OJAS

Indeed the UK/Thailand DTA does not appear (to my eyes at any rate) to prevent double taxation in the case of the UK State Pension and company pensions - simply because it makes absolutely no mention of either pension type in its text anywhere. So how could it be said to afford protection against double taxation in the case of these 2 particular pension types? While current TRD exemptions and allowances would, in practice, result in a zero tax liability for those whose sole source of assessable income is the UK State Pension (as in my case), they would presumably prove insufficient to prevent any double taxation arising for those in receipt of company pensions - all the more so if they are also in receipt of the State Pension. In any event, it would IMHO be extremely foolish to rule out entirely the possibility of the TRD at some future date reducing - or even completely abolishing - all existing exemptions and allowances.

My wife also collects "his" coins. Hard though this may well be for certain members of the Thai-bashing brigade on here to accept, their motivation for doing this is borne not out of financial avarice but instead pure love, as you appear to imply.

Do you really not have sufficient funds for a marriage extension instead of a retirement one? Or accumulate them through an interim 60-day extension for the purpose of visiting your Thai wife?

Have now edited my post with the suggestion that he lies low during the week in question.

If you are caught on overstay by even 1 day, though, you may, in addition to the 3,500 THB fine, be liable to a 5-year ban: https://www.tratimmigration.com/thailand-visa-overstay-regulations/ IMHO you would be best advised to lie low and not draw attention to yourself unnecessarily during the overstay week.

Maybe his best course of action would be to run the GOV.UK calculator once he has established what his gain on the property amounts to: https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-property/work-out-your-gain

Indeed he will!

Incorrect. When in late 2021 I sold my UK property which I had purchased in 1999, I had to pay CGT calculated on the basis of the gain which I had made on it since 5 April 2015: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/capital-gains-tax-for-non-residents-calculating-taxable-gain-or-loss#rebasing-from-2015

Personally, I am now seriously wondering whether one way in which "the Thai Govt could start making Thais and Expats pay more income taxes" with minimal additional effort on the TRD's part in the short term would be through reductions in - or even the complete abolition of - the various generous allowances and exemptions, the continued existence of which we seem, to date, to have taken as read.

I didn't need one when obtaining a TIN from my local tax office a few weeks ago. But I am aware of at least 1 recent report on the banking forum of a COR being asked for. Therefore suggest that you ask your local tax office. Had you first taken the trouble to learn, mark and inwardly digest the gobbledegook spouted on that "wondrous" link, then you will have found that it contains zilch by way of specific info as to whether or not a COR is an explicit requirement for obtaining a TIN, as per the OP's second query.

Yep, matches my experience in obtaining a TIN a few weeks ago.

Any follow-up as to whether she actually made it on to a return flight to Blighty yesterday?

Which makes me seriously wonder whether this so-called affidavit could, in fact, amount to some phishing attempt on their part aimed at targeting foreign retirees' bank balances.

Might prove an issue for the OP when said passport needs to be renewed, though. I was informed by a particular Bangkok Bank branch I was using that my new passport details could only be registered at the branch where I had opened my account. That said, the OP should, of course, only need to make a trip from Chonburi to Chiang Mai for this purpose once every 10 years!

I was also told this when I did a transfer last week. Looks like Wise are now, for some mysterious reason, delaying THB transfers to BKKB until a few minutes after BKKB's daily 14:00 account crediting routine. However my transfer was duly credited to my account at 14:01 the following day, so I'm sure that yours will likewise be duly credited to your account around 14:00 tomorrow (Wednesday). I subsequently initiated a token transfer to check whether my latest experience was a one-off, but it would appear that it is not. However an extra 24-hour wait for a Wise transfer to be completed is really no big deal for me personally.

Sounds to me from his location details that it's CW.

"We will grant your request if you file tax form in Thailand" Just one little flaw with this argument, I think, in addition to the points made by @Raindancer and @Mike Lister in their replies. What if your remitted (at the present time) income is earned solely from non-assessable sources such as US social security payments - or, if assessable, totals less per annum than the minimum 120k threshold required for tax returns? Are you really suggesting that annual extensions might be denied to everyone who is not required to file a tax return? Pure and utter bunkum IMHO if you are!

.. which as far as we expat retirees are concerned appears to amount to little more than liaising closely with various parts of the UK (FCDO, HMPO, HMRC and DWP) and Thai (Immigration Bureau, MOFA, MOPH and now TRD) governments in developing and implementing measures which are solely aimed at making our lives here in LOS just as difficult and awkward as they humanly can be.

Just beware, though, that your new retirement extension will be dated 12 months from 15/10/2024 rather than 31/10/2024.

What's so ridiculous about sparing State Pensioners here in LOS from the ordeals of the ritual which DWP insist on inflicting on us every couple of years or so in just about the most cumbersome and awkward manner imaginable to mankind, merely to prove that we are still in the land of the living?

I was talking about the discontinuation of the Embassy's LOCATE system in the bit you were replying to, not the discontinuation of their income confirmation service!

Plus scrap the ban on selling booze during election weekends (from 6pm Saturday and all day Sunday). Applies to non-voting foreigners as well as Thais. Presumably it was introduced so as to minimise the risk of VUI (voting under the influence??

Yes, I registered my details on their LOCATE system several years ago - mainly because this was a condition of receiving their (sadly long-ceased) income confirmation letters! Unfortunately the Embassy saw fit in their infinite wisdom to discontinue this service, supposedly on the grounds that very few expats were using it beyond those needing income confirmation letters. However they made virtually no effort to encourage its use in other areas. For example, one inducement which they could IMHO have easily offered was that, as a result of registering ourselves on LOCATE, never again would we be subject every couple of years or so to the torture of cumbersome DWP bureaucracy in the form of the dreaded life certificate. That alone would surely have resulted in local State Pensioners signing up in their droves, even if they did not need an income confirmation letter each year for Immigration purposes!

In the case of UK (as distinct from Thai) government entities, the answer is clearly "no". But if the Embassy are sending a consular letter to whomever and for whatever purpose in any event, then why can't they simply run off enough extra copies to send to their HMG colleagues in HMRC, DWP, etc who might also have a particular interest in our passing (e.g. so as to get pension payments stopped)? Hard-pressed to see how this would result in ginormous extra effort for Embassy staff!

Indeed, the only part of The Great UK Government Machine which appears to have any concerns about us State Pensioners locally popping our clogs is DWP, which is presumably why we are required to provide fresh life certificates every couple of years or so. Why the Embassy seem so unable or unwilling to pass on to their DWP colleagues the info needed to enable pension payments to be stopped upon the death of a particular pensioner without the need for us all to be periodically subjected to this cumbersomely bureaucratic nonsense truly escapes me.