wordchild

Not the most attractive soi off sukhumvit by a long stretch. Just a long line of condos and hotels. Personally I prefer the other side of Suk, between 39 and thong lor.

Through business I have got to know quite a few wealthy Thais with assets outside country. I wouldn’t claim to know, in detail, what their plans are , because everyone is naturally guarded in discussing such matters, however I have some general impressions of what some of them think about the new tax proposals and how they are reacting . 1) Many wealthy Thais with assets outside Thailand are not that different from wealthy (non- Thai) expat who live in Thailand. Eg They have strong links to other countries where part of their assets are held, especially in places like UK,USA. They were often educated in these countries and own property there. Their children were also educated abroad and in many cases they have close family members fully settled abroad. They see themselves as semi-detached from Thailand and a very high percentage have dual nationality, and if they don’t , for sure their sons and daughters will usually have another nationality. I know one wealthy Thai with 4 daughters all of whom are married and settled in the UK. As he told me , they come once a year to visit but he doesn’t think they will ever return to live in Thailand. 2) Again I wouldn’t know the details but among the ones I know they seem to have plans in place for a variety of scenarios eg family trusts already set up in Singapore and the like. 3) Mostly they seem pretty unconcerned about the new remittance tax. They have a certain amount of wealth in Thailand already and i assume they will just be cautious about bringing additional funds back into country. A couple I know are just pretty dismissive of the whole thing and think it’s a storm in the proverbial, they have lawyers and other advisors and, as one of them remarked to me there are so many holes and ways around. it is just not going to work out in the way the RD expect. They expect light enforcement and a gradual walk back of the rules if it is seen as hurting critical parts of the economy. 4) a bigger concern for some is what will happen in the UK with the abolition of the non-dom status and, in particular, the possibility of an introduction of some form of inheritance tax on worldwide assets for those who were formerly classified as non-dom.

From a wider perspective its really difficult to see that Thailand has much to gain from a remittance tax on its own, in terms of the net financial benefit to the country. At least as far as expats are concerned we bring funds in for a variety of reasons but the linking factor is it’s money we intend to spend or invest , one way or another, in the country. Eg 1) daily living -finds its way into the tax system, one way or another. 2) purchase or rent somewhere to live, again moves funds through the system into the government coffers 3) travel and tourism activities, again some of it should generate tax revenue. the deeper problem in the country is the inefficiency of tax collection in certain sectors and especially the ease of avoidance within the “black economy “. It seems to me, that all this remittance tax will do (without addressing the fundamental problem above)is reduced the flows of funds into the country, and hence lowering the total tax take. I think this whole thing has been poorly thought through , and I would not be surprised to see it walked back over the next few years.

I spoke to someone at TE a couple of days ago. She confirmed that TE were in active discussion with the govt in order to obtain (tax) concessions for TE members. She said that she was not involved in those discussions and had no idea if anything would come of them. i have no idea where this is going to end up, but the fact that, at least one reasonably influential organization is raising issues with the government is ,at the least , encouraging, for all of us . TE members or not.

I spoke with someone at TE today who seemed to have been reasonably well briefed on the confusion caused by their newsletter, which, as a member, I had also received. 1) She admitted that the wording of the update was misleading, as it was simply a statement of the position that applies to any tax resident for the 2024 year. 2) However, she added that TE was in active discussions with the government regarding the tax position of TE members going forward. More than this she could not say because she had no direct knowledge of what was being discussed, only that discussions were taking place.

Excellent summary Whatever the self interested pushers of these schemes might argue on here, there is absolutely no genuine reason for any expat to lose control of their investments to schemes such as these. This world is filled with chancers and scammers we all need to be careful and watchful.

One way or another the (UK) definition of what makes someone domiciled or not domiciled is going to change fundamentally, most likely starting from the new 2025 tax year. Almost certainly the UK is going to move to a simpler definition of domicile , based on an individual’s history of residency ( or non residency) in the country, and not before time! Debating the old rules seems pretty pointless.

It looks like the UK,s ancient domicile laws will change fundamentally from next year (likely to be replaced by some kind of long term residency test). eg under the new proposal, if you have not been resident ,in the UK, for any of the last 10years then you will classed as non dom (as long as you remain non res), binning the old rules about where your dad happened to be born etc etc HMRC has a discussion paper out on this at the moment. However better to wait and see what the new government does when we see actual legislation.

Thanks for that, I have decided to go with Wattanasoth

I have recently had cancer surgery and now need to move ahead with radiotherapy ( and possibly immunotherapy). I am fortunate in that I am well covered from an insurance perspective. Any views on the best post-op oncology centers in Bangkok, in particular with a focus on radiology. my thoughts so far: 1) Chula, great doctors, advanced tech , incl the only proton beam facility in Thailand, and one of the only 22 such facilities in the world! However not sure that technology is appropriate for my case , and then there are the crowds. 2) Bumrungrad’s Horizon center, my regular general hospital, but not so sure about them in this area. 3) Bangkok hospital,s attached specialist cancer unit , Wattanosoth seems to be good reports about this place. 4) Vejathani and Rama 9 also seem to attract good reviews. Any thoughts most welcomed.

I have been UK non resident US/Asia for 25 plus years. I was advised by my then employer to open an offshore UK bank account and to close my UK bank a/c. I switched my Lloyd’s UK account to IOM. Have been with them ever since. Have always kept them informed of my up to date residency etc. Account can be operated on line, Debit/Credit/ATM cards plus bill payments etc exactly as any UK bank account. Never had any issues. Only downside has been Lloyds closed down their dedicated “offshore “ call center a few years ago. Service used to be friendly and efficient and fast. Now they have merged everything into their UK call center and things have taken a bit of a dive in terms of service. ps; I have heard good things about Standard Bank from friends who are customers so would agree with other posters that they might be worth checking out.

Thanks very much for that suggestion,

Thanks for that

Can anyone recommend a doctor for surgery to remove a (potentially) cancerous salivary gland? Because of insurance etc price not really a major issue, I am really looking for suggestions for the best doctor, in central BKK. Head and neck surgeon with special interest in the salivary gland.

I would second this. Pro corner recently carried out a slightly difficult repair on my old Dell; did a great job at a fair price.

Maybe they will come up with something like the NVDR scheme as used by the Thai stock market. It has worked pretty well since it was introduced a number of years ago, and it has been suggested before, that the condo market could operate in a similar way; Eg if F (foreign) allocation is available you can buy F, if not available you can buy in NVDR form, which means your ownership is via a centrally controlled entity which will hold the voting rights, however all other ownership rights remain with you. In practice this means you can get your dividends and sell your shares same as any other owner, the only thing you cannot do is vote at the AGM. Before the introduction of NVDR there used to be some ridiculous anomalies in the Thai stock market. When Thailand was popular with foreign investors there could , on occasions, be a 20pct+ difference between the F tradable shares and the local version. something similar to the Phuket condo market at times in the past. Since the introduction of the NVDR scheme this has all disappeared, foreigners can now buy local shares and convert them to NVDR form immediately and when they want to sell they can simply sell them as local shares. There is almost never any premium for F registered shares anymore, in practice there is a level playing field.

yes you are correct, at least the last time i checked with CBRE. I believe there are only a handful of Bangkok condos where the ownership is anywhere near the 49 pct. This is really more of an issue for Phuket and Pattaya

its much much easier to transfer shares rather than cash. However to do this you need a brokerage account outside Thailand that is capable of trading Thai stocks. This might work; 1) open a share trading account in Thailand. 2) use your cash to purchase Thai stocks 3) After a respectable gap , Instruct your Thai broker to transfer your shares to the (Thai ) custodian of your overseas broker, btw both parties need to be informed of your intentions. 4) share transfer takes place on a date agreed by both parties (thai and overseas broker) , but everything can normally be done over a couple of days. 5) After the transfer is complete, your shares are still held in Thailand but by a different custodian who will act on the instruction (given by you) to your overseas broker. 6) once everything has settled you can either retain the shares or sell them via your non Thai broker, who can then convert to the currency of your choice and the credit will be in your brokerage account outside Thailand. 7) Bingo! your money is outside the country. I have done this a number of times, over the years, without any problem, on one occasion involving a very significant portfolio in terms of value. However i should add that i am an established customer of the Thai broker concerned and, over time, my fund/stock transfers have gone both into and out of country via this method. A new customer doing this with cash from an unknown source might arouse more interest from the authorities.

ok they just opened 504.5 bid 506 offer

I guess that was because the market had closed when you checked the price. Phoenix closed yesterday at around 508p, it is a pretty liquid stock with an average daily volume of c 3million shares and it generally trades with a fairly tight spread ie 1 or 2p. When the market is open again (around 2pm Thai Time) you should see a more normal spread.

i would agree Alibaba looks pretty cheap now but i am concerned about political risk and also they have been somewhat tardy in terms of returning their massive capital surplus to shareholders. There are many shares in HK/China that look cheap , and i own a number. The 3 i picked (you asked for 3) have a couple of common characteristics 1) They have very strong balance sheets 2) They pay decent level of dividends (around 7% 2024 consensus forecasts) which they have the capability of growing so they are pretty defensive. There are other shares that will do better if the market bounces strongly but i believe these 3 will do pretty well whatever the market does. On Your points As you mention CU has bounced strongly from its lows with a move up from just under 4 to 5-96 HKD. However if you look further back the shares were trading over 12 HKD in 2014. All of the major China Telcos look very cheap and have announced a strong commitment to grow their shareholder returns. China Mobile is the biggest and arguably the safest of the three, but CU has a better growth outlook (in my opinion). I would argue that Power is not particularly cyclical, If anything, it has been rather dull, in recent years. It is part of the CK group of companies and its largest shareholder is CK Infrastructure ,which attempted to buy them out a few years ago. Power is a holding company with significant positions in a number of network and power businesses around the world. Because of the nature of its underlying businesses , mainly regulated utilities, it is a pretty defensive company, it also has an extremely strong balance sheet.

1) Ping An (2318 HK) 2)China Unicom (762 HK) 3) Power Asset (6 HK) HK and China will be the best markets to be in for 2024 and 2025, My Opinion FWIW I would probably also have a side bet on BT in the UK. Full disclosure; I own shares in all of the above.

" The overseas use of offshore bonds has unfortunately come to be associated with high charging, opaque structures from commision-based salespeople who have sold risky investments to unsuspecting expats" Quoting AES from the above.

To Quote from the intro to the above; "

https://www.aesinternational.com/wealth/reviews/offshore-investment-bonds/what-are-offshore-investment-bonds This gives a reasonable, factual and balanced summary of the uses of offshore investment bonds. In particular the section on "Problems with offshore investment bonds" is worth reading as it refers to the potential for excessive charging, which is what, i believe, you are referencing. That section highlights the issue that many expats have experienced ie depending on the provider, the IFA/Wealth Manager can have a significant degree of flexibility with regards to the charging structure eg with the potential to impose a charging structure that could involve significant penalty (upto 9.5 percent) for an early withdrawal from the scheme. That is , of course, on top of the other charges they impose on your assets. The key takeaways for me are 1) these products offer pretty much zero benefit for a long term expat who does not intend to return to the UK 2) They offer the potential for loading exit charges which effectively tie in the customer. 3) i am sure there exist honest IFAs who do not abuse these products but, for sure, some do