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Good post! One point I like to add: If ww income taxation comes into place you would pay thai PIT taxes on your capital gains i.e. share gains as those are not taxed in the country of origin. Your pre 2024 savings would be safe, but that does not help much because you pay a lot on your 2025 capital gains like 35% after reaching a low threshold. TH does not have special rates for cap gains even if the profit is not transfered. Another article: https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/thai-revenue-department-is-drafting-new-tax-laws-471430 Ms Kulaya pointed out that the proposed rule changes will depend on international cooperation and information exchange as Thailand is already a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for tax information exchange amongst countries. There are many other complications too. For example, foreign holders of the 10-year Long Term Residence visa are exempt from taxation on foreign income remitted to Thailand, a very popular marketing ploy. However, they may not be exempt from worldwide income not remitted to Thailand unless a special clause was included in any legislation. I have mentioned this several times that the taxation of unremitted income could become a big financial risk for all LTR holders. However Pattaya mail is not exactly a law journal it shows that there is a certain risk and one has to ascertain the situation before Mid June 2025 IMHO.

Not true to my understanding, however I could be wrong . USA exchanges date to my understanding with several countries like Germany, Singapore and others. Example: https://www.iras.gov.sg/news-events/newsroom/entry-into-force-of-reciprocal-fatca-iga-with-the-united-states-of-america

Nevertheless thai RD will receive information about your US accounts to my understanding and that it what is concerning most members here.

Thanks for your post! The interest on USD is a joke with thai banks (as I have expected.) So only a kind of emergency fund makes sense to keep in a thai bank IMHO. There should always be the option to withdraw 5K EUR a day in baht per credit card (with BKK for example 150K Baht cash withdrawal per day at counter) with the right credit card in TH or use western union (very high fees) in an emergency.

IMHO thailand will tax income i.e. capital gains, interest etc they will not tax the principial i.e. "savings". Of course they could demand such extensive documentation that you would run into trouble but IMHO the principal should be and will be tax free. So if you have 500K USD profit from your house sale in 2024 and are not a thai tax resident and now invest the money and transfer it in 2025 only the interest + cap gains etc should be taxable as your country of origin had the right to tax the profit in 2024.

It is called FATCA for the US of A. So you are correct that USA is not part of CRS but nevertheless the US transmits data to other countries under FATCA rules which is very similiar to CRS. I am not aware if currently the US IRS transmit data to Thailand. However the USA transmits currently a similiar dataset as CRS from the US to Germany for example. https://www.bzst.de/DE/Privatpersonen/Selbstauskuenfte/FATCA/fatca_node.html

Good post! Not sure if someone in his right mind would want to invest in a thai mutual fund instead of an SPX or QQQ etc. Maybe I am mistaken and the Thai Banks have great cost and tax effective ETFs, if yes please educate me. Even then the risk is there that in the case of an economic turmoil they impose capital controls etc (remember Malaysia?).

Thai RD knows anyway via CRS the value of your holdings as the max account/portfolio value is transfered anually if you are a tax resident. What I meant was make sure that you do not have substantial cap gains in 2025 when it is unclear if unremitted income will be taxed even if you are holding an LTR visa. Also be carefull regarding remitted income in 2024 as it is only 99% sure that this income will not be taxed if you hold an LTR visa. Godspeed to us all on this bumpy ride!

Great post, thanks! Which bank would you recommend for USD holdings in TH and what rate do the TH banks pay on USD? Thanks!

I read the mutual fund part in the BP differently. It is stated that only PIT is concerned so the mutual fund ITSELF as a fund does not have to pay (corporation or fund) taxes. Sadly it seems they have not given up (yet) on their plan to tax all international income. Which brings the LTR visa back in the limelight with its tax exemption on REMITTED income. So if ww taxation comes into place it is NOT assured that unremitted income will be exempted as well. BOI refuses a clear answer so far regarding unremitted income. This is just a current description of the situation. Be aware of the possible risks if you rely on LTR tax exemption for unremitted income in 2025.

No problem, TRD COULD just assume all transfers are income and fully taxable. This is the way the German IRS doest it if you do not file they put out a guess. If you are still inside the country you COULD have a problem.

And beforehand income was only assesable if transfered in the same year. So in effect income from before 2024 is tax emempt from thai PIT IMHO.

However it could happen that every farang needs to file in 2024 et voila nearly all farangs who are tax resident are in the RD system. I never understood the scaremongering issue/debate myself. It all depends on the perspective so let each one decide for themself which risk they do want to take. Some people do boom boom in Soi 6 without protection and deem it ok and consider it only a minor risk 🙃

I agree there is no major clarification in the western sense of understanding but that is all we have and quite probably all we will get in the near future. However number 162 helped a lot I think.

For example here an interview with TRD (to my understanding it was directly with TRD) https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2818689/navigating-new-foreign-income-rules Then there was also the clarification that income generated before 2024 was not liable for taxes, these small kind of clarifications. Nothing of the kind like 50 pages with Q&A and rules how to implement the new tax interpretation.

It is not such a good idea to give a bank carte blanche when to exchange currencies. Take that from someone who worked in trading.

I remember they once said they would clarify and then they did some weeks ago with a 1 pager and some pictures right from a childrens book 🙂 I not expect them to deliver much more then that... Of course no mentioning of handling of comingled accouts, accounting methode like FIFO etc. In my home country there would be hundred of pages of instructions but TiT.

Talking about semantics is only one aspect, the main aspect is what Trd will decide what remittance they will tax and which not. It COULD very well be that they will only care for bank transfer, no one knows before they either make an announcement or before we get feedback from people who had their tax declarations procesed and maybe not even then.

We franky do not know. No one knows currently. CC transactions is similar to gifts, money was brought into TH but will not be taxed. COULD be the same for cc. Nota bene if I get a loan and pay it back only the profit part will be taxes but there is no profit. In the extreme case I do not repay the loan until 10 years later. Again this was the way for rich thais in the past decades! So before someone shouts this loophole will be closed has to think why other loopholes were not closed for the last decades.

Great post! My understanding is that I will keep a seperated account at the start of the year (previous year not in TH) with 100.000 USD account balance in cash. Now I will remit only from this account to TH so all my other accounts are hopefuly save. Any refil of the account will be a gift from a close relative. As soon as the accounts are mingled you COULD be in a world of pain as I have hundreds of trades, dividends etc per year.

There is also the mistake where he claims a capital gains rate of 10% in Thailand which IMHO is not the case as PiT will be applied to cap gains so up to 35%. This all shows that the whole tax issue is completly unclear.

BOI claims that the LTR visa exempts income so they claim something which apparently they cannot back up by a statement from TRD nor are they entitled to my understanding to make such a statement as you correctly point out TRD is the sole arbiter of these issues. In addition TRD is not answering any english emails with taxation issues that arise in the future. They will deal with it when you hand in your tax declaration and then it is too late to change anything. Thailand knows about all ww income via CRS which apparently you are not aware of. Neither are capital gains taxed at source which you are also not aware of.

Easy to make/invent the distinction in case of a credit card I: am getting a loan and I am not receiving funds/making profit as I have to pay them back. BTW this is what the rich Thais are doing for decades receiving loans from offshore companies. You do understand that it is all a matter of interpretation of the law? Logic, especially western logic does not apply in this case. All I am saying is that the case is not clear cut.

one of the better videos about the topic of taxes: Gifts should be OK Are ATM withdrawal taxable is an open question according to this gentleman (like I said all along). Maybe taxable.

IMHO it depends in the case of investment. Example 100.000 USD bought Apple in 2015 2024 worth 500.000 USD If you then sell the stock while being tax resident in TH in 2025 I assume only the 100K are safe from taxation while the 400k could/are taxable when remitted to TH. No one knows if the first 100K are tax free or if they calculate the tax based on a mix. Only cash i.e. money in an account should be tax free.