PattayaParent

Only a consultation process at this stage, but this is a welcome development for UK nationals with Thai spouses...

"The Government will commence a consultation process on increasing the Inheritance Tax (IHT) exempt amount that an individual can transfer during lifetime or on death to their spouse or civil partner, where their spouse or civil partner is not UK domiciled for IHT purposes. The exempt amount currently stands at £55,000. It is proposed that this limit will be increased to the level of the prevailing nil rate band (£325,000 2012/13) for non-domiciled spouses and civil partners..."

carried on at the link below:

http://www.ukbudget....side-the-uk.cfm


As someone living in Thailand, married to a Thai and having children, inheritance tax (IHT) is one of the most annoying UK taxes.

I can accept arguments that I am no longer resident in the UK so not entitled to many things under the UK Welfare system, even tho I paid into it for many years. So if I die tomorrow, the wife and kids have no entitlement to UK benefits such as Income support, Child Benefit etc. OK fair enough I can accept that.

It adds insult to injury though that the UK government wants to dip its sticky fingers into anything I leave behind for my wife and children to live on, when I've very little to do with the UK, and much of that money never had anything to do with the UK in the first place, and was earned here. Even worse that they will try and take more money off my family just because my wife is Thai/ foreign than if she were British. Thailand has virtually nothing in the way of looking after my wife and kids, and the UK gives them nothing, nor would it do so, hence if I die here every penny/ baht counts for them, and I see no reason why the UK gets 40% of amounts above their threshold, and gives my surviving family nothing in return, so their quality of life suffers thru no fault of their own.

Bad enough that most people don't have a choice about being UK domiciled or not. You're born with it and stuck with it. Harsh indeed though to penalise someone's family through no fault of their own? So a welcome development.

I feel sorry for the legitimate business people of Pattaya, who have to pay high rents, water and electric bills. This squatters camp is arriving in town all too often now and really is a blot on the landscape, making the once attractive beach road walkway look like a slum. There is one reason and one reason only why it keeps appearing and we all know it's because of the money. These traders are charged 150 baht per day to set up their stall, it doesn't sound much but if you look how many stall there are the bring in a tidy sum over a few days of 'whatever festival' it is.

Since the deck chair scam has been investigated and the number of chairs reduced on the beach, surely this must be another way for City Hall to generate an income whilst sitting on their behinds, with no regard for decent, legitimate tax paying retailers.

I think it's disgusting and they should be moved on immediately, the traffic congestion is ridiculous when they set up and take down their stalls and these traders just park where they like, when they feel like it. I walked along the beach through the market last time and the most expensive item I saw was 250 baht, so it's basically just rubbish they're selling, they leave a mess behind in typical .... fashion. It's no better than a Pikey market and an embarrassment for Pattaya. If these traders are predominantly red shirt protesters and this is their means to earning a living after spending 3 months camped out, holding the capital to ransom, they should've thought about earning a living and the impact their actions have on tourism before complaining "mai mee tang"! Can they really see further than their noses?

Rant over for the day, thank you for listening...

As I said Shumie is not a great racer and he has proven it time and again on those rare occasions when he's had to "race" someone and is challenged his only tactic is to crash the challenger and in the past he was the "Champion" so he wasn't dealt with and now he's living like the rest of the pack and this penalty is well deserved and about 10 years late..

Unfortunately it seems that Vettel is taking too many comparisons to heart and heading down the same path of whining, pointing and blaming but before he's accomplished the same goals as Schumie had so now he's getting a label that will be hard to remove if he doesn't begin to turn that whining into wins and even more a Championship..

Another thing that was prominent in the interview was that both Webber and Alonzo were listening very intently to Vettel when he was speaking and usually the other drivers are wiping the sweat from their faces, looking at other people in the room etc. but both were fixed directly on him hanging on what he was going to say.. He was slouched in his chair like a pouting teenager and all I could think was how everything he was saying was his shortcomings as has been mentioned in spite of his blatant attempts at spinning it other ways..

He was obviously indirectly pointing fingers at who ever is supposed to be giving him radio instructions but he also has to be aware and on his game while in the cockpit and asking questions if no one is providing information, at one point he mentioned a possible malfunction of the radio but he was uncertain? What about a simple radio check? Maybe something like.... Errr ummm "radio check are you reading me?" Bottom line Seb point all you want, it still falls on your shoulders, grow up and take the bull by the horns (pun intended) and determine your own destiny and not leave it up to others..

Miiyai46, on 2010-07-26 10:42:56, said:

Hi Miiyai

I am no great fan of Ferrari because I feel they think they are bigger than the sport, they have also cynically used the FIA during the Moseley era using his obsessive hatred of Ron Dennis to obtain favorable rule changes and a special payment which nobody else was aware of, as well as scuppering the fund cap because it would hurt them most.

I have no allegiance to any particular team (soft spot for Williams aside) and being a Brit tend to support all British drivers. consequently I supported Ferrari during Eddie Irvines tenure.

That brings me on to a similar situation in 99 when Irvine was head to head with Hakkinen for the championship. Mika Salo had been drafted in after the other Ferrari prima donna had  blown it at Silverstone. In the German GP Salo who was leading the race was asked to cede his position to Irvine which he duly did. (deja vu)

Afterwards Irvine presented his trophy to Salo saying he had rightfully won it and commented that to win a meaningful championship you had to do it yourself and not rely on charity.  So there are ways of coming out of this situation with ones honour in tact!

As for Ferrari's  $100,000 fine for fixing a race somehow it does not equate to £50,000,000 and being stripped of all constructors points for a mcLaren employee having another teams drawings.

I suppose what I am saying is that I support integrity in teams and drivers rather than just mindlessly supporting a winning team, consequently Alonso & Schumacher are low on my list of favorite drivers.

TBWG

This might turn into a long post, so applogies in advance.

I speak from my own experience and that of my kids.

Growing up in Bombay, I spoke Marathi, Gujrati and Hindi as fluently as any eight-year-old by the time I was eight. Then we moved to Hong Kong. I was thrown into the deep end: a low caliber local bi-lingual school since no other school would accept a kid that spoke no Cantonese, no English and didn't even know the English Alphabet.

I was a terrible student, but I made friends easily. I quickly picked up Cantonese on the playground and English by watching television religiously instead of doing my homework, which I had no idea how to tackle anyway.

The breakthrough came when, at the age of twelve, I joined the local public library while on a school field trip. The school I attended had no library and I had never seen such a collection of books in my life. I couldn't believe that I could just take any book home to read at no charge. Even after reasurances that I would not be hauled off to jail, I walked out gingerly clutching my two books, fully expecting to be hauled back in. This was at the height of beatlemania and one of the first books I'd borrowed was a collection of their song lyrics, songs I'd been hearing on radio and TV.

That week, I discovered a passion for reading, and not just song lyrics.

I had discovered what so many already knew: that the secret to knowledge, delight, endless entertainment and learning to sing like the Beatles, was books. I visited the library everyweek, reading voraciously on many subjects all the way into adulthood.

When our daughters were born, we'd read to them from the moment they could sit up. Actually, I even read to them while they were still in the womb. When our first child began to walk, holding on to the walls, I had a carpenter come in and build three-feet high cabinets with a rounded, small-hands-grippable edge all along the walls of our appartment. I put small cardboard picture books and other books all along the surface whence my little one could grab what she pleased as it was all at her eye level.

When our kids were ready to read, I hired a professional to teach them to read using a system called Jolly Phonics. Like me, they developed a love of reading. They are now teenagers and still love to read. They consistently spend more on books and magazines than toys or clothes, though their growing passion for fashion is a nascent worry.

We now live in Chinagmai and our daughters attend an International school with a lot of Thai and mixed race students as well as many Koreans. They read and write Thai, though not as well as Thai kids their age. They read and write Chinese (which they'd began learning in HK), though not as well as Chinese kids their age. And their English is as good as, if not better than, most kids their age anywhere in the world. Our elder daughter even won recognition in a Citylife writing contest for a story she had written when she was eleven and submitted when twelve even though the minimum entry age was fourteen. Another student from her school won the first prize that year.

Till recently, our daughters took private one-on-one Thai lessons thrice a week. At their request we stopped the lessons on condition they read some Thai book or magazine every day, and, read aloud to their mother whenever she demanded. They continue to willingly attend private Chinese lessons four hours a week. They are free to quit anytime they want, on condition they write me a convincing letter as to why they want to quit and absolve myself and their mother of all responsibility should they in future realize what a monumetaly stupid mistake it was to have passed up the opportunity they had to master Chinese.

Kids can handle as many languages as you throw at them, but it has to come naturally and willingly; I don't believe in forcing them. I believe all of us are drawn to reading because it feeds our restless, hungry minds. However with so many other destractions these days, a love of reading has to instilled early in life and TV-watching drastically curtailed though not completley banned.

More important than any school they attend, is the childrens' home environment. Do the parents have a loving relationship, respect each other and resolve disputes in a mature manner? More than money, can the parents afford the children copious amounts of tiime and patience? Can they be counted on to provide a non-judgemental, sympathetic ear and a shoulder to lean on? Do they explain their decisions, make reasonable demands and are they open to reasoned arguments while impervious to mindless whining?

Last week we went on a family holiday to Pattaya. We shopped, we ate, watched the Alcazar Show, went to a temple, etc. But the most fun we had was in our hotel rooms. Although the girls had their own room with a connecting door, they spent most of the time in our room —watching TV, talking, ordering room service, painting fingernails. And the girls made us learn this little nonsense ditty they'd made up:

If the cheese don't puff, 'twas not a puffy cheese. If the puff ain't cheesy, 'twas not a cheesy puff.

(Try reciting it. It's not as easy as it looks)

I don't know if all this helps the OP, but I certainly felt good writing it. And I just realized it's 2 AM.

my third and final choice is the 1981 ashes series between england and australia.
being the son of a yorkshire lass, i was lucky enough to have been taken to the third and pivitol test at headingley by my grandad.
england were already 1-0 down in the series after two tests and the signs looked ominous. especially as botham had just lost the captaincy after a poor run of form and results. things didnt look good early on, but somehow after beefys historic second innings batting performance. the bowling attack managed to skittle the tourists out for 111, some 19 runs shorts of the required 130 runs needed to take a 2-0 series lead. england then went on to take the next test and draw the last, ensuring the ashes stayed in england.

apologies first of all, if this topic has already been done before!
what are your all time top 3 sporting moments? whatever stands out in your mind whilst in your lifetime as something you will look back on and remember in sporting history.
for me being an avid rugby fan, it has to be englands world cup winning victory on australian soil. i will never forget that moment when i saw johnny wilkinsons drop goal fly through the uprights in the second period of extra- time, with less than a minute on the clock.  
there had been such a high amount of expectation laid on england, who were the best team in the world at the time. the scenes that followed were without doubt something i will never forget, till the day i die. still brings a rye smile to my face, when i think back to the days after the final. when some jokers decided to super impose the flag of st. george over the sydney opera house.
i will get back to you with my other two, but the wife is threatening to feed my dinner to the dog. if i dont get off the computer wright now.

PattayaParent, on 2010-07-01 13:45:40, said:

Agreed...that's the entire point of doing a work-out...to work up a good sweat and burn off some calories. I hate gyms that blast the air-con (Cal. WOW, etc.) and if given the chance, turn off the fans and lower the air-con if possible. Love Tony's and thanks for the heads-up about the better workout conditions after 9 p.m.

I agree with Naam. The question needs to be qualified in a big way.

Himachal Pradesh, India
Malaysia
Parts of Indonesia, perhaps
Hong Kong
Cambodia (in ten years)
Vietnam, perhaps

Nicaragua
Argentina
Cuba
Rural BC Canada
Rural coastal Mid Atlantic region of US
Parts of East Europe, perhaps

I think Belize and CR were finished decades ago.

I don't like the Philippines. I don't like anything about the culture (or lack thereof). I find the people lazy and without dignity. It is a far more dangerous place than most people believe - on many levels. Most dangerous country in East Asia, hands down. Aside from some super cute teen pageant queen, most of the women are not attractive and their body/beauty are ravaged in mid/early 20s. The diet is horrible. The food, disgusting. Not fit for pigs.

If you're working in Thailand the best way to save money is by contributing to a Retirement Mutual Fund (RMF) or Long-Term Equity Fund (LTF). Check out major bank websites.

You can contribute up to 15% of your taxable income to RMF and up to 15% to LTF, making a total of 30%.
The main advantage is that anything you contribute is deductible from your taxable income.
If you are making more that 1 million baht a year 30% of anything over that amount is what you pay in tax, so you get a big  refund on your next income tax return - doubtful the stock market will go down by more than 30% over several years, so it's hard to lose.

For RMF you must contribute every year (minimum 5,000 Baht), and cannot withdraw money until you are 55.
For LTF only initial contribution required, but must be held for 5 calendar years (even 1 day counts as a calendar year, so if you contibute in Dec 2010 you can withdraw in Jan 2015.

For RMF and LTF capital gains are not taxable.

You can also purchase a savings account / life insurance plan, and up to 100,000 baht is deductible from taxable income. The return on these plans is not great - about the same as an ordinary Thai bank account - but again the main advantage is the tax savings.

chainarong, on 2010-07-01 08:44:41, said:

Ummm, the OP said he has been working here 6 years, hardly a snap decision eh?

The OP is 27 not 17, I know it's a long, long time ago for most members here but he is not a kid. What were you all doing at 27? Married, kids, mortgage, career? Give the guy a break.

Kudos OP for thinking about this now, my recommendation would be to work out what you can afford, then save that amount each month into a deposit account. If at the end of 1 year you have not needed to touch it then use this as a lump sum to kick start some kind of investment. The options are endless, best to sit down with a financial advisor in 12 months time.

This thread is all about fairness - or more accurately, LACK of fairness.

It is not about Penkoprod's "the government have bigger bollocks so go and play in street"  - it is about whether the UK government treat all pensioners equitably.

THEY DON'T.

I accept that the legal process has gone as far as it can. It does not mean representation should stop.

If Penkoprod wants to roll over and die - up to him. Many others will continue 'the fight' even if futile.

Livinginexile, on 2010-06-23 21:56:22, said:

That isn't really the point. The reds just aren't the grass roots pro disadvantaged movement they promote themselves as. If there was a movement that promoted the interests of the poor and which excluded those elements that disgraced themselves in Bangkok and which didn't accept funds from squalid would be dictators, then supporting them would make much more sense.

Though it is very nasty to have stall owners acting as spotters, getting a kick back from a fine, while targeting "farangs".

The moral of the story is don't litter.

I for one am sick and tired of smokers who think it is their God given right to litter wherever they go.

For example, you go to a beutiful beach to find that cigareatte smokers have deposited a days worth of stinking buts on the white sand, turning the beach into an ashtray. Don't you even dare say a word about it to them. You will just likely get a very hostile response from them.

Cigareatte buts take a very long time to biodegrade. So they have polluted the beach for many years by their careless thoughtless selfish act.

Is it really so difficult to take the trash with you and deposit it in an acceptable receptackle? Trash cans are located in many places these days. If a trash container is not conveniently located take your crap home and throw it in your trash can!