CygnusX1

When I bought my condo in Jomtien, the seller was in Canada. I let the agent handle everything, just had a lawyer quickly review the contract. Arranging to have my electricity bills auto debited to my bank account was far more complicated. I was no doubt stupid, but I still seem to own the place.

I like your VIP car to the dingy Mochit bus terminal, would have made a good scene in a movie, but no BMW for me, needed the 2 million baht Elite for that. I’m still having nightmares about my trip to Immigration in the Golden Cart. As an Australian, about the worst thing you can be is “up yourself”, and I felt so far up myself that I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see daylight again.

Sorry to extend this off-topic, but I think you have things partly the wrong way round. You’re correct in that the P and T in Pattaya are aspirated, but native English speakers find aspirated initial P’s and T’s easy and natural to pronounce, it’s the unaspirated initial P’s and T’s in the Thai language that are hard. The common mistake foreigners make is actually to heavily stress the second syllable, which is natural in English, whereas in Thai the stress is more even. Check the pronunciation by Thai speakers on the excellent Forvo website.

Maybe with Claude Lelouch at the wheel (web search “Claude Lelouche rendezvous”, not sure if I’m allowed to post a link).

Around 3 years ago I paid a million baht for an Elite visa. Was met just off the plane by a stunningly attractive lady, who drove me to immigration in a golden cart, honking at commoners to get out of our way. I then made my way to the far end of the terminal, where I purchased my usual bus ticket to Jomtien, and waited with the commoners for the best part of an hour for the next available bus.

It’s keeping me out as well, probably for good, as I suspect the masks will be staying forever indoors and on public transport. The Thai Pass would have only been a minor irritation, and the insurance a negligible amount of money.

The experiment’s already been done, and has resulted in the wretched soi dog.

I’m having a hard time seeing how those two statements by Anutin aren’t self-contradictory.

Perfect location in my opinion, but no fitness room or gym, at least not when I was last there 2 years ago.

Sorry, I thought from reading your full post that you were talking about the current legislation. However, my comment also applies to the proposed changes, in which 183 days is also not to be the sole criterion. In fact, it looks like Australian tax residency for someone spending more than 183 days out of the country each year will be easier to establish under the proposed changes, with a number of secondary tests in addition to the primary 183 day test. see https://www.moore-australia.com.au/news-and-views/september-2021/proposed-changes-to-the-tax-residency-provisions-f?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=LinkedIn-integration

It’s not as simple as that, less than 183 days in Australia per year is just one of a number of criteria used to determine tax residency, although I’d say the OP is certainly not a tax resident of Australia any more, not that I’d advise him to declare it.

In my town I’d say 10-20% are still wearing them inside supermarkets and shopping malls. Curiously, about the same percentage are wearing them outdoors, and I’m talking near deserted footpaths, not crowded street markets. This suggests to me that the mask diehards are either ultra fearful, or maybe making some kind of political statement. Apparently they’re still mandatory on public transport, though I don’t know how many are wearing them there, as I’ve not used public transport for over 2 years, and won’t until the mask mandate applying there is lifted.

Face masks. I can live with the soi dogs and motorbikes, but I’m not returning to a country where you have to wear a piece of cloth over your face, and the only faceless zombies I ever want to see are the ones in computer games. That’s despite the fact that I own a condo in Thailand and have 16 years left on an elite visa. I suspect that they’re never going away, so I’ll just have to cut my losses. My apologies to those on this forum who seem to love the masks.

Technology’s made life so much more interesting. Can’t imagine life now as it was when I was young, with no internet, no computer games, 3 TV channels on a tiny black and white screen, overseas travel only for the rich. Main thing that’s changed for the worse is reduction in freedom due to our obsession with health and safety.

20,001 including mine. Advantage of Thai property is that owning an unoccupied condo is very cheap, with no council tax, amazingly low juristic fee, tiny fixed charges for electricity and water and a negligible (for now) annual property tax. Then again, in the 3 years since I bought it, the value of my lovely Thai condo in a great location must have dropped around 50%, whereas my daggy flat in a poor location in Australia has increased 50%. Did choose the worst possible time to buy the Thai place of course.

On a lighter note, there are reports that a man in Germany received 90 vaccine shots as part of a nefarious scheme to produce fake vaccination certificates, with no apparent ill effects (a web search shows lots of links to story). I’d guess that 90 times the recommended dose of many common drugs would prove fatal.

Can’t believe that so many on this forum seem to love those horrid masks but baulk at being injected with a tiny needle. I’d have zero problems with being vaccinated every 6 months for the rest of my life, lots of elderly people have had annual flu shots for many years. There’s overwhelming evidence for the safety of the vaccines.

This is really starting to tie my brain up in knots of logic! Look at it from the perspective of someone who wants to be a non resident for tax purposes. Has he been in Australia for more than 183 days? Then he can’t be a non-resident, no debate. Has he been in Australia for less than 183 days? Then he might still be a resident if he’s spent more than 45 days in Australia and has family in Australia, or a house or economic interests in Australia. So in my case, because I satisfy the secondary criteria such as having a house and close relatives in Australia, as long as I spend at least 45 days in Oz each year I couldn’t be declared a non resident even if I wanted to be. Spend less than 45 days in Oz for a few years, then I might be at risk of being declared a non resident.

KhunHeineken, look at the following link posted by ozfarang - https://www.moore-australia.com.au/news-and-views/september-2021/proposed-changes-to-the-tax-residency-provisions-f?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=LinkedIn-integration Read the list of secondary tests, then look at their specific example of David, who wants to be a non-resident for tax purposes but can’t be, as last year he spent 50 days in Australia visiting his wife and children.

I was reacting to oznomad’s post - “It's generally harder to become non-resident than resident. The new (incoming) rules prove that point. Less than 45 days in 3 consecutive years to be able, in some circumstances, to become non-resident.” From the link to the Holding Redlich site - ceasing long-term residency: The individual must spend less than 45 days in the current income year in Australia and less than 45 days in Australia in each of the two preceding income years So, this seems to state that even if I wanted to become a non-resident for tax purposes, it’s very hard - the ATO will only let me become a non-resident if I spend less than 45 days in Australia, and then only in some circumstances. That’s why I was thinking, great, I now only have to spend 45 days in Australia, and then I’m a resident for tax purposes. Again, the 183 day rule is only stage 1 - to be declared a non resident you have to satisfy other requirements.

What’s reasonable doesn’t always have much in common with what’s the law!

Sure hope that proves to be the case, then I can spend a lot more time in Thailand.

Your example is the reason why, when I was absent from Australia for 9 months of each year pre virus, I made sure that I spent more time in my apartment in Australia than in my condo in Thailand. Balance of the year was spent in other countries. Easy to do if you have the resources to travel constantly and maintain properties in two countries (very cheap properties in my case!). As usual, it’s the less well-off who are hit the hardest with unconscionable tax laws.

I agree that you can simultaneously be an Australian citizen and a non resident for tax purposes. Surely you have to be a resident for tax purposes of at least one country, or maybe you can be stateless when it comes to tax residency? One for the lawyers.

We should be clear here that we’re talking about two different things - time spent in Australia for Centrelink benefits as against residency tests for taxation. Both of course are a huge concern.