TigerandDog

I refer you to my post last week about "My experience obtaining my tax refund". In that post I mentioned that the manager of my district revenue office considered my state pension (Australian Aged pension) to be a social security payment, and therefore not assessable. She obtained confirmation from CM Revenue Office that govt/state pensions are not assessable and as such there was no need to declare them. I also mentioned in replies to comments that individuals should seek advice from their respective TRD as like most things in Thailand interpretations can & will differ from office to office and between officers within the same office.

the tax deducted was on the interest earned in my Thai bank account. I closed all my home country bank accounts when I moved here in 2014, and yes 100% of the tax deducted will be refunded as the interest earned was well below the taxable amount.

I obtained both on the same day as application. However, items 3 & 4 under Eligibility were not requirements at my Amphur. In saying that I do realise that different Amphurs have different eligibility requirements.

Your comment, in a round about way, confirms somewhat my post Tuesday about my experience lodging my 2024 Thai tax return. It is relevant to the Australia/Thai DTA. My provincial TRD (CM) confirmed verbally with my District TRD that Govt pensions, and in the case of aussies receiving the aged pension, that they are not assessable. Only private pensions are assessable. The TRD deems the aussie aged pension to be a social security payment, which it actually is, and their advice was that under Thai tax law social security payments are not assessable and therefore they are tax free. TRD's in other provinces may interpret this differently, but even though I produced the figures for my aged pension, on the off chance I had to declare them, I was advised that it wasn't a requirement.

you missed the point completely. The original post WAS ONLY relevant to the Australia/Thai DTA, and that was clarified in the very first sentence of the original post. Everybody, including yourself, that posted comments that had nothing to do with the OZ/Thai DTA were all off topic and therefore irrelevant. It doesn't matter whether you were replying to someone else or not. It WAS off topic and irrelevant.

WHY are you posting about the US situation on a post that is ONLY relevant to the Australia/Thai DTA? Your comments are totally irrelevant to the original post.

According to my Provincial TRD their definition of pension is PRIVATE pension, NOT Govt pensions. They also deem the Australian Old Age pension to be a social security payment not a pension payment, and under Thai tax law social security is not assessable, therefore tax free. It's feasible that TRD's in other provinces may interpret the OZ/Thai DTA differently, but everyone who is commenting negatively is ignoring the fact that this was what I actually experienced and the information I was given when lodging my tax return for 2024. Would appreciate it if Administrators closed this post, as there are too many making comments that are irrelevant to what I posted.

To the best of my knowledge Mike Lister has only ever posted re US & UK. I've never seen him make any reference to the Oz DTA. The TRD dopes NOT, based on my experience yesterday, consider the Australian Aged pension, when remitted into Thailand, as assessable as THEY deem it to be a social security payment, which under Thai tax law is not taxable.

Your initial comment re the tax office not knowing what a DTA is is INCORRECT. It was an individual that didn't know, the manager was aware of the DTA and ascertained from the Provincial Revenue Office whether her interpretation of the DTA was correct. Apart from that I'm not really sure why you posted a comment about your German situation. This information was ONLY relevant to Australians. Other nationalities will need to do their own investigating relevant to their specific DTA's if they have one.

As stated in my post, the Oz Age Pension IS a Govt pension, which means it is a social security payment, and it was stated by the Provincial Revenue Office that it is NOT assessable under Thail tax law. Also under the Oz/Thai DTA Govt pensions/social security are ONLY subject to home country tax rules, therefore NOT tax assessable in Thailand, AND Govt pensions/social security payments are NOT listed under the definitions of income in the Thai tax legislation. Private pensions, e.g. superannuation etc, ARE assessable & subject to taxation in Thailand if remitted into Thailand for Thai tax residents, and then tax offsets are done against Oz tax paid as per the Oz/Thai DTA.

First of all the information in this post is ONLY relevant to Australian expats who are Thai tax residents and impacted by the Thai- Australia Tax Treaty. This afternoon, after compiling the total amount of my aged pension payments remitted to me in Thailand during the 2024 calendar year, I proceeded to visit my bank to obtain a letter detailing the interest I had earned and the tax that had been deducted. No issues encountered at the bank. I then proceeded to my District Revenue Office to lodge my tax return. The first question I asked was whether under the Thai-Australia DTA my pension was assessable for tax in Thailand. The Revenue Officer who was attending to me was unaware of the DTA and could not answer the question. The Revenue Office Manager was called over and she advised, but was not 100% certain, that as the aged pension was a payment made by the Australian Government, and therefore deemed by the Thai Revenue Dept to be a social security payment, in her opinion it was not assessable. She, for the sake of clarity, telephoned the Provincial Revenue Office and their response was that it was not assessable and therefore there was NO requirement for me to include any portion of it in my tax return. The end result being that my tax return comprised of only the interest earned and the tax deducted, thus meaning I will receive a 100% tax refund. So hopefully this helps other aussie expats who are concerned about whether or not their aged pension is going to be taxed here in Thailand.

It appears that everyone whose comments are in support of this ridiculous legislation have little or no knowledge of how this originally started. Israel, which did not exist as a country pre WW2 was created by the UN and annexed from Palestine. The real terrorists in this ongoing saga are Israel, and especially Netanyahu. First they annexed the Golan Heights from Syria, then they annexed the West Bank & Gaza from Palestine. The PLO, Hamas etc, whilst internationally labelled as terrorists, are doing nothing different to what Ukraine is currently doing with Russia. Defending their homeland from a terrorist govt continually expanding, and essentially invading, in the past Syria and currently Palestine. under the pretext of their national security. I'm not a supporter of the methods used by Hamas, BUT Netanyahu has ALWAYS been the instigator in these incursions into Palestinian territory. Netanyahu is the real terrorist here and he should be arrested on site. This only thing this stupid piece of US legislation does is show the USA's support for a terrorist Prime Minister.

Foreigners with Thai bank accounts pay 15% tax on all interest earned. Some banks deduct tax regardless of the amount, others wait until 20k baht interest has been earned and then back tax plus deduct tax on every additional interest payment made during the calendar year. Some banks pay interest monthly others only twice per year. Regardless, of which way the interest is paid and tax deducted you can lodge a tax return with the Revenue Dept, supported by a bank letter stating how much interest was earned and tax deducted, and as long as your total Thai assessable income is less than 120k per year you should receive a 100% tax refund.

That's not true. My annual Thai tax refund MUST be credited to my Krungthai account, and it gets interest paid on 30th June & 31st December each year. It's just an ordinary savings account. ttb pay interest on their non-fixed account, but to have a non-fixed account you MUST have an ALL FREE account (no interest paid & no bank fees). The all free account has a debit card, and to access funds in the non-fixed you need to transfer down to the all free account and then either withdraw or transfer the funds. I'm sure other banks also have accounts that pay interest, has nothing to do with whether you are a foreigner or not. The only aspect that being a foreigner impacts is the interest is subject to 15% tax, which you can claim back each year between January-March.

why do supporters ALWAYS lay the blame for poor results on the manager? Perhaps they should start and put pressure on the board to give the manager a squad capable of performing more consistently. How many good managers has Spurs had come & go over the past couple of seasons, Poch, Conti, Vllas Boas, Mourinho, Sherwood, Esperito Santo. Managers don't suddenly become bad/poor managers overnight. The last major trophy Spurs won was in 2008 and they've consistently finished top 5 or 6 under each of the aforementioned managers and still those managers were sacked by an incompetent board & Levy. The problem is twofold: #1. Look at how many injuries Spurs currently have, especially defenders. No team is going to get good results if all their first choice defenders are sidelined with injuries, you only need to look back a couple of seasons and see how Liverpool performed when they're first choice defenders were all injured. #2. Spurs will NEVER be a top team until Levy & the current board are all gone. Between them they only ever have a single means of trying to improve the team. Sack the manager. Perhaps they should take a look at the quality and depth of their squad for a change and blame themselves for their failure to buy better quality players when they are available. Sacking the manager is the easy option and actually the actions of a cowardly board. Give the manager the support he deserves and buy the players that HE wants. This applies to all the football clubs that have a history of a rotating door when it comes to managers.