GuestHouse

There is a dual tax agreement between the UK and Thailand.

You have to pay tax, either in Thailand or the UK. Where your work is in Thailand or a service you provide is delivered in Thailand you pay Thai Tax.

You are still liable to pay tax in the UK, basically until you've been overseas for one full tax year April to April. If you arrived in Thailand this month, the clock starts ticking in April - not now!

However, you can offset the tax you pay in the Thailand against the the tax you should pay in the UK.

Bascially, you just tell the UK taxman you are paying tax in Thailand.

You should also submit a declaration of having moved offshore. See the UK tax website.

We send money to our Thai account from Italy using SWIFT electronic transfer direct from our bank here in Rome.

Fees are Euro12 at this end and Bht500 at the Thai end.

We send Euros to be converted to Bht in Thailand as that gives us the best rate.

You can keep all your Jap and Crout Motors..... Want the answer to cops hitting you for backhanders... well here it is... I get saluted driving this.. always a laugh..

I think as a general rule you should be providing all relavent information and not hiding anything in your application. On what you have said, there are a number of items of information that you are not planning to tell the full story on (hide) and that is going to jump right of the page.

If you are planning to apply for your visa in Thailand you need to first ensure that you meet the requirements with respect to residency.

Then surely you've answered your own question.

As a Language teacher you'll earn what? Bht20K - Bht40K a month.

You'll not be saving for a pension.

There are two questions to be answered:

How are you going to make a living in Thailand?

and

What are you going to plan for your pension?

In the middle of that is the other stuff life is going to bring along, like a family.

My advice would be, at 25 you should be looking to get yourself into a job/career that is going to both pay you a decent income and provide you with interest/challanges.

The brutal truth is, at 25 (unless you are exceptionaly fortunate) you are looking forward to another 30+ years of working.

Yes you should be saving for retirement now, but there are a lot more important things to do between tiimes.... like enjoying your life as it comes.

Let's start by saying that it seems as if OP is having some competition problems

At last.

I'm an engineer, everyone and there dog calls themselves an engineer. I gave up b1tching about that years ago when it was obvious to me that what mattered was that I get paid a regular income as an engineer.

I pride myself on my own skills knowledge, I don't give a toss what other people do or claim in respect of being an engineer. It doesn't matter.

It is irrelevant.

If you are good enough you'll get work.

If you are not, you'll fall by the wayside, squeezed out by the competition

It's shocking to see how some farangs can take an innocuous subject like buns and twist it in order to insult the Thai race. Oh well, I guess jealousy will always exist. I personally like the buns and am glad those entrepreneurs are succeeding.

If you don't like what I have said, take it appart bit by bit.

For example.

You might want to challenge my statement that this is selling an established idea (This is yet another franchise)

You might want to challenge my statement that there will be copycat start-ups. (Time, and I suggest not much time, will bear that one out)

You might want to challenge my assertion that there are few Real Thai ideas about (You could give me examples of home grown Thai businessness ideas)

I am not attacking the Thai race (whoever they might be). I am making observations about Thai business practice.

Feel free to offer alternative views, but try to avoid playing the 'race/nationalist card', the issue is business practice, not race.

There is a link over on the LP Thailand branch in which the OP is saying that Thailand has banned Internet Phone Calls from within Thailand..

Surely that cannont be true?

Can it?

In other words, as a practical matter, unless one of you challenges the Thai divorce decree, it is indeed valid everywhere. If one of you does challenge it in the UK, it is up to the UK court to determine if the decree was 'validly granted' by the Thai court under Thai procedures.

The first question the British Court will ask is 'Does this court have Jurisdiction"?

If either you, or your wife, are living in the UK, or contested property/wealth, pensions etc are in the UK then the court has jurisdiction.

I think the best advice is to contact a UK lawyer and ask for advice. The usual procedure is that the divorce is placed before the court for ratification - There is an obvious risk involved but that risk exists while ever the matter remains open.

Talk to these people International Divorce - Specialist Law Firm in UK

Just do Italy and skip the rest.

I think it is a fair bet that we can look for branches of 'Rotigirl' 'Rotiguy' 'Rotiladyboy' springing up all over Thailand.

OK a sucess story, but once again, someone selling an established idea in Thailand.

Few real Thai ideas about.

I still don't see any sense in your post.

There are no restrictions to anyone starting up as a webdesigner, there never will be and I can't see there is any sense in having any controls.

It's the old "people in an industry would love to control entry to the industry ... all in the best interest of Jo Public"

It's not going to happen, the 'secrets' of web design are not secrets.

----

And here's the rub.

-----

Good webdesigners would, I presume, not need to worry about this untrained, unskilled competition.

Surely good webdesign stands out and sells itself.

Someone who truly is capable of designing a website is also capable of designing a logo, a brochure, a poster, etc

There is a hole in that argument. Some of the most sucessful websites have been put together by people who have concentrated on other things, not brochures and not logos. TV might be a good example.

The fact is, anyone, and I mean anyone, with access to a computer, a small amount of capital can design a website - you don't even need any special software. - They are then, by definition - a web designer.

YOU DON'T KNOW, I DON'T KNOW, NOBODY HERE KNOWS who is going to come up with the next big money making website - In the past months in the UK a school kid became a millionare selling advetising on a website at the pixel level.

HE HAD NO QUALIFICATION

NO PORTFOLIO

NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

What he did have was A BL00DY GOOD IDEA

And he didn't waste time and effort trying to run down other people's efforts to make money in a FREE MARKET he just got on with what he wanted to do and MADE MONEY.

A Web designer is ANYONE who designs a website. PERIOD.

I suggested challenging with a court summons set to his office because I have witnessed first hand this working. (Not a parternity case, but someone summond over a debt).

She only need present herself as the wronged Thai girl, dressed respectfully, behaving respectfully etc and the court will eat him for breakfast.

Most expats I know in Thailand are absolutely dreading the day they have to go home, an expat in a well paid job is a sitting duck.

He'll be forced to decide between, owning up and paying up or putting his positon in Thailand at risk.... it's a no brainer.

And it need not cost lots of money, indeed, not having lots of money and portraying herself as the poor wronged Thai being trampled on by a rich Farang would almost certainly work in her favour.

She should specifically seek a DNA test as the court has the power to demand the test and it places the guy in a position where, if he claims he is not the father he has no reasonable grounds not to take the test.

I disagree.

Sport is about a lot more than how good or talented the competitors are.

Hats off to the guy I hope he does well.

I'm not sure if this is relevent to anyone else except UK members who have pensions from or in the UK.

I'm just wondering who here has a final salary pension, you know the ones, your pension will be a percentage of your final salary (Usually to a maximum of 2/3rds).

I have three (Two that I dropped out of but left the fund active) and the one I'm in now.

But such schemes are under threat in the UK and current opinion among finacial advisors suggests that nearly all will have closed within the next five years.

She could could file for child support in a Thai court, claiming him as the father, the court can then demand a DNA test, as has happened with a number of Thais in the past few years.

Once she has proof of parternity, she can then claim her and her child's rights.

Delivering the court summons to his office address might be an idea too, might sort of let him know the game is up.

Count me out, I'm not a WASP.

This is Thailand related.

It is a stark reminder of what you've left behind.

All those official letters and bills and ugly women (why there's even a photo to remind you)

The problem is the wood is 'Green', its been chopped down, cut and used without time to dry sufficiently.

You are wrong.

The routers can make it difficult, but not impossible for the IP location to be trace. OK, Joe Ordinary is not going to manage it, but the police and security services certainly can.

I'll let you use my account if you like

This could be an allergic reaction to something in the water, the soap you are using or perhaps the washing powder used to wash your towel.

Try changing your soap, a shower without a soap and perhaps a shower elsewhere some time to see if that can illiminate the problem.

Your friend AND his wife need to take legal advice in the UK. (You haven’t stated England/Wales/Northern Ireland or Scotland), so sticking to UK.

It is my understanding, and I am not a lawyer, that the court in the UK will need to ratify any divorce overseas and that when the UK court does this it checks to ensure that the divorce and the divorce settlement meets the laws under which the UK Court is acting (Scotland has separate laws to the rest of the UK in this respect).

The main issue is that the UK court will maintain control over assets and contracts within the UK, so if there is property held in the UK, pensions or savings and these have not been dealt with to the satisfaction of the UK court, it can and may make a ruling with respect to the divorce settlement.

For the court to make this ruling it needs only decide it has jurisdiction over some part of the marriage and assets, it then may act to ensure the separation of assets meets UK law.

(Incidentally, the UK court can make this ruling regardless of where the marriage took place and regardless of any other national court ruling.

Example: You establish a prenuptial marry agreement before marrying in Thailand and then marry in Thailand but you own property and wealth in England. If you later divorce in Thailand and seek ratification of the divorce in England then an English court would almost certainly disregard the prenuptial agreement (with respect to assets/wealth inthe UK), since it has no legal status in the UK and wealth and property in England remain under English/UK law.

If there are children involved the UK court will almost certainly want to check the provisions for children and again may make an adjustment with respect to wealth/income within the UK.