Dogmatix

The purpose of a DTA is to prevent double taxation. That can be interpreted as we tax this and you don't touch it, or it can be that you tax it first and and, if our tax rate is more, we'll take the difference. The latter is what happens to Americans working overseas. If the US tax rate is more, Uncle Sam will have the difference. So why not Thailand?

The new remittance tax will be great for these therapists.

During the attack, the owner of the department store, which sold gold, picked up a 20 kg explosive device and threw it into a tank after it was placed against the front door of the premises. This is complete nonsense probably translated by a moron with hardly any knowledge of English and tidied up a subeditor with no knowledge of Thai. If you at Thai media accounts of this, you will see that that they the attack took place after 1.00 a.m. when the owner wasn't around. The bandits had made a bomb out of a fire extinguisher. There was no tank.

Nothing to do with this pathological liar is believable, except that he was guilty of corruption, as charged, despite his protestations of innocence before he was forced to admit to his crimes and express remorse for the thefts to qualify for a Royal pardon.

"May be taxed in the contracting state where the property is located" does not mean taxing the income in Thailand is prohibited in Thailand. That would only be the case, if the wording were "....shall be taxed in the contracting state where the property is located." That allows Thailand to choose between: not taxing it at all; allowing a tax credit and collecting the difference between Thai and UK tax, if Thai tax is higher; and charging full Thai tax and giving a Thai tax credit. The RD has already suggested it would allow tax credits. The UK DTA is very clear in saying that only civil service and local government service pensions shall only be taxed in the UK. The state pension is not covered by this.

It was not from an advisory board. It was from the director-general of the RD.

I am not sure it matters whether the recipient Thai bank labels an inbound remittance as income or something else. That is an internal matter for the bank. The RD expects tax residents to declare income by themselves. They may get details of remittances from banks but I think the bank description of income probably just means inflow. If it is over 50 USD or used to be that much, the bank has to ask you for the purpose, but not the source, and report to the BoT (not the RD). The choices for foreigners are I think living expenses, purchase of condo etc. I was told by the bank officer that loan was not acceptable for foreigners but OK for Thais. If under that amount, it seems to just slide straight into your bank acount with no questions asked. Of course it will be very easy for the RD to get details of all remittances to individual accounts.

But the Prayut govt, despite cosying up to China couldn't agree terms on the railway because China was far too greedy, treating Thailand like a desperate African country and wanting control of everything, including land alongside the rail tracks.

Hit the nail on the head. Thais don't care because they have no idea who the sod is.

No it sounds like a lot of details are BS. Scanasia articles are usually low quality and probably should waste our time with them on AN.

If the British partner agreed he could forge his signature, why didn't he sign himself? Anyway it sounds as if the business was going to go bust anyway. So the British partner would have lost everything. Now he is trying to get 17 million from this couple.

I guess they won't release them unless they get a chance to exchange them for many more Palestinian prisoners held by the Israelis, as in the past. But Israelis with family members taken hostage are angry that the Netanyahu government is showing signs of being less concerned about recovering hostages than in the past in their determination to get Hamas whatever the cost in Palestinian and Israeli lives.

Anutin seems very happy with the interior ministry now. I don't think he would want to give that up.

Don’t forget Mohammed Bone Saw.

I think the Potjaman case may be misleading, as I seem to recall it was about whether a taxable unrealized capital gain had arisen on SHIN shares transferred to her brother without putting the trade through the SET which would have made it tax exempt. Thai tax case law makes clear that such unrealized gains are taxable, as in the case of grants of shares or options given to employees of listed firms. The case of Thaksin’s children who received an off market transfer of SHIN shares in Singapore was similar. In a surprising flip flop ruling months before the May 2023 election the Supreme Court reversed the rulings of the first two courts and returned 17 billion in tax to Thaksin arguing that transfer of shares to the children never really happened as the children were Thaksin’s nominees. It is unusual for Thai courts to take a sunbstance over form view that favours tax avoiders but Thaksin got 17 billion for the PT election campaign and delivered admirably in return in terms of maintaining the elite in power and joining it. I can’t remember exactly the logic used to overturn Potjaman’s conviction (or why her brother’s wasn’t) but the cases against her and the children looked absolutely water tight with many precedents supporting the convictions.

The Mazars piece didn't mention anything about the impact on expats remitting money to buy condos which I would think will be extremely negative for developers and the economy as well as the RD which will miss on transfer tax and land tax. Not a peep out of any of the developers either.

You asked for evidence that, in cases where the Thai tax is greater on foreign sourced income, the taxpayer will have to pay the difference. Here is a ruling from the RD in a 2004 case relating to double taxation of individuals that embodies this principle. https://www.rd.go.th/24356.html

Warong is the former Democrat MP who relentlessly probed Yingluck's rice pledging scam and eventually uncovered enough sleaze to put a number of Thaksin lackeys in jail. Go for it.

No worries about the lack of zero dollar tours. This big spender is on his way to Phuket and he is worth more than thousands of the low end Chinese tourists the Thai government grovels after so pathetically. A real he-man too. He can take out an apartment block or a maternity hospital faster than you can say Slava Ukraini!

No condolences for the women and children these war criminals are blowing to bits. I saw an IDF spokesman ranting out of control on TV in a strong Scottish accent about how the Hamas attacks justify anything the Israelis feel like doing in Gaza with no holds barred. So presumably hospitals, schools, mosques are all fair game in addition to the traditional apartment block demolition. They probably won't put the Scottish spokesman on again after he completely lost it on camera but I wonder what his old mates in Glasgow or wherever think about his attitude to indiscriminate killing of civilians. Right you are then, Jock. Let's all hae another pint o' heavy.

This will be very popular with Ukrainian tourists. Next should be a state visit from Rocket Man in N Korea. Anutin can take him out to fire anti aircraft guns along the beach in Pattaya at unwanted relatives he brings with him to demonstrate his gun control policy. Seriously though it seems that Srettha is being sent off glad handing around the world so he can't interfere with Thaksin's advisory team running things behind the scenes, like Yingluck was. But he seems to have deviated off Thailand's cautious neutrality stance but wanting to be friends with anyone he bumps into on the road. He came back from the US claiming a big win in persuading big tech to make huge investments in Thailand but will they feel comfortable with Thailand being so cosy with China and inviting Putin, when they can't have any presence in Russia at all? Maybe Elon Musk will but Tesla has no plans to build a factory in Thailand for sure.

There is no requirement to file a tax return, if you have no income or no assessable income over the threshold. The workforce is 39 million but only 3.3 million pay tax. They don't want to be inundated with tax returns from the other 35.7 million without being able to tax them. Remittances that are covered by a DTA will definitely fall under assessable income unless the wording is very clear this income can only be taxed in the originated state, or there is a decree forthcoming exempting it. The only types of income that are exempted in this way are US Social Security and government pensions of former civil servants in most countries. Tax credits should be accepted, if you have already paid tax on that income, but you will have to pay the difference, if Thai tax is higher. If the income has not be taxed in the originating country, you will have pay full Thai tax and claim the Thai credit against tax at home.

You bank in Singapore is unlikely to have any more information than what we have, sitting in Thailand eagerly watching out for announcements. I don't think Srettha has anything to do with this. He's too busy going on roadshows to meet dictators and war criminals and making speeches on the green silk road. But he has to take responsibility as finance minister.

You know what you verbally discussed with someone you met at the RD but not what she declared on your tax return.

Srettha - the most vacuous PM Thais never elected. Next stop Pyongyang to pay his respects to Rocket Man.