jbaldwin

The point about tinned goods is that they travel well. Tinning, first established to allow British soldiers to drink Scottish beer in India, allows us to enjoy John West Sardines anywhere in the world. Would you buy a Thai brand in Sainsbury's? So why would you buy Thai tinned fish here?

SC

When you ask whether you would buy a Thai brand in Sainsbury's, I assume that you are talking about John West, which is a brand owned by the Thai Union Group.

Change THB to USD in Thailand then USD to PHP in the Philippines generally gives a better overall rate than a direct exchange in either country.

I am looking for backpack - hand luggage size - with a padded pocket suitable for holding an ipad 2. I see many designed for laptops but not an ipad. Any suggestions available in Pattaya.

Usually to the condo management how arranged/paid for the electric connection. Never heard of a private electric meter in a condo that is billed directed from electric co.

Mine is billed directly by the MEA at the standard rate.

Also in our condo every unit has an electricity company meter and pays the standard charge. Unless you opt out of the payment service, the condo management office pays the bills for all units and invoices the owners at cost plus 20 baht service charge.

Anyone help with this ?

I plan on bringing my girlfriend to come to Thailand from the Philippines, and live with me.

Whats the Visa situation for her ?

What is your Visa? If you are on a retirement extension and got married she would also get a one year extension based with no other requirements

Otherwise it's 30 visa exempted stamps or tourist visas and tourist visas are not easy to get in the Philippines.

You should also be aware that filipinas are required to register before leaving the country to work, so she should expect to be challenged by Philippines immigration when she leaves about the reason she is leaving the country. You should definitely travel with her the first time she comes to Thailand.

Are government bonds available to expatriates?

More important are they trustworthy?

Sent from an Apple gadget.

Yes. Can buy purchased by foreigners whether resident or not.

Not sure what you mean by trustworthy.....but Thai Government Bond are rated investment grade by all major credit agencies. The average rating is BBB, which is similar to Russia, Italy or Spain.

I read in PWC's Thai Tax 2013 booklet that "New personal income tax rates to be effective on 1 January 2013 have been approved by the Thai Cabinet but the required legislation has not yet been promulgated".

I believe that this is still the case. The Cabinet agreed to make the changes but the government still has not put a proposal to parliament.

DCC bad, very bad for the customer; DCC good, very good for the merchant & processing bank.

Here in my part of Bangkok and based on my shopping locations only HomePro, Sizzler, and Pizza Company will always attempt the DCC ripoff unless you tell them before processing the transaction to charge in baht, not your home country currency. The Lotus I visit a couple times per week and another one I visit around twice a month don't do DCC. The choice to go DCC can be an individual store decision; not necessarily a corporate decision. But the few times a store such as HomePro has charged my card in my home country currency (even though I told them not to when handing them my card), they quickly and without a fuss cancelled the transaction and then redid the transaction in baht per my request...only takes them 1 to 2 minutes to cancel and then recharge..they did all of this on the Point of Sale (POS) transaction machine...no need to contact any bank...credit/debit card transactions are a 24/7 operation.

Of course I knew that there is no need to contact the bank the cancel the transaction and I am sure that the staff member of told me that also knew it was untrue. The problem was that staff were not adequately trained to use the system.

Tesco Lotus has recently introduced Dynamic Current Conversion at it South Pattaya Branch. Basicly this gives customers the option of having their bill converted in the card's currency at point of sale but at a very poor exchange rate. However, it seems that they have not property trained there staff how to use the system.

I am out of pocket because of their staff incompetance - Only a very small amount - but with nothing better to do with my time why not spend a couple hours trying to recover it. The lateest attempted is a post on Tesco's UK facebook page which i reproduce below. This will all be too familiar to anyone used to dealing with Thai "customer services"

This is about your ref TES4307634NI, where you your unable to supply a direct e-mail for the managing director for Tesco Lotus in Thailand. I have therefore had to deal raise the problem my bank. I thought theat that members of your UK management that are responsible for your asia businesses might wish to see the message I sent to my bank so it is shown below

"On 7 October I made a purchase at a Tesco Lotus store (this is the Thai subsidary of Tesco). Without asking I was charged in GBP. I asked for the transaction to be cancelled but instead a was given a credit in Thai baht. I made clear that this was not what I wanted but I was told that they could not cancel the original transaction because the banks were closed (it was about 6.00pm local time). After foreign exchange charges, my account was debited by GBP24.03 but I was only refunded GBP22.86 so I need to recover another GBP1.17. I should add that I did not sign the slip for the original transaction the the retailer was fully aware that I did not authorise it. I spent 30 minute in the store and another 25 minutes on the telephone later to try to get the retailer to deal with the issue but I was told "we cannot do anything, the bank must solve" How should I recover the GBP1.17. As I never authorised the original transaction do I need to make a claim under Nationwide's fraud guarantee?"

Still waiting yes. Probably 2014

But still could be applied retrospectively for the whole of 2013.

With True you have two services 006 is high quality, 00600 is budget

For example prices to the UK are 6 baht per minute for 006 and 1.5 baht per minute for 00600.

For the UK I always use 00600 which is always OK but for some countries such as the Philippines 00600 often gives a very had connection.

I have the oppurtunity to buy into a small business here in Thailand. It is a Day Care come Nursery school which has been operating for a number of years and shows strong profits.

What I need to know is how to put a value on such an enterprise?

Internet searches lead me to evaluate the "Goodwill" part at 3 times Weighted Annual Profit.

Then add this to the value of capital invested. to get the Full value.

Is this a real and acceptable way to evaluate the business?

There are many ways to value a business. Using different methods will give a range of very different values and none of them is an alternative to a proper professional valuation. Remember that any reported profit will be dependent on the accounting policy used. You must understand the accounting policies and there implications on stated profits. I would also recommending checking tax returns. If accounting profit and taxable income are different then you need to understand why. Also if it is an owner managed business then stated profit will depend on how they get there income. They could receive dividends, which would give a higher stated profit then if they receive salaries.

I would suggest that the most reliable valuation methodology would be

Fair value divided by book value should equal sustainable return on capital divided by the cost of capital.

What this means is, for example, if assets provide an income stream that will be twice your cost of capital it is worth twice the book value of the assets

I purchased some Smoked Salmon at a major retail in Pattaya on 19 September.

As you can see from the photo a small area of the cardboard outer packaging had been removed and next to it was a sticker with Thai writting giving the sell by date as 30 September.

If I have a cynical person I might think that the product had expired and the sell by date had been altered to allow it to still be sold......but a responsible retailer would not do that........even in Thailand......right?

Has anyone seen any good rates or promotions recently?

KTB has 14 months @ 3.30% and 37 months @ 3.7%

Nope.

You would only get a single entry in Asia. Even for that you would have to be 50.

Requirements for a Non Imm O Visa in UK from Hull Consulate website.

6) Visiting Thailand as Retired Person aged between 50 and 64 years

Evidence required:

a) Copy of Bank Statement showing income of minimum 65,000 baht per month or lump sum of minimum 800,000 baht. Statement must include name and address of visa applicant (address on statement must be same as “Present address” on Visa Application Form).

Either a single or multiple entry visa may be granted in these circumstances.

Ok. So the plan would be to get a triple entry tourist visa in the UK (from Hull?) to cover the 7 months until my 50th Birthday - extending one of the entries. Then when I am 50 get a single entry Non imm O in Asia - where would this be possible Penang? Laos? - and then get a retirement extension.

This sounds like too much hassel even as a back up plan.

Thanks for the comments.

I was thinking about how big a problem it would be if my next investment extension was rejected. At the date of the next renewal I will be 49 and only about 7 months away from being able to get a retirement extension. I normally go to the UK once a year.

Would it be possible to get a multi-entry Non Im anywhere on the basis that i am 49 and going to apply for a retirement extension when I am 50.

Otherwise would a single entry be possible, which would mean that I would need a double entry tourist visa first.

Since 2006 I have been getting 1 year extensions on investment ground by keeping 3,000,000 in a fixed deposit account. This option is not available to new applicants but those using this method when it was withdrawn can continue to do so.

I know that unlike a retirement extension the money must stay in the account and cannot be withdrawn.

I went into my bank today to withdraw the interest on the account, which is a 1 year fixed deposit. This account pays 2.25% interest. However, the same bank, Krung Thai, has a promotional 14 month account paying 3.4%. On a 3,000,000 baht deposit this promotional account would give me 34,500 baht more in interest over the next year.

My question is would it be acceptable to move my money into this promotion account. Technically a withdrawal that would invalidation my extension but the money would never leave to bank just be transferred to another account in my name.

the witholding tax of 10%

can any of this be claimed back

ie if there is a tax free amount before the witholding tax kicks in?

No. Withholding tax is for Income. There is no capital gain tax.

When I came to live in Pattaya, I sold a property for GBP216,000 in England and bought in Thailand for THB2.56m. I transferred the cash for the property purchase at an exchange rate of 67, which makes the cost GBP38,200.......but that was 10 years ago. Now I guess my condo is worth THB4.0m at the current exchange rate of 46 would now cost about GBP87,000.

That's sounds about right.

What's the house I the uk worth now, with the market the way it has been, bet its not gone up much and that's £87,000 for a condo.

I sold in 2002. It changed hands again in 2006 for 285,000 but I would assume that this was with some work done.

When I came to live in Pattaya, I sold a property for GBP216,000 in England and bought in Thailand for THB2.56m. I transferred the cash for the property purchase at an exchange rate of 67, which makes the cost GBP38,200.......but that was 10 years ago. Now I guess my condo is worth THB4.0m at the current exchange rate of 46 would now cost about GBP87,000.

He is talking about US Mortgage backed REITS - as he says "as a fun diversion" - just Google mreits if you want to know more

To get back on track here is the latest SCB list of rates published yesterday following the cut in rates -

deposit-en-56-49.pdf

Yes I don't see any change at SCB still 3.2% for 13mths not sure when the promotion finishes

It's advertised as available until 31st May.

There is no requirement to submit accounts to the land office. The requirement is only to keep a copy that would be available should the land office carry out an inspection. There is a requirement to submit minutes of general meeting to the land office

Condos are not subject to income tax and are therefore not required to submit tax returns.

There is no requirement that accounts include a list of owners who have not paid fees. Although any well run condo should be that. At our last AGM we reported to co-owners that no fees were overdue.

For cash payments - if there is no receipt no payment was made - this is the normal approach in Thailand and I would expect any manager to follow this.

Remember if you are 6 months overdue in paying condo fees you cannot vote at a general meeting - in my view this was one of he most positive changes in the last condo act. If you are not contributing financially then why should you have a say in how other people's money is spent? Paying someone other than the condo does not clear your obligation. Not paying fees penalises other co-owner not the management.

I think the solution is the find a number of owners willing to take an active role - maybe that is difficult with only 25 units. Then keep on asking question and pointing out problems until the manager decides the job is too much trouble if people require it to be done properly.

I pay 300 baht/sqm/year. Fees have not change since the condo was completed 10 years ago. 10% discount if fees for the year are paid by 31st December of the previous year.

Is she going to arrange your work permit?

What do you guys like for a 1 year fixed right now? I have looked and like the cimb, but would love to hear other suggestions.

Go for SCB 13mths 3.2% available till end of this month..

if you dont think your goner need it for 13months its a fair rate,but be warned interest is calcalated every 3months in steps starting at

.75% ending at the last month 13 at 23%.cant remember what the step rates are but i am sure the first 6months its 1-3=.75%,4-6=.75%.

So that is not a real 3.2% pa is it?

Yes. You receive an interest rate is 3.2% pa but with interest paid 5 times during the 13 months.