tomacht8

555. That are simple basics. It would be more interesting to have precise information about which tax documents from the respective home country have to be presented, how and in what form, or are recognized, so that the mutual double taxation agreement is not violated. Unfortunately, there are so many detailed questions that even my Thai tax expert ( tax law lecturer at 2 leading Thai universities) cannot answer for me at the moment.

Ok. I wait for the details then.

555. Has nothing to do with ignorance, is more a well thought Decision. I'll just wait and see how this gigantic, bureaucratic monster show goes. I sit back and relax. The Thai tax authority doesn't even know by themselves how this is actually supposed to be organized or run in practice. I don't want to be one of the first guinea pigs where "experience" is first gained. I'm happy to pay any late fees, if at all. You are right: Everyone has to decide that for themselves.

What tax office in the world doesn't want that? That the citizen comes to his master and asks how much he has to pay. As long as I don't receive an official written request from the tax office, I won't do anything. Imagine you're not a member here, then you wouldn't know anything about all the new tax stress. The lever by which the tax office can get to the addresses of possible taxable foreigners is actually immigration. First of all, it would have to be checked whether the foreigner was in Thailand for 180 days in the calendar year. Then the assignment of the reporting addresses. What is it like for foreigners who were in Thailand for more than 180 days in 2024, but for example do not stay in Thailand at all for the first 4 months of 2025? Is there even a data interface between immigration and the tax authorities? Does the tax authority even have the resources, technology and manpower to carry out such a tax fishery involving millions of people? etc. There is still a mountain of unanswered questions. Everyone has to decide for themselves how to deal with it.

The Pattaya tax advisor. LoL. This sounds like every Thai tax advisor’s wet dream. Endless sheep voluntarily running to the slaughterhouse. First of all, I'll wait until, whichever tax office in the world, officially writes to me and provides me with the relevant infos and forms. In my case the timeline wouldn't work at all. And my local DTA also speaks against it. For example: My profits/income from rentals in 2024 in my home country. There I have time until the end of 2025 to declare my income to the local tax office. I will receive the tax assessment for 2024 perhaps in February 2026. Sorry Thailand, it is impossible for me to declare my 2024 profits and income at the end of March 2025.

https://www.forvismazars.com/th/en/insights/doing-business-in-thailand/payroll/personal-income-tax

You describe perfectly, one of the missing master pieces in this looming Thai tax puzzle. It is precisely these clear and unambiguous implementation directives that are missing. Not even the Pope knows which documents and evidence will be accepted, how, when and where. Unfortunately, in Thailand it is often the case that flip flop announcements and laws are made. What extra papers, translations, certifications and evidence will be required by Somchai in his regional tax office is anyone's guess. One thing is for sure, it will not be uniform across Thailand.

I completely agree. These are very specific cases. There is also the question of what amount of money constitutes such a moral obligation. The allowance for 44c is 10 million per year. It's very unlikely that the Thai Girlfriend needs an average of 800K a month for papaya salad and apartment rent (taxfree). I think that maintenance sums between 10-30K per month are irrelevant for the tax authorities. These small amounts usually result in only very small tax burdens, if any at all. It's mainly about the larger millions of amounts that are supposed to be exempt from tax. If you look at it from the tax officers perspective, 10 million tax-free = around 3 million tax loss. It is obvious that in such cases the tax officer looks very closely. The moral obligation must be very clear in order to transfer millions tax-free. The only example that comes to mind: The foreign boyfriend was playing with matches in the house of the Thai girlfriend and the house burned down without insurance. Yes, there would be a moral obligation to transfer a few million for reconstruction.

Could be entirely possible. The only question is what, for example, is a moral obligation towards the girlfriend in this context. I can understand when someone causes harm to another (e.g. traffic accident, the accident victim has a lifelong disability = moral obigation to support with money). Or at a ceremony (more like a one-off payment), e.g. for an engagement. There may already be Thai tax law rulings on this from the past. It is best to ask a Thai tax law specialist about this.

Ask yourself. How credible is a gift without anything in return between strangers? Thai law provides tax exemptions, for example, for gifts to relatives in the ascending or descending line or for maintenance payments to spouses and children. In these cases, you will receive up to 20 million THB for free periods.

555. Clearly the majority of Thais will not report this voluntarily. However, the international money transfer stands in the banking system. Who knows, when the Thai girlfriend builds a fancy new house for some million THB on the countryside, whether a regional tax officer won't come snooping around.

The problem also extends to all Thais who receive money from abroad. Direct Thai family members may be able to avoid tax liability using the gift allowances. However, very few normal Thais are familiar with Thai tax law and may be unfairly asked to pay. It will perhaps be worse for all the bar girls, Mia nois and Thai girlfriends who have no official family connections but have a sponsor abroad. A tax liability can quickly arise if the exemption limits are exceeded. This will definitely delay or avoid some gold chain-, car-, house-, house repair-, Iphone- or water buffalo - purchases. I think these bad implications for the thai economy, were completely overlooked by the initiating tax officials.

The Thai tax authority's entire project is so complex and complicated that it cannot be implemented quickly in practice. All the different DTAs, the evaluation of the different types of income, the ability to read all the different tax returns from all countries, to record and assign the different tax dates, all the transfers, cash exchanges, credit card transactions, ... this requires enormous IT power, menpower and well-trained tax specialists. At present, Thailand does not have the administrative capacity necessary to carry out such a gigantic tax fishing expedition. Anyone staying in Thailand for more than 180 days should first read the small print of their country-specific DTA. It should also be borne in mind that Thailand certainly does not want to drive away its well-off pensioners or potential condo investors. However, their unclear announcement has caused a lot of uncertainty and, already now, economic damage. How will it go on? I suspect that in the first phase of implementation the tax authorities will, or will have to, limit themselves to the low-hanging fruits. The easiest group are those foreigners who run to their regional tax offices, ask perhaps not-so-smart questions, and come out with a new tax number and 2024 tax forms. The second group will be those foreigners who have high single transaction amounts from abroad to Thailand. The first sample is larger than 10 million THB, then larger than 5 million THB, etc. Whether this data can be so easily passed on to the tax authorities by the commercial banks is currently generally questionable and controversial. The third group could be pensioners who have their pension automatically paid out to a Thai bank account every month. A 2 account model might be advisable here. Have the current pension payments 2024, 2025, ... paid out to a domestic account. And transfers to Thailand should only be made from a second account that contains savings, interest, rental income, etc. that were received before December 31, 2023. The burden of proof is reversed in tax law. The tax authority claims that there is taxable income, the citizen then has to prove that this is not the case. Everyone who is affected should prepare for the eventuality. It's good if you can prove that the money you transferred to Thailand in 2025 are, for example, savings from 2022. I wish everyone the best of luck with this annoying topic.

Overall, many of the labor laws are outdated and some are downright xenophobic. Just think, for example, of all foreigners who are married to Thais. If the Thai spouse has a small business, the foreign spouse is generally prohibited from helping out even minimally. Even if the foreign spouse tries to get a work permit, the bureaucratic hurdles are so high, complicated and costly that in many cases it is not economically viable and the effort is not worth it. Or think, for example, of the many English-speaking pensioners. Many would like to teach Thai kids better English, even for free, for a few hours a week. Forbidden. Or consider the construction trade. Many Thais learned the job through trial and error. I recently had 3 “self-trained” electrical Thai professionals come to me for a grounding potential measurement. None of them knew how to do it. The fact that foreigners have specialist knowledge, other techniques, other tools, etc. and that international knowledge transfer can be enriching in general, unfortunately exceeds the imagination of many Thai Lawmakers

I would like to buy another condo for 5-6 million, but the unclear tax situation is putting me off. I would have to transfer the money from my foreign account to my Thai account in order to run then the risk of having to pay another 30% tax on it in 2025. How and what evidence I have to provide to prove that my money has already been taxed in my home country is completely unclear. I don't want to go through the bureaucratic hassle and the fight with a local Thai tax officer who may not even know the procedure and only want to get extra taxmoney from me.

Selling price 62,500 baht for 25 grams of Coke stretched with baking powder. Expected profit maybe 20-30K. For a possible profit of 600-800 Euros, he risks 8-15 years in Thai prison. How can someone be so completely stupid.

These aren't police officers. These are street robbers. They shoot around wildly with their weapons and hit people with batons. There is no better example than this video, which shows the absolute incompetence of these pseudo police officers who are completely unfit for police duty. They are a danger to the public.

"The ministry is also considering the criteria for designating green areas for land and building tax exemptions, which could allow landowners to turn unused land into public gardens and thus avoid paying tax. Another possible exemption could come from developing land into public parks or forest parks, providing clear rules are set." Who would run something like that, given the existing squatter rights? Instead of always thinking about more and more taxes, Thailand should properly measure all properties nationwide and issue legally secure property documents. The waiting times for an upgrade of property documents sometimes took many, many years or decades, if you are not willing to pay "extra".

What about investments and capital inflows from abroad? I think the announcement of the new tax regulations for money transfers from abroad has unsettled many people. There are definitely a lot of expats but also Thais with fat overseas accounts who have put their money transfers/investments on the back burner. The straw man company model with which many foreigners want to secure their investments in land/house/business has also come under fire. And the paperwork for everything, be it setting up a company/work permit/registration obligations/visas/residence permits, has increased dramatically. Anyone who hinders capital inflows and complicates the framework conditions for investments should not be surprised if growth fails to materialize.

These are not trained security guards, but aggressive thugs. It's also strange that this is a supposedly independent group of thugs and the bar(s) doesn't want to take responsibility for them and their nasty behavior. (These guards were reportedly part of a freelance group providing security for multiple bars, though they were not directly linked to any specific establishment.)

Yes.

You can turn it around however you want. Anyone who goes the company route and officially founds "his" company with a 49% equity stake but pays in 100% capital, should think carefully about who they are giving the remaining 51% as a gift. In most cases, the thai straw men are family members and friends of the Thai lawyer who sets up the company. When it gets going tough, it's of no use at all, if you have a blank contract in your drawer where the 51% Thai shareholders give up their voting rights to the foreigner. At that moment, the entire contract construction becomes illegal.

I do it the same way. There is a saying: Never go to your Lord unless he has summoned you.

I recently had a meeting with my Thai tax expert. He also gives lectures on tax law at various universities. Shortly: 1. This is not new tax law, but the whole thing is just a new interpretation of current tax law. 2. This new interpretation is controversial. The legality of this interpretation is currently being questioned by various interest groups, including in tax law court proceedings. 3. The law still applies that if you transfer income from an old year to Thailand in a new year, then it is tax-free. Whether the new interpretation breaks the existing law will be decided in court cases. 4. In my case: I have had a Pink ID card = tax number for decades, but I have never had to personally pay income taxes or receive any mail about it from the tax office. His advice is not to go to the regional tax office and ask stupid questions. 5. It is not the case that banks automatically report all financial transactions from abroad to Thailand to the tax authorities. In addition to the fact that the tax authorities do not have the IT system capacity to carry out such total monitoring, this would also violate the rights of the account holders. The reporting process works exactly the other way around. If the tax authorities have reasonable suspicion, they can request the account holder's bank details. 6. According to my tax advisor, you become noticeable when you do more than 400 foreign transactions per year. 7. If you transfer your savings to Thailand, it is not taxable income. My tax advisor recommended that I include "savings" as a text on my transfers. 8. Large sums should be transferred right at the beginning of the year so that it is clear that they cannot be income for the current year. 9. You can transfer tax-free cash gifts to Thai family members amounting to 20 million baht per year. However, you have to be careful to what extent gift allowances are covered by the tax authorities in your home country. 10. Overall, this new tax interpretation only causes uncertainty for foreign investors and expats. Therefore, all that remains is to wait until the relevant directive rulings emerge from court cases.

Thailand did not needs this kind of trash people. Kick him out and blacklist. Problem solved.