Regular features from June 2005 114th Issue

UK Pension Scheme Changes

The UK Government has announced a number of key changes to United Kingdom Pension Schemes. These changes are designed to simplify the rules covering contributions and benefits.

In general terms the new rules will remove the distinction between occupational pensions and personal pensions.

It is critically important for Hua Hin British ex-pats, who have left employment in the UK , leaving behind benefits from either a personal pension or an occupational scheme, to contact a financial adviser.

Expatriates cannot afford to miss out on the greater flexibility offered. They should also arrange to overcome some new restrictions on previous tax benefits

It is important to recognize that these new rules also apply to pensions which have been transferred to an offshore provider.

So let's look at some of the changes.

A Lifetime allowance will be introduced. When a fund exceeds this allowance the surplus will be taxed at 25% when it is used to provide additional income and 55% if the surplus is taken as a cash sum.

Death before retirement or receiving benefits.

In the majority of cases the value of the deceased's pension fund will be available to provide dependents with a pension or a lump sum. When a lump sum benefit exceeds the “Lifetime Allowance” it will be subject to the 55% tax. Also in most cases death benefits should fall outside the deceased's estate and be free of inheritance tax.

Retirement Age

It is proposed that benefits that can normally be taken from age 50 will be increased to be taken at age 55. The majority of individuals start to take benefits after 55 and this change is unlikely to have a significant effect. In some cases however, it may be important to start drawing benefits before the change is introduced.

Tax Free Cash

In most cases individuals will be able to take 25% of their fund as a tax free lump sum-at the point when they decide to draw benefits. Going forward the maximum tax-free cash will be 25% of the lifetime allowance. When individuals are entitled to a higher level of tax free cash, they will be able to protect their rights by registering for “primary protection” or “Enhanced protection” This is too complicated to explain here. For further advice contact your financial adviser or apply to e-mail address below.

Retirement Income

Again in broad terms individuals will be able to use their pension funds to provide income at any point after age 50(rising to age 55). Like now this will be taxed as earned income.

Under the new rules there will be four ways of arranging income. These are

Secured Income

Lifetime Annuity- where the fund is used to purchase an annuity. There will continue to be a wide range of annuity options – including annuities that provide for a spouse, income that rises in line with the retail price index and investment linked annuities.

Alternative Secured Income (ASI)

A new form of secured income designed to provide for those who because of religious belief have an objection to the pooling of funds to provide an annuity.

Unsecured Income

Income Drawdown

Individuals will be able to defer “Secured Income” and draw an income direct from their pension funds. Details are yet to be finalised but it would appear that income would be up to 120% of the prevailing single life annuity. The income range will be reviewed every five years and it will be necessary to purchase a lifetime annuity by age 75

Term Certain Annuities .

This offers similar benefits for members of occupational schemes as the “Income Drawdown” offers to Personal pension holders.

Because of these changes annuity deferral is likely to grow in popularity and consequently investment advice will be relevant for longer. It is clear that the majority of pension scheme members will benefit from these new rules so make sure you arrange your affairs to reap the maximum benefit.

Subject to the Dept. of Work and Pension requirements, pension schemes will be allowed to invest in all type of investments including residential property.

This is a mouthwatering prospect for British expatriates and I hope to delve into this area in the next article

For further information on this article please contact Jerry at info@swissinvestcenter.net or visit his website www.swissinvestcenter.net

MAG'S PAGE THE PINK PERSPECTIVE

The UK Perspective?

Here goes....

By the time this issue hits the Sois yours truly will be packing for a one week summer holiday in Caistor - which I am assured is a small jewel on the Norfolk coast.

I use the term ‘Summer Holiday' loosely you understand. For a start early June in England can rarely be described as Summer unless some freak meteorological rescheduling occurs, and Holiday conjures up visions of sun, sea, sand, sangria etc.

This holiday is in fact a week away on pay, shepherding, feeding and medicating the residents of the small Residential Home where I work. If this brings to mind sweet little old folks in wheelchairs you would be wrong again. Even the term ‘resident' is now non- PC. The correct form of address these days is Service User.

In reality our Service Users are a pretty lively bunch aged from 23 up -and all quite capable of heading off for the nearest disco, betting shop or amusement arcade at the drop of a Prozac. The point is though that for 12 people this one week is the highlight of their year and preparations started weeks before the event. When you live in a perennial tourist resort like Hua Hin holidays start to lose their meaning. They just ARE. Shopping for clothes automatically means shopping for summer clothes which are always available. If, for example, you decide to head off to Penang for a few days its no big deal. Throw a few things in a bag, get on a bus or train, and there you are. If you forget something its no problem, as Kieron will testify! Here, where my colleagues think that 3000 Bt for a pair of sandals is quite reasonable, and the sale of swimming costumes is restricted as if by some Government edict to one month per year, the concept of planning for a holiday comes as something of a culture shock.

One evening in March one of our younger lady Service Users raised the issue of knickers. On a mundane Saturday night shift this was enough to tear my attention away from a mug of tepid Tesco coffee and the puzzle page in the local Rag. ‘Knickers?' ‘Yes - I don't have enough for the holiday - and I need towels' ‘Towels?'

‘Yes, you know - t-o-w-e-l-s, just in case' A few weeks of shopping trips followed. Suitcases were examined and cleaned, clothes purchases carefully stored away, and arrangements made for care of the cats. The holiday became a major topic of conversation, and countless stories of previous holidays were told.

I had nightmares about Cliff Richard and the movie Summer Holiday, (but mainly about Cliff Richard). But throughout it all I continued to believe that my own holiday wardrobe would be OK. After all - what is good enough for Hua Hin must be good enough for Caistor right? Wrong.

My boss suddenly decided that it would be a Jolly Good Idea for us three staff to all have sequined tops to wear for evenings in the holiday camps' Club House.

For the benefit t of readers who are not English - a Club House is the old fashioned term to describe the focal point of any holiday camp. It endeavors to provide a bar, food, disco, live entertainment and fun for all the family. Often with disastrous results. Sadly it is also usually the only place within a radius of some 50 Km where you can find a warm pint of Guinness.

Still undeterred I unearthed a rather nice sequined top, bought at the Grand Market circa 2001. The stall next to the Bar B Q chicken vendor outside San Paolo you know? So far so good. Then the co-ordinated evening trousers - with a 50 inch waist? Something was seriously wrong. The elastic had perished. Not only that, but the essential evening sandals had, I recalled, disintigrated in heavy rain on Sukhumvit Soi 11. All you ladies who are following this so far will understand the dilemma and the outcome, a major shopping spree.

Fortunately though England has become a nation of Charity Shops. A retail survey for the first quarter of 2005 showed a noticeable drop in the sales of consumer goods like clothes, which is hardly surprising. On my local High Street alone there are at least six charity shops selling very good quality and often new clothing. It's a micro-industry in itself. The clothing on sale is always cleaned and fresh, and there is even an unspoken Retail Price Agreement. So a pair of jeans in Oxfam costs the same as a pair of jeans in Age Concern. The discerning shopper can collect a whole wardrobe full of gear at very little cost, and the odd mistake isn't a disaster. A certain amount of dedication is required of course. Charity shops MUST be checked out on a regular basis, and choice items snapped up on sight. Hence I am now the proud owner of a long fake fur coat in excellent condition for 600 Bt. Ideal for an English summer holiday.

And now a reminder for anyone needing more information about Pensions, Benefits or the Habitual Residence Test.

My E mail address is mags118@hotmail.com

LEGITIMATE CHILD

After being a lawyer and litigator for more than 26 years, and after specializing in divorce and child custody for some 15 years, I have often come across many foreign men who at first look so flabbergasted, surprised, even skeptical when told that they are not the legalized or legitimate fathers of their children if they are not legally married to the mothers of such children.

Some even cry and most protest that how could it be that they are not the fathers when the kids use their surnames and it is stated so in the birth certificates, and the domicile house papers of the kids show that they are such dads of the poor little ones. On top of that every one and all know so! Some even arrogantly show the kid passports issued by their respective embassies. And after some talks or discussions on the matter, some of them may cry even more and act or react in many different ways.

Then most who can afford the lawyer fee and can wait a few months will commit themselves to go to court if they do not or cannot marry the mothers for whatever reasons of their own. Only a few can resort to do the registration of such legitimacy of their fatherhood with the consent of the respective mothers and also of the kids if they are in the age ranges of 7 years old.

Aside from involving myself as a lawyer for each of my respective clients mainly to go to court to make them become the legitimate fathers of their really natural and biological kids, I have been asked to be guest speaker at the Pattaya Expat Club to talk on various subjects of law of Thailand . And each time I received a lot of questions on this same subject of one being a legalized father of his lovely kid or not. Finally I have written this article to try to help these unfortunate fathers, and prospective fathers understand their legal standing.

Reading from above, you can see now that in order for a biological father to really become a legitimate dad of his lovely and lovable son or daughter he has to come under one of the three conditions which is quoted by our Civil and Commercial code of Thailand Section 1547 as “ A child born of the parents who are not married to each other is legitimated by subsequent marriage of the parents, or by registration made on application by the father, or by a judgement of the Court”.

So now it should be very clear to all of you who happen to read this. And if you are still unclear how to go about it all, except in the case that you want to and can marry the mother, then you will need a somewhat specializing lawyer such as me to go to court in the case that you cannot or will not wait until your child comes around the age of 7. Though the above law does not say anything about this at all.

Before you could have done the legitimacy by registration just about right away with only the consent of the mother.

Now in the past 10-12 years or so, there is the problem that some mothers are giving consent to register a father, who is not the real biological father, as the legal father of their daughters. When they grow up to be around 12 -15 and they become pretty, the not so real father may have some kinky desires towards his legitimate daughter but who is not his biological offspring. Now I will leave to your imagination the rest of the problems that may crop up! This is obviously not a situation that any real father wants to think about.

So the procedures have changed a bit, and we have a new rule that you have to wait till the child is about 7, of which by our compulsory education law the kid at this age is supposed to enrol into school, and he or she is old enough to testify that the claimed father is the real one or not! Some school registrars might accept kids at 5-6, but you'd have to know them well or you may need my connection then! And in the last resort, for a judgement by the Court, just kindly come to me for further assistance!

Written by Lawyer Mr. Wichai Pannoi

IN THE CAN

This month I thought I would share with you some information, trivia and thoughts on one of my favourite movies, ‘The Blues Brothers', released in 1980. It has to be said that in terms of film as art it is not a great movie, but when it comes down to sheer entertainment, humour and great music it is a classic in my eyes. For those of you who have never seen the movie the story is very simple: the main characters are Jake and Elwood Blues (played by John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd), two brothers who used to play in a blues band until their career was stopped by the imprisonment of Jake. After the release of Jake from prison, he and Elwood go to visit the old home where they were raised by nuns. They learn the church stopped its support and will sell the place to the education authority, and the only way to keep the place open is if the $5000 tax on the property is paid within 11 days. The brothers want to help and decide to put their blues band back together and raise the money by staging a big gig. As they set off on their "mission from god" they seem to make more enemies along the way. Will they manage to come up with the money in time?

The Blues Brothers originally started life as characters appearing in the ‘Saturday Night Live' show during the mid – seventies, played by the same two actors that are in the film. ‘Saturday Night Live' has an amazing history of introducing great comedians and actors – apart from the two already mentioned, here is a list of some of those who had their first break on the show; Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal, Harry Shearer, Martin Short, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Randy Quaid, Damon Wayans, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Ben Stiller, Chris Farley, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade. The show has also always attracted the top musical acts of the time, and guest hosts that read like a who's who of entertainment since it started in 1975, and far too many to list here.

The film cost around $38 million to make, coming in at $11 million over budget, and at the time was one of the most expensive ever made. One of the reasons for this was the car chase sequences that occur throughout the movie, and it holds the world record for the number of cars crashed during a movie. After most of these excessive scenes of destruction the camera will focus in on one of the cars and you will hear someone say, “They broke my watch”! One of these scenes takes place inside a shopping mall which was real, but apparently scheduled for remodeling or demolition. Another spectacular stunt performed in the movie is where a car (a Ford Pinto) driven by Nazis chasing the brothers flies off the end of an incomplete bridge and plummets to earth. They used five or six Pinto's for this stunt. There was a lot of trouble getting a permit to do this; they had to prove that they could accurately predict where the car was going to land. They dropped one as a test run (it landed in a cornfield). They sawed two in half, to get the camera inside them. They used one for the low-drop (into a hole in the road), and two for the high-drop (off the bridge). For the highest drop scene the car was released from a helicopter, which is why there were extreme doubts about where it would land! The bridge in question, supposed to be in Chicago, was actually in Milwaukee, and was known as ‘The Bridge to Nowhere' to locals as it never seemed to get any nearer completion!

The music is the cornerstone of the film, and not only that, but the actual musicians who are in the film – all of the following perform in the film, and some have acting parts too (those with (A) after their name); Cab Calloway (A), James Brown, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin (A), John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles (A), as well as the less famous names but equally famous music of the Stax/Volt backing band who were the driving force behind Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett and in their own right as Booker T and the MG's, as well as many others. Those that appear in the film are Steve Cropper (A) on guitar, Donald Dunn (A) on bass, and Willie Hall (A) on drums. Also appearing are Alan Rubin (renowned jazz trumpeter), Tom Malone (trombone) and Lou Marini (saxophone), who were part of the ‘Saturday Night Live' band and regular session musicians. These all form the band for the Blues Brothers, along with session musician Matt Murphy (played guitar with Junior Parker's Blue Flames and Bobby Bland among others) and actor, Murphy Dunne (keyboards).

In addition to these famous names, there are several cameo parts played by well known faces, namely Steven Spielberg, who plays a clerk collecting the money from the brothers, Twiggy, who Dan Ackroyd chats up and then stands up (!), Frank Oz, one of the creators of ‘The Muppets', who plays a prison officer, John Landis, who directed the film, as a State Trooper, Paul Reubens, better known as Pee Wee Herman, who plays a wine waiter, Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia in the original ‘Star Wars', as Jake's former fiancée who is trying to kill him, and finally Joe Walsh, legendary guitarist with The Eagles, as a prisoner who is the first to get up on a table and dance near the end of the film!

Other interesting trivia regarding the film includes the fact that while both Jake and Elwood wear black hats and sunglasses throughout the film, Elwood never takes off his sunglasses and Jake never takes off his hat! In addition John Belushi came to be known as ‘The Black Hole' during the making of the film, as he managed to lose an extraordinary 1000 pairs of sunglasses!

Although the film is regarded by many people now as a modern day classic, at the time of it's release it was not received well either critically or at the box office. Part of this was due to the original length of the film, which was over two and a half hours, and the director John Landis was forced to cut about twenty minutes of the original to appease the cinemas. Many people believe that this initial commercial failure, following the wild success of the ‘National Lampoon's Animal House' movie, contributed greatly to the depression that engulfed John Belushi shortly after, and also fuelled his already heavy drug habit, which led eventually to his death on Friday 5 th March 1982. In the book ‘Wired: The Short Life & Fast Times Of John Belushi' by Bob Woodward there is a detailed account where he claims that Robert De Niro and Robin Williams were with Belushi the night he died, at the age of 33, from a drug overdose. A thoroughly recommended book for those of you who are interested.

For those of you that have already seen ‘The Blues Brothers' I hope these little snippets will make you watch the movie again and look out for some of the things you may have missed; for those of you who have never seen the movie I urge you to give it a try; and for those of you who have only seen ‘Blues Brothers 2000' please watch the original! I guess there is only one way to sign off this article – ‘It's 100 miles to Chicago , we've got a full pack of cigarettes, half a tank of gas, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!'

Alex and her friends posing and partying for her birthday - Happy Birthday Alex!

And Happy Birthday to Observer girl Oe too!

Some familiar faces get to work at the grand opening of ‘Dick’s Office - Richard Walker’s new venture in Soi “Hotpot”.

More celebrations for birthday girl Ple

Jason (second from the left) is welcomed back to Hua Hin by his adoring fans!

Useful Telephone Numbers for Hua Hin

Railway station
032-512 770, 032-511 073

Bus station of Hua Hin
032-511 654, 032-512 543

Bus station of Prachuabkirikhan
032-601 901

Bus station of Pranburi
032-621 443

Hua Hin Hospital
032-520 401

Dog Rescue Center
0-1981 4406

Wild life Rescue Center (Tayang)
032-458 135

Department of Land Cha-am office:
032- 430 846-7

Department of Land Hua Hin office:
032-536 164, 032-512 407

Department of Land Prachuabkirikhan:
032-611 211

Department of Land Pranburi
032-622 199

Local Government (Hua Hin)
032-521 340, 532 471

Local water supply
032-511 677

The Power Board of Hua Hin
032-512 215, 032 513 165

Observer office:
032-531 078

Red Cross.
032-512 567

San Paolo Hospital
032-532 576-85

Polyclinic International
032-516 424, 032-516 425

Shell Cooking Gas
032-511 144, 032- 515 620

The Communication Authority of Thailand
(Hua Hin)
032-511 351

Rotary Club of Hua Hin
0-1916 6637
Meeting every Thursday 8.pm
at Hua Hin Grand Hotel & Plaza

Features

this month

regulars

stories

free ads

sports

golf

funnies

info

back issues