Drumbuie

On 1/3/2024 at 12:27 PM, homeseeker said:

I will be going to renew my retirement visa at CW (Bangkok) sometime this month. Anyone who has on or from 3 January onwards did such a renewal would you kindly confirm if anything said about future tax( eg tax return) or about TM 30 or anything else which is new as opposed to before the new year.

Thank you very much!

I've just renewed my visa extension due to retirement at CW. There was no mention of tax returns, because that's the Revenue Deparment's responsibility, not theirs.

I made an online appointment for 1030am - the place was packed, not a chair to sit on when I got upstairs after doing the photo/bank letter/bank book update/photocopying stuff. My online number was in the 1100s, the queue's numbers were in the 3000s, which was a little confusing so I asked an official who said, courteously, that the online numbers were just slotted in so not to worry, just to wait.

At around 1045 my number was called to Desk 35. There was a trainee as well as the usual officer.  I handed over :-
Completed Form TM7 with photo
Passport
Copies of the passport including all visas, extensions, entry stamps (I renewed the passport last June)
Bank book
Bank letter

Copies of the bank book pages since last extension
Copy of latest 90 day report
A printed Google map with my home marked on it 

I signed everything in front of her, plus the extra forms (guarantor, acknowledgment of penalties, etc) and paid the 1900 baht.

It really was busy - I've never seen so many different nationalities in the L section - and it took nearly an hour to return my passport. Perhaps showing the trainee the ropes was slowing things down? Anyway, by the time I had had a copy made of the new stamp in order to apply for a multiple re-entry permit  - and done some scanning and copying for other essential but non-visa purposes -  it was lunch break time and too late to get a ticket for C2.

After the lunch break,  it took a little over 30 minutes from entering the C2 area to having my passport returned with the re-entry permit added. 

To return to the topic of tax, I've just calculated potential tax liability for the calendar year 2023. I brought just under 1 million baht into Thailand ( in addition to the THB800,000 needed for a retirement extension, which was provably from capital). I shall be seeking advice from a Thai accountant,  but my guesstimate after spending a few hours on the Revenue Department website and the helpful guide posted elsewhere in these forums, is that it'll be around THB25000 - just over 2.5% on the entire remittance.  Not a lot to pay for peace of mind and a clean report sheet..

 

On 1/6/2024 at 12:03 PM, proton said:

 

Yes via bribery and corruption!

Which is going to get considerably more problematic now that Immigration has a database and its officers are really learning how to use it. I obtained my original visa extension on the grounds of retirement myself and am about to renew it. It has been a steep learning curve but I know exactly where I stand.

A friend who lives in a Bangkok condo ( which she owns) used an agent and whatever he did, when she tried to renew it herself CW threw it out because he'd applied using an address outside Bangkok ( I didn't memorise the details but that was the gist), now she's stuck with using and paying the same agent.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad

UK citizens with state pensions may find this useful. Particularly 

"Non-residents do not usually pay UK tax on:

the State Pension

interest from UK government securities (‘gilts’). "

16 hours ago, Woof999 said:

Having all these micro transactions on your statement is a real pain when it comes to visa time, depending on your visa type. My paperwork for visa extension is now about an inch thick because I use Grab twice a day, every day via my local debit card.

Why don't you open a second account for everyday transactions? I keep my 800k in Bangkok Bank, with a few thousand baht surplus for buying stuff on Lazada, topped up once a month so there's always some activity on the account, and have a KBank account for Grab and the rest of my spending. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague

It used to be part of the History syllabus because it led to the Thirty Years War ( which changed Europe forever) and, once read, is a word that is hard to forget.

My brother went to a very small primary school in the Scottish Highlands; one teacher, less than a dozen pupils. No curriculum in those days. They spent a lot of time gardening in the summer months while basically chatting about whatever they wanted to talk about ( no internet in those days, not much TV either). They all did extremely well at secondary school and apart from one, who had to start running the family farm, went on to university.

But the idea that 'small is good' ( let alone 'smaller is better') is absolutely anathema to modern economists. Centralise and control is their motto. 

Mistletoe and whine....

1 hour ago, RobU said:

I don't say that it isn't true but people with 'depression' are often highly manipulative and vindictive, basically very angry at everyone. We have only heard her side of the story. It may be that he was kind to her and when she responded and tried to initiate something he was obliged to reject her. Again don't jump up and down with your panties in the air I am just playing devil's advocate

Would you like to share any examples, or evidence, you have for people with depression (with or withou inverted commas) being "often highly manipulative and vindictive, basically angry with everyone"? 

On 12/22/2023 at 6:42 AM, Prubangboy said:

Donald Trump urged people to stick a light bulb up back there.

 

So your hot GF was a million times more rational than the leader of the free world.

The former leader of the free world ..

The problem is the Red Sea. To export to Europe in winter, it's the shortest and thus cheapest route. If Israel continues it's Palestinian genocide, the Houthis will continue to retaliate by firing on ships passing through the Red Sea. That is already slowing down Asian/European trade in both directions and thus reducing the number of containers available anywhere at any time*, because international trade/capitalism avoids having spare capacity - it's run by accountants not strategists. 

* Because a percentage are now stuck at one end of the Red Sea or the other. 

1 hour ago, bamnutsak said:

Strange that Immigration doesn't have a list of folks who are in overstay (entered, haven't left) and isn't out rounding them up. With or without a BMW.

 

At least work the "over five-year" list, it can't be more than a few thousand, right?

 

 

These multi-year over-stayers must be an embarrassment for the authorities.

 

 

Are you sure they aren't? There seems to be an increasingly steady stream of " caught overstayer(s) in the reports here as immigration gets to grips with the possibilities of using databases to cross check entry and exit data. 

Drool Britannia ..

4 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

The guy is in the wrong country, he looks like a Sumo wrestler.

 

He must be Scottish or, Welsh, he can't possibly be English.

Nah. Nobody in Scotland is called ' Martin'. 

2 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

And impossible to do at noon one of the hottest times of the day because the sun is directly overhead and there is no shade.

 

Gee thanks for the sage advice. 😋

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. Everyone else generally takes a lunch break..

Careful, guys, you can easily OD on schadenfreude...you need to mix it with a little empathy. 

Those legs belonged to a fellow human being, someone who died, probably unpleasantly, possibly violently.

No mention of the amount of particulates that come from car and lorry tyres. Recent research shows little difference in pollution between EVs and petrol/ diesel fuelled cars  - turns out its the tread on the tyres wearing off grain by grain that does the real damage...

On 12/15/2023 at 5:47 PM, freeworld said:

 

On 12/17/2023 at 2:56 PM, trainman34014 said:

 

 

As for the attitude of Thai IO's; things have never changed much, they are as arrogant as anyone could ever be in complete contrast to their Peers in other Countries, who are always Courtious and welcoming wherever we go.

 

You've never been to the US, then where Immigration is legendarily unpleasant....or Sri Lanka. We arrived in Colombo yesterday, SL Airways cabin crew didn't hand put any landing cards like they used to and there were no signs in the airport mentioning them.but yes, you still need to fill one in. 

The queues, as a result, were interminable as each foreign visitor got to the front of the queue, was shouted at and sent off to fill one in. 

My dad used to play the pipes and make us listen to pibroch for hours. Despite that I still love listening to pipe music of all kinds  (so stfu, you barbarian Sassenachs....)

In answer to the OPs question, there are regular pipe band practice sessions at the British Club in Bangkok, so you could email the address in this link and ask if he knows any pipers in Pattaya.  https://www.britishclubbangkok.org/sports-n-activities/pipe-drum-band/

30 minutes ago, sungod said:

 

Given it's at least 20 years old perhaps it was all the rage when it was built?

Looks like the sort of standard McMansion property developers  love to build in the UK, crammed together as tightly as possible while still qualifying as "detached".