Mike Lister

If you live in Thailand and you want to get your state pension normalised, it takes about six months of effort but it can be done more quickly. You will need to return and to all intents and purposes, live there and look like you are going to stay there for ever. You will need: a place to stay, if you own a property you can live in. all the better. travel there on a one way ticket transfer some funds from Thailand to the the UK open a bank account, sign on with a doctor and start paying Council Tax After a while, DWP will write to you and ask you to fill out a form about your customary and settled lifestyle Becoming permanently resident again is not based on the number of days that you spend in a any one location, it looks at all the other factors. The process tries to determine if you have really returned and where you have ties to. After six months any changes will be bedded in and permanent. I've done the above twice in twenty years. On both occasions my plan was to return and spend six months in both locations but to be UK resident for tax purposes. My plans fell apart, most recently because of covid and before that, because of a change of heart. On both occasions my state pension was uplifted which it continues to be today, all legal and above boards

Say peace brother, and here's a doobie for later.

Reign it in, this is not the place for lectures on UK law or on morality!

Yes

This is not about human perfection or imperfection, this is about courage of conviction versus hypocrisy. We don't mind that you are imperfect and we admire you for admitting you are that. But that imperfection doesn't give you license to argue one side of the coin on most days whilst randomly supporting the other on days of your choosing!

Sorry Jerry, can I just check to make sure we agree here?

Aren't you the guy who's always complaining about corruption in Thailand!!! Oh deary me.

NO! It means you are allowed a deduction of 100k off of your assessable income. Actually it's 50% of the pension received, up to 100k.

You're American, we understand. If you don't have a dead straight road that's at least fifty meter wide, you need to go into therapy for the next six weeks. :)) I'm joking Jim, it's Xmas

Back home, do you have to back out of the parking spot? Because if you do, backing in is quite similar, except you'll be coming instead of going. Let us know hw you get on !

And yet a third version. If retired and receiving a pension: 60k personal allowance 190k for over age 65 (up to) 100k for pension received first 150k zero rated for tax So 500k, plus whatever other things you can add, some of which have been mentioned, kids, wife, insurance etc

Two other incidents were the catalyst for me to change. The first was when an IO opened my passport and stamped my new visa and skipped several blank pages,. I looked at him in amazement and asked him why he did that. He didn't answer, just tossed my passport across the desk, at me. The second was when an IO at Swampy miss dated my stay until date and tried to correct it with a pen but I didn't notice until much later. When I went to Immi to try and correct the problem, the officer made a very big and loud deal about me making changes to my visa and that was fraudulent and I could go to jail. This was in a room of some 50 or so people waiting to extend their visa's. There was nothing I could do or say except that I hadn't made the changes, he obviously thought it was funny to intimidate a farang publically.... f'wit.

I'm now on my 21st extension. I used to do my own but I finally grew tired of the run around that Immi used to give me, every time I went to extend. There were never enough copies, there was always always something that had to be copied. One year they asked to see my lease, without any warning and when I mentioned it on here, everyone said I was lying or crazy. Pretty soon, everyone had to produce a lease or similar. One year in Phuket the IO didn't like the fact my bank letter was one day old and since my bank was HSBC in Bangkok, that meant a new return trip to Bangkok, a new letter and another immi appointment. In another year, my bank letter showed my total assets with the bank in Thailand, rather than just 800k, it had never been a problem before. That year the IO wanted me to reconcile all my bank books and accounts, back to the letter, it was like teaching accounting 101 to a kid. There were numerous other things also. Eventually, things got to a point where we were required to start queuing for a queue number, in the parking lot of Immi, at 4 am and I finally said borrocks to that. That was when I started to use a well regarded legit agent and now they do everything Immi related for me and I only ever set foot inside an Immi office, once a year, for five minutes, to get my picture taken. Best investment I ever made.

I was waiting for you, I knew you'd show up. What, helping the girls write letters of affection to their boyfriends overseas? Why yes, actually. All of those girls were looking for nothing more than a foreign husband and some security in their otherwise impoverished lives. They didn't threaten them, they didn't blackmail them, they didn't demand anything but they all knew perfectly well that many of them already had wives or girlfriends in their home countries and that they were just a holiday piece on the side.....it's a two way street and they understand that.

In my younger days I used to hang out at my local bar and help the girls compose their emails to various farang boy friends overseas. The girl with the best English did most of the work but would occasionally come and ask me for advice on composition and what to say, most had several on the go at one time. I was impressed by their ingenuity and frankly, if the guys didn't get what was going on, they deserved what happened next.

Did you use wall ties or is there no need?

Uncheck the box so that downloads aren't cleared. Before that, download "recuva" by Piriform and get your files back.

Too right. Almost every nice wooden object that we've bought in Thailand over the years has ended up as a pile of dust before being discarded. There are rarely any obvious clues externally but eventually, a pile of dust begins to accumulate under the object. Get it treated, it's a must do.

The stock markets are a forward looking view of how the economy will fare in the future. Mortgage borrowing rates are based on the current prime/base rate which is a view of current inflation, hence, the two items are not comparable views.

The US S&P grew by 11.95% over the past twelve months whereas the average rate on a US 30-year fixed mortgage was at 6.67% as of December 21st, https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/30-year-mortgage-rate https://ycharts.com/indicators/sp_500#:~:text=S%26P 500 is at a,11.95% from one year ago.

We were created because we could be, not necessarily by design. We were born not through choice, it was because we could be. We will die not through choice. Sit back and enjoy the ride and the view because at some point you'll have to get off the bus, in the meantime, don't think too much.

Er, which shares, not FANG stocks and others it doesn't!

Exactly that. One way to look at this tax rule is as wealth redistribution. Instead of middle/upper class Thai's hanging on to their overseas gains, they will now be taxed and those funds will flow into the government coffers. That means the government take of direct taxation will increase from an abysmally low 2% of budget revenue, to a bigger number and will be spent throughout the government budget on social care, education, social security etc. And since successive Thai governments over the past twenty five years have all kept borrowings down to under 60% of GDP, AND, delivered budgets that have been conservative in spending. Even the IMF has urged Thailand in recent years to spend more and operate more of a deficit budget to build out infrastructure!

Both 60k and 120k are correct, it depends on whether you have assessable income only from employment or income from other courses as well, eg bank interest on savings. RD Forms: PND.90 = 60,000 single and 120,000 married; PND.91 = 120,000 single and 220,000 married

I don't really care about your particular situation or you but I am curious to understand the solution and the answers. But you seem only interested in giving out insufficient or late information and then arguing and being offensive, rather than finding the answer. Anyway, I think you have your answer, Kasi is going to import those funds for you whether you like it or not, albeit only briefly, but long enough. G'night