GingerLing

Could anyone suggest a tailor near Min Buri or along Thanon Ram Inthra Rd, just need a couple of western style suits made.

Hi Ginger,

i can get this to the UK through our companies DHL account. This would go Air Freight and would take 3 -4 days. The cost would be 4556 baht, although you would be liable for any import duties owed. Feel free to PM me for more details. thanks.

Andy

Andy, thats a very kind offer, much appriciated, I'll PM you now.

An International Parcel (to Uk) via the Post office will be around 6200 baht, EMS Express service around 6900

I would think DHL etc will be considerably higher and therefore recommend the Thai Post Office.

Thanks Charlie, I'll check out the Post Office as you suggest.

Crockery via the post? You'll need 15kg of shock absorbent packing to give the stuff even a fighting chance of making it intact.

Exactly, the crockery is about 6-7kg, the rest wasgoing to be 200yards of bubble wrap and a cast iron cage! I am taking a chance.

I need to post a 15kg parcel back to the UK from LoS, could someone suggest the best approach. Should I go to the post office or go the DHL route? I'm in no hurry to get the parcel back, even a few weeks would be fine. Thanks...

Another thought is your revenue stream. Are the current customers on recurring billing for said service, or do you constantly have to go and get more customers. Everyone loves recurring billing customers.

A bit of both really, some clients will order $10,000 worth a month for a couple of months, disappear and then come back a few months later for some more. Overall repeat clients make up around 70% of revenue, in fact we have not had capacity to take on any new clients for a couple of months now, which means I really need to expand but don't want to as I would rather just get rid of the whole thing, I came to Thailand to retire not ending up working harder than I did in the UK! Ha!

Callum, if you were selling in the UK a good starting point would be to factor the net profit by 2-5 times depending on the goodwill in your contracts. If there is a track record of repeat business over 3 years than factor for 3. You mentioned gross profit rather than net, so assumming a net of $40k per annum and assuming the last 3 years were the same, you would value at $120k+. Add to that the value of any IP on the product you produce and assets you want to appropriate to the business.

Sounds like you are the key to this business, anyone buying the business would be aware that and that the staff used to deliver the service / product are not tied to the business. These are two factors that addresses would increase a sale value otherwise they are unknowns which introduces risk and reduces the potential value. If you haven't already, get the freelancers tied into some contractual retainer. For yourself you need to demonstrate you can extracate yourself from daily operations and your function within the business can be undertaken by another person. Simply put, be clear about what you do.

Sounds like it would be a better idea to work you arse off for 18 months though and exploit the potential yourself, as you are probably best placed to exploit this potential, and then sell. Do this expansion using a company in HK or Singapore and benefit from the lower TAX liabilities than you would otherwise experience under UK duristiction. The extra money would pay for a European Tour professional golf coach and you could make up lost time on your game as a result

Good on the Teacher, far too little discipline among the Thai youngsters, lack of discipline at an early age leads to more serious goings on in later life.

When corporal punishment was revoked in the UK is started a long slide. I was an unruly little bugger as a child in school, the threat of cane, ruler, board rubber or dap were instrumental in ensuring not only did I know where the limits were, but I didn't drag everyone down with me by setting a bad example. Strict discipline needs to maintained at school, so everyone has a chance to get some education, you have all the freedom you like in life later to mess up your own life.

@Chiang Mai

I agree that there are a couple of ways for non-residents to own property

Thank you , so we now agree that a Non-Resident can own and rent property in the UK, as you had posted earlier...

The OP can't be non-resident because he owns rental property in the UK from which he derives an income, if he were to sell it then he could become non-resident.

You can even get a morgage in the UK as a non resident.

Am posting a couple more useful links to anyone interested, the first link is relating to Income Tax when leaving the UK and has useful tools to use such as registering for self assessment online,filing your tax returns online and a whole load of other tools and useful info.

http://www.hmrc.gov....ax-leave-uk.htm

The second link below relates to allowances for Non-residents of the UK.

http://www.hmrc.gov....llow_nonres.htm

My apologies for my imprecision, when I wrote the words "resident" and "non-resident" I should have added the words "for tax purposes" to both, I took it for granted that was understood since the topic under discussion is tax allowances. The quote you highlighted, "The OP can't be non-resident because he owns rental property in the UK from which he derives an income", refers to the same and remains true, HMRC will not allow a UK citizen to non-residence status for tax purposes, whilst owning property in the UK, that does not however preclude them from being non-resident and owning property also, if all of that makes sense.

Chiang Mai, isn't this the definition of domicile, although I tend to confuse these.

If you have any connection with the UK (presuming a UK citizen) then you are regarded domcile UK even though you made resident elsewhere.

e.g. you could retire to live in Thailand (which makes you resident in Thailand), but by simply retaining a UK bank account (property in the OP's case) you remain domicile UK.

In this scenario you would need to provide TAX returns to both UK and Thailand, it doesn't sound like £2000 allowance is correct for the OP on that basis.

It would be interesting if someone else in this scenario who has already resolved their TAX issues and could post here. Unsually you'd have to pay an International TAX advisor alot of money to find out

The houses are well-insulated, so are relatively cool (at least compared to my last place).

All in all, so far I'm very satisfied with my purchase.

My wife and I have looked at these alot recently, some good looking houses, which house type did you buy?

I'm most interested in their insultation however, but there is little info on the web site. What are the insulated elements?

Walls; cavity / insultation board?

Double glazing; gap / K-Glass?

Loft insultation; type / depth?

Do they give you any u-values?

There is no Thai income tax due unless the income is remitted into Thailand in the year in which it is earned. The easiest and perfectly legit way to avoid this is to open an offshore account , say in Singapore, remit the income from the QROP into that account and then only remit "savings" from that account into Thailand when needed. If you are a Thai resident, should be possible to avoid tax altogether, hard to get more tax efficient than that!

Thanks WordChild, thats what I wanted to confirm.

I've got an HSBC Premier account over here in the UK. They said I will get a Thai one as well when I move. I presume I just need to get them to set one up in Singapore too?

Is QROPS income subject to Thai income TAX, if domicile in the UK and resident in Thailand, when remitting the income to a Thai bank account? Is there are more TAX efficient alternative.

I used to work with a chap in the UK on technical support who was completely useless, didn't know his arse from a hard drive. Now he is lecturering at an Further Education college. <deleted>!

It is surely similar in blighty. That said I don't think I would pass an english test now, coz I rites like i speeks.

We were in exactly the same position, wanting to bring my MIL over to help with the first 6 months of childcare, whilst my wife was on maternity leave. The w a n k er at the British Embassy conducting the interview tricked my MIL into saying she was going to be a nanny, by mis-representing the term to her. She agreed she was going to a nanny, not understanding that the term infers employment, which is an automatic rejection of VISA application as you cannot get a WP for this as a non-EU resident. It also counts against subsequent applications.

The problem was made worst by the British Embassy not allowing my FIL, wife or myself attend the interview, even though we were all there to help in the process. The w a n k e r at the Embassy even made snide remarks about our ability to pay for a nanny on reviewing the pay slips from my wife and my tax return as evidence of ability to support my MIL during her stay in the UK.

For MIL it is a daunting task, as they would offer deference to the British Government official, which is completely unnecessary as they are just glorified administrators.

We appealed in the UK, at which I personally made the representation to the court. The Magistrate shook his head in agreement with me at the monumental waste of everyone's time that some jobs worth retard with a quota to satisfy and a axe to grind had subsequently cost the UK tax payer thousands in legal costs. Needless to say the ruling was over turned without condition at appeal.

If I can find the arguments I made to the court I'll PM them to you as background to key issues your MIL should avoid. I think I still have the name of the individual at the embassy to avoid. The key phrase is 'Family Visit' do not deviate from this in any way, shape or form, even when other translations are offered.

RE your sub-title question: Are there certain things you should say?

Also yes

As a Farang you will be given special attention in the event of a major accident, by everyone including the Police. It's my recommendation that you increase your premium cover on the following items in order to achieve the level of cover you'll actually need:

* Bail bond is 200K standard. It may be wise to increase this to 400K if you won't have the additional funds available to bail yourself. Note that in the event of a serious injury or death, you will be arrested (standard procedure) and will need to bail yourself our of jail. As a farang you are an increased flight risk, so sometimes will attract a higher than normal (100K-200K) bail bond requirement.

* Death and disability is normally only 100K per passenger. If a farang is the driver or perceived to be the owner negotiations have a habit of starting at 1M. Up your cover to 1M per person and rest easier.

* Total liability can with some insurers be quite low. Make sure it's at least 10M Baht.

I should note that these upgrades usually add 1000-1500 Baht to your premium, in most cases.

Understood. £20-30 sounds like a small price to pay, to insure against being absolutely shafted by the police, judiciary and a third party, that view crashing into a frang as a lottery win. Thanks for the heads up.

It's allways the same.

Sorry forgot to ask.. Did you try importing a car? Are you a Thai national?

I would be interested in finding out if anyone had been through the scenario I outlined and how it worked/failed.

Sorry if I am wasting everyone's time here, but I couldn't find anything conclusive from searching the forums other than lots of westerners that had been unfortunately stung at customs.

Yes, i stay here for 16 years and got "layd" at that time by a custom agent and a officer in the custom office (real one or not, who knows) Lost 200'k, Agent and Officer was gone, 200'k as well. Got the car later at custom auction. Paid twice for it.

So for all who want to know: Paid for a 1'500 Dollar Camaro (82- Z28), exactly 525'000 Baht and car got a couple dent's and scratches. so have to paint the whole car. So finnaly the car cost me almost 600'k including fixing, No. plates and blue book. Now the keyquestion: Would someone buy a 1'500 Dollar Car for 600'000 Baht?

Sorry to hear that stingray, I was conscious I was probably going to drag up people's bad experiences. I do apologise, but it is a very helpful for insight for me you sharing this. Thank you.

Agreed. On this particular topic, the curruption is not racist

Maybe they employ a 'Diversity Officer' as they do at many council's in the UK to ensure positive discrimination

It's allways the same.

Sorry forgot to ask.. Did you try importing a car? Are you a Thai national?

I would be interested in finding out if anyone had been through the scenario I outlined and how it worked/failed.

Sorry if I am wasting everyone's time here, but I couldn't find anything conclusive from searching the forums other than lots of westerners that had been unfortunately stung at customs.

It's allways the same. Using wifes try to reduce import fees, etc, it's "another one" and will not work. The Custom knows all tricks and there is no solution. Noone can import a car for cheap prices. You pay 300% import duty of the customs estimation of the car, not what you pay for and maybe you not even ever get the car. When we foreigners wil learn to understand, that we have to accept the "Thai prices" for cars. Anything else we want to benefit from this country, like cheap labour, cheap repairs, cheap road tax, cheap police tickets, cheap gasoline and cheap insurance, but always try to find a way to "bring over" cars from Europe and try to escape the Tax. We have to accept LOS, the way it is, otherwise we should stay in Europe or US.

Understood, thanks Stingray. I had read on here that Thai nationals had a single car exemption if owned for over 18 months, abroad there was even a link to the relavant translated law. The last part of which was a little wooly suggesting that it was down to the customs office to set the import duty.

My wife has owned a BMW (in her name), from new, for almost three years in the UK. The rules are a little fuzzy from what I have read on other posts but has anyone been through the process of importing a car as a Thai citizen, which they previously owned abroad. We are hoping to move in a few months and wanted to save a few quid on new cars. I mention the BMW as one post suggested trying to import a premium brand usually makes things more difficult.

Note that some insurers will only count the years you've been continously insured with them though, and insuring multiple vehicles won't get you there any quicker.

That's great thanks for your help.

yes.

Thanks for your reply. How does the NCD escalate. UK is 1yr 30%, 5% per year thereafter to a max 60%, so insurers max 80%.

Does Thai car insurance get reduced if you tick certain boxes. In the UK your premium is less; if your car is garaged overnight, of a certain profession, limited mileage, no claims discount and so forth.

Laptops get very dusty inside as they as there is so little room for circulation. Try putting a vacuum to the vents to draw out any dust. When you take the laptop apart (which requiers alot more skill than a desktop) you will probably find the fan(s) are caked with dust. Simply clean as best you can. Replacing the fans very much depends on the type of fan/processor combo and sourcing can be difficult. Also check the contact between the processor and heat sink, it might need some more electrical grease to help the heat conductivity. That's if the heat sink can be detatched fo course.

Good luck, laptops are not easy to work on.

A lot of guys on here will tel you that it is all but impossible to do but we just brought a Sporty over here from California and sold it for a profit without the book. With the glut of bike in the US right now and the weakness of the dollar against the baht it is crazy to trade I dollars to buy a bike out here. There are also ways to ship the bike to a more "free trade zone like Singapore then ride it across the boarder. As I understand it your bike would need to do visa runs every few months that way but allegedly it is legal and since you are not registering it permanently (orange book) you do not have to pay the import fees since it is here in Thailand as a visitor only.

Whatever way you end up going please post your experience up here because there is a desperate shortage of information about this.

Is it possible to do that with cars?

Is the HK Disney land as good as the US one? The Paris one is a pale comparison.