Lost The Faith

[TAWP]

Ok wise ones. I've lost the faith. After years of making dam good money I'm thinking I was wrong. I've always been a bit of a socialist happy to give some of my good fortune to the not so fortunate. But now I've had a guts full! Should I rent the property and settle in los? I have a 10 year old daughter which is my priority of course.

Sounds like you are spewing what we call here in the US "Trump" logic. This is the logic a certain Mr. Trump, a man of considerable wealth, who claims that if he can only keep $10 million in net profit out of a $20 million in gross profits that he would rather retire from investing and work and become a greeter at Walmart for minimum wage. This is of course entirely false logic, and Mr. Trump has no intentions of changing his behavior and that he is quite cognizant that is lifestyle will be little changed from the proposed increase in his taxes, although I am sure that he is upset that some of the redistributed money will go to people of color, the number one reason white people hate welfare. But it is a bit silly for people further down the ladder to jump on Trump's bandwagon. Sort of like having to listen to some taxi driver bemoaning the estate tax. Hey look, if you have made enough money to retire than go for it. I would if I could, but don't do it for Trump's false logic.

"I call BS, your honor!"

[kiakaha]

wife and I were in our early thirties/late twentys when we moved from NZL to Thailand.

WOW Congrats on that I wish I were that lucky. May I ask how old or roughly how long you have been here now?

very near our 14 year anniversary in Bangkok.

[Pakeha]

How did this turn into a tax thread? I'm really interested to hear from people like Kia Kaha who have made the big leap. Why they decided to do it and whether it has worked out for them or not. What things have met their expectations and what have not.

I'm the same age you were when you made the move Kia Kaha. So young - yes. Inexperienced in the ways of the world - no.

Throw some stories at me people

[flying]

wife and I were in our early thirties/late twentys when we moved from NZL to Thailand.

WOW Congrats on that I wish I were that lucky. May I ask how old or roughly how long you have been here now?

very near our 14 year anniversary in Bangkok.

Dee Mak !!

[kiakaha]

How did this turn into a tax thread? I'm really interested to hear from people like Kia Kaha who have made the big leap. Why they decided to do it and whether it has worked out for them or not. What things have met their expectations and what have not.

I'm the same age you were when you made the move Kia Kaha. So young - yes. Inexperienced in the ways of the world - no.

Throw some stories at me people

In a nutshell, I moved mainly for work+financial benefits, was with the companys Aussie/NZL office,transferred to Asia base which is in Bangkok.

My wife tagged along(she has since had odd jobs in Bangkok too, she was born, raised, educated in NZL but has immigrant thai parents in NZL..her thai lang skills aren't great(ironically mine are better), so although she has a thai id card, her work options are more limited to expat jobs)

Partially we also moved so I could experience the culture and my wife could experience the culture that's in her blood/ethnicity but she had not tasted it and lived it(aside from the odd trip as a child).

It has worked out in the sense that we continue to attain our goals. As our financial situation has improved over the years, this has also allowed us more freedoms to travel to and from NZL and Bangkok more frequently aswell, to get the best of both worlds.

Becoming fluent(reading and speaking) in another language has also been a wonderful experience...and without out this I know that I would not have had the experiences I've had in Thailand, it really opens up a whole new universe to your stay here.

Didn't have any expectations before I moved, I'm pretty much a "go with the flow" type

Hope that answers some of your questions.

[PattayaParent]

[

I don't see any of that stuff, the company handle all the immigration extensions.

After all, why would they employ me to do my job, and then have me do their job for them?

For someone who makes so much money, you sure have a hard time grasping simple concepts.

Who says I make so much money???

All I've said is that my salary is tax free, as in the simple concept of what it states in my contract is what I get in my pocket, the company takes care of all taxes, NI and immigration extensions.

Is that simple enough for you to understand?

Edit: too many nested quotes

Give me a break, the whole purpose of you posting this shit here can only be to let us know what a sweet deal you have as it clearly has nothing to do with telling us how to avoid taxation.

You obviously aren't reading the posts. Nowhere have I said I'm on a sweet deal (I could in fact get more elsewhere but don't want to move)

AND I do say how to avoid taxation. Get a tax free contract.

Or you could go work in a country that doesn't impose income taxes.

[PattayaParent]

[<snip>

My salary is by contract "tax free" and company takes care of local taxes depending on country where i work. I do understand that there is income tax on my "thai salary" but it has nothing to do with me as i get the same in my hand regardless of the country i happen to work.

Another spot on post.

Exactly my point.

Except that if I was sent to work in my home country (UK) I would still receive a tax free salary as the company would still be responsible for the tax and NI contributions according to my contract.

[Pakeha]

In a nutshell, I moved mainly for work+financial benefits, was with the companys Aussie/NZL office,transferred to Asia base which is in Bangkok.

My wife tagged along(she has since had odd jobs in Bangkok too, she was born, raised, educated in NZL but has immigrant thai parents in NZL..her thai lang skills aren't great(ironically mine are better), so although she has a thai id card, her work options are more limited to expat jobs)

Partially we also moved so I could experience the culture and my wife could experience the culture that's in her blood/ethnicity but she had not tasted it and lived it(aside from the odd trip as a child).

It has worked out in the sense that we continue to attain our goals. As our financial situation has improved over the years, this has also allowed us more freedoms to travel to and from NZL and Bangkok more frequently aswell, to get the best of both worlds.

Becoming fluent(reading and speaking) in another language has also been a wonderful experience...and without out this I know that I would not have had the experiences I've had in Thailand, it really opens up a whole new universe to your stay here.

Didn't have any expectations before I moved, I'm pretty much a "go with the flow" type

Hope that answers some of your questions.

Thanks for sharing your experience Kia Kaha. I certainly think being transferred by your company is a vey smooth way to make the move. Not an option for me unfortunately.

Interesting to hear one of the reasons for the move was financial benefits. Is it your experience that most expat Kiwis working in Thailand are financially better off than they would be if they were working in New Zealand? The few I deal with through my line of work seem to be.

[kiakaha]

In a nutshell, I moved mainly for work+financial benefits, was with the companys Aussie/NZL office,transferred to Asia base which is in Bangkok.

My wife tagged along(she has since had odd jobs in Bangkok too, she was born, raised, educated in NZL but has immigrant thai parents in NZL..her thai lang skills aren't great(ironically mine are better), so although she has a thai id card, her work options are more limited to expat jobs)

Partially we also moved so I could experience the culture and my wife could experience the culture that's in her blood/ethnicity but she had not tasted it and lived it(aside from the odd trip as a child).

It has worked out in the sense that we continue to attain our goals. As our financial situation has improved over the years, this has also allowed us more freedoms to travel to and from NZL and Bangkok more frequently aswell, to get the best of both worlds.

Becoming fluent(reading and speaking) in another language has also been a wonderful experience...and without out this I know that I would not have had the experiences I've had in Thailand, it really opens up a whole new universe to your stay here.

Didn't have any expectations before I moved, I'm pretty much a "go with the flow" type

Hope that answers some of your questions.

Thanks for sharing your experience Kia Kaha. I certainly think being transferred by your company is a vey smooth way to make the move. Not an option for me unfortunately.

Interesting to hear one of the reasons for the move was financial benefits. Is it your experience that most expat Kiwis working in Thailand are financially better off than they would be if they were working in New Zealand? The few I deal with through my line of work seem to be.

I dont really socialize in the Kiwi expat scene that much(soi8, wall st, southerners club, nz society, chamber of commerce etc...), let alone know the details of their finances...but put it this way...if you can get a job that pays about the same as what you'd get in the west, and you can get subsidys in areas such as accomodation and schooling etc... , and you can rent out your house in NZL for income ,coupled with the the lower cost of living in Thailand..then inevitably the net effect is that you will bank more money. Thats my basic approach(maximise my income streams and minimise my outgoings without compromising my quality of life)

[PattayaParent]

How did this turn into a tax thread? I'm really interested to hear from people like Kia Kaha who have made the big leap. Why they decided to do it and whether it has worked out for them or not. What things have met their expectations and what have not.

I'm the same age you were when you made the move Kia Kaha. So young - yes. Inexperienced in the ways of the world - no.

Throw some stories at me people

I'm confused.

Are you saying that you wish to resign from your job and retire to Thailand having had 'a gut full' of paying high income tax in a developed nation?

Yes. You've hit the nail on the head. But I'm not ready to retire so I'd need to keep working... Somewhere?

And someone suggested you get a tax free job here and someone else said it's not possible and several posters pointed out it is.

[Johpa]

Ok wise ones. I've lost the faith. After years of making dam good money I'm thinking I was wrong. I've always been a bit of a socialist happy to give some of my good fortune to the not so fortunate. But now I've had a guts full! Should I rent the property and settle in los? I have a 10 year old daughter which is my priority of course.

Sounds like you are spewing what we call here in the US "Trump" logic. This is the logic a certain Mr. Trump, a man of considerable wealth, who claims that if he can only keep $10 million in net profit out of a $20 million in gross profits that he would rather retire from investing and work and become a greeter at Walmart for minimum wage. This is of course entirely false logic, and Mr. Trump has no intentions of changing his behavior and that he is quite cognizant that is lifestyle will be little changed from the proposed increase in his taxes, although I am sure that he is upset that some of the redistributed money will go to people of color, the number one reason white people hate welfare. But it is a bit silly for people further down the ladder to jump on Trump's bandwagon. Sort of like having to listen to some taxi driver bemoaning the estate tax. Hey look, if you have made enough money to retire than go for it. I would if I could, but don't do it for Trump's false logic.

"I call BS, your honor!"

As I noted, I was referring to the US situation and not elsewhere, and I stand by my point that in the US, the number one reason white folks here vote against the redistribution of wealth in their own favor is that it might go to people of color. For a more comprehensive treatment of the subject I recommend Nobel laureate Paul Krugman's book The Conscience of a Liberal.

[abdulrahman]

How did this turn into a tax thread? I'm really interested to hear from people like Kia Kaha who have made the big leap. Why they decided to do it and whether it has worked out for them or not. What things have met their expectations and what have not.

I'm the same age you were when you made the move Kia Kaha. So young - yes. Inexperienced in the ways of the world - no.

Throw some stories at me people

Maybe because of how you started the thread?

Haven't the slightest interest in the taxation of the income,neither in NZ,nor in Australia.

As an expat I did work most of my life in foreign countries,didn't pay income tax,the Company took care of it ,but indirectly probably I did.

I'm not a politician or an economist,not qualified to judge how the (tax) money should be spent.But I believe that your(mine) tax should be spent for the benefit of everyone IN your country and outside too.It's often not so in Thailand as everywhere,but don't have the presumption to be the one that can decide,alone,how it should be used.

This thread help me to understand why some Thais have a dim view of the farangs.

Rant over.

[flying]

Becoming fluent(reading and speaking) in another language has also been a wonderful experience...and without out this I know that I would not have had the experiences I've had in Thailand, it really opens up a whole new universe to your stay here.

Just curious..How did you go about learning? Class, private or on your own?

Have been studying alone for a year & now have a teacher. It is not an easy task ( for me )

How long did the process take for you to be pretty fluent in speaking & more importantly hearing?

Thanks

[PattayaParent]

Becoming fluent(reading and speaking) in another language has also been a wonderful experience...and without out this I know that I would not have had the experiences I've had in Thailand, it really opens up a whole new universe to your stay here.

Just curious..How did you go about learning? Class, private or on your own?

Have been studying alone for a year & now have a teacher. It is not an easy task ( for me )

How long did the process take for you to be pretty fluent in speaking & more importantly hearing?

Thanks

3 months but you pretty much have to be talking Thai all the time, so much that you'll be thinking in Thai and talking Thai to other Farangs by mistake!

A long haired sleeping dictionary is a great help also.

[kiakaha]

Becoming fluent(reading and speaking) in another language has also been a wonderful experience...and without out this I know that I would not have had the experiences I've had in Thailand, it really opens up a whole new universe to your stay here.

Just curious..How did you go about learning? Class, private or on your own?

Have been studying alone for a year & now have a teacher. It is not an easy task ( for me )

How long did the process take for you to be pretty fluent in speaking & more importantly hearing?

Thanks

Fluency......More than a decade and always ongoing

I could read at speed (the newspaper etc....) after about 1 year of really applying myself to the thai alphabet and various rules you just have to know etc...

That was the most important thing...because then being able to read, I could learn vocabulary from thai script (no transliterations needed), and thus get my pronunication accurate because I could understand the consonant classes, tone markers etc...

Then to get to a level of fluency, and by that I mean hear, speak, read "everyday thai"(going to the bank, post offfice, shopping etc...) with no problems...probably a couple of years to build up a solid vocabulary...each word learned being able to be read/written and spoken.

The its just a matter of building you vocab over time, learning vocab in speciality areas etc....

How did I learn ? A combo of some classes early on(company sponsored), being around thais, living in Bangkok a long time, and my own self motivation.

[flying]

Fluency......More than a decade and always ongoing

I could read at speed (the newspaper etc....) after about 1 year of really applying myself to the thai alphabet and various rules you just have to know etc...

That was the most important thing...because then being able to read, I could learn vocabulary from thai script (no transliterations needed), and thus get my pronunication accurate because I could understand the consonant classes, tone markers etc...

Then to get to a level of fluency, and by that I mean hear, speak, read "everyday thai"(going to the bank, post offfice, shopping etc...) with no problems...probably a couple of years to build up a solid vocabulary...each word learned being able to be read/written and spoken.

The its just a matter of building you vocab over time, learning vocab in speciality areas etc....

How did I learn ? A combo of some classes early on(company sponsored), being around thais, living in Bangkok a long time, and my own self motivation.

Oh boy

I expected that though. I have been at it a year & have made very small progress because we are not here most of the year. Being here a few months a year helps but still.

What you say about learning to read makes sense & is the 1st direction I went.

I thought ....well like English learn the alphabet & sound things out.

But it proved too much too soon so I reverted to Pimsleaur type lessons.

Yes also to PP the wife helps a lot but gets tired of my Why this & why that

Thanks again for the answers I will keep plugging away.

[JimsKnight]

Ok wise ones. I've lost the faith. After years of making dam good money I'm thinking I was wrong. I've always been a bit of a socialist happy to give some of my good fortune to the not so fortunate. But now I've had a guts full! Should I rent the property and settle in los? I have a 10 year old daughter which is my priority of course.

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[Pakeha]

I'm not a politician or an economist,not qualified to judge how the (tax) money should be spent.But I believe that your(mine) tax should be spent for the benefit of everyone IN your country and outside too.It's often not so in Thailand as everywhere,but don't have the presumption to be the one that can decide,alone,how it should be used.

This thread help me to understand why some Thais have a dim view of the farangs.

Rant over.

The agreed percentage of financial assistance to 3rd world countries from 1st world is something like 0.04% of GDP. Do you know how many achieve this?

I am a succesful capitalist, although a (theoretical) socialist at heart. What p*sses me off is my tax going to people who are milking the system. Despite the corruption Thailand seems to be somewhat fair in regard to those that are in a higher tax bracket and those in the lowest (i.e do not pay tax). Where I live, I pay a lot more tax than the benefits I receive... And most of it goes to people who do not have any intention of contributing to society.

At present the government in NZ is putting measures in place to support banks, finance companies and businesses that have more than 100 staff (20% of businesses). The businesses like myself that contribute to 80% of GDP have no support available. I have had to make some of my staff redundant.

I feel like I would be better off having a beer bar in Pattaya! Or at least, living in Thailand, and getting out of the system more or less what I put into it.

In regard to your comment which I have highlighted and in keeping with the spirit of of your comments, I believe I am probably better placed to answer that question than politicians and economists as I can confess to being a qualified ethicist.

This thread has helped me to understand why some people have a dim view of reality...

Rant over