Ricardo

8 hours ago, PJ71 said:

You can get a re-entry permit at either of the intl airports in BKK

I departed Chiang-Mai yesterday, and our desk for re-entry permits has now moved, it used to be a little-office next to the security-scanners, but is now to-the-right of the immigration-officers desks, where I was being finger-printed & stamped-out of the country.

1 hour ago, moogradod said:

But I want to leave it like that, my stash of medicine has nearly run out, too.

 

Thank-you for your devotion to research, hopefully that was single-malt-whisky-medicine, and Good-Luck with the hangover !  ????

3 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

I was talking about the tax free lump sum that you can take when you start taking your Private (in my case Defined Benefits/Final Salary) Pension which can be up to 25% of the value of the pension.

 

State pension does count towards your personal taxation allowance and so any additional taxable income can take you over your PTA & you would be liable to tax on the excess.

OK, Thanks for the explanation, I see what you're getting at now.

Might I suggest, since your OAA doesn't start until your 66+, you might find it possible to take the 25% tax-free from your private-pension, plus any further unused personal-allowance in your 65th year ?  

I missed that, and could have drawn over 30% tax-free immediately, in exchange for a slightly-lower annuity thereafter.  

1 hour ago, Mike Teavee said:

It's actually the other way round... if the money was part of a "Taxed Pension" then I don't believe the Thai govt can take any as I would already have paid tax under the UK/Thai DTA (Double Taxation Agreement), it's the fact that it is tax free in the UK that is concerning me. 

I believe that you're mistaken about that  ...  my UK Old-Age-Allowance definitely forms part of my taxable UK-arising income, or I wouldn't need to be making an annual-return to HMRC, and paying a trivial amount of UK-tax, every year.  My two minor private-pensions would not be sufficient to take me above the (currently frozen) Personal-Allowance.

Or by "Taxed Pension " do you mean something other-than the regular Old-Age-Allowance ?

25 minutes ago, Shannoblic said:

elfpattaya - you MUST be joking!  All income generated in the UK is taxed at source if you are on private pensions.  

Sorry to disagree, but that's certainly NOT my own experience, my combined-income from two small personal-pensions and my OAA slightly-exceeds the personal-allowance for income-tax, all are paid Gross, and I need to make a self-assessment return & payment-by-cheque every year !

18 hours ago, Searat7 said:

I hope this expansion includes a third runway which should have been built years ago.

Agreed and it's currently under-construction, although rather delayed due to the Covid-slowdown, I take a look at the latest progress every time I land at Swampy.

And I wonder where they will move all those parked-up Thai-Airways B747s & A380s to, once the new satellite-terminal comes into use ?  Perhaps just leave them to continue to rot, where they already are, and paint over the airline's name !  ????

6 hours ago, HuskerDo2 said:

"We have a big new friend in the East!".......

 

Indeed, have you seen how fat Xi Jinping is getting?

Well Winnie-the-Poo does love Honey !  ????

Perhaps they might rename one of these dozen-or-more new artificial islands, being built in the South China Seas, 'Tai-Won' ?  So that the PRC's honour is satisfied, and both countries can continue to live more peacefully, together.  ????

On 5/5/2023 at 2:29 PM, OJAS said:

I attempted to claim a temporary increase by snail mail last year, but ended up having to call the International Pension Centre anyway before their timeframe for lodging this claim expired.

I agree that they are inexplicably rather slow, to credit the slight-increase to one of your next (4-weekly in my case) payments, but take the view that once I've dropped the claim-letter into the post-box on-arrival, my claim has been lodged  ...  regardless of how long they then take to action it.  Perhaps I'm over-optimistic !

I must admit that I think it's rather poor service, that one cannot just complete an online-form with the visit-details, and that only a letter or phone-call will do.  Typical out-of-date British bureaucracy in fact.  I live in hope that the UK will become more up-to-date, one of these days, but I'm not holding my breath !  ????

I think I'm right in saying, you can also claim the temporary OAA-increase if you're visiting the EEC-countries, even though you don't actually enter the UK ?

I visit every few months, and send in my claim by letter on-arrival, the extra sum takes a few months to be credited, but it does appear eventually !

The OP clearly has outdoor/underground-pipes on his system, we sometimes detect cracked-pipes or slow-leaks at joints underground, by looking for permanently-damp ground or suspiciously-green plants, indicating a slow trickle which is watering them.

We also have had, over some twenty years, pipe-joints being stressed where they leave the main-house and run under the surrounding-terraces, which were never tied-into the main structure and so have gradually subsided as-a-result.

Just a couple of ideas there, FWIW.

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

Which immigration office? 

Some offices still insist on using previous (outdated) rules.

Thinking CM is one. 

I can confirm that Chiang Mai Immigration are still using the old rules, for inter-province travel !  

My online 90-day-Report was declined ten-days-ago, because I had stayed at a Chonburi resort in November, and their report of my (temporary) hotel-stay had overwritten my permanent residential-address, which has been on my most-recent TM30 (back in 2019).

There was a 3-4 hour queue at CM-Immigration, when I went in and tried to correct their records, so I gave up !  And will try to re-do it next September, just before my next visa-extension is due.  No point doing it before then, as I have several overseas-trips planned, and also some inter-provincial travel, before then ! 

A temporary trip to another province logically ought not to over-ride one's permanent-address, as notified on 90-day-reports and used on all Immigration paperwork for the past 19-years, but it does in Chiang Mai  ...  one can only live with it, until it changes again !  ????

I guess doubling fares would increase revenues, although they're still 20%-short of the previous level, according to the article !   ...   "the airline’s current monthly income of around 12 billion baht, down from 15 billion baht before the pandemic."

So when will they offer to refund my cancelled-ticket from three years ago, then ?  ????

Nobody is talking yet about the branch off to Laem Chabang & Maptaphut & Sattahip, which is slightly odd, since without (or even with) all the Chinese-freight heading for Thai ports there's absolutely no way that the new medium-speed line will be profitable enough, to repay all the construction-loans and initial operating-losses.

I mean, how many tens-of-millions of Chinese tourists per-annum are there, who want to go to just Bangkok alone ?  There are very few profitable passenger-lines in the World.  The pre-Covid charter-flights were to Phuket & Chiang Mai & Utapao, not just Don Muang, and aircraft can switch capacity to new destinations at the drop of a hat, as demand changes, compared to fixed-infrastructure like a railway.

I understand that Nok-Air operated a rare flight from Utapao (Rayong is currently a red-zone province) to CNX last night, I saw it take-off on flightradar24, and it arrived 18.40 at CNX.

Can anybody confirm, if one were to book their next flight on Wednesday 28th, what is required of travellers flying-in to Chiang Mai ?  I'd be hoping to just take a taxi home, and to self-isolate there, for 14-days  ...  basically what I'd intend to do anyway !

Luckily the social-media are, to some extent, by-passing the media which all governments are happy to monitor and regulate & control, with luck this may eventually increase peoples' awareness & freedom-of-speech.

But I'm an optimist.

I think the OP makes the case for turkeys voting against Christmas, or politicians against transparency, the real question is can they do anything about it ?  China might suggest not.  We shall see.

7 hours ago, IztwanGurob said:

What is the definition of ”north”? I visited Chiang Mai in July and it was raining every day.

I think it's your definition of "summer" which is awry, the hot-&-dry season is March/April/start-May, and the relevant rice-crop is already-planted or going-in right now.

July is definitely into the monsoon-season, hot-&-wet, with September/October being the wettest months.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

In 1988, the RTP asked the Royal Forest Department for about 18 rai of land to build the police station, but almost all of the land was encraoched upon by a resort. So far, the police station has half a rai left.

Classic example of land-encroachment in a Thai National-Park !

" Ko Lipe was one of the most beautiful islands in entire Thailand but due to unregulated development nearly 90% of the beaches are currently occupied by long-tail boats and the whole Island seems to be a constuction site. Like else where in the country, resorts built on the beaches. Another lost paradise with other words. "

https://www.thainationalparks.com/tarutao-national-marine-park