MangoKorat

20 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

Pensioners are in for a whammy though... State Pension is tax free as the State will have dealt with that,

Is that from an official Thai source?  If so, could you please give details as this is very important?

Just to clarify, UK state pension is not tax free, it is considered as taxable income and counts toward the total of any income you receive.  In reality, most people don't pay tax on their pensions as their total income falls below the tax threshold of £12570 per year. 

I know nothing about pensions, tax thresholds or income from other countries so commenting from a purely UK/Thailand position............................................................

The basic UK state pension is currently £203.85 per week or £10,200.20 per year. If your income from other sources i.e. employment takes your total income to over £12570, you pay tax on it.  Private pensions may have been taxed at source and therefore adjustments would have to be made. Income from property, i.e. rent, will also become taxable but will be subject to various allowances.

So (excluding income from private pensions or property because they depend on specific circumstances as per the above), you are living abroad and your UK pension is the basic £10,200 you will not pay any tax in the UK. It remains to be seen whether or not it will be taxable in Thailand where the threshold is way below £10,200. 

Those who have private UK pensions/other income from the UK in addition to their state pension may well be receiving a total of well over the UK tax threshold and will therefore be taxed in the UK.   Previously, my understanding of the double taxation agreement was that if income had been assessed and subject to tax in the UK, it would not be assessed or taxed in Thailand. I'm no accountant and it seems, from what I've read as a result of these new Thai tax laws, that UK income will form part of assessable income in Thailand but credit given for tax paid in the UK.  How that actually works out, I know not but if correct, it brings about the possibility that tax may well be payable in Thailand and the UK.

Well I still think a lot of clarification is needed/will become available soon but............................................

I thought Thailand wanted to promote itself as somewhere to retire to?  It seems to me that taxing pensions that wouldn't be taxable in the country they were paid in is something we call - shooting yourself in the foot, is it not?

I suspect that many pensioners have retired to Thailand because their pension goes further and therefore they can enjoy a better life during their retirement.

I also suspect that those pensioners, who I would add, have no claim to Thai benefits or healthcare. spend a substantial if not massive amount of money in Thailand every month. Some sell their properties back home and buy one/have one built in Thailand - again, income for Thailand.

Many of those people will have seen their pensions worth far less over the last few years due to falling exchange rates.  This may tip the balance and I guess many will be forced to leave.

So will Thailand not actually earn less in tax income?  At least at the moment they get 7% Vat on most things the foreign pensioners buy.

Those 'rich retirees' and business people the Thai government claim to be trying to attract to Thailand will, like they do in most other countries, have ways of avoiding tax and will not be of any use to Thailand in terms of income tax.

5 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

You do realize Savannakhet is in Laos not Thailand so your comment about this is Thailand is pointless and incorrect

Firstly, of course I know where Savannakhet is. Exactly the same applies at any Thai embassy or consulate - they are unlikely to closely scrutinise any signatures provided the documents are as required. Why are my comments incorrect - may I ask?

On 9/18/2023 at 5:09 AM, scorecard said:

Could also be that the individual amount of pension received by some folks is under the Thai personl tax threshhold.

Interesting.  I wonder how this would work then...........................

Let's say you are from a country that has a double taxation agreement with Thailand that means tax is paid where it is earned but in that country your income, say a state pension, is below the tax threshold meaning you pay no tax.  Is that money then classed as tax paid?

It is highly likely that many expats in such positions will not get sufficient pension for it to be over the tax threshold in the country where its paid but it will almost certainly be over the Thai tax threshold.  Will that income be classed as taxable in Thailand or assesed for tax in the country where it was paid and therefore exempt?

21 minutes ago, transam said:

Staff is all Thai at Savv........?   ????

I think so. All the staff I met at HCMC were Thai - most were students.

9 minutes ago, transam said:

The best thing is not to guess what is thought to be "alright", plus the consulate is not in Thailand....????

Actually it is.......consulates and embassies are classed as the soil of the country they act on behalf of

3 hours ago, bamboozled said:

You wouldn't have a house book, I guess. And then what? It seems to be such an integral part of the mechanism in Thailand.

As far as I know, the owner's name is registered on the main page but those actually living in the house are also listed on the relevant pages.

Those living there would also include offspring until they buy their own house.  Many seem to never change their registered address.

7 minutes ago, transam said:

I would suggest that when your paperwork gets to the back office there is a more attention paid to checking stuff, though picking on a signature is probably low on the scrutiny list.

I have seen folk with a problem a few times on passport collection...

A problem concerning signatures? I doubt it.

Obviously the OP would be better getting his wife's signature but he states that is not possible.  Something close will pass.  The Kor Ror 2 states that the marriage is still in place - that will be enough those officials that Do follow some of the rules. By 'follow the rules' I mean check that the required documents are in place, not their authenticity. And of course that massively important item in Thailand - the correct colour of ink.

1 hour ago, vinny41 said:

They will check the signature on the documents against the original marriage certificate

How many Multi Entry Non O's have you applied for? About 6 in my case and done what I'm suggesting twice - never a problem. You don't need to be a master forger, just something close.

People's signatures can vary a lot - mine never looks that same twice.

Go pay for something using your Thai bank card using your PIN.  The receipt will be handed to you for signing, even though in most cases the writing on the receipt states 'No signature required, verified by PIN'.  Watch and see if they check that signature against the one on the back of your card - never!

This is Thailand where things are rarely as they seem and requirements aren't actually required on the day

Just get another Thai to sign her name on all the documents.  They won't be checked and how would they know in any case?

15 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

 small company, no money, you know the story. 

I know it very well.

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

NO!

 

Because there is already 220V between any one of the phases and the neutral.

 

If you look at the poles outside your house you will see 4 wires, three of them are the phases and one (usually the top one) is the neutral. If you trace the wires that go to your house (via the meter) you will see that they are connected to one of the phases and the neutral.

???? mai khao jai - some of us just don't get certain things. For me its electricity at the input side of the consumer unit!!!  After that I'm fine - as long as I know that I have a live and a neutral running at 220-230v coming out of the consumer unit, I can work with that ????.

I spent 25 years of my working life repairing cars - including autoboxes and those babies can take some understanding but when it come to electricity - other than live, neutral and earth, I hit a brick wall.

In any case, I've already hijacked the OP's post enough already.

As I get nearer to planning my build, I intended asking questions on here, in particular regarding the solar power supply that I want.  I want to get this right - from the start, not end up with something that has limitations or doesn't give me what I want.  For example, at my current Thai house I installed an air source heat pump water heater (probably just gave away the name I used to go under on here). I did that for environmental reasons as I insist on having hot water available at all times.  Those things are incredible in terms of efficiency but in terms of electricity bills, the system doesn't work for me - because I didn't look into it enough in the first place.  I didn't realise that I was heating 200L of water and keeping it hot 24/7.  For someone who has a requirement for plenty of hot water all day, they would be a 'must have' but for someone who's just taking a couple of showers and washing dishes - a decent electric shower and under-sink water heater (or even just the kettle) would be a better choice. There may be other choices too.

I'm still a bit of a 'car nut' and like to do my own repairs - hence the lift installation.  As for the power required, I haven't gone into that yet, all I can say is it won't be a massive lift, not for 'hobby' use.  In the UK there are quite a lot of single phase lifts available these days - I presume because the efficiency and start-up properties of electric motors is much better than it used to be? I don't know what the situation in Thailand is but a quick scan reveals most that are advertised are 3 phase.

I remember years ago - I had a very old 3hp single phase motor running my compressor.  That thing used to blow suppy fuses all the time despite me increasing the wiring to 6mm. The fact was, I presume, that on start-up, it was just trying to draw down too much power.  I 'fixed' the issue by supplementing the fuse for a 7/16 bolt with the head cut off ????.  Looking back, that was pretty dangerous..........to say the least but it worked for over 10 years until I bought a new compressor with a 3hp motor that was half the size of the 'museum piece' and allowed the use of a fuse ????.

When I'm ready to do more in depth planning, I'll post on here but thanks for everyone's answers so far.

1 minute ago, Crossy said:

 

Phase to Neutral 220V your normal single-phase supply.

 

Phase to Phase 380V which is what 3-phase appliances see. 

So would I need some form of transformer to convert one of the phases to 220v to run the 'normal' household appliances?

I ask becase it is possible that I will be putting a car lift in and most of those are 3 phase.  Obviously that would not be possible if I go for an off grid solar system. The build is about a year away so better to get the thinking done now.

7 hours ago, Crossy said:

The "400V" (actually 380V) is phase-to-phase and only relevant if you have 3-phase appliances.

Confused - how many volts are each phase?  Sometimewoodworker states that in theory each phase is 220v so would that not = 660v?  Told you I was ignorant re electric ????,

15 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You really need a voltmeter on your supply, because it’s very likely that when you turn on the kettle you supply voltage drops (FWIW when I shower I get a 20V drop), this will be because the phase that you’re on has too many people on it.

Yes, I have always suspected that I'm not receiving the supply I expected but I doubt anything will be done about it if I complain.  There are certain times of day when some appliances won't even operate, for example, I have 'touch control' bedside lamps which you tap to turn on or off + they have 3 brightness settings.  Recently I went to sleep leaving one light on at the dimest setting.  I woke up around 5am and tried to turn the lamp off, it wouldn't respond at all - neither get brighter nor turn off, I had to unplug it.  My bedroom ceiling fan often doesn't work between 5am and 6am - it just buzzes.  Two other ceiling fans that are a different brand will work at that time.  I suspect that what is happening is some major drawdown like a local factory turning on at the start of the day is creating demand on the supply somewhere further back down the line.  I thought these problems would stop when I upgraded that's why I did it but there's been no change.

When I build the new house its extremely likely that I will install a solar power system - I'm undecided if that will be on or off grid.  Off grid would require batteries - I would be going to solar mainly for environmental reasons but I am concerned about the damage that mining the metals required for batteries is causing.  It seems that humans have learned very little - in our quest to stop causing one type of damage to our planet, we are simply causing different damage in different regions.  However, another major reason is to be able to have aircon 24/7 without huge electricity bills so a lot of reading and thinking to do.

I'm also not too happy with the rules about solar installation if I'm understanding them correctly - an 'on grid' system must be installed by one of the PEA's approved suppliers???  To me that actually means - must be installed by one of the most expensive companies around but I'll check that out.  I intended on doing a lot of the work myself to save money. I would have expected that it would be acceptable for such an installation to simply be inspected and certified by a professional but it seems not if my understanding is correct.

22 hours ago, brianthainess said:

That is why I don't have any bank apps on my phone or any bank details. If some one want to access your info. then they can one way or another.

Agreed but I've just had to..........which swore I'd never do because of security fears.  Dtac have cancelled the Dtac call service and that was the only reliable way I could receive OTP's when conducting transactions on my Kasikorn online banking.  I can make and receive calls and SMS over wifi when I'm outside Thailand but they usually come way after the 6 minute time out that Kasikorn allow - with DTAC call they were instant.  Neither can I use roaming as there is no mobile signal at my UK home.

Kasikorn will only send OTP's to a Thai number and suggested that I install the Kplus App which would allow me to carry out transactions over wifi. I had to be on a Thai mobile signal to register for the Kplus App but now its installed it runs over wifi.  I use a 6 digit PIN is that easy to hack?

Forgive my ignorance but I've noticed a lot of talk about 3 phase on this thread - never really looked at what 3 phase actually is.  When I upgraded to 30/100 the PEA told me if I wanted more, I'd have to go to 3 phase.  How would that work? Doesn't 3 phase run at around 400v?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm likely to be building a new house soon and I don't think the 30/100 supply I have is actually 30/100.  My microwave slows down when I flick the kettle on - I've checked the wiring on the ciruit and its 2.5 so it should carry the load.

3 hours ago, off road pat said:

he is a high military !! (Major)

So the arrest will probably be the last that's heard of the matter.

6 hours ago, James105 said:

1. You are victim blaming here.

2. The second photo shows they were on a very straight road.  

3. It's (normally) safer to ride in a group as they would be a lot more visible than a solo rider. 

4. If someone is incapable of seeing 6 cyclists in a group on a road they are either too drunk or too blind to be driving so it's not the cyclists that should not have been using the road.   

Naaa come off it.  I'm not making any excuses for the driver but Thailand's roads can be extremely dark - I've lost count of the times I've almost cleaned a motorbike up - the usual no lights, not even a reflector variety. Its just a matter of time.  There's also been quite a lot of early morning mist around recently.

We have quite a lot of early morning cyclists around Khao Yai but I've never come across one in the dark........yet.

I wouldn't dream of riding a push bike in Thailand during the day, let alone at night.

11 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Monty Python were some of the funniest, cleverest sketches ever. Love 'em.

Oops, that's off topic.

Staying off topic - this was one of the best.

4 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

220 baht, you've missed the boat to open a thai bank account to save money

I've had a Thai bank account for over 10 years - I have my reasons for asking the question.

Last time I used a foreigen debit card in Thailand, I seem to remember being charged 180 baht.  What is the current rate? Are there any banks that don't charge?

1 minute ago, Neeranam said:

Actually, I'm Thai so I am worried as I have a considerable amount coming in from abroad, including my work. 

Then you should pay tax on it, like everyone else has to.

3 hours ago, Neeranam said:

This proposed law is not about foreigners in particular. 

But we are foreigners - I doubt anyone here is too worried about the new law's effects on Thai's.