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Posted

I'm getting the hang of this forum 🙂and I love it! 😀

So, I'm planning to relocate to thailand, I have plenty of experience having lived in the PI for 3 years but like most of you, I'm concerned about tax residency status. Ergo, can't spend more than 5.9 months a year in Thailand. 
I searched and read some of you talking about 'spending 179 days in Thailand, 179 in vietnam and the rest in transit".

But, here's the problem: There are no SEA countries with the same 'expat friendly' visa rules according to chat gpt. Singapore does have an investment program but if you thought forkiing out 10,000,000 bath was bad, Singapore elevates this to western standards of investment (millions of your local currency). 

I'm <50 (46yo), French, Permanent resident without leave of the UK (Until I de-residence) so that leaves me with the "waiver program", which clocks at a max of 30 days except for Brunei at 90 days. So i'd need to do : Thailand (6 months using tourist multi entry x2) -> Brunei (3 month) -> Vietnam (1 month) -> Malaysia (1month) -> Philippines (1month).

Needless to say, this presents 2 major issues :
a) doing this circuit every year is doable at age 46 but not particulary fun. Plus it's going to get very expensive in flights and hotels (Thailand good value for QoL doens't extend to the rest of the continent I'm afraid).
b) The thai government is cracking down on tourist visa abuse - I'm quite concerned about getting blocked (i have to do 4x 2x tourist visas + 4 extensions until i turn 50.. that's not great). I like thailand and want to live there, not ruin my chances to save a few pennies...

Finding a country that allows me to stay for just under 5 months would considerably help here, but won't ever remove issue #2, which i need to tackle separately . 

Anyways - TLDR is "are there any SEA countries that let you stay < 6 months on a cheapo visa" and where do YOU stay when not in Thailand? 

PS: I was thinking of somehting a bit crazy: I'm a sailor. So i could buy a smallish boat and leave 6 month at sea in international waters but that sounds like a bit of a hack lol.

 

Posted

If I understand correctly, the reason you don’t want to stay in Thailand full time is because it'll become your tax residence?

That would mean your incoming deposits would be taxed here (unless already taxed by a country that has a tax treaty with Thailand, then no tax here).

As you already said, flights and hotels are expensive and not fun. I'd weigh that up against how much tax you'd pay the Thai government. 

But if your income/investment has already been taxed by a country with a tax treaty with Thailand, then no need to pay tax again here.

Thai tax is so little. I pay 4% on my salary.

Posted (edited)

In your shoes, I'd consider getting a student visa for 4 years til you turn 50, then get retirement. 

You probably wouldn't need to study that much.

Learn some Thai. Or learn Thai boxing, instead.

Or you could do a bachelor's degree in something, like I did, and study with all the cute 18-21 year old university chicks. 😄 That has its perks.

 

Edited by NanAtSOL
  • Upvote 1
Posted (edited)
17 hours ago, Jim78 said:

Anyways - TLDR is "are there any SEA countries that let you stay < 6 months on a cheapo visa"?

To answer your question,  I am guessing Cambodia, but I don't really know, haha

Edited by NanAtSOL
Posted
7 hours ago, NanAtSOL said:

In your shoes, I'd consider getting a student visa for 4 years til you turn 50, then get retirement. 

You probably wouldn't need to study that much.

Learn some Thai. Or learn Thai boxing, instead.

Or you could do a bachelor's degree in something, like I did, and study with all the cute 18-21 year old university chicks. 😄 That has its perks.

 

I mean apparently there's a visa where you can just put like 200k gbp on a bank account - littearly just a bank transfer, and voila, renewable till death. But i could be wrong. The student visa sounds cool as i'd love to learn muay thai - it's dope and i need the workout. I'll study and revert back in this forum to help others, you've all been so friendly! thank you!

Posted (edited)

The easiest ones would be Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. PH gets the 3 year renewable one, Malaysia is 90 days on arrival for most people and Vietnam you can get 3 month e visas.

You will still have to be a tax resident of somewhere if not Thailand depending on your country if it's nowhere, then your home country will become that place.

UAE you can be a tax resident within 3 months.

Thai tax on the first 1m baht if you can live within that for the year is around 7-10% in taxes which isn't bad. You can also stay and not remit the excess cash as well.

Edited by e11bkk
  • Like 1
Posted
11 hours ago, e11bkk said:

The easiest ones would be Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. PH gets the 3 year renewable one, Malaysia is 90 days on arrival for most people and Vietnam you can get 3 month e visas.

You will still have to be a tax resident of somewhere if not Thailand depending on your country if it's nowhere, then your home country will become that place.

UAE you can be a tax resident within 3 months.

Thai tax on the first 1m baht if you can live within that for the year is around 7-10% in taxes which isn't bad. You can also stay and not remit the excess cash as well.

Wow your really have done your research! Fascinating. 
I think i'll fold and go for thai tax residence as long as the new law doesn't affect my already-taxed saving stored in the uk. 

But what do you mean i have to be tax resident somewhere? If i de-residence from the UK by contacting HMRC after 1 year, and have been staying less than 6 month anywhere and continue to do so ad-eternam, do i get auto-magically assigned a tax residence at random? scary! 

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Keep us posted @Jim78 on what you end up doing.It would be great if you document your experience as well as time passes, as i'm sure it'll help others here in a similar situation. 

Posted
On 5/8/2024 at 6:34 AM, Jim78 said:

Wow your really have done your research! Fascinating. 
I think i'll fold and go for thai tax residence as long as the new law doesn't affect my already-taxed saving stored in the uk. 

But what do you mean i have to be tax resident somewhere? If i de-residence from the UK by contacting HMRC after 1 year, and have been staying less than 6 month anywhere and continue to do so ad-eternam, do i get auto-magically assigned a tax residence at random? scary! 

With HMRC you have to be careful about how many days you go back to the UK if any. I've not been a resident for a long time but iirc you need to spend at least 3 years out to make a clean break on the personal side and 5 years on the business side.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-residence-test-srt will be a good starting point.

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