I have a permanent visa here in the Philippines. Iam from the UK and live on a company pension( BAA) and was informed by a friend that there is a double taxation treaty between the UK and the Phil.
I contacted the Uk tax office and they did confirmed this. They sent me the necessary forms, you can as I later found out print them off from there site.

With my forms filled in, and you should make sure that you have all the necessary local paperwork as well. I then went to the bureau of internal revenue( international affairs double tax treaty) You will need them to certify that you are a permanent resident.
This can take a few weeks as they will need to verify that all information is correct.
Mine as now been completed and on it's way to the tax office in the UK. The good news from this is the Phil do not tax any form of pension.

Hello, Im 29, I have a BS in business. I know alittle spanish, I know a few words in Japanese, and of course fluent english. Please email me at nickinil@yahoo.com I will sen you my resume an answer any questions you have. I visted phillipines for the first time a month ago and I didnt want to leave. I'm making 70K+ at the moment do you think it will be possible to match that in the PI? I can do anything business related with trainnig, and can probably absorb the language in 3 years. Nick

Thank you so much for your mail.You say you came for a vsit around a month ago. Where did you stay?Was it central Manila or further a field.
The short answer to your question is I don't really know. You did not say where you are from. The kind of money you are earning at the moment is very high. At 29 years of age you must be very accomplished and skilled in what you do.
Most Filipino on average earn around 40 to 50 thousand pesos a month at managerial level.
A lot would depend on the company you work for. I will say that it's not the easiest thing to do getting a job over here. They will always try to recruit a Filipino citizen first. Most expats that work here are sent by their companies or they run their own business. I think that you will need to do a lot of investigation first. Please be aware that you might encounter lots of scams.
Please do send me your resume. I will try to gain some more information for you, might take a bit of time but I will get back to you with what ever I can. It sounds like you fell in love with the Philippines as I did some ten years ago. It's a wonderful country to live in. All the very best Seadon

Hi Seardon my name is John and my wife and I have buisiness of small sari store and also internet shop in the Philippines i am currently in Australia and will be returning to my family there some time in 2010. My wife and I own a house there which we are trying to sell at the moment and then we hope to buy another house and also some taxies (2 or 3) if all goes to plan.
We used to own a jeepney but we found after 18 months of trying that it is not such a good business unless you drive yourself then it is ok.
I have an Australian disability pension as i came here as a child with my parents. When i stay in the Philippines for more than 3 months i loose the pension so we have to have a make a living there which is ok and we hope that the taxies will help greatly in that and once set up I will move there permenantly.
There are plenty of scams there and life for many there is very hard so stealing from people they think that have plently is ok in their books. Before people condem them for this attitude please understand their living conditions are not always good and if a person needs an operation they have to pay for what is reguired before they can have any operation ie blood i learnt much when my wife was in hospital there due to an accident. When someone has no money to pay for hospital for their loved ones it is easy to understand why they resort to stealing to get the treatment for their loved ones. The scams are a differant ball game all together they just want money for nothing and do not care who they con we have the same in Australia just not so often so not realy much differant at all. Many Philappinoe's see all white people as rich and therefore a good person to con and will say they are your friend when in fact they are just grooming you for a scam so be warned and do your homework before you part with money. In saying that it is not always easy to check everything out and if in doubt give it a miss. I am fortunate that i have friends now i can trust there and also my wife has very many contacts in the right places which have proved to be most usefull. I enjoy living there and am still learning to understand the thinking which seems much differant to mine maybe part of the problem is even though they speak english understanding of words is not the same as ours and often they just say yes when in fact they should be saying no it can take a bit of getting used to.
By the same token my tagalog is very very bad so they are doing much better than me. It is the same any other country realy if you go there and start showing you have money you get what you deserve. One trap i did fall into and it was my fault not theirs i asked some people to join us at a resort with a pool and i thought good for everyone to have a day out with the kids and nice to cool off. When you invite people out you are the one that is expected to pay so be warned or you could like me be in for a rude shock i was fortunate that it was not a problem and everyone had a good day.
I hope that did not put anyone off it is a great place to live and i am longing to come back to my family and friends there.

Ok, you need to mention a very IMPORTANT fact when you talk about the cost of housing, so that everyone understands. So listen well, all: Sure, you can get a house in Antipolo City for 200 USD a month, but that is because that place is HELL ON EARTH. I have been to the Antipolo City in a couple occassions from work. The first time I was there it was raining and the whole place was flooded. It is a very poor and depressed area. I personally thought I had discovered the birthplace of the Antichrist: Antipolo City.

Nick, basically, you can forget about it, as Seardon has put it very nicely. First of all, your "little" Spanish and your "few words" in Japanese won't do you any good, so you can omit them from your resume. As a general suggestion, unless you are fluent in a foreign language, do not even mention it. Second, you will never find a salary of 70K USD in the Philippines working for a local company. Think more about maybe 15-20K USD maximum. Your only chances would be working for a foreign company as an expat, but you need to have very valuable skills, as those jobs are in high demand. Finally, do not bother about learning Tagalog: even the upperclass Filipinos speak English among them, and don't worry, all the girls speak English. Nice place to go on vacation, though, but getting a real job there is gonna put you straight in Manila (in makati if you are very lucky), which is not a very nice city to live in at all, although believe me, nothing can be worse than Antipolo City, that's for sure....

If your pension is paid to you on account of past employment in the UK, it is liable to UK taxation. Under a Treaty for Avoidance of Double Taxation, pensions are generally taxable only by the country of source (in your case, the UK). Now, if under local law, pensions are not taxed in the Philippines anyway then it does not matter at all, does it? What you should do is to get as many dependents as you can on your UK tax return, so that you can lower your tax liability, and since you live in the Philippines, chances are Inland Revenue ain't gonna go there to check. Living in Antipolo City can have its benefits, I have to confess....

Hi John sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Which part of Cornwall are you from I'm from Falmouth. I love living here but do miss the old place. I have been away for more than forty years. All my famliy still live there.The place still looks the same after all the years that I have been away.
Myself and my wife enjoyed reading your thoughts.You sound as though you have experienced some of the joys of living in the Philippines. It can be difficult but being aware of the so called scams is half of the battle.I'm well in two my second year living in Antipolo which I enjoy very much.
Where in the Philippines are you going to settle down? Anyway good luck you seem to have your future maped out very well.

Not sure when you made your visit to Antipolo City. I have been living here for almost two years and don't understand which Antipolo City you may have visited.
The one that you mentioned doe's not seem like the place that I'm living in right now.
Over the last year there has been a large number of building and road improvements and a lot more to follow. Yes there can be some flooding but nothing like that which affected Manila late last year.
The church is one of the most famous around and thousands visit every year.

As for the cost of housing I was using mine as an example. If I so wished I could go to numerous subdivisions within Antipolo City. All of which are excellent with fantastic views over looking central Manila. It's like everthing else the better the location the more you will have to pay to rent or buy.

Seardon, the one I visited twice is not too far from Manila at all. It may have changed, but it was about 1 year ago. I am sure there may be nice developments, but the whole place looked quite poor and undevelopped to me. I certainly can understand the rental cost....

Probably Braddockrd visited Antipolo but didn't go further than Marcos Highway and / or Cogeo.
I live in Antipolo myself, near Masinag market. During Ondoy, the typhoon which hit the capital region last september, a part of Antipolo was flooded as well. The part along Marcos Highway, from Santa Lucia mall untill Masinag, was flooded.
Along these streets are nice subdivisions, well developed. Immediate along the streets there's the common housing of a lot of Filipinos and their businesses.
If Braddockrd thinks this is poor and undeveloped, he better stays in Makati. But Makati is not the real Philippines.

visit my site, it's worth it: http://expatinthephilippines.com

My point was just to explain the reason why Seardon's rent was so cheap. This site is to enlighten others about life in the countries. I just thought people needed to understand that Seardon's rental referred to an underdeveloped area quite in the outskirts of Manila. Evidently, prices in Makati, Ortigas or even Malate/Ermita would be very different. Manila is not a cheap city to rent, if one is looking for Western style living....

Thank you for your input regarding Antipolo City.Would be good to meet up with you sometime.
Almost all the subdivisions around here are very well maintained some with breathtaking views.
I do have some idea where you live. I tried to drive there when we had the typhoon Ondoy but had to turn back. I drive that way a lot to get to Libis,Ortigas and Quezon City.
I and my wife visited your site and found it very informative and fascinating. It's a very good read. Keep safe and goodluck

Seadon,
Yes it would be nice to meet some day for coffee.
On my site it is possible to send a private mail. In it you can put your private email address and phone number so we can make an appointment.
Hope to meet you some day.

visit my site, it's worth it http://expatinthephilippines.com

HELLO MY NAME IS MARK I AM 59 A DISABLE VET WITH COMP.CHECK WITH S.S.VIETNAM VET! I WISH TO MOVE THERE OR ASIA. WITCH AREA DO YOU THANK BEST AND PRICE RANGEFOR RENT ! AM ON OXYGEN 24-7 WITH OTHER MED PROMBLEMS!! THANK YOU

Over the last few days I have had some good news.I have recieved confirmation in writing from the UK tax office, informing me that they have granted me total tax exemption relief on my pension.
You will only recieve this exemption on Company pensions but not State pensions.
Anyone wishing to try to get an exemption should use their web site www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr. You can also down load the necessary forms that you will need to make a claim.You should check first to make sure that the country that you are living in permanently has a tax relief treaty with the UK.

Hi Mark thank you for your comment.Not sure what area you should live in.There are so many wonderful places to choose from. Reading what you have said you should be near somewhere that has good medical facilities. Over here the cost of medical treatments and drugs is very high indeed, unless you are fully covered with full medical insurance. As for rental costs it all depends on where you would like to settle down.In Metro Manila it would be expensive. Further a field is very reasonable and ranges from 10.000 to 25.000 Pesos per month. This would give you a nice house to live in. Good luck and all the best.

i left cornwall when i was 11 and was born just up the river from Fowey on a farm my grandmother had a house on top of cliff in Fowey.
I expect to be back overthere in april and i will be spending one week in manila to get my perminant visa and then go home to Coolocan where our shop is and the internet and house
the buisiness is doing well now we manage to save money now which is a novel change and a long time coming still no taxies as yet. I am rather fortunate that the Shirley (my wife) is one very hard working lady. Our store is very busy everday and we customer who stand waiting for the computers. My wife has also started buying and selling uling now and is currently looking to expand that buisiness. We hope soon to turn our car into a taxi for more income all in good time there is no rush we need to extend our shop and internet buisiness.
Those of you wishing to live and work in the Philappines it is possible to make a reasonable income with the correct partner. We manage to save approx 3 to 4thou peso each week that is after our food and elec and internet. The money we are saving is to expand the buisiness and for more building on our house my step son starts his uni this year and we just paid for that also and he will be another 4 yrs till he is finished.

I was not sure where Antipolo was so i asked Shirley about it and she told me it is a very nice place and clean place to live. Our house is on a main road and even though accross the road we can see a small river and just open fields there is a lot of pollution there maybe one day when all the schooling is finished we can move to a nice rural place that would suit me fine. I have a friend who lives just outside of San Jose in Bulacan right on a river and he has a small farm there and raises pigs and grows crops what a great place so clean and green no pollution.

If anyone wants a three story house with pool one is for sale in Plamera it used to belong to an aussie who died his wife is wanting to sell to move to aust I think the price is about 2.4 it is oposite a school and suitable space for buisiness like store and internet. my wife has many contacts and can help with house purchases if needed. We were going to buy it but have decided to stay where we are as the buisiness here is good and good income for us. when i return perminantly there i will have no pension after 3 months hence the decision as at the moment our finances are ok and we do not want to have to start new again at the moment later maybe we will. Those wanting makati to live expect to pay approx 75000 to 1mil pes per square meter that is the price i was given way out of my price range.

to be honest i forgot about this web site This is in fact my second reply today i have done i think the first one did not send or something so if you get two replies sorry about that
i was born upstream from Fowey on a farm that was on the river also and then when still young we moved to Surrey and just went to Cornwall on holidays at place called Golant where the main st went underwater at high tide all good fun for a kid.
We have a house at Coolocan where we built our shop. My wife did most of it while i was back in Australia she also rewired and had painted the house. We were going to sell the house and move to San Fransico just a bit further out from where we are now. Nice house 3 story house with pool much nicer than our house. It used to be owned by an Aussie also but he died and his wife wants to sell it now i think the price is 2.5 mil my wife is trying to sell it for her. It is oposite a school and has a shop on the lower level and room for internet also but our buisiness is going well where we are now and so are somewhat reluctant to move at this time. I am content with where we are now as we manage to save money at the moment and we want to expand the buisiness also and have the space to do it. I used to be a carpenter so i have a fair idea of what we want and will supervise the work we want done. I was hopefull of coming back in march but now it looks like april i do not like being away from there so am very keen to return. Also my wife is keen also to have me back. Our buisiness is going from strength to strength mainly due to my wife she is good with customers and works hard to hard i think but she does enjoy the challange. We need to get more computers as we quite often have customers waiting and the store is to small now and need more space as we have so many customers now because my wife keeps the price as low as she can. She does not put up with any crap from kids on the computers some were not good and annoyed other customers so she told them to go and never come back now ladies bring their kids and girls come also as they know they are safe there so it all seems to be going well at the moment. The internet is so busy my wife can not always get a computer to talk to me. The cost each computer for elec and internet works out approx at 50 peso each and with no rent to pay and open 24 hrs a day the profit is good we charge 15 p per hour so need just over 3hrs on each computer each day before any profit we are cheaper than any other shop near us so that is why so many customers and also the computer shop just up the road has tendancy to overcharge so that helps us also people do not like to go there even though it is a nicer and bigger shop i am not sure how much profit they make as they rent the shop one cost we do not have. I have used the other shop when i have needed as ours often full and no computer for me so i go to the other shop as the most customers i have seen in there is only 4 so always i can get a computer and only use it for 1/2 an hour and that cost me 10p only do that when i need to contact my daughter in aust. My wife has also started buying sacks of uling and reselling she buys about 60 at a time and has customers in various markets she delivers to. The profit for that is only small approx 1500p after expenses she takes orders then buys and then delivers all on one day so for one day it is good bearing in mind the computers are still working as is the store. We will never get rich but we are making a reasonable living she also is now going to start a money lending buisiness and is in the process of getting that set up and licenced and will start with small amounts at first and as it grows and the capital is more will do more and more because many people know she is married to an australian they think she has much money and always asking for a loan lucky they have not seen my bank balance but then again maybe better if they did then would get away from the idea that all from other countries are rich. We are compared to many such as a traffic enforcer who makes a grand total of 130p per day and has to support and wife and kids on that. Also pay for medical and dental costs. When i come back i am going to pick my perment residency visa it is cheaper that always paying for extensions. I is sitting in immigration waiting for me to pick up i ran out of time last time i was there so we will do it first up.