chayatom

Can someone help me understand the Tax issues of undertaking consultancy work in India through a thai registered Company ?

The Thai Company's articles allow for property investment and consultancy and I am planning to invoice my Indian Client for work undertaken in India through the Thai Company. I am a shareholder of the Company (which i effectively control) but don't have a work permit to work in Thailand - is this relevant?

I am going to seek some professional advice(recommendations?) but its always good to get some guidance on the issues beforehand.

Thanks

I am thinking about replacing my existing 5 split type ac units in my apartment with a single cooling unit which feeds the individual rooms - i think its called an Inverter system.

The reason for doing this is partly as the current units are quite old(c10 years and starting to go wrong), very inefficient(my last electric bill was 18k) but also so that i can remove two very large fan coil units from my living room balcony(there about 4 feet high) giving me back a lot of space on the balcony,less noise and more light into my living room which is a little gloomy.

My plan is to put the Inverter unit on my bedroom balcony and feed the rest of the apartment from there.

I have seen this system advertised on the web but have been unable to find an air con company with good english language skills to explain the pros and cons. It seems a good idea in theory but i have no idea whether it is practical or not or affordable.

Has anyone investigated this previously or can recommend a installation co pany who can give me some good advice not just sell me the system??

Thanks

You are referring to a multi-split system where a single outdoor unit serves several indoor units.You would definitely need an inverter outdoor unit here whereby the starting current is very low compared to the standard models. I suggest you contact Mitsubishi Electric Kang Yong Watana Co.Ltd. in Bangkok www.mitsubishi-kyw.co.th(tel.no.027316841) direct.If they are anything like their English counterparts,they will advise you fully on the sizes of each unit and the feasability of this type of system in your home.

Good luck

Thanks for your help.

I did get a contractor around "ServeAir"(02 673 0088) who was very good. He is going to give me a quote to relocate the fan coil units from one balcony to another and improve the return air circulation which he says is the problem with the efficiency. If this works it should save me a lot of cash rather than buying a new inverter system!

I am thinking about replacing my existing 5 split type ac units in my apartment with a single cooling unit which feeds the individual rooms - i think its called an Inverter system.

The reason for doing this is partly as the current units are quite old(c10 years and starting to go wrong), very inefficient(my last electric bill was 18k) but also so that i can remove two very large fan coil units from my living room balcony(there about 4 feet high) giving me back a lot of space on the balcony,less noise and more light into my living room which is a little gloomy.

My plan is to put the Inverter unit on my bedroom balcony and feed the rest of the apartment from there.

I have seen this system advertised on the web but have been unable to find an air con company with good english language skills to explain the pros and cons. It seems a good idea in theory but i have no idea whether it is practical or not or affordable.

Has anyone investigated this previously or can recommend a installation co pany who can give me some good advice not just sell me the system??

Thanks

Are you serious Stub?

I drove past last night and there are beer bar girls sitting outside looking for customers. I can't imagine anyone would choose to have this type of bar outside their front door as opposed to a restaurant,coffe shop.flower shop and dry cleaners! There is a place for Beer bars but its not outside where i live! The management should be shot for allowing this to happen - just shows you how incompetent they are. I feel very sorry for anybody who has bought here.

The Lakes

You mean the small man made water landmark nestled between a convention centre and a tobacco factory, umm great view!!!

and the singapore property market has doubled in prices over the last year, and not just in a few select projects as is the case here in bkk, but in most areas of singapore, even the second hand condo market

singapore is by far the most attractive investment for expats to invest in property if you compare bangkok to singapore, maybe the ones who choose to buy in bangkok are the poorer relations to those who buy in singapore

i will always choose singapore over bkk for property investments

The ONE aspect of the bkk property market which is attractive are the incredibly low rental prices of the units if compared to the actual value of the unit,

Typically i rent in the region of 40-80 k a month here in bkk, my current rent is 51k, which is around 3-4% of their values, compare this to other capital cities of asia and the ist world where you will be paying 10% of the units value for one year's rent

.......i get a better rental return on the condominium i own in Bangkok than the two i have in London....interested to learn where you can get 10% rental return???

Very very few properties in bkk are receiving 10% returns a year on their actual sale value, its just pure hyperbole by a few real estate agents on this forum pushing the great positive news spin on all property in bkk, 3-4% is more on the mark

Those that are lucky enough to receive this magical figure of 10% are mostly doing it through their strong contacts at various agencies. Right now in bkk there is over supply in the rental market. Not only do you see individuals owners compteting with eachother for tennants, they also find themselves competing with serviced appartments and also thai owners of buildings who only rent units out. For the last 2 years I have seen prices from friends rental agreements ranging in prices from 40k to the most expensive of 220k in nichahda park frozen due to the competitive nature of the bkk property rental market

As for the lakes, well its days were 2004-5 where 65k became 90-100k a sqm, but from 2005 onwards it has slowed considerably its rise in prices

so has many projects built during 2003-2005

the optimum year in bkk property was 2005, where demand was so great for the supply, it pushed prices in the same buildings by sometimes 50% in one year.

Today price rises in the same building are slowing, and with the supply glut coming onto the market then the year 2005 will be very hard to beat

But i guess you were just a little too positive in your spin to really hide the industry you are in my friend, good luck

....err exactly what spin are you talking about??? My original post was complaining i could not buy a unit in the Lakes for what i felt was a reasonable price and i still cannot - you can try yourself if you think you can do better, its not spin its a fact. Just for the record i do not work in the residential property market but yes in commercial property.

I think you misread my mail - i agree a 3-5% yield is typical for a reasonable building in Bangkok(i get about 6% on my property here which i bouight 4 years ago), and this is better than the return i get on my properties in London(3-4%) i was asking where you can get a 10% return - you seem to think you can in most Capital cities in Asia which i don't think is the case - happy to be proved wrong if you can suggest where?

The Lakes

You mean the small man made water landmark nestled between a convention centre and a tobacco factory, umm great view!!!

and the singapore property market has doubled in prices over the last year, and not just in a few select projects as is the case here in bkk, but in most areas of singapore, even the second hand condo market

singapore is by far the most attractive investment for expats to invest in property if you compare bangkok to singapore, maybe the ones who choose to buy in bangkok are the poorer relations to those who buy in singapore

i will always choose singapore over bkk for property investments

The ONE aspect of the bkk property market which is attractive are the incredibly low rental prices of the units if compared to the actual value of the unit,

Typically i rent in the region of 40-80 k a month here in bkk, my current rent is 51k, which is around 3-4% of their values, compare this to other capital cities of asia and the ist world where you will be paying 10% of the units value for one year's rent

.......i get a better rental return on the condominium i own in Bangkok than the two i have in London....interested to learn where you can get 10% rental return???

well done Irene at 10m its a good buy.

...now i am still waiting for somebody to answer my question as to where is the next Lakes?....with so much development underway in Bangkok there must be some good buys out there - anyone want to offer some suggestions ???

wow Irene you are quick off the blocks! I went to see the apartment yesterday but was told it had already been sold(by chance i aksed if the buyer was Irene and they said yes!)

The price was 11m not 10m(a mistake!) and it was a lower floor (12 i think)with a poor view over the adjoining office towers M&E. At 10m i think it is still a good buy for a rental investment but i would not have paid 11m. Still its pretty good value for a decent 2 bed apartment in the Lakes even if the view is not up to much.

I think this unit is on the 11/12th floor and has a restricted City view - i am going to see it today. Even so it sounds good value compared to the 130k psm for a lake view unit. It also compares well to the other buildings in this area where the price seems to be around 85k psm and they are definitely inferior quality to the Lakes.

How much of a premium is a lake view worth???....30/40% max maybe but not more????

....its easy to look at the market as a whole and say there is over supply and don't put your money into a condo in Bangkok. The situation to me appears that the majority of buildings are poorly designed, poorly managed, over priced and will be very difficult to sell on. The flip side to this is that there are a small number of well located/designed/managed buildings where prices have risen substantially over the past 2 years and demand for these buildings remains strong. Even the prices seem high in comparison to the mainstream they are still easily affordable to the price insesnsitive buyers at the top end of the market where demand still outstrips supply.

If i had bought into the lakes 2 years ago i would be very happy today with my 4 % pa rental return and capital appreciation of 50% plus.

Can anyone tell me where the next Lakes is???

FYI They launched at Baht 65,000 per square meter in 2002, by 2004 they were selling at Baht 85,000 - 90,000 per square meter.

Interesting to see that you are happy with a price of Baht 115 k psm, and here's everyone telling us that the condo market is crashing....

.....happier to pay 90k but nothing available at that price! As far as i can see there are only 3 units available in the entire building out of i think 160 units

i have looked at roughly 15 units in different buildings around the Asoke junction including Las Colinas, Asoke Towers,Concord ,Urbana,Wattana Siutes,The Peak - you can pay 60k -90k per m2 mostly for an old unit in a run down building with poor management and poor facilities and some pretty poor layouts. To me these seem poorer value for money than the lakes where everything is great apart from the price. I would be pretty confident of renting or reselling a unit in the Lakes but the other buildings i would not touch. Citismart on Soi 18 was the only other building i would consider.

I am looking at buying a unit in the The Lakes Condominium as from what i have seen it offers the best combination of location,layout,facilities,management,etc.

I have seen two 109m2 +/_ units and the asking price is c15m or roughly 135,000 m2 - they ae nice lake view apartments but the price seems over the top to me - i thought the going rate should be closer to 115k per m2.

Has anyone actually bought a unit here recently and if so would you mind telling how much you paid for it?

Thanks

I have met with Tisco and applied for a loan on a Condominium owned by my (thai)Company - they have approved in principle but i am not counting my chickens until i see the money in my hands. They will lend up 80% of the Market Value of the property and repayment term is upto 10 years at TISCO base plus 1%. They require me to have a work permit and a thai guarantor but as its effectively a loan to the Company i am not sure how relevant this actually is.

I am thinking of buying a Mitsubishi Space Wagon and would appreciate any comments from current owners on reliability,comfort,etc- seems to offer a lot for the price at 1.59m. Also tried the Captiva which looks nice and has 7 seats but drives poorly and interior dash is a let down. I prefer the CRV as the best overall package but the wife wants 7 seats.

I will buy the Jag sight unseen for 200,000bt, you should take this offer quickly as you will only have a pile of spares to sell by the sound of your story.

Thanks john 1 for the kind offer - i am optimisitc by nature and expect to have my beautiful car up and running by the weekend (even if i have to push it myself!)

Update fromJaguar having removed the Cylinder Head......

timing chain fine - no engine damage

Oil cooler needs to be replaced

Water hose leak

these guys are unbelievable and i just hope i can get my car back in one piece

I was looking forward to picking up my car yesterday with its new tourque converter after Jaguar rang to tell me everything was ok. However they test drove it again in the morning and have told me that the timing chain has broken which is likely to have damaged the engine. Can this possibly be a coincidence or have they screwed up something in replacing the torque converter??? They will tell me by Monday what the state of the enging is like.

I personally would never buy a used auto transmission, unless it was from a verifiable low mileage wreck. The cost quoted seems ridiculous, given that should cover an entirely new transmission or thereabouts. I had a BMW 7 series with a ZF transmission, and it "needed a rebuild" - turned out that the valve body needed cleaning, and some new solenoids installed and it was like new again for about $500. Jaguar did have a recall for your year tranny, due to cracked gear teeth, but this only affected a few hundred cars total - a bad batch of gears I suppose. It would be more helpful if you mentioned what the transmission was doing wrong. Does the car move, shift, reverse, shudder, etc. Might be something simple, might be the torque converter and not the transmission at all. When I diagnose mechanical problems, I tend to like to eliminate all of the simple items first. Often, relatively inexperienced mechanics like to quickly diagnose (without much consideration) and replace large parts. This way, it can't come back on them. I call this the gas cap approach - if you lift up the gas cap, slide a new car underneath, then screw the gas cap back on, that should fix the problem.

Thanks Japhrodisiac.

The car is changing gear but making a whining sound when changing which is more noticeable under hard acceleration. I have spoken to a specialist in the Uk who didn't sound convinced the transmission needed replacing and recommended checking the transmission oil level and checking the differential first. I asked Jaguar to recheck and they tell me there are particles of the clutch plate in the transmission fluid??? They have suggested they disassemble the transmission to see if they can supply the new parts and repair here and give me a quote for this. I am no expert and i am not comfortable they are giving me the best advice.

I have had the car for 3 years and totally agree with your diagnosis comments - they seem to start from the opposite end of the spectrum and change the biggest most expensive part first.

If the trans is whining at every gearchange, it is almost certainly the torque converter at fault, worn friction plate or cracked diaprgham plate lowering oil pressure inside the converter, if it is a worn friction plate the trans oil will be dark and smell sort of burnt, if the oil is ok then you could be lucky, because black oil has a habit of slowing down shift valves in the valve body, this will mean a complete overhaul because low oil pressure in the converter will affect all parts of the trans, a cracked diaphram plate will lower overall pressure and cause premature wearing of all the clutches in the trans, There should be two points on the box to attach independant pressure gauges, 1 for the converter, and 1 for the valve body, a good trans shop should know the pressure and changing figures,

Ive rebuilt 100s of comercial ZF auto boxes, and after the first 100, it was easy, the auto principle is the same though, and it could even be the regulator near the output shaft of box that is sticking, this is a gyroscopic thing that spins and also tells box when to change gear, if the oil aint black and doesnt smell, this would be an easy option to check,

Anyway, goodluck with trans! Lickey.

Guess what ...you were dead right! Having opened the gearbox they cannot find anything wrong but say there is a problem with the torque converter - a new one is 40,000 baht. I can probably get a new one from Jaguar in the UK for 60% of this cost. I could so easily have spent a lot of time and money trying to get a replacement gearbox which would have been a complete waste of time and money.

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions .......

Thanks very much everyone for the helpful replies, the Jag forums in particular are excellent with anyone wanting to do some research into a problem.

I should get a new quote from Jaguar this week for the repair - I will see what this looks like before deciding to get it repaired elsewhere.

I personally would never buy a used auto transmission, unless it was from a verifiable low mileage wreck. The cost quoted seems ridiculous, given that should cover an entirely new transmission or thereabouts. I had a BMW 7 series with a ZF transmission, and it "needed a rebuild" - turned out that the valve body needed cleaning, and some new solenoids installed and it was like new again for about $500. Jaguar did have a recall for your year tranny, due to cracked gear teeth, but this only affected a few hundred cars total - a bad batch of gears I suppose. It would be more helpful if you mentioned what the transmission was doing wrong. Does the car move, shift, reverse, shudder, etc. Might be something simple, might be the torque converter and not the transmission at all. When I diagnose mechanical problems, I tend to like to eliminate all of the simple items first. Often, relatively inexperienced mechanics like to quickly diagnose (without much consideration) and replace large parts. This way, it can't come back on them. I call this the gas cap approach - if you lift up the gas cap, slide a new car underneath, then screw the gas cap back on, that should fix the problem.

Thanks Japhrodisiac.

The car is changing gear but making a whining sound when changing which is more noticeable under hard acceleration. I have spoken to a specialist in the Uk who didn't sound convinced the transmission needed replacing and recommended checking the transmission oil level and checking the differential first. I asked Jaguar to recheck and they tell me there are particles of the clutch plate in the transmission fluid??? They have suggested they disassemble the transmission to see if they can supply the new parts and repair here and give me a quote for this. I am no expert and i am not comfortable they are giving me the best advice.

I have had the car for 3 years and totally agree with your diagnosis comments - they seem to start from the opposite end of the spectrum and change the biggest most expensive part first.

You can say ouch again.

I have sourced a replacement gearbox in the UK for 1500 gbp but have to send back to the Uk my current gearbox. This means i have shipping costs both ways , potential tax liability importing the gearbox(???) and no guarantee that its going to work when its fitted.

I believe that its a ZF gearbox as used on some Mercedes cars and if i can find anyone here in Bangkok able to repair it its definitely going to be a cheaper option.

I shall take your wise advice to be patient to find the best way to resolve this but it would help if anyone can put me in touch with the specialist i am trying to find!

Thanks

I have just been quoted 400,000 baht by Jaguar Thailand to rebuild my transmission for my 1998 Jag XK8(I am told they send it back to the Uk to be repaired!) . Does anybody know of a specialist in Thailand who might be able to repair it???

I tried to get a mortgage from UOB and HSBC(who gave me a mortgage 5 years ago!) but neither were interested. UOB bank advertise on their web site for foreign buyers (http://www.uobgroup.com/internationalhomeloan/thailand_homeloan.html) but they were not interested in local expats wanting to buy/remortgage in Bangkok. Seems their scheme is targeted at Singaporeans buying a condo investment not resident here.

...I will try Bangkok Bank as has been suggested.

The condo is free of any liens and i wanted to borrow the money over 10 years.

Thanks for your comments Samran( certainly had no intention of starting a slag fest though) - I think i will go back to the banks with a business plan and see whether they will lend me the money to my

thai company in the knowledge that there might be a delay before i build anything on the land.....seemed from my initial meeting with them that they were implying that this would be the easiest route if not officially condoned. I have spoken to some of my thai friends and they are happy to be genuine investors in the project which will help although i had wanted to keep it for myself to avoid future complications.

Still keen to find out if anybody knows if there is any restriction from the BOT on banks lending money to anyone buying land speculatively.

Heh guys i asked a simple question about raising finance ..... an area where i do not have much experience which is why i posted this question seeking help from more experinced people.

I don't have an additional 5m not already committed elsewhere to add to the 3.5m i am putting into this or felt comfortable asking my thai friends....if i did i wouldn't be posting this question.

If you read my initial question i was getting at the banks reason for not helping me - they will lend to me but only if i have an immediate plan to develop the land not if i want to hold it - does anyone know if this a BOT regulation or the internal rules of the two banks i approached.

Helpful responses are much appreciated