I think On Nut is a good balance between being close enough to the center of Bangkok but not being in the thick of it so have no problem recommending it, & might go back to live in Bangkok in a couple of years so am genuinely interested (1/2 have it in my mind I will stay around the Riverside area but I've never lived there & think it's more expensive so didn't think I could recommend it to the OP) I pay my TGF a stipend because I asked her to give up her job so we could go live/travel together (I love to travel & even with all the travel restrictions in 2020 we still managed to spend around 100 nights away from home), alternative was for her to do a 2 hour commute each way 6 days a week or not live/travel with me. My GF loves to cook so we eat at home more because that's what she loves to do, suits me as she's a good cook + I love Korean food & it's not easy to find something for her if we eat out at the places I like as she's not a fan. I agree with you that If I were trying to do it on a lower budget then I would adjust all of the above (starting with the fact that I wouldn't choose to live in Bangkok) but I'm happy with what I'm spending so choose to do it this way

So what are you going to do with your time now that you've retired? I tried to retire at 40 & was climbing the walls with boredom after a couple of weeks (though I did come out of a very stressful & demanding job working 12+ hour days 6+ days a week) & that taught me that I needed to plan for what I would do with myself as much as I planned for the financial side of things.

@KannikaPas you reacted confused by my (very tongue in cheek) post I'll try to explain... If Pension Income was earned many years ago, then it wasn't earned this year so could be argued it's savings not income, hence my (very tongue in cheek, complete with smilie) comment about not earning any income this year. The reality is that as Thailand only taxes any monies you bring over which were earned this year, whilst you do earn a pension income this year (if they required proof of income you could provide your pension statements), but as you don't bring it over over until (at least) next year (i.e you live on previous year's pension income) there is no tax is due. Next year you might bring over the pension income from this year & then use income earned for that year the following year... <deleted> now I'm confused ???? As I said, I was just playing devils advocate ????

[To play devils advocate] You could argue then that you don't meet the 65K pm income requirement as you're not earning any income ????

As I mentioned, I almost chose to the Philippines but In the end things like the quality of groceries in the supermarkets made it a no-no for me (some decent Korean & Japanese restaurants though & I love Korean food). This was Davao City as I prefer the Southern (Visaya) Islands (& girls), maybe if I'd have tried Taguig (nearly moved to BGC for work) I would have chosen to live there but for my GF at the time it was stay in Singapore, move to the UK or move to Davao, Manila wasn't on the cards so I chose Bangkok ???? No way could I live in Angeles City, just not my scene...

Of the top of my head, a place that has... Reasonably easy to stay (have no problem doing the 1 year visa extensions, if I did then I'd get the 20 year Thai Elite Visa) Reasonably cheap to live (I have a great lifestyle on £2,500 / 100K THB pm) No cold winters (though I do miss spring in the UK) Decent waters/beaches (though I would have moved to the Philippines if this was more important) Access to Western comforts & Asian cuisines Decent infrastructure + It doesn't hurt to have a GF that's 20 years younger???? I very nearly moved to the Philippines (had a Filipino GF for 8 years & went 1/2s on a house in Davao) but at the end of the day Numbers 5 & 6 weren't up to the standard that I was looking for. Only other options I could think of were Portugal (Not easy for a Brit to move there nowadays) or South America (I've only visited on day trips from cruises, & the planned a 3-6 month tour of a few of the SA countries got scuppered by Covid). TBH, if I could, I would have spent the 1st few years of my retirement touring the US but it's very difficult for a Brit to spend more than 6 months of the year there. So if you were retiring today, where would you retire to?

Hope not, I only made the move last year... but the $64,000 question is, if not Thailand then where?

Damn, I just got Rick Rolled!!!

Up until 3 weeks ago I lived in the On Nut Area (Ideo Verve, right next to On Nut BTS station) & if I were to go back to Bangkok would happily live there again. Budgetwise how long is a piece of string? But my basic monthly spend was around the 67.5K (bearing in mind this was during the lockdown when everything was closed so there was nowhere to spend any money).... Here's roughly what that looked like... 20K for Rent (You can find a small place for 10K about 800m from the BTS, maybe they'll have a shuttle bus) 5K for Utilities (3.5K of this was for electric, remainder for water, internet, mobile & Netflix - You can probably do this for 1.5K if you don't mind doing without AC) 15K Stipend for GF (I wanted her to give up her job in a mall 2 hours away so I cover the salary she was earning there - You can pay 0 for this) 25K for groceries (A lot of guys spend around 1/2 of this but eat out more so lets say 15K in total) 2.5k Health Insurance (You can spend 0 but I wouldn't recommend it) 1K Visa (I use an agent for convenience but you could budget 200THB pm to do it yourself) So I guess could be done for around 27K (10K rent, 1.5K utilities, 0k GF, 15K gorceries/eating out, 200 THB Visa) but personally on 55K I would look to live somewhere else (Dark Side Pattaya, Udon Thani etc)... How are you planning on meeting the Visa requirements? Will you put 800K in the bank or use an Agent (If the latter, your Visa fees are going to be around 1,250THB pm).