jojothai

Just checking, for item 2 that would be correct if using clause 19 for services rendered in the discharge of governmental functions. For category 1 however, you still have a liability for the income on the investment. But currently only if you are remitting it to Thailand (unless they change to worldwide income). If the income is small then it should not be a problem regarding tax, however if it is large you need to work it out. But be careful. If you are remitting say 400 to 500, 000 baht under 1. and get investment income / gains of 10% then you may think that by ratio the taxable amount may be negligible. However the TRD may consider that the remittance is from only the income gained, then the picture can change markedly. Your Oz bank will exchange their information with Thailand under the CRS requirements. Investment gains is either income or capital gains. For Thailand capital gains is taxed as income. So either way the investment gains are income, regardless of how Australia treats it. I suggest that you need to get the Oz bank to work out how you can split the account into two, savings from before 2024 and put investment income/ gains into the second account before each year end for the statements by the oz bank. Then only make transmittals from the savings part and be able to prove it from the bank information for each year end. Basically, do not remit from the gains on the investment. You can use that in Oz . This is the same potential issue for me (and other people?). I do not transmit money here yet. But in the future will need to do so. I plan to do what i have stated. However, if the TRD changes to worldwide income it will not be any use.

My Thai wife has just finished chemotherapy on the Thai Health system for breast cancer, in hua hin As people have commented , we pay so little that we are very luky. But It was very hard getting everything approved through the system to start. My wife did extremely well getting all the Tests and verifications from home province, home district and original surgery in Bangkok Hospital. She has a strong will, but it still caused much hardship. Its also hard because the state hospitals are so crowded and you need to get there early in the Queue, before 7am. Then you may be there most of the day. She has just started follow up laser treatment in Ratchaburi. Same issue hospital swamped with people from about 7am. We aim to get there by 7am, even though she has started the ball rolling. I commend what is provided under the Thai system, but FYI its hard going through all the bureaucracy and very long waits at the hospitals.

Yes, you are correct . I stand to be corrected, but we are talking about the new rule changes here and if tax returns will now be required. There is likely to be a lot more attention from the TRD for any remittances.

Yes, that may have been the situation in the past. The tax requirement on remittances change is from 1st jan 2024. So its only after the end of this tax year that we will find out how if and what happens.

Why would they have declared the remittances? The remittance tax change was from 1st jan 2024. So there has been no need for the retirees using the income method to file tax returns previously. But the remittances became a taxable amount this year, then the retirees soon have to decide what to do. Next year we should expect to start to see how this develops.

At present tax only applies to money transmitted from abroad or earned here. So if you transmitted money then the Oz return should help to avoid double taxation on the amount. but unfortunately the tax year here is different.its the end of the year, so its hard to know what they will tell you they need. If they introduce tax on global income one of the problems is how we will deal with end of tax year here. If UK is end of tax year april, people will not yet have their uktax return for the requirements period end of thai taxyear at 31 december. It will be necessary to show income from january to end of the year, and how any DTA calculation of tax paid elsewhere can be made. God only knows how this will work out.

Cancelled post. I used a quote but it did not show. Have to re-do.

How can anybody believe things reported in the media when some of the text is nonsense. "commencement of rail construction isn’t expected for five years. This schedule pushes the anticipated operational date to 2029, reflecting a five-year setback, reported Bangkok Post." So how does operation start when construction may only be starting in five years. Is that not late 2029?

Be aware that you can only book online up to the day before and not on the day of travel. when you book online you can also choose a seat, after confirmed paying the booking.

When you get out at the clock tower (free trip in the van), marvest is a 500m walk, Or you can get a motorbike, There are some at the clock tower. Should only cost 20 baht, or 30 baht at most.

if you want to be near the beach but out of town. See map for Khao Takiap area where i looked for houses. Some places town houses, but at the lower part there were some fairly good looking houses. Not that many but worth a look if you want to be near the beach. Its not far to the songthaew turning point for getting into town, up to about 500m.

Another note to add for people thinking of moving here. It gets extremely hot several months of the year. Just like many parts of Thailand. Think of the orientation of the house / condo. Look at a adjacent places to see how crowded they are with blinds for the sun and in which directions. Its nice having a sea view condo, but you can have unbearable heat through windows. Sun comes up south east in the morning and is very hot. Sun sets to WNW, hottest mid afternoon around west. You may not think it too important, as we did when we bought our place. However we found the heat getting into the kitchen area and some other rooms was much higher than we like. There were blinds inside the windows but they don't do much. The aluminium window frames get so hot you should not touch them. In hind sight I should have noticed all the houses in the village with blinds outside and windows obviously covered on the inside. I fitted roller blinds outside and they stop the problem, sunblocking 99%, that you can see out but not see in.

Its a good suggestion. That area north of town and out to Soi 2 has houses. Beach side you could also look around Naebkehart Road soi 41 to 51. I think there are houses there, but not too many. Me and my thai wife need to go out regularly to the south and looked primarily at south and west side of Hua hin.

You may have a problem if you want it to be nice. There are a lot of predominantly Thai areas but they are primarily either older town houses or run down and insecure housing estates. I would not trust living in most of the town houses you have no idea what neighbours you will get or security. Many places have barred windows. The housing estates i have seen that are more thai are very poorly maintained. Look along soi 102 about and the Sois off it, about 3km out. If you want to be close to the beach you need to look around the area into Khao Takiab. Right at the end not far from the temple. Past the turning point for the SongThaews That is an area i remember that may meet what you want. I looked at a couple of houses there that were not bad, but we chose a beautiful peaceful and well maintained village 3km out that does have many falangs but it is Thai run.. Your best bet may be to get a condo, but condo prices in my opinion are relatively more expensive. Maybe look at cha-am if you want to be away from people. If you want thais, then be prepared to put up with the potential noise. The so called Ghetto area is mainly around the Hilton which gets crowded with older people. That is not representative of Hua Hin. There are some of the bar areas such as soi 88 and 94 also frequented by a lot of older falangs but many places in Thailand have similar. When i go into town on soi 88 there are very few falang places until you get into town. But, very few places to think of living. Some people may think that Market Village is crowded with older falangs but that is not the case, unless that is all you want to identify. The restaurant on the pier that we go to often is adjacent to the Hilton "Ghetto area". It often has just as many thais or younger tourists as there are older tourists. It can hardly be declared a ghetto.

I agree that the swanky developments out of town may not be what they appear, and there is the issue of transportation in and outof town. However, some developments are very good. People must rent here before buying. Rents for houses are cheap IMHO, and as a renter you do not pay CAM fees Even then CAM fees in houses are often cheaper than condos. I pay just under 30,000 baht a year in a village that is run excellently and i have a 3 bed villa. You will pay that or more in a 100sqm condo. Estates do not all add cost to utilities. Where i have the villa we pay what the utility charge is and no extra. Your comments are valid thanks, because people need to know these things when they look around.

Try telling that to all the tourists that come here repeatedly and love it. And the thais that are buying up all the 30 sqm condos and swarm here on holidays. Thats more of a problem to note. Especially for the traffic. From what i know here. I honestly cannot understand where the hang up comes from . Pattaya has far more retirees and i know some places that may be considered ghettos. There maybe many retirees here and for good reason, but IMHO after 2.5 years here i dont believe that it should be considered a ghetto.

I find your comments do not represent what it is here. Hua hin a ghetto? FFS. When you know hua hin, you do not go for the beach. Its not over expensive unless you want to be cheap charlie or live around Pattaya or out in the sticks with nobody for expat talk. i know pattaya very well and decided to move out of a good location next to jomtien beach and we bought in hua hin. Too much noise, too many russians, too many people with bad attitude. Too many druggies and possible robbers, ( on motorbikes) No regrets. Where are the places as good as hua hin that are cheaper to rent? Unless you want to go to the estates around pattaya that are insecure and get robbed often. Or live out in the sticks. I am referring to rent a house, not a condo.

Something more to comment for hua hin. We have a water supply problem in the dry season and after. At least a few months. Water supply hours restricted. But not totally off. There is not much big water storage, and appears to be no sharing from adjacent districts with bigger reservoirs. It affects mostly the town and places near the coast who get water from hua hin district. Over the hills to the west, people i know get water supply from the next district and have no problem. Its not such a big problem. Water trucks can be found to pay for supply. However something for people to know. I fitted an extra 2000 litres of water tank in our house, so i have 3000 in total. Only me and the wife, so we dont have any problem if supply is off for a few days or limited to restricted hours.

Hi mike Air quality is not bad that long in my experience. Is the 7 months quoted online? We get a bad spell peaking in march/early april just like most other places. But not as bad as bangkok, and places like chiang mai. This year has not been bad. I have not had to clean the solar panels like last year. In 2023 the pollution in march laid enough dust to reduce my power by nearly 50%. I suppose the wind has a big influence. Fairly windy half the year, especially in the next month or two. We get enough wind where i live 3km west of centre, going partly up the hill. It may be less windy in town / more built up areas.

Hua hin hospital govt is good. My wife goes there, can be very busy. I have used bangkok hospital for some things. Ok, but a bit pricey. They are currently building extension. I trieds san paulo once, limited service at weekend. English can be an issue, as i noted in reports online. There are some smaller clinics that are good and cheap for routine issues. Hua hin is IMHO a great place to stay. Its only a small place and easy to get around. There are a lot of retirees here. we have a villa market as well as the few big local supermatkets like lotus. The town gets very crowded on holidays. Renting a house can be very cheap. Condos expensive in comparison. Look at where you would live for ease of access into town. I looked around for over a year before deciding to buy the house we now own. Some housing areas not good. Others too far out over the hill west. The housing village i am in is 3km from everything. Just a nice distance into town. Its extremely well run and peaceful. Far better than we expected. They have villas for rent at good prices. Horizon village on soi 88. The manager has a list. Worth a look if you visit. For transport, my wife uses car to go to our house in the sticks, and i do not use a motorbike. I mostly call the main motorbike taxi guy at market village to come out to me. He's been very good getting somebody to come at normal daytime hours. 50 to 60 baht to get to most places in town with the motorbike. So there is no point in having a second car. Taxi can be ordered for 150 baht into town. Grab ok and normally cheaper than taxi.

I use the vip bus regularly for hua hin to suvarnabhumi and viceversa 325 baht. Its very comfortable. An easy journey. Why pay so much more for a taxi. The VIP bus also provides a good service to get into hua hin from the bus station which is out of town next to the airport. You can book the bus online provided it is at least a day before. Extra 50 baht. Buses can be full sometimes and if you have not booked you may have a couple of hours to wait. From experience the 12.30 bus to hua hin is often full If you are flying in and book in advance. Allow maybe a couple of hours for any potential flight delay. In the airport, you can get something to eat and drink to relax before getting on the bus. When you get through arrivals if the booking is 2 hours away and you want to get away as quickly as possible, you can go to desk and see if there are seats on an earlier bus. If so, the booking can be changed if you want, for an extra charge. I think its 50 baht.

As Lorry has stated in the subsequent post, its all a bit messy at present. It seems there have been no formal notifications sent out to people for the information. FYI, My bank asked for the information when I went in to discuss some other matters. My stockbroker requested the CRS form is completed when i was updating my personal information that is requested annually.

From what I find You are correct The USA is no party to the CRS, but is covered by FATCA.

FYI, thailand has already got agreements with most countries exchanged. Much faster than what i thought. IMHO, It points to the possibility that they do plan to use the system, and more likely that they may implement The change to global income assessment.

Good thanks, but was that in the post thread or in the document referenced.? The title does not point at the CRS People are not likely to be reading every reference of discussion. You may be, but from the discussions i see I did not identify reference to the guidance. Its very difficult for somebody to identify things like this without spending hours trawling so many posts and seeing all the crap then going to every reference. That's why i posted very directly, so that it should be easier for people to search. with respect , if you read and know all the posts , my post was not directed at you. It was made to stop all the many ill informed posts from people that do not yet know or understand what is happening. The forum should provide help, There are too many opinions and I am sick and tired of seeing the posts where people have no idea what is going on. I hope the post rectifies some of that. If you think the post was intended to generate lost of posts, that was not the intention. Now, from what you have questioned, I do not see why i should make any more posts to help people.