Tax/ Investing Money And Which Money

[wispyerk007]

Hi everybody, hope someone can advise me. I am in the uk 56 yo and been married to a Thai lady for 5 years but unfortunately the marriage is ending. We have a business here in the uk, when it is sold we shall both be going to los her to Korat me to Pattaya to live in the condo we bought 2 year ago. I shall be applying for a retirement visa but am not sure if I will apply here or in Thailand the reason being I dont want to be in the uk for 3 months waiting for the visa to be issued as I shall have to find somewhere to live ( dont want to rent somewhere if I dont have to). Is the bht 800.000 in a thai bank subject to thai tax or not?. I intend leaving the majority of my money in the uk, but another problem arises, some of the money I want to leave in an offshore account but do know anything about them, the rest of the money I want to leave in the nationwide e-savings account transfer the interest to nationwides flex account and draw it at atm's , however, nationwide do not issue the R85 form to register for payment of interest without tax deducted, which means I would have to claim tax back directly from the uk tax office, to much hassle I think, should I smile and just accept that I will have to pay uk tax?. Can someone also tell me if I would be ok buying a single ticket instead of a return, (I have nothing here to return to ) as some posts on here have said I could be turned away at check in, and also what should I put on the entry card as purpose of visit. Advice and suggestions on all points would be very much appreciated, I would be interested to know how long term expats would go about it. thanking you in advance.

Eric W.

[RDN]

Hi everybody, hope someone can advise me. I am in the uk 56 yo and been married to a Thai lady for 5 years but unfortunately the marriage is ending. We have a business here in the uk, when it is sold we shall both be going to los her to Korat me to Pattaya to live in the condo we bought 2 year ago. I shall be applying for a retirement visa but am not sure if I will apply here or in Thailand the reason being I dont want to be in the uk for 3 months waiting for the visa to be issued as I shall have to find somewhere to live ( dont want to rent somewhere if I dont have to). Is the bht 800.000 in a thai bank subject to thai tax or not?. I intend leaving the majority of my money in the uk, but another problem arises, some of the money I want to leave in an offshore account but do know anything about them, the rest of the money I want to leave in the nationwide e-savings account transfer the interest to nationwides flex account and draw it at atm's , however, nationwide do not issue the R85 form to register for payment of interest without tax deducted, which means I would have to claim tax back directly from the uk tax office, to much hassle I think, should I smile and just accept that I will have to pay uk tax?. Can someone also tell me if I would be ok buying a single ticket instead of a return, (I have nothing here to return to ) as some posts on here have said I could be turned away at check in, and also what should I put on the entry card as purpose of visit. Advice and suggestions on all points would be very much appreciated, I would be interested to know how long term expats would go about it. thanking you in advance.

Eric W.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good questions and nice topic - I am currently "in the same boat" financially, so will be interested to hear others' comments.

I can answer your question about tax on the 800,000 - no tax is paid on it. (But you also get bugger-all interest, but that's not so bad).

I am currently sorting out my tax situation and will be trying to get my tax down to the absolute minimum i.e. 0%. At the moment I have managed to get a rebate for the last year I worked in the UK when I was taxed at 40%. But as I only worked 6 months, I was due a rebate - and got it.

I am waiting for my new tax code to be issued so I can pursue getting some more tax back - I took just £1,000 pension last year and was taxed at 22%. As that was my only income and it was less than the single man's allowance, I should've paid zero tax. I hope to sort that out soon.

You can invest your money in corporate bonds and if you take less than 5% interest each year, you pay zero tax. And if you have a pension, you can take tax free cash from it - you can take a bit of tax-free each year. My advice is to contact a financial adviser.

As for the Nationwide - my pension cash and corporate bond interest is paid directly into my Flexaccount and I transfer 800,000 baht from it to Thailand using SWIFT just once a year. I too have a Nationwide ATM, but I use the Thai bank account ATM for daily living expenses.

As for the one-way ticket, I got an "O-A long-stay" visa and tested it before moving here (at the airport immigration desk I pretended I didn't have a return ticket, but was given a one-year stamp) so I knew I would be OK when I finally arrived without a return. You'd better wait for other posts about this question for your particular case.

Good luck!

[wispyerk007]

Thanks for the reply RDN. Regarding the Nationwide the way I understand you is that they take the tax out and you claim it back from uk tax office if this is correct is it not a lot of hassle? I must admit I am not well clued up on it. I do have pensions and I shall be taking a 25% lump sum from them. as a matter of interest and I dont want to pry but what do you consider is a comefortable amount of baht to live on each month, I dont smoke, like an occassional drink and will lead quite a simple life.

[jackr]

Strange that the Nationwide won't let you have your interest paid gross as you won't be living in the UK. The Halifax let me have mine in gross a few years back, maybe it's all changed. I would have thought you could download tax return forms from the Inland Revenue and post them off every year with your tax certificate issued by Nationwide, then have the money paid direct into your account. As I say though, bit silly as you should be exempt and will be losing interest on the tax you've paid. Talk to the Nationwide and the IR.

Regards the one way ticket, you could always book a one way flight with the budget airline, Air Asia, to...Penang for instance from Bangkok before you leave the UK (airasia.com), and time it before your first 30 days is up but don't bother flying. This way you have a failsafe ticket out of the country if you happen to be the 1 in 100 person they pull-up for not having an onward ticket. AA don't offer refunds but flights are only a couple of thousand baht.

As for living on peanuts, no problem for yourself especially as you already have somewhere to live, no missus (these can be the two biggest drains on resources, especially the latter), and don't drink much. If you like noodles and pad thai, you're laughing. The simple life could get you by on a mere 500 baht a day or less, but as you have a pension why not go silly

All the best

[lopburi3]

1. You should not require an outbound ticket if you have any visa in your passport.

2. Tax is indeed due for any savings in a Thai bank but for a passbook savings account there is an exemption of (I believe 10k) so at current low interest rates there should not be any deduction for 800k on deposit.

3. Be sure to set up wire transfer agreement(s).

[RDN]

Thanks for the reply RDN. Regarding the Nationwide the way I understand you is that they take the tax out and you claim it back from uk tax office if this is correct is it not a lot of hassle? I must admit I am not well clued up on it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I will be looking into this soon. I just completed my tax return and will be interested to find out what tax code I am given. I thought I saw somewhere a 'download R85 form' button, but maybe that was on another bank's site - I'll let you know if I find it.

I do have pensions and I shall be taking a 25% lump sum from them. as a matter of interest and I dont want to pry but what do you consider is a comefortable amount of baht to live on each month, I dont smoke, like an occassional drink and will lead quite a simple life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There have been many topics on this subject, but I think the consensus is that immigration have just about got it right - 800,000 per year. You don't actually have to spend it, it just needs to be in your account when you apply for the original visa (the timing depends on the type of visa) and yearly extensions. You just have to 'top up' to 800,000 each time. But I find it's about what I spend per year. Some will live on less than half, others will need more than double. But I reckon 65,000 a month is comfortable living.

Have a look at these topics about the cost of living here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?ac...=cost+of+living

...2.  Tax is indeed due for any savings in a Thai bank but for a passbook savings account there is an exemption of (I believe 10k) so at current low interest rates there should not be any deduction for 800k on deposit....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks to lopburi3 - again a mine of information. The most interest I ever earned in one year was about 1500 baht, so I never came close to the exemption level. One year they grabbed back some interest when they found out - or remembered - that I was farang. Because farangs don't get the same rate as Thais in the Krung Thai bank . TIT

[wispyerk007]

Strange that the Nationwide won't let you have your interest paid gross as you won't be living in the UK. The Halifax let me have mine in gross a few years back, maybe it's all changed. I would have thought you could download tax return forms from the Inland Revenue and post them off every year with your tax certificate issued by Nationwide, then have the money paid direct into your account. As I say though, bit silly as you should be exempt and will be losing interest on the tax you've paid. Talk to the Nationwide and the IR.

Regards the one way ticket, you could always book a one way flight with the budget airline, Air Asia, to...Penang for instance from Bangkok before you leave the UK (airasia.com), and time it before your first 30 days is up but don't bother flying. This way you have a failsafe ticket out of the country if you happen to be the 1 in 100 person they pull-up for not having an onward ticket. AA don't offer refunds but flights are only a couple of thousand baht.

As for living on peanuts, no problem for yourself especially as you already have somewhere to live, no missus (these can be the two biggest drains on resources, especially the latter), and don't drink much. If you like noodles and pad thai, you're laughing. The simple life could get you by on a mere 500 baht a day or less, but as you have a pension why not go silly 

All the best

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[wispyerk007]

I was informed by both the Nationwide and IR that no agreement is set up between them for deducting tax however , as you say Jack the Halifax and also Barclays do have agreements maybe I will think about changing to one of these if they pay decent rates. RD you can indeed download forms from the IR web site, I have just downloaded forms : R85 / R43 and form P85, this is the form for leaving the UK. A big thanks to everyone who has replied to my post.

[RDN]

... form P85, this is the form for leaving the UK. ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, that's one I've just sent them. And with my tax return, I sent the "Non-Residence etc" pages. Strange name, but that's what they call it.

[astral]

Move your money to the Channel Islands or Isle of Man.

All the major UK banks and BS have offices there.

They will not hassle you about tax.

Get a Non Imm visa from Hull, then you will have no problems at check in,

with your one way ticket.

Since you already own a condo, it may be worth investigating if you can get a visa extension based on that investment. You have the best chance if you bought the condo directly from the developer, even if it was a few years ago.

[wispyerk007]

If I buy a condo from a developer for say 2 million and rent it out will I be subject to Thai tax?

If I sell it after 3 years for 3 million can I transfer the 3 million back into a UK bank or can I only transfer the 2 million I originaly started with?

I have seen quite a few farangs in Pattaya buying 10 or more condos and selling them on for a profit I am curious to know how they can keep affording to buy condos if they cannot send all there money back to there homeland. Can anyone enlighten me please.