Can you give this not rich guy advice?

Get married then you only need 400,000 baht in the bank, or 40,000 income per month.

Hello Barry--

You are correct that if you have a retirement visa in Thailand, you cannot legally work or volunteer. When I was running my Thai Co., I had a non-immigrant B (business) visa and a work permit. If you provide assistance to your lady in running the noodle shop, and she signs everything, i.e. everything is in her name, you should be OK with providing her the management assistance, just be low key about it.

Perhaps you are already aware of this, there are two ways to qualify for a retirement visa in Thailand. One way is to show you have THB 800,000 or in equivalent other currency  (about AUD 33,500) in the bank for at least 3 months prior to applying for the visa and this must be re-certified every year. The second way is to show income of THB 65,000 per month, which is a little over AUD 2,700/month. There are other requirements like a health check, a letter from your local police dept showing a clean criminal record, a passport with at least 1 year left on it. The Thai Consulate in Oz will have on its website all the requirements, forms and procedure.

If you are not able to meet these requirements for the retirement visa, you could set up a Thai Limited Company, which will require Thai national shareholders owning at least 51% of the company, and the Thai Co. must have at least 4 Thai national employees being paid at least the minimum wage (that's either THB 6,000 or 10,000/mo; I'm not quite sure which it is now).

A Thai Ltd. Co. is very much like a western corporation in structure, and needs to file an annual tax return in Thailand and show a profit about 3 out of every 5 years. There are costs to set it up, maybe a few thousand $'s, and accounting fees. Also, you may have reporting requirements to the Aussie authorities of the Thai Ltd. Co. as well. The US does. It is advised you work with a reputable Thai attorney to set up a Thai Ltd. Co.

Other than that, the only other way I can see is getting a Tourist Visa and renew it as much as is allowable. I am not up to speed on how often you can renew a Tourist Visa every year, but I think it works out to be a total of 3 or 6 months a year.

I hope this helps,
Matthew

Thanks, Mathew for your advice I will take note of everything you have said. My biggest worry was the number of funds needed. I thought it would be much higher.

Kindest Regards
Barry Tewes.