Ricardo

Regarding ongoing running-costs, don't forget that the sick-buffaloes will require land to be purchased to live on, and regular visits from the (expensive, farang-price) vet ? Also check that your Tirak doesn't have a brother or male-cousin hanging around, of a similar age to her, that will likely be her Thai-husband, who may not like having a farang competitor.

Useful pdf-file, and pretty clear, as far as it goes, Thank-You for posting it. But it still doesn't say whether the TRD will still want a form filing, when one doesn't actually owe them any tax, as I calculate that I myself do not, after allowances & zero-tax band are applied. I'd also read it to say, they do not expect to tax income earned overseas, which isn't transferred into Thailand ... FWIW.

I politely disagree, I think that statement of yours above is over-simplified, I currently believe those old-age pensions might still only be liable to Thai tax if/when they were being remitted or paid-out in Thailand. Although they may, or may not, be taxable elsewhere. Which is a whole other discussion. It is a complicated situation, and there is still only limited-information available, from official Thai-sources ... we just have to wait & see, how it is actually implemented January-March next year, for the Thai tax-year 2024. Knowing Thailand, it may well be dropped or not-enforced, without being officially withdrawn.

That seems entirely sensible to me ! Happily in late-2023, I changed the basis of my retirement-extensions from monthly-transfers to B800k on-deposit in-the-bank, so my registered-transfers from my overseas-bank to my Thai-bank this year are very-much reduced, to below the B0.5-million or so which are covered by my allowances & zero-rate tax-band. And I keep a running-note of those transfers, just in-case they ever ask to see them, although they are already aware of them from my Thai-bank's reporting. Agreed ... also our electricity/phone-bills are paid out of a dedicated BKK-Bank account, which is solely in her name. I occasionally make a Gift-to-Wife transfer from overseas, into that account. What a kind fellow ! And the chances of dear-wifie ever making a transfer into my local bank-account, well pigs might fly !

Of course they might just be partly-motivated, by the fees they can generate from the current confusion & worry, a cynic might say ! We must just wait & see how things pan out. And meanwhile try to take a cautious posture.

Thanks for posting that link, I'm reading it but still don't believe it, as it goes completely against what I've always believed to be true ! Yet it is clearly a UK-government source ! 🤔 I wonder whether they really mean Old-Age-Allowance (aka State Pension) is not even assessable, or whether it's just non-taxable itself, because they don't want to bother to try to collect the tax due on it, due to the paperwork involved for the DWP, who actually make the payments ? Hence they charge the tax on any other sources of UK-arising income, such as annuities or private-pensions, which take total income-arising past the £12,570 Personal-Allowance, and which method is administratively-easier for HMRC/DWP ? I'd also view the word "usually" with some suspicion, I wonder what the exceptions are, that they don't spell out ?

One wonders whether & how the (long anticipated) new problems of the current (or rather, previous, as it now appears) PM, might impact the income-tax change-of-policy, or not ? Obviously it's not the government's main concern just now, but one can always hope that the new rules might fall-through-the-cracks, before they actually take effect and technically require some of us to possibly make tax-returns early next year ?

The UK Old-Age-Allowance is definitely taxable, but HMRC prefer to collect from one of your private-pensions, telling the administrators to use a revised tax-code to collect it, rather than saddling their colleagues at the DWP with the extra administration. Which their admin-systems may not be set up to do. Given that they can take 3-4 months to pay-up, on a legal-uplift due-to-temporary-visit, and that there's no simple online-form to claim that uplift (you have to phone-in or write) , my view is that their systems are not very good. So you're absolutely correct in what you say above. As frozen personal-allowances continue, and some other sources of UK-arising income increase, more retired-people are finding that they now owe UK Income-Tax again ... but whether the relatively-small sums collected are worth the extra revenue raised, is a moot point.

I read it as you remitting money from overseas, direct to your spouse/family-members' Thai bank-account, so not remitting it in-your-own-name to your own account first ? Or else, as you say, it risks being taxable here.

Thanks, on that basis, I definitely won't be taxable for many years to come ! Indeed, I should love to live that long ! Thanks, it was the difference between "remitted income" and "on any income arising", which had been concerning me. The sooner the TRD make this all crystal clear, the sooner I'll be able to relax, and get back to my hobbies.

So has it now been absolutely confirmed (Sorry but I haven't been paying-attention) that a tax-resident (which I undoubtedly am) is now taxable on worldwide-income, interest/dividends/pensions/unrealised-capital-gains, not just on money actually transferred into Thailand during a tax-resident year ? I had thought worldwide-income was still up-in-the-air ? Currently I'm still aiming to reduce my visible-transfers, and hoping to stay below-the-radar, by bringing-in less than B500k so not filing because I don't owe anything. Does that definitely not work now ?

One suspects a last-minute rush of resident-expats, getting their dosh into the country, before the deadline !

Note to self ... buy shares in biscuit-manufacturers, on the first working-day after Christmas ! But I must admit, I followed a similar strategy when having a problem at Immigration, a couple-of-years ago. Merry Christmas to all expats ! And to keep smiling !

Great, a spot-the-missing-elephant competition, much better than those too-easy spot-the-football ones !

They'll track it via the trail of elephant-poo, if by no other means ! Better invest in a strong dustpan & brush ? But probably good for your rose-garden !