nigelforbes

No it isn't.

If you move to Thailand you'll probably need a Thai will, that can't be steeled until your UK will is also settled. Regardless of whether you have assets in the UK or not, your estate will need to go through some sort of probate process, I don't think that can be avoided unless you 100% leave in every respect and become redomicilled

I know of no such levy, if others do I'll be keen to hear of it. It would be Probate Court disbursements, which are not taxable unless IH comes into play. Oh, and there's no capital gains tax on the flat when you die.

If you rent out your flat in the UK and you have an attic to store your stuff, make sure you don't tell the council tax folks. If you do, that will mean the flat is not empty and you'll not get the tax free one month before and one month after a tenant leaves.

You can telephone the pension service, they are easy to talk to and used to expats saying they are coming or going. There's no relationship between DWP State Pension and HMRC residency for tax purposes, they can both be the same or different, one can change but the other not, and so on. HMRC won't notice anything from your state pension pavements because everybody's are different. Even if they did, getting increases or not is not a factor in determining whether you are UK resident or not for UK tax purposes. You could quite easily and legitimately be not UK resident for state pension purposes but UK resident for tax purposes. I went UK resident for tax purposes for two years and later, changed my mind and went back and changed the returns to not resident, on the advice of tax advisors...they didn't say anything.

I had been not UK resident from 2004 until 2018 and my pension was frozen during that time. In 2018 I bought a UK flat and went back for a few months. I easily argued that I was a returning expat and within a couple of months my pension was uprated. I have continued to receive increases until this last year when I informed DWP I was in Thailand and wanted my state pension paid to my Thai bank. In a couple of years or whenever, I may return and spend a few months there but not a until costs normalise. When I do I will once again argue I am a returning expat and my pension will be uprated. It's not important to me to receive increases every year but after a few years it might become important, it depends on your financial situation.

I was/am in a similar situation, I'm 73 and was splitting my year between the UK flat and here but covid interfered and normal service has not yet resumed. Break the problem into its parts: The NHS - is a residency based system, you need to be ordinarily resident there to use it free of charge, typically that means spending the past 6 months in the UK,m unless you're a returning expat who is coming back to settle for good. UK State Pension - is also based on where your settled home is in order to receive annual increases. This one is not straight forward and depends mostly on your life style rather than the number of days per year. Having all your finances in the UK helps this argument, having a UK address helps it even more, the number fo days is very last. Council Tax - see the above, paying it means you have added argument in favour of your settled abode but is also expensive. Utilities - this depends on what you decide to do with your flat of course but yes, it can get expensive. (I rent my flat out via an agent who handles everything) HMRC - a key driver for this is the number of days you spend in the UK but it gets more complicated with the UK ties. Half of my income is offshore income so it behoves me not to be UK tax resident but I can't be that and remain eligible for the NHS also (so I'm not). So if you are going to tell anyone, who do you tell? Not the NHS that's for sure. Council Tax people...only if you sell your flat or change tenants. HMRC, only if you want to be not UK resident for tax purposes but there needs to be a benefit for doing that. UK State Pension - hmmm, tricky this one. Technically you should, but!!! I did, my UK state pension is paid directly into my Thai bank, it makes life simple.

Baht news from Bloomberg, all very upbeat and positive on the economy and the currency: "The Thai currency is forecast to average 32.50 to a US dollar this year," https://finance.yahoo.com/news/thai-finance-ministry-sees-sustained-054329558.html

Not exactly lepat to the defense of the RTP, I'm just don't have your pavlovian response.

No flag is being waved for corruption, then or now. What I wrote previously was that I have enough experience here to realise that dual pricing is a feature of the landscape and that extends to police fines also. It was an observation, it was not a measure of support. Yes, corruption is bad for the economy in many ways. But corruption here is endemic, not to a scale imagined by studies you've seen.

Whilst the evidence for the opposite team was overwhelming was it? hahahahahah

You tell 'em! Have you considered a petition?

If corruption and the ability to extort and take backhanders is eliminated from the system entirely, salaries across the board will all have to rise substantially to make the wage match the job. If that happens, taxes will have to rise to pay for the increased overhead and the budget will be in deficit, which means the Baht will lose value. That's a win win for tourists but a lose lose for expats and locals since imports will cost more and prices, particularly oil, will inflate even further. Be careful what you wish for.

Just say no to sheep.

There are plenty of unique aspects to life here which if you aren't aware will land you on trouble, les majeste and defamation being two.

I'm 90kgs and walking on the roof is not a problem, interlocking concrete tiles make a strong platform. Try early morning, the tiles get very hot and hold heat until past midnight, wear gloves and good grip shoes, tiles sometimes sticky to get lose, eat spinach beforehand. ????

No no no, the herd says she was stone cold sober, tee-total in fact, the alcohol angle was merely a deceptive story planted by the crooked police in order to destroy her pure as the driven snow character....how could they.

Yes, the herd may be correct, but there again, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Then it's an easy enough job to lift them and take them out and replace them individually, subject to them being wired or pegged, which will require an interim step. As somebody else said earlier, sometimes only every third row is pegged or wired which makes things even easier. Once you have a hole by removing one, it's all straight forward. Trying to cover all possibilities here: I'm curious to understand why so many tiles are broken in the same area, did something happen? Usually, individual tiles break because of pressure or impact but it's unusual to have many broken in the same area, unless of course a meteor struck :))

Can you not read and comprehend, that post was in reference to the comment by a previous poster who queried what happened to the visa issue!

Satima at AiA is excellent. Her English is perfect having lived in the US for many years plus she lives in Bangkok. PM for her email address which I am not allowed to post here.

I don't know, an admission from the top counts as something, it points to not everyone approving of corruption so that will have some positive mileage.

A brilliant blues singer.

That was just a red herring to distract dimwits and to embellish the story. ????

Yes, it is crazy. But you have to understand the subtle logic that is in play. She didn't have to pay them, she could have accepted the charge of having illegal vaping gear but she chose not to. So technically and in practise, she did bribe them. Fire away!