mikebell

He wouldn't have 8 months left if he did.

I think the writer has a bad case of hyperbole.

He was full of beanz.

What Law enforcement? AKA preying on farangs.

It is most days of the week as MPs & Senators work their real jobs.

With that budget, Cabinet approval is guaranteed; the 'commissions' to be garnered will be enormous.

With no Government for the foreseeable future, do the Senators still get paid despite doing nothing for the rest of the year except nod their heads when commanded?

If I were I wouldn't be having this trouble with HMCR -

15 years ago. I am being persuaded that my use of the word 'scam' is overly emotive: chosen because rectifying it is convoluted and frustratingly slow-moving. I concur that I should have checked my tax affairs but to be truthful I did not & still don't know how. I took at face-value the code I was given having been a teacher for 39 years with almost no contact with HMCR.

Thanks for that cheery note. As I said above the guy was really helpful and promised a refund of over 5K. The 1st arrived almost immediately but it's been over 19 days since the last contact.

I have been waiting 20 days after they promised three years of refunds.

No. The Norwegians do and are laughing all the way to their Thai Banks.

I spoke to an imbecile who didn't know what I was talking about. She passed me on to her supervisor who passed me back to HRMC.

Over 15 years ago! It becomes a scam when they overtax me for 15 years then say they will reimburse me for only the last 4 years; then make promises they don't keep; keep you waiting for over an hour on the phone; refuse to acknowledge letters posted from Thailand; make it almost impossible to communicate with them except by phone; promise action but then don't fulfil their promise.

Very true but I really have little idea of the meaning of tax codes & their impact on my overall tax liability. I am sure there will be many others. I have only 3 sources of income: a Teachers' Pension; a private pension and my State Pension currently rated and taxed at 10K a year tho' I actually only get roughly 4745.

It is a scam if they admit THEIR error but then refuse to backtrack more than four years after 15 years of over-taxation; keep you waiting for over an hour on the phone; refuse to acknowledge letters posted from Thailand; make it almost impossible to communicate with them except by phone; promise action but then don't fulfil their promise.

Thanks for this; I have posted two letters without response. I have been promised another 2K in 14 days; that was July 14th! I think it is appalling that HMRC blame us the punters for not checking our tax coding making us responsible for their mistake.

I am just back from 3 weeks in the rain. This is to let you know, I (& many others) are likely owed many thousands; I stand to recoup over 5K UKP. I know next to nothing about Income tax coding which is at the crux of the scam. Each year I am given a notice of coding & accepted it unconditionally as it was from the HMRC people themselves. This is their defence when challenged; if you accept it without checking, you lose. My daughter thought I was paying too much. We checked on line & found (eventually) to my horror that the tax authorities have assumed I was receiving a full State pension (of 10K this year.) In fact my pension has been frozen for 15 years as I live in Thailand. I sent two letters from Thailand which were ignored. I sent on-line messages which were allocated an official case number but never acted on. So I phoned in the UK. (Phoning from here was difficult because of the time gap + an inordinate wait of about an hour before you got a real person (all the while being told how important your call was). I was initially re-directed to the Pension people in Newcastle, staffed by incompetents who did not know what day it was & re-directed me back to the Tax people. After an exhaustive conversation with someone prepared to go the extra mile, he admitted that I have been overpaying for years. He could only go back 4 or 5 years and calculated I was due 5K+. I received the 1st tranche within a week (3,500+) but there has been a deafening silence since.

+ the water in Pattaya is too polluted even for dragons.

They're only frantic because they are being made to work or they smell baht from a foreigner.

moi aussi.

The only way to get Plod off their bottoms to do some work.

From whom? Cambodian fishermen? With torpedoes?

Typically the Pattaya police will not meddle with any wrong-doers unless there is a chance of financial reward.

Luckily the owner had renewed his Fire Insurance only last week.