Ricardo

Would the new PM care to also declare, that the widespread concern amongst foreign-residents about changes to the long-standing arrangements for taxing us, is also a "fake-news" story ? I doubt it, as it's currently still just an ill-considered proposal & internal-instruction within the Revenue Department, so only "semi-fake news". But it IS nevertheless causing very-great concern, and bad-publicity for the country ! Perhaps he might wish to clarify, that in-fact Thailand still welcomes tourists & longer-staying foreign-residents, and appreciates the contribution we all make when creating jobs & supporting our families & paying VAT/excise-duty/airport-departure-tax/land-taxes/immigration-fees, and states clearly that the proposal was all just a bad-dream (or misinterpretation or mistake by a junior official), and that we can all stop worrying about it ?

I agree 100%, and am doing the same thing, with just one additional-action ... I am switching immediately, from monthly-transfers to support my retirement-extensions, to B800k in-the-bank before 1/1/24. I am also now describing all bank-transfers henceforth as "UK-Taxed Pensions", and may well make a Gift (by bank-transfer) to my wife's account ... and carrying more Cash into Thailand as well, when travelling. Every little bit helps ! Minimise your visible exposure, never a bad strategy !

Not a widely-known concept even amongst farangs IMO, unless you've studied economics or business, the point is that introducing new funds from outside the local-economy boosts economic-activity by a factor of several-times, as it goes round-&-round businesses/people before gradually dissipating.

Happily death generally only happens once, whereas taxes are annual (or more), and an experience laden with onerous paperwork, which I (and many others ?) had hoped to have left behind, when I retired to live here ! I'd much prefer, if the RD want/need to raise serious amounts of money, that they raise the VAT-rate ? Yet they seem reluctant to do something like that, surely not because it would impact their voters, and not just us allegedly-rich farangs.

I'd predict the chances of the DWP doing that, in order to assist pensioners living out here with a purely-local tax-problem, are somewhere between Slim & None-at-all ! But would love to be pleasantly surprised. 😎 This is the government which, despite promises over-the-years, are still happy to dis-enfranchise its' citizens, once we've been overseas for 15+ years, don't forget. Yet still wants to tax us on any/all income arising in-the-UK. 🙄 But I digress.

Certainly, I've been getting the UK Old-Age-Allowance for a few years now, and have never had a P60 off the DWP ... apparently HMRC get the numbers from them direct, presumably linked to your NI-number, so don't need/want a P60 too ... and the thought that we customers (aka Old Farts ?) might also find one useful, well why care what we might want ? That's British customer-service at its finest ! 😎

And which sometimes even arrive here, when our local postie makes his weekly (if that) visit, to our village ! 🙄 Not knocking Thailand, just making the point that the postal-service is sometimes imperfect. 😎

Famous Last Words ? 😎

The SRT has been slowly trying to progress a 20-year track-doubling program for the past decade or more, it's still moving ahead, and might increase the movement of container-traffic to/from Laem Chabang from the North-East, North-West & Southern regions of Thailand ... which IMO is probably a good thing economically long-term. Especially if regional transhipment-centres result in what an elderly Brit like myself might remember as a Freight-Liner system ? Some may not realise that doubling a single-track system would more-than double the carrying-capacity of the routes, by eliminating delays while waiting for oncoming-trains to clear the next single-track section ? Not high-speed (as the Lao railway isn't anyway) but medium-speed, and improving efficiency of an existing asset, at a much-lower/more-affordable cost to Thailand. Without having to hand land over to a certain regional super-power, either.

Correct, the SRT have slowly (it's a 20-year plan, and running late) been duelling some of their single-track main-lines, but it's all just a much-needed improvement of their existing metre-gauge system. And not funded by China, as claimed. Interestingly much of the new Chinese-built line through Laos is also reported to be single-track, with passing-places along the way, and is medium-speed at best (understandable given the difficult terrain), Wikipedia say "The railway is built on a single track with passing loops and is electrified to China's Class I trunk railway standards, suitable for 160 km/h (100 mph) passenger and 120 km/h (75 mph) freight trains" .

Just to point out that one might ask one's everloving-wife, for one example, to pop into the exchange-shop with some Sterling/Dollar-cash, to be exchanged into Baht on your behalf. ????

Houston, we might have a problem, but ... nobody really knows yet ... watch this space.

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.

Actually, I may have to take that back, as I just saw a recent list of countries which say they're reporting under CRS, but I would still take that with a very large pinch-of-salt ! Offshore banking-centres would IMO only give the most sketchy/basic information, that they can get away with. It's simply not in their interest to do more. And how much time/expertise/desire the RD would have, to deal with such a mass of information, well I still have my doubts. Colour me cynical. ????

IMO you file for a 365-day visa-extension of your non-immigrant O-visa, based on your being retired, up to 30-days before it expires, 45-day prior in a few (lucky) provinces. I don't see why you'd need to have done a 90-day report, unless you've stayed for 90+ days in one visit, which you say you haven't. However I would advise you to make sure that you have done a TM30, after your most-recent return, reporting your presence as the owner of the accommodation you reside in, or check downstairs with the condo-reception to see if they have been doing so on-your-behalf. They may well have done so. Ask them if they can print you a receipt, for you to show it's been done, when at Immigration. The receipt showing TM30-filing, after your most recent return, was definitely required when I did my own retirement-extension, mid-September in Chiang Mai Immigration.

When you say "most other countries", I rather doubt that the list includes places like the BVI or Panama or Channel-Islands. or Thai-elites and past-politicians would not be banking there. ???? People of that ilk dislike having their finances on display ... period ! ????

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

Fifty years ago, as a teenager, I used to wash cars for pocket-money, will Thailand now suddenly want tax on that income ? Obviously not ! So the question is just how far back they will want to go, in trying to tax my earnings/investment-profits. We might eventually get clarity, but I'm not going to panic, or hold my breath either. When Immigration change the rules, which one tries to comply with, it often takes them years for it to come fully-into-effect. And in the past the older pre-change cases have often been grandfathered, for some years, one might hope that the same will happen this time, too ? It happens that I might find it convenient next summer, to spend a longer-than-normal trip to the UK or Canada, that too will buy me some further time, waiting to see how this is implemented while still having spent under-180-days in Thailand, next calendar-year. So again there, a bit of time for clarity to emerge from the general gloom, or sanity to reverse the possible new-rule. The main problem I see is that, for my annual retirement-extension every Autumn, Immigration currently tell me to bring-in 12*B65k monthly-transfers from overseas, whereas the possible new tax-rule/law sets a maximum of B150k before income-tax starts. This is an inherent contradiction. The two requirements ought surely to align ? But TiT. Lastly I would estimate that I've brought-in, and spent in the local-economy, some B50-million over the past twenty years, generating economic-activity of some B250-million within Thailand. Does the country really now want retirees like this to stop coming here ... it really would be cutting-off their own noses, to spite their face ? I have to believe (for now) that this is simply a mis-step, poorly thought through, which will turn out to be a false-alarm. But ... I am holding my breath, just a bit ! ????

One small observation ... if an expat happens to have an annual visa-extension due in January 2024, it might be wise to get it done early before 31st December 2023, so that you're not one of the guinea-pigs in uncharted-territory, turning-up to Immigration in the first month of this possible clusterf*ck ? ????

As a cynical old (retired) management-accountant, I would be surprised if that higher-return comes without higher risk, but I do sincerely hope it will work out for you. ????

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.

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 ?

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 !

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 ! ????

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. ????