patrickl

What if you need a bank certificate balance letter for another reason? Not immigration? Will they also freeze it? Like just go to the bank and ask for a balance statement. Because for family visas (Thai children) there's no 3 months in the bank requirement. The money can be in the account for 1 day before. So it wouldn't make any sense to freeze it right?

That's just crazy. I hope other banks don't follow this as well.

Thanks, that makes sense. I searched but there's no details about dependent / kids visa. For those the money only needs to be in the account for at least 1 day, even the day before is fine. Would Bangkok Bank freeze that for 4 months too? Have there been any reports?

Assume you have a pension of say 80k Baht per month. 80x12 = 960,000. That puts you beyond having to have any money in the bank account. Yet immigration still wants a letter showing your balance from Bangkok Bank. Do they still lock money? And how much?

I am helping someone file taxes for their Swiss pension. Most of the funds (90-95%) are transferred every month from Switzerland to Thailand via wire transfer. It doesn't come from savings but straight from the pension (pension -> bank account in Switzerland -> bank account in Thailand). We went to the tax office in one of the major cities today and the officer said there's no need to file for taxes as pensions from outside of Thailand, only if there is income from a job or earnings from rentals, etc. and that pensions are not taxed plus there is a double tax agreement with Thailand and Switzerland. We informed them that no taxes are paid in Switzerland because the person lives here all year and the officer said still there's no need to pay taxes, as the amount of tax would be in her own words "very small" (around 30,000 Baht, after deduction of allowances) and the medical bills and other things that could be deducted are likely higher (the officer didn't even want to see those and we didn't mention any or bring any). I hope they will not come knocking at the door one day but they basically refused to even allow filing taxes or get a tax number.

I'm asking for someone who has a Swiss pension. Is this taxable under the new law? Can anyone recommend a good tax attorney/office to discuss this?