@Ian ****

FB is full of experts so thats makes it even more interesting. A FB expert is someone who knows someone who's brother drinks at this bar who knew a guy who owned one!

I did what you are wanting to do. As you are a couple you'll need 800,000 each. Use a visa agent. I am in Chiang Mai and used an agent called Napa. I came in on the 30 day visa exempt, went straight to them and applied for the type O visa. They suggested I extend my 30 days to 60 days. You need to open a bank account, they can do that for you and deposit the 800,000 baht, you will need one each I assume. This gave me 150 days (30+30 + 90)in the country before I converted to a retirement visa.

The only thing that changed is when you bring money into Thailand, nothing else. Pensioners have been bringing their pensions into Thailand in the same year as they earned it forever and the tax department hasn't chased them.

Any money earned before 2024 is tax-free when you bring it into Thailand. This means you don't need to file a tax return to declare it as earnings because it's not. The only time you would have to prove when you earned this money is if the tax department audits you and asks for proof. You should declare any earnings from that money earned after /2024.

@Les **********

you tell me why if I choose to stay in Australia they’ll pay us our pension yet if we want to live overseas they won’t? Where is the logic other than discrimination is still alive and well amongst Aussies

I'm a Kiwi who has lived half my working life in Australia and half in NZ. I now live in Thailand. I went through all of this with Centrelink and decided to leave without any pension but for different reasons to Aussies. Under the pension agreement with NZ we get the Aussie pension means tested if we are living in Australia but the NZ government pay Centrelink half of it, in my case half because I lived half in each country. No worries there until I wanted to get my pension made portable to go live in Thailand. Kiwis on age pension in Australia aren't allowed to make their pension portable yet Australian citizens are allowed to. So as long as I stay in Aussie they'll pay me my pension but if I leave they'll stop it. Seems Australia is still discriminating against people based on nationality.

So if I go back to NZ and apply for my age pension they will give it to me, and Aussie pays up their half. Then I have to live there as a resident for at least 183 days of the year then apply for portability. It's all about where I reside. I just have to convince them I'm residing in NZ long enough, like 12-18 months then make it portable. But good old Aussie government won't pay their half to the NZ government once it goes portable because they don't pay their half if I don't stay in NZ! So I only get the NZ half made portable.

Oh and if I sell my house that was my primary dwelling after leaving Australia I lose my primary dwelling tax status and I become an overseas resident for tax purposes, and need to pay 32.5% of any capital gains I've made on the property, not from when I leave the country but going right back to 2003 when I bought it even though for 20 years it was my primary dwelling. But that goes for Australian citizens too not just Kiwis. You lose your primary tax status too, so look into it if you're going to rent out your home.

The biggest mistake I made was actually believing the mileage on scooters for sale is correct.

@Steve ********

no you put 800,000 baht in to get your first visa extension. After your first year you can then show 65,000 baht a month going in instead of the 800,000 if you want. So you have to do I think 3 months before then 2 month after getting your first visa leaving the 800,000 in then you can withdraw up to 400,000 leaving 400,000 (you can't go under 400,000). From the first month of your actual retirement visa while you still have the 800,000 in start putting in 65,000 baht a month so when you apply for your next 12 month extension you have a whole 12 months record of 65,000 a month going in, they need to see your Thai bank records. From your second extension you now have the option of the 800,000 or 65,000 a month if you want. It's great if you're on a tight budget and have a pension coming in because the monthly pension can be all or part of your 65,000. I don't know if I'm making sense and don't take what I'm saying as all correct, seek professional advice, but I'm giving you the general idea. There's plenty of YouTube 'experts' and visa websites with all the information.

I went to a visa agent in Chiang Mai in 2023 after getting sick of walking around banks and queuing up to be refused an account. One bank I didn't try and have been told since it's possible is the Bangkok Bank at Airport Plaza. I ended up paying a visa agents I think 1500 baht which included the initial bank deposit. It could have been more but not over 2000 baht I just don't remember the exact amount but I was surprised how cheap it was.

I then deposited the 800,000 baht and applied for the type O visa, then 3 months later had it converted to an extension of stay retirement visa. This was all done by Napa Visa in Chiang Mai. How I did it was coming in on a tourist visa exempt, went straight to the visa agent the next day and they started the process, first getting me a 30 day extension on my visa exempt to give me 60 days to get the type O and bank sorted. I think you need the 800,000 in the bank for 3 months to extend to the retirement visa not to get the type O. But I'm not 100% on that one.