Business
Finance: Demystifying the ever-ending UK pension reforms

PHUKET: Since radical UK pension reforms were announced last year, the changes just keep on coming. For those retiring in Phuket with pension rights that they have accumulated over the course of their career, the situation can be very confusing.
Indeed, even for a professional in the industry, keeping pace and getting your head around what all the changes means is not easy. Some of the changes are good, in my opinion, while others are certain to lead to bigger problems for the UK in the long run.
The main change that was initially announced was the plan to introduce full flexibility to draw down
pension rights, starting in April this year. The reasoning behind this change is to increase tax revenues, as the majority of retirees inside the UK, who fall under the GBP10,500 limit with small pension pots, pay no tax. However, if they are allowed to cash in an entire 100K GBP pension within one year, their marginal tax rate soars to 40%.
Soon after the initial announcement was made, the government said that the flexibility would be extended to qualifying recognized overseas pension schemes (QROPS). This has caused quite a lot of confusion, because an overseas scheme has its own local legislation requirements to follow, and these were required to match the old UK system in order to be a qualifying scheme.
Thus in practice it was impossible for a QROPS to offer the flexibility the UK was offering. Malta has since been the first jurisdiction to alter its local legislation with regards to QROPS to state that draw-down rules will simply follow whatever laws the UK (the source of the funds) enacts.
More recently, the UK changed its stance again on QROPS, stating that if QROPS schemes offer the same full flexibility status of the UK, they will lose their IHT-exempt status. This is a very unfair change, as many wealthier expats have transferred pensions they do not need to draw offshore based on this benefit.
Expats who transfer to QROPS usually do so for a number of reasons, but estate planning has always been a big draw. Most likely in the future certain jurisdictions will take advantage of the split and some will specialize in “cashing in” pensions at a low tax rate, while others will focus on the estate planning side of the market. For the moment it is a waiting game to see how the various offshore centers respond to these recent changes.
The final change, which I think is a very good thing, is that going forward from here any transfers out of a defined benefits scheme will need to have UK-regulated advice given. The “gray” jurisdictions of the world, such as many of those in Southeast Asia, leave international advice open to anybody with a pulse.
Even if an adviser is regulated in Singapore, Hong Kong or by the US SEC, this provides absolutely zero protection or recourse to clients who have had advice given in a country such as Thailand.
At least now, in regards to a defined benefits transfer, only those firms with a UK-regulated office can transact the transfers. In the event something goes wrong relative to the advice to transfer, there is recourse within the UK regulations, due to where the advice has originated.
It is a start in the right direction.
It would be nice if the changes coming out of the UK slowed down – although with budget problems that don’t seem likely to be resolved anytime soon, I am not hopeful.
Financial planning is supposed to be long term, and when the goal posts are constantly changing this becomes extremely difficult. Many of my clients who have recently transferred their pensions offshore have done it simply to remove it from the risk of future legislative changes within the UK.
For all we know, the option to transfer may not even be around for that much longer.
David Mayes MBA resides in Phuket and provides wealth management services to expatriates around the globe, focusing on UK pension transfers. He can be reached at david.m@faramond.com or 085-335-8573. Faramond UK is regulated by the FCA and provides advice on pensions and taxation.
— David Mayes
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Thailand
Facebook removes “information-influencing” pages linked to Thai military

Facebook has confirmed the removal of 185 accounts run by the Thai military and allegedly involved in information-influencing. The social media giant says the accounts were deleted for engaging in what it calls, “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. In total, 77 accounts, 72 pages, and 18 groups have been removed from the platform, in addition to 18 Instagram accounts. It’s the first time Facebook has taken such action against accounts linked to the Thai government.
The accounts were associated with the Thai military and were targeting people in the southern provinces, Facebook said its regular report on coordinated inauthentic behavior. The south of the country has been the scene of decades-long conflict, with insurgent groups in the majority-Muslim, Malay-speaking region calling for independence. To date, around 7,000 people have died in the ongoing struggle.
Facebook says the deleted accounts were most active last year and used both fake and real accounts to manage pages and groups, both openly military pages and pages that hid their links to the military. Some of the fake profiles pretended to be people from the southern provinces.
The report mentioned a post by the now-removed account named “comprehending the operation” in Thai. The page posted the logo for Amnesty International Thailand and wrote “The NGO never cares about ordinary citizens because they have no role in society. Normal people are not famous. Any case is not big news. They are not worth the investment of foreigners so they will not do anything to help. This is why we don’t see anything from the NGO.”

Image overlay translates to “The NGO never cares about ordinary citizens because they have no role nor money.”
On another now-removed account, named “truth about my home Pattani” in Thai, a post said “Muslim leader declares southern border is a peace zone. The southern separatists started a movement by spreading the idea that Thailand is under control by different believers so that people would come and fight for their religion. This was declared that the action clearly violates Islam faith.”

Image overlay translates to “Southern border is not Jihad zone.”
When contacted by Reuters, the military had no comment on the removal of the Facebook accounts, with a spokesman saying the organisation does not comment outside of official press conferences.
The head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook, Nathaniel Gleicher, has confirmed the reasons behind the platform’s decision.
“This is the first time that we’ve attributed one of our takedowns to links to the Thai military. We found clear links between this operation and the Internal Security Operations Command. We can see that all of these accounts and groups are tied together as part of this operation.”
He adds that the accounts had spent around US$350 on advertising on both Facebook and Instagram. One or more of the pages had about 700,000 followers and at least one of the groups had 100,000 members. Gleicher says the accounts were removed because of their misleading behaviour and not because of the content being posted. The content included support for the military and the monarchy, with allegations of violence and criticism of insurgent groups in the south.
It’s not the first time accounts linked to the Thai military have been removed by a social media platform. In October, Twitter removed 926 accounts it says had links to the army and posted pro-military and pro-government content. The Thai army has denied any involvement with the accounts in question. In November, Twitter also suspended an account posting pro-monarchy content that was found to have links to the palace and to thousands of other accounts posting similar content.
To read the February 2021 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report, click HERE.
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Central Thailand
Airline executive arrested for failure to pay wages of 150 workers

An airline executive has been arrested in the central province of Samut Songkhram, after complaints from150 employees that they had not been paid. Chawengsak Noiprasan, who had a court warrant issued against him in October, was taken to Don Muang police station from a property in the Bang Khan Take sub-district. He is a board member of Siam Air Transport.
The airline began operations in October 2014 with services out of Don Mueang to Hong Kong, using 2 Boeing 737-300s. 2 Boeing 737-800s were added to its fleet in late 2015. It expanded by adding Zhengzhou and Guangzhou in China to its network in early 2015. In late 2015, the airline launched flights to Macau and Singapore. In 2017, the airline ceased all operations.
But according to an article in the Bangkok Post, the carrier operates a number of scheduled and charter flights from Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport. The Post reports that, as Chawengsak signs the company’s legal paperwork, all legal matters concerning the airline fall to him.
The Metropolitan Police Bureau says the executive has admitted to ignoring a 30 day notice issued by the labour inspector and ordering the payment of wages to 150 workers. It’s understood he is also wanted in relation to 7 other cases.
The authorities sought Chawengsak’s arrest following complaints from employees who say they haven’t received their wages for 2 months. It’s understood the airline had previously deferred salary payments for over 8 months. 150 workers filed an official complaint with Don Mueang police and also approached media outlets, asking them to pressure the airline into paying the money owed.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
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Business
Governments & old media versus social media – who will win? | VIDEO

We look at the recent changes made by the Australian and Indian governments to except control over the world’s biggest social media platforms. India has issued strict new rules for Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms just weeks after the Indian government attempted to pressure Twitter to take down social media accounts it deemed, well, anti social. There is now an open battle between the rise of social media platforms and the governments and ‘old’ media that have been able to maintain a certain level of control over the ‘message’ for the last century. Who will win?
The rules require any social media company to create three roles within India… a “compliance officer” who ensures they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who addresses complaints from Indian social media users; and a “contact person” who can actually be contacted by lawyers and other aggrieved Indian parties… 24/7.
The democratisation of the news model, with social media as its catalyst, will continue to baffle traditional media and governments who used to enjoy a level of control over what stories get told. The battles of Google and Facebook, with the governments of India and Australia will be followed in plenty of other countries as well.
At the root of all discussions will be the difference between what governments THINK social media is all about and the reality about how quickly the media landscape has changed. You’ll get to read about it first, on a social media platform… probably on the screen you’re watching this news story right now.
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