skatewash

Getting a yellow house registration book very likely involves getting a certificate of residence from immigration.

You can begin as early as January. Obtain tax withholding documents from your Thai banks that have withheld tax on your interest earned. With these documents and your Thai Tax ID card go to your local Thai revenue Department and ask to file your Thai Income Tax Return, a PND-90 in order to reclaim the tax withheld. Having the tax withheld documents from your bank goes a very long way in explaining why you are at the revenue department. The documents sort of speak for themselves, you needn't be worried that they won't understand why you're there even though English may not be spoken understood widely. They will likely help you fill it out (only a few entries needed to report your tax withheld on interest) or they might even do it for you. Retain a copy and use as a template for filing next year's return. File the return with the revenue department. In 3-6 weeks you will receive by mail a refund check that you can deposit into your bank account. Note: filing can be done year-round but if you file outside the normal period (January to end of March) you may have to pay a very nominal penalty fee. Once you get comfortable with filing your tax return you can do it yourself online (no visit to revenue department) but you will likely need to use Google Translate machine translation from Thai to English available in the Chrome browser, and maybe even the Google Lens app on your phone to translate the buttons from Thai into English. It's a bit like doing a crossword or Sudoku puzzle. It's not for everyone. Patience is required. Again, assuming you are not able to read Thai. The process after filing online is the same, wait 3-6 weeks for your check to arrive. The register your Thai Tax ID account number with your Thai banks thing only works for "regular" savings accounts only, does not work for fixed term accounts (in these withholding is mandatory and cannot be waived). However, all tax withheld can be reclaimed (assuming you are below the minimum income under which no tax is due and if you have only interest from savings this is likely the case).

That might be true for the EZ Savings account. It's a different beast, no passbook. Good interest rate though 0.9% APR. Fixed deposit accounts were never covered by the tax withholding waiver is my understanding. I was hoping that since Krungsri Bank's Mee Tae Dai savings account was considered a regular savings account that the SCB EZ Savings would be as well. It might not be. I use the Krungsri Bank account for my retirement extension 800k baht.

Follow up: I remain with CAT because only CAT can apparently service my condominium. True, AIS, and 3bb, could not. I can't complain about the service was just hoping to get a cheaper price. Not possible where I live in Phuket.

SCB update: Visited my local SCB branch following up on having had tax withheld on interest earned in my EZ Savings account which was opened with my Thai Tax ID. In an effort to be understood clearly I google translated into Thai three statements: 1. Can I stop tax withholding on interest earned on my savings account? 2. I have a That Tax ID number. 3. My interest earned during the year is and will be below 20,000 baht. I brought along a printout of my account showing the interest paid in June 2022 and the tax withheld. I am confident that they understood what I wanted to do, "stop having tax withheld on interest earned." Unfortunately, the answer from three bank tellers was no, cannot be done. One of them asked me if any bank did this for me and as I happened to have my Krungsri Bank passbook I showed them the latest June interest payment and there was no tax withheld on that. I could have also shown them the same thing with my Bangkok Bank passbook, but I didn't it with me. They mentioned something about the 20,000 baht limit but I didn't follow what they were trying to tell me other than they quite clearly said that SCB could not stop the tax withholding for me. As it was close to closing time I thanked them for their help and will let the matter drop. Luckily, there is an alternative to reclaim the interest withheld, namely filing a Thai Income Tax Return. I've had success with that in the past, but if I could have gotten SCB to stop the tax withholding I could have avoided doing a return entirely. In any case, I'm satisfied that they understood what I was trying to do. That's something. ???? I can only speculate why they said it cannot be done. Maybe they misunderstood the guidance from the Thai Revenue Department, maybe they don't know how to do it in the SCB computer system, maybe it can't be done in the SCB computer systems. I don't know. But as I have an alternative I will take no for an answer and use the alternative.

I filed this year early in January. Got my refund check in maybe 3-4 weeks. The year before it took much longer, ,maybe as long as 6 weeks. Maybe that was covid related delay. I needed to file the past couple years because I had interest from a fixed deposit account.

It's possible my tessaban was doing me a favor. Actually the process of getting the yellow book was pretty straightforward (no translations necessary) with the two Thai witnesses being the major hurdle. It sure seemed like it was produced in the tessaban but it could indeed have originated from the amphur. My understanding is that they both are issued by the amphur. I'm pretty sure the Thai ID equivalent given to foreigners is the 13-digit number at the top of the card which as you say does match the yellow book ID number. I understand the actual Thai ID numbers are also 13-digit number (but theirs don't begin with a 6). I never noticed the number under the picture on the pink ID card. I don't have any idea what that is. Puzzling.

Yes, and you only find out if you've been successful up to six months later (if it's an account that only pays interest semiannually), One nice thing about the Krungsri Bank Mee Tae Dai account is that interest is paid monthly. I will give it a try with SCB this week, trying to pick a time when the bank will not be busy (maybe mid-afternoon). If all else fails I'll just go ahead and file my Thai Income Tax Return. The process of doing that is pretty easy after the first time you do it. I do it online. They now mail you a check like they used to do for the refund instead of having to deal with Krung Thai bank. But it's worth the effort to avoid it if possible.

That is my experience. Actually it's a slightly more involved story... I obtained my yellow book and its associated Thai ID 13-digit number years ago from my local tessaban. I asked about getting my pink ID card but was told no. Only years later did I realize that I needed to obtain my pink ID at another office, the amphur office, not the tessaban. I went to obtain my Thai Tax ID with only my yellow house registration book, but for whatever reason I was given a Thai Tax ID number that did not match my existing Thai ID number (from the yellow book). Years later I got my pink ID card based on my yellow book. That ID number matches my yellow house registration book but not the Thai Tax ID. So I agree it's a timing issue (which one you get first: ID number or Thai Tax ID number). But I think it's also possible that even if you give the revenue department an existing ID number they may on occasion just put you in for a new Thai Tax ID number even when they could theoretically just use your existing ID number from yellow book or pink ID card. Also possible is just a mistake or oversight. It doesn't seem to cause any problems however at least with the Revenue Department.

Sounds like I should attempt to fix my SCB account to get tax withholding waived (I'm below the 20,000 baht threshold of earned interest in the aggregate as well as all individual accounts). It's not a big deal but if I get it fixed at SCB then I won't have to file a Thai Income Tax Return (PND-90). Not having to file that is worth it. I think part of the problem is that they were just trying to get my SCB EZ-Savings Account opened at the time. It wasn't easy, took over an hour. Most of it having to do with IRS regulations as I'm American. I didn't try to push the withholding tax issue. Maybe when I go back and only address that single issue I will be more successful.

My only guess is a rumor I passed on about why tax withholding might not work with SCB. The rumor I had heard concerns SCB not being able to enter the Thai Tax ID number for a foreign account holder (at least one opened with a passport number) because there isn't a field for it to be entered in. Or rather, whatever field it is entered in not the right field to have tax withholding waived. This is consistent with my experience where I have successfully added my Thai Tax ID number to Bangkok Bank and Krungsr Bank savings accounts and as of June 2022 interest is being earned on those accounts without tax being withheld. I used my Thai Tax ID to open an SCB EZ-Savings Account along with my passport. I noticed that as of June 2022 interest was earned and paid but tax was withheld. This wasn't because they don't know that I had a Thai Tax ID card because I gave them that card during account opening. My guess concerns whether they were simply not able to enter the Tax ID number for my account. Or that they even entered the Thai Tax ID for my SCB account but somehow it is not in the field which is looked at to determine whether tax withholding on interest earned takes place. Does anyone have an SCB account (specifically a EZ-Savings Account) which they opened using their passport and Thai Tax ID, for which they are getting tax withheld waived? I can imagine a circumstance where a foreign customer uses their pink ID card number, or yellow house book registration number (rather than their passport number) to open an account and it happens to be the case that their ID number is the same as (or matches) their Thai Tax ID number. In this particular case it may be similar to a Thai person wherein I believe their Thai Tax ID number is the same as their Thai ID number. In this case, perhaps tax withholding would be waived on the account (because effectively the Thai Tax ID is entered in the proper field). Whereas for myself and other foreigners who opened the account with our passport numbers instead of our Thai Tax ID number being in the "correct" field, that field is instead filled with our passport number. SCB may in fact actually enter our Thai Tax ID number in the account data but if it is not in the "correct" field then tax withholding is not waived. This would explain why it is an issue with some foreigners but not for (apparently) any Thai people. Of course, the above is only speculation based on rumor, except for the fact that I can say in my experience Bangkok Bank and Krungsri Bank waive interest withholding for my accounts, but SCB doesn't.

I'm guessing you may have to pay for the translation services into Thai for the documents you want legalized (even if you have already done this) in order to get them (translation agents) to do the extra service of legalizing the documents at MFA (which is the thing you need done). I'm guessing that what you pay for the translation that you may not want or need will be cheaper than going through a legal services firm. https://www.firstchoicetranslation.com/en/legalization-service/

Also, I had the Thai Tax ID added to my Bangkok Bank Savings Account and in June 2022 interest was earned but no tax withheld. So, to recap, waiving the tax withheld on interest seems to work for Bangkok Bank and Krungsri Bank, but not SCB.

Just to share my recent experience with tax withholding on interest earned in savings accounts. But first, I should mention that this waiving of tax withheld on interest never applied to fixed term accounts but only regular savings accounts. I obtained a Thai Tax ID years ago for the purpose of reclaiming my tax withheld on interest. I went to my existing Mee Tae Dai savings account at Krungsri Bank and had the Thai Tax ID added to the registration of my account. From that point on Krungsri Bank has never withheld taxes on my interest earned. Interest is paid in this particular account every month and when I checked it for June 2022 I confirmed that interest was earned but tax was not withheld. I opened a SCB EZ Savings Account using my Thai Tax ID, by which I mean that I gave my Thai Tax ID card to the clerk when I was opening the account. It does not appear that I was successful in getting tax withheld because when I checked my statement for June 2022 I see that 15% tax was withheld on the interest earned (I am well below the 20,000 interest earned threshold). So it does not appear that SCB was able to associate my Thai Tax ID with my EZ Savings account. I have heard the following explanation for why this might be the case: When a Thai opens a bank account they provide their Thai Tax ID number as the identifying number for the account. When a non-Thai opens a bank account they typically provide their passport. In this case the passport is the identifying number for the account. So even if you give them your Thai Tax ID, SCB does not seem able to register this number with your account as the identifying number. Without this connection (due to the inability to store your Thai Tax ID for a foreigner owned account) you don't qualify for the waiver of tax withholding on earned interest. Don't know is this is true or not, but it's what I've heard. In any event, I can confirm that as of June 2022 Krungsri Bank isn't withholding tax on my savings account but SCB is.

If you are looking to get MFA to legalize some documents then possibly contact a translation service in Bangkok. It's my understanding that an extra service some of them provide is the legalization at the MFA. The advantage to doing it this way is that you would pay the translation service directly (via credit card, bank transfer, etc.) and that the translation service would handle the payment to MFA for the legalization. Possibly the translation service would be willing to provide just the MFA legalization for you, or maybe you would also have to have them do the translation too. Or perhaps there are companies that do the MFA legalization itself separate from translation.

In pursuing your extension of stay for tourism (30 days) immigration will not be interested in seeing an onward ticket out of Thailand.

Going to Phuket Immigration to get your 30 day extension for tourism is a good idea. Here are the requirements: https://piv-phuket.com/short-stay-extenions/visa-exemption/ You need to have a TM-30 done on your behalf. It is the legal obligation of the landlord or manager of the place you are staying. Go to them and ask if they have registered you as staying overnight at their address with Phuket Immigration. They can do this online. If they have done it ask them for a screenshot of the screen showing that you have been registered with immigration. The alternative if you landlord/manager will not cooperate you have two choices. You can register yourself but this requires cooperation from your landlord which is unlikely given their attitude toward their existing legal obligations. They would have to give you things like a copy of their Thai ID and Blue House Registration book. Again, this is probably a waste of time because your landlord is a scofflaw. In the event you get no help from your landlord, my recommendation is to check into the absolutely cheapest hotel/hostel you can find and make sure they register your address with immigration (that is, file a TM-30 online for you). You don't have to stay there, just get a screenshot of your address registration. Take that with you to immigration to prove your address. The 30 day extension you will be granted at immigration is added on to your existing permission to stay. You will lose no days by applying early. Next time you stay somewhere in Thailand your first question to your landlord/hotel is are you going to report my stay to immigration. If the answer is no, stay somewhere else.

It makes perfect sense to me to get the re-entry permit immediately after you get your new annual extension of stay: 1) you are already at the immigration office 2) there's no convenience fee for getting the re-entry permit at the immigration office (while there can be at the airport) 3) your re-entry permit, wherever obtained, is good until your current extension of stay expires 4) while the form may ask for your travel plans there's no penalty for not answering those questions (they are optional) and moreover your answers are ignored by immigration anyway. That is, you get a re-entry permit good up until your permission to stay expires, not up until when you say you are going to be traveling out of Thailand. 5) the only guarantee that you will be able to do something tomorrow is to have already done it today or yesterday ???? 6) one less thing to do at the airport

That's not my understanding of how it works. I believe what are being quoted are marginal interest rates. So for example, if I have 800,000 baht in the Mee Tae Dai account the first 100,000 baht earns 1.1% interest APR, the next 900,000 baht earns 0.9%. So, if you had 2,000,999 baht in the account, first 100,000 baht earns 1.1%, next 1,900,000 earns 0.9%, and the last 999 baht earns only 0.5%. Interest rates quoted from Krungsri Bank: https://www.krungsri.com/Krungsri2020/media/Banking-Rate/deposit-rates/en/deposit-rates-21042565-en.pdf

First of all one sets up to the maximum extent possible "paperless" preferences with all your correspondent businesses. The volume of snail mail is very small, but not zero. From financial institutions it is mostly new credit cards, which you can have forwarded to you unopened or have it opened and scanned per your choice and then forwarded. I don't receive bank statements by snail mail. Second, even letters that do contain account numbers, etc., often don't show the entire number, masking most of the number and showing only the last four digits for instance. In the 10 years I've been with travelingmailbox.com I've not had any problems. Finally, I guess I'm more comfortable with staff at a virtual mailbox who handle hundreds of scans per day and to whom I'm an impersonal box number looking at my personal information than I would friends or family, which is my only alternative.

I'm a satisfied user of this service for over 10 years. You can get a Florida address (Tallahassee) for an extra charge. I successfully opened a Charles Schwab Checking account using my virtual mailbox address from Thailand. However, if anyone is really interested in whether the virtual address is a residential address or not (it's not) they can easily find out from the USPS. In other words, Schwab could have easily determined that my address was not residential, but they didn't do so (at the time, this was several years ago). So, if the virtual address satisfies a bank it's down to the bank not really being interested enough to check.

As the OP is American he should know that US passport renewal takes about 2-3 weeks, and is handled entirely by mail by US Embassy Bangkok. Very easy to do this: https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/adult-passport-renew/

Value Plus at Central Festival in Phuket Town (4th floor banking zone in the old Central Mall Building, standalone booth amongst all the banks). Other branches around Phuket. https://www.google.com/search?q=value plus phuket&oq=value+plus+phuket

https://www.foodforforeignersthailand.com/ https://www.facebook.com/FFFFoodForForeigners/

The Mee Tae Dai savings account at Krungsri Bank is what I use for my 800k baht (0.9% APR interest). My branch is small and usually I go in on one day to request the letter and 12-month bank statement and pick it up when the bank opens the next day. They can produce it while you wait but actually I rather like the way they do it as I don't wait at the bank very long at all. Bangkok Bank on the other hand took a little over a week for the statement to be ready.