Dogmatix

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.

Single cells available from 30k a week. Check on Booking.com. Food available from restaurants of your choice via grab for a 500% commission. Licquor and weed 1,000% mark up. Hard drugs by negotiation and depending on supply and demand.

Clearly. Loan sharks will get on this offering advance cash of 5,000 now for your digital wallet in February. If store owners can't wangle selling whisky, trade 10,000 worth of soap powder, pampers, milk etc for 7,000 baht worth of whisky with a neighbour.

Why not make it national for convenience of Thai migrant workers in cities.

The gift tax amendment doesn’t say it only covers gifts from Thai sources, unlike the inheritance tax law that specifies inheritance from anywhere is taxable (making it the only foreign income taxable for individuals whether remitted to Thailand or not). The Q&A reference to gift or maintenance income is disjointed because it is doesn’t specify this type of income from overseas being exempted up to 20m. But why mention it, in this context, if not? However, this is just a PR piece from RD not signed by anyone. I would say it is somewhat encouraging that gifts can be used but another interpretation is possible that gifts of foreign source income by a tax resident are deemed assessable.

So you don’t even know what you declared on your tax return because you let someone do it for you online and you can’t read Thai. Since there is no way of deducting your SS income, if you enter it into the top line, she obviously doesn’t enter it at all. Proves the point that exempted or non-assessable income is not declared on PND91 whether it is SS income, land sales or whatever.

The solution is simple. If you believe you have to declare income that is exempt, under a DTA, go ahead and declare it, enclosing a covering letter in Thai explaining why with supporting documentation. Don't file online because there is on way to claim a tax credit or exemption and the software will calculate the tax and make you pay it.

It's true. Every Isaan village has it's collection of alcoholics who are drunk on lao khao and yaa dong from early morning onwards. Brick weed has been readily available for decades and is much cheaper than the legal weed which villagers can't afford. I'm sure brick weed causes problems in villages, particularly with some youngsters, but nowhere near the catastrophic order of magnitude of alcohol.

Thailand's very own Gaza strip. 555

I think my example of Thai land sales is helpful here. I could sell land for 100 million and payment would most likely be in the form of a cashier cheque paid into my bank account with probably some paid in cash that I might also pay into my bank. This would be a reportable transaction under money laundering law, I believe, and the RD, if it looked at the transaction, would find that the purchaser of the cashier cheque was an individual which could mean anything, including a sale of shares in a private company which would be taxable or a gift over the tax free amount. However, I am under no obligation to report this transaction because sales of land are taxed at the Land Office on a transactional basis and don't push up the progressive tax rate on your income. I could make 90 million baht profit on this land sale and still not have enough other income to need to file a tax return at all. Unfortunately, however, a similar sale of immoveable property overseas will push you into 35% tax.

Actually I believe that is exactly how it works. Take the example of income from Thai dividends or land sales in Thailand. The RD can presumably see that coming into my bank account but I don't have to declare them and claim tax credits because they are not assessable since tax has already been withheld from them. Why would non-assessable foreign source income be different? As I said there are very few types of income that "shall" be taxed in the other country under DTAs. So it is a very narrow category anyway. If the inspectors come round asking about those remittances, showing them that they were non-assessable income covered by a treaty should satisfy them. If not, sue them in the Central Tax Court.

Deleted by Dog.

Your numbers are not correct. A single taxpayer gets a 60k allowance and there is a nil tax band up to 150k a year. If you have staff and they earn more than that, ie 210k a year or 17.5k a month, you have to deduct withholding tax based on that basic allowance. If they earn less than that, you don't deduct anything and they don't have to file a tax return. For most employees who have had withholding tax deducted, it is beneficial for them to file a tax return. Since tax is withheld applying only the basic deduction, they will be able to claim a tax refund, if they qualify for more deductions, e.g. for having elderly parents, children, being over 65, paying life or health insurance premiums etc. However, it has to be said that only 3.3 million people paid income tax in Thailand in 2019. So the addition of, say 200k, foreign pensioners to the tax net could conceivably increase the number of souls trapped in the income tax net by 6%. However, I don't think it would be worthwhile in terms of net effect on the total tax take, including VAT and tax on sales of condos and land etc.