mojaco

Monday, March 3, 2025 First-Ever Visit to pay Thailand Tax Small Local Amphur , Chiang Rai, tax office My wife and I are retired citizens from the USA. She keeps 800,000 Baht in the bank to extend her stay every year and I bring in about 80,000 Baht per month from our combined USA Social Security stipend. There is a USA-Thailand Double Tax Agreement (DTA) which says that Thailand cannot tax our Social Security funds when they are brought into Thailand. I prepared a summary sheet showing the total funds we brought into Thailand which were 100% from our combined Social Security stipend in the USA. That summary shows the “non-assessable funds” brought into Thailand, and the deduction for our Social Security funds, and then the various other deductions and allowances per the Thai tax code. The bottom line was that no tax would be owing on the total monies brought into Thailand. There were three staff in the empty local amphur tax office and they were all very friendly. I showed them my summary sheet of incoming funds, deduction, and deduction for the Social Security funds. I then showed them the section in the Thai language Double Tax Agreement which disallows Thailand taxing remitted USA Social Security funds. The two ladies helping me could not understand the Thai “legalease” of that DTA section regarding non-taxation of USA Social Security no matter how hard I tried to explain. They then began thinking to tax my wife’s Social Security portion for some reason even though I emphasized that the DTA forbids that. They were in confusion as to what should be done as they had never encountered any other DTA from someone. Finally the head lady asked if I had already paid taxes on the Social Security funds in the USA, which I had. They then were happy to give their decision that “You do not owe any tax here in Thailand because you have already paid taxes on those funds in the USA” (all this without any proof to that on my part). I asked how I could prove in the future that I had tried to “pay my taxes today” but they would not write a short note to that effect, and could not “process my taxes” because there were no “assessable funds” to process. When I asked for advice of what to do if I get audited in the future by someone, the head person said “Just tell them you have already paid taxes on those funds in the USA”. Not the correct answer, but it satisfied them enough to have me leave not owing taxes, so I left. In summary my conscience is clear. I tried to “pay my (zero) taxes”. As an aside they did tell me that I needed to use my pink card as my tax ID so they processed that into the tax system and destroyed my previous “non-pink-card” tax id card. I am guessing that next year will be the same experience . . .

Hello, I am a US Citizen living in Thailand continuously since 1998. I signed up with "Transferwise" (wise.com now) many years ago and used my mail forwarding address in the USA as my "residential address". In June of this year I got the same email you got, giving me two weeks to get a proper physical, residential address or my account would be closed. I needed a "Proof of Thai Address" to change my "residence" to where I am in Thailand and the only thing I could come up with was a Bangkok Bank account statement. But the address on that was in Thai, which won't work. I went to my local Bangkok Bank and they created for me an English version of the address and printed out an official bank statement, stamped and signed by the bank. Wise.com accepted that proof of residence and now I have a verified English language address in Thailand which Wise.com uses. That does mean there are certain stocks in the USA I can no longer buy and I cannot take advantage of Wise's interest bearing account, but all is well. I think that Wise are victims of "Know Your Customer" that the USA is requiring these days. Go ahead and find out what you have with an English language version of your Thailand physical address and see if Wise will accept that. By the way, I was not able to edit my address myself, it was locked. I had to go through verification by sending the bank letter to Wise.com for them to approve the address, and then they changed the address (which is locked again now).

Today I was able to get a no-hassle replacement Bangkok Bank ATM card for my bank in Bangkok by going to my other Bangkok Bank in Chiang Rai. My card had quit working in ATMs for some reason. I had no problems getting the replacement, but maybe it was because I also have an account in that Chiang Rai branch as well as the one in Bangkok..

Thanks for your response. It must have been some defect in the Opera browser I was using. It seems to be OK now on its own.

You new format creates this on my Samsung Galaxy S8 phone

I had Crystal Lite (non-alcoholic) drink mix refused entry by Customs as needing a "food additive" certification from Thailand FDA. There are no powder type such drink mixes in Thailand. Crystal Lite has wonderful flavors.