Mike Teavee

Noticed that on my last Xfer & thought I took a pic to post here but can’t find it now. Edit to remove stuff from Wise website already posted by.@drjack54… I think the 7th January 2022 is a typo & should be 2023…

For anybody interest in Bangkok, I noticed that a documentary on the iconic cinema "The Scala" has just landed on Netflix (I did search IMDB & it looks like there's another documentary called "Scala" released this year but the Netflix one is "The Scala"). Haven't watched it yet as I'm just finishing "Anatomy of a Scandal" (really enjoying it) & it's the GF's turn to choose the movie tonight (what is it about Thai girls & "Horror" movies :s )

Quick update on the baggage claim with Qatar. Have to say that having finally managed to connect with their Baggage team (took 4 weeks & a threat to take it to CAA), the service has been excellent & they've processed my claim / started the refund process within 3 days. I was very reasonable with my claim, for an 8 day delay to the luggage being delivered I only claimed £29.99 for a charger for my MacBook, (had all the clothes/underwear/toiletries I needed already at my parents house) then when I found out the case had been damaged at inspection I only claimed £89.99 for a new one - Total of £119.98 but for some reason they're paying me $225 (approx £172).... Oh well, new charger, new case & an extra £50 goes some way to restoring my opinion of them (I'm easily bought ????)

You're lucky if you've never had to file a Tax Return, especially as you were earning in the higher rate tax bracket... Have you really never received any additional income over your salary (e.g. Dividends or even income from a Bank Account) that would have needed declaring/extra tax paying? I've had to do Tax Returns since I was 19 & put it down to a bad break-up with a girl who's mum was a Tax Inspector... Have had to file one every year since, 36 & counting ????.

Sorry to disappoint, but your State Pension as a maximum will be below £10,000 but this at least means you won't have to pay tax on it. State Pension is always put onto the "List" 1st so you should never be taxed on it but there may be tax to pay if you have any additional income which takes you above your PTA + additional tax reliefs... e.g.. Any rental Income from property will be added to your State Pension & taxed if you go above the PTA threshold (NB If you've not filled a Non-Resident Landlord form (NR1?) the tax will be withheld by the agent so you're more likely to get a refund & will only pay additional tax if your total income-allowances takes you into a higher tax bracket). More than £1,000 in Interest from bank accounts more than £2000 in Dividend income - You may not need to pay this if you're non-resident for tax purposes (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-residents-and-investment-income-hs300-self-assessment-helpsheet/hs300-non-residents-and-investment-income-2019) - NB The Dividend voucher will show a "Tax Withheld" amount but this is for the company, not you & cannot be reclaimed even if you don't go above your personal limit Each year you will need to file a Self Assessment form to pay (or claim) back tax, this is relatively easy to do online but I use an accountant (£240 per year) as they stay on top of all of the tax changes + ensure I claim any allowances that are due to me (e.g. you can claim a certain percentage of rental income for "Wear & Tear" of furniture in the property, something I never would have known about).

Yes, as we were talking about frozen State Pensions. I figured the Ordinarily Resident test used by DHS would be the more appropriate.

You are always liable tor Tax on UK earnings (E.g. interest on bank accounts, rental income etc...) irrespective of where you live or your tax status, but being non-resident you don't have to pay Capital Gains Tax on the sale of (non-property) assets & tax on dividend is capped at the amount that's already been paid so should this income push you into a higher tax bracket, you don't need to pay the additional tax [NB I'm not 100% sure on this part anymore as it's a long time since my UK Income would put me in the higher rate tax bracket & they changed the rules a while back], Oh & you're not allowed to put anymore money into any tax free savings (e.g. ISAs) - You can keep what you have but cannot pay anymore into them.

Just staying in the UK for 30 days pa isn't enough to make "Ordinarily Resident", there's a lot more to it than that, check out the Ordinarily Resident tool so see how you fare. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/help-for-nhs-to-recover-costs-of-care-from-visitors-and-migrants/settled-purpose-tool#:~:text=Is their stay in the,in another country of residence. I've been non-resident for 15 years & take great care to maintain this as it lowers the amount of tax on dividend income & means I don't have to pay Capital Gains Tax on any share sales (I will need to pay it when I come to sell my house). Fortunately my state pension still increases each year as I'm 11 years away from being able to claim it, time will tell if things are still the same then.

Assuming you're British (you say you're travelling from the UK) then you will get 30 days Visa Exempt on arrival, or you can apply for a 60 day Tourist Visa before you leave... After that (Covid extensions aside) you'll have the option of extending for a further 30 days... (So enter Exempt 30+30 or enter on Tourist Visa 60+30) As you've said the 90 day METV is no more so it would really help if you could share how long you want to spend in Thailand & whether you plan (or would be open to) having a mini-holiday to 1 of the neighbouring countries as a border run could get you a new Visa Exempt (30 Days) or a new Tourist Visa (60 days) either of which can be extended for a further 30 days...

I've never thought of it before, but it would be good if they could come up with some kind of long stay visa for guys under 50 who can prove they meet a certain income level. I wouldn't say 65K is a good number as those guys probably still need to save for their pensions (whereas most guys over 50 probably have this covered already) but maybe something like 100K in provable income? NB I'm 56 & live here on a Non-Imm O so have no dog in this fight but it strikes me as a Win/Win for Thailand & guys who can genuinely support themselves without having to work "off book" in Thailand.

Thanks, I had it in my head that Songkran started today so the 3 day public holiday would be 12-14th & business as usual on the 15th. It doesn't matter as there isn't an urgent need for the money but 6 days would be by far the longest a Wise transfer has ever taken.

Sorry a little bit OT because it's not from the UK, but if you're sending money from anywhere at the moment beware of the Songkran public holidays so it will take longer.... E.g. a couple of minutes ago I did an (SGD) transfer from Singapore to Thailand & the expected date of arrival for my money is 18th April. In fairness I did get a warning that there are public holidays in Thailand at the moment so my transfer would take longer than usual but I thought the official Songkran Holidays were 2-3 days so expected to get the cash on Friday (15th) not Monday (18th).

[Copied from a post I made in a different thread]... If you're only getting the insurance to meet the Thailand Pass requirements then this policy can be had for 650 THB https://partner.fwdgi.co.th/en/fwdgi/corona-virus-inbound-insurance?utm_source=tqmbroker I know a couple of guys (1 arrived Visa Exempt & the other Works here) that have used it with no problems but I don't know anybody who's had to use it to make a claim for Covid.

Edit: I didn't recommend the website, in fact that post was the 1st time I even knew it existed... As I posted previously, I took QR836 exactly 1 month ago & I'm sure when I booked it, it was QSuites (I have flown that flight before) or I would have gone for the longer layover time & taken QR833 which is also (supposed to have) QSuites but the plane we ended up on was neither an A380 or had QSuites or worthy of Qatar's "Standing" as the "Best Airline In The World"... Oh & the "Miracle" lounge is a pretty miserable lounge to be stuck in whilst waiting for an early morning flight so I would recommend taking QR833 and spending the extra time in the lounge in Doha which (IMHO) is a great lounge.

I don't believe the A380s have QSuites & this seems to be confirmed by Seatguru for that flight https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Qatar_Airways/Qatar_Airways_Airbus_A380.php And SeatMaestro for the Qatar A380s https://www.seatmaestro.com/airplanes-seat-maps/qatar-airways-airbus-a380-800/ But I flew that on that flight 1 month ago to the day (time flies ???? ) & it wasn't an A380, nor did it have QSuites... In fact me & my mate both commented how it was an old dingy plane, not up to the usual Qatar standards at all.

Yes @Andrew Dwyer- 2 x 1.5 hour episodes, I watched it on Netflix but am sure it's available at the usual places.

Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18988024/ Had no idea just how many victims there were & growing up in the UK when this guy was so prominent it's unbelievable that he could have been doing this & gotten away with it for so long.

Wasn't trying to be clever & wouldn't have bothered to point it out if you hadn't spelt it the same (wrong) way twice. Was just trying to help the OP (& others) who may want to google it to find out where it is etc... Oh & my parents are still very happily married after 57 years

Lol, in the Philippines you'll often seen signs that say "Buy One, Take One".... What else am I going to do? Buy one & leave it behind?

If you're only getting the insurance to meet the Thailand Pass requirements then this policy can be had for 650 THB https://partner.fwdgi.co.th/en/fwdgi/corona-virus-inbound-insurance?utm_source=tqmbroker I know a couple of guys (1 arrived Visa Exempt & the other Works here) that have used it with no problems but I don't know anybody who's had to use it to make a claim for Covid.

It's actually called/spelt Tukcom OP, if you are going to travel then Fortune Town in Bangkok is a much better place to get replacement parts, as somebody as already posted Tukcom (Pattaya) is a shadow of it's former self & mainly mobile phone/accessories nowadays. Which new laptop did you decide to go with?

It's Tukcom e.g. https://tukcom.com/ - not sure if there's one on Samui.

Assuming you're "Test & Go" & not 7 days Quarantine, the hotel will include Airport pick-up, PCR Test, 1 nights accommodation & they give you the Day 5 ATK test, I stayed at BS Residence close to the Airport (was heading home to Wongamat) cost me 4,200 THB. My mate stayed at the Rembrandt on Suk Soi 20 (was heading home to his condo in Bangkok) cost him 5.600 THB. You could stay in a much more expensive Test & Go hotel but I doubt you'll find anything below 4,000 THB

As I keep most of my winter clothes at my parents house my case had very little in it but what it did have was a pair of Fairtex Muay Thai gloves (one of my mates coaches Muay Thai in the UK and asked me to bring them back) & I'm wondering if this somehow triggered the inspection. Only Electronics I had in there was the charger for my Macbook (which was also the only thing that I missed).

The last tickets I used were bought in October 2019 when I was still working & was "Time Poor" so always flew Business Class as that way I could "Work from Home" in the UK the next day & Qatar tended to come in higher than Finn/Turkish Air, roughly same as Emirates & below Singapore Airlines. Also, it's harder to compare nowadays as Qatar has 4 different Business Class Products (Lite, Comfort, Classic & Elite) https://onemileatatime.com/news/qatar-airways-business-class-fares/#:~:text=Bottom line-,Qatar Airways' four types of business class fares,Classic%2C Comfort%2C and Elite.... Another sign of them "Penny Pinching". E.g. A random search for a trip to the UK shows them as approx 17,000 THB more expensive than FinnAir, in previous years I would have paid this as I think their product was better but nowadays I might not even get lounge access (Not worth it in Bangkok at the moment & never worth it in Manchester) or be able to book my seat until I'm checking in (IIRC this added approx 4,500 THB each way if you took the Comfort product & then added on seat booking). Turkish Air came it at 109K so if I was booking this today I would definately book FinnAir Finnair also seem to be approx 8K cheaper in economy, might be different if you fly into London but unfortunately I fly into Manchester ???? Time will tell whether I keep flying Business Class now I'm retired but it is hard to go back to economy once you're used to it so I'm about 85% sure I will ???? Almost have enough points with Finnair to be able to do a Business Class return (Think it will cost me about 400Euro to buy the points I need) so will use them next time. Edit: Just did a quick check & Finnair is approx 7K cheaper in Business & 9K cheaper in Economy For anybody who's interested I use Matrix.itasoftware.com when searching for flights, e.g. https://matrix.itasoftware.com/calendar?search=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%3D%3D