mudcat

I have my SSA benefit direct deposited into my Bangkok Bank account (plain vanilla with a debit card and iBanking). This deposit is transferred from SSA's correspondent bank in Thailand to your account in Thai Baht using the local banking service BahtNet. If you plan on using your benefit to qualify for a retirement extension there may be steps you need to take to have your local immigration office accept it as a foreign transfer. As far as convenience goes it it good to know the deposit will show up on the third of every month. The form is SSA-1199-OP-107. Fill out the top section and go to your branch with your bank book and passport. and have it signed and stamped. I emailed mine but the may require mailed hard copy.

I was referring to the year of my death when our executors will be around to help but the corpus of my estate will pay for a professional to file her f1040 as my widow, and certainly if she needs to file f8938. The other variable is at what portion of my Social Security gets taxed - currently at 85% - if I should die earlier in the year it would be either exempt or at 50%, so I imagine there will be over-withholding if I make it past one more Songkran.

Sorry, did not realize your wife was not a citizen. For us the SSA survivor benefit should be around $2,000 per month so not too worried about her bank interest.

We have chosen to go the other way as once my wife inherits into a U.S. account she will be subject to taxes on her remittances - but if she inherits directly to Thailand remittances are not subject to inheritance or income taxes. I have instructed our executors to note on the wires. Tax Exempt under Inheritance Tax Act Section 3.2 and Thai Revenue Code Section 42.10. Section 3 This Act shall not apply to: (1) an inheritance from a deceased person who dies prior to the date on which this Act comes into force; (2) an inheritance received from a deceased person by the spouse of the deceased person. Section 42 The assessable income of the following categories shall be exempt for the purpose of income tax calculation: (10) Income derived from an inheritance.11 11R.C.A.A. (No. 40) B.E. 2558

I am not sure about the penalty, but the IRS does have what they call a streamlined procedure which they describe the criteria and some of the steps here: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/us-taxpayers-residing-outside-the-united-states Went through the process - five years of missed FinCEN 114s for my wife and three years of amended 1040 for us. No penalties but it did cost a little bit of late payments and interest and a LOT of research through our financial records. In the end I was glad I no longer had it hanging over us going forward. The good faith 'non-willful' reason was that I (the tax filer in the family) did not realize that my wife's remarriage accounts needed to be reported. Some tax preparation firm offer to do the filing, but you are still on the hook for the research and coming up with a believable reason you failed to file.

I have no intention of ever being so foolish to bring hundreds of thousand dollars here to put into a Thai bank - but my wife will once I pass, so I have pre-filled out the forms including the GIIN # and addresses for her banks. Fortunately the form is not dated as to tax year so the forms can be pre-filled out. Simply by waiting to the next tax year she can dodge that bullet, but waiting 11-months may be beyond her. The form is kind of confusing each page 1 requires a total amount of assets and interest, but it does not appear allow you to append the account specific information on page 2 to be rolled into a single - I recommend that she go with a tax professional at least for the first year.

This is an issue for myself whose income is is entirely non-assessible (U.S. Social Security, U.S. government agency pension, and LTR). This means that my minuscule Thai bank account interest withholding is the only thing that any of my deductions can offset. Even though I will file jointly with my wife, I don't think that this will benefit her or us, but it will demonstrate that I at least tried.

Asked and already answered (as I found when reviewed my packet for TRD) Thai language for Thai-U.S. tax convention: https://rd.go.th/fileadmin/download/nation/america_t.pdf English language for Thai-U.S. tax convention: https://rd.go.th/fileadmin/download/nation/america_e.pdf

Does anyone have a link to DTAs in Thai such as the RD has for the English language of the Thai-US? Having the Thai language would avoid misunderstandings.

Search terms would be hard milled or French milled. I prefer Kappus - sandalwood for me and chamomile for my wife.

The form to submit to the Federal Benefits Bureau FBU in Manila is SA-1199-OP107 (03-2020) search for the file name as this the one I used. If you are using it to qualify for your extension be advised that the deposit will be coded Bahtnet as it is a local transfer for all Thai banks from their correspondent bank. There are steps to have it show as a foreign remittance. Comes in like clockwork on the third of every month.

I am not looking forward to the day I need to move on from JPMorganChase. As a fallback I think we will open bank and credit card accounts with the State Department Federal Credit Union who explicitly supports expats. Where to park my Roth and brokerage accounts is a bridge I will cross when I need to

My Daikan claims to. I point out that selecting Fan Only as mode would eliminate the cost of the compressor running.

Sure, after the Navy I in 1968 I bought my father's 1963 Volkswagen Beatle. Bending down to pick up an apple from my lunch that had rolled into the passenger side footwell I crossed the road, through a split-rail wood fence to 'V' in the front and then between two small trees to squish in all four fenders. What would have been called a total if I had insurance to cover new driver stupidity. With my dad's help bought an even earlier Beatle without an engine and performed a engine swap on the street in front of my apartment.

Thanks for your help - it is difficult navigated Thai bureaucracy when one does not speak Thai. I have created pdfs Thai and English text for each article with the RD source link for the article 1, 20, and 21. I attach jpgs of the pdfs - if you wish me to send the pdfs or word files send me a private message. Hopefully having the documents in front of the officer will spare my arms from excessive gesturing.

Alas, that link is the document in English. Trying to avoid the deer in the headlights look from RD staff being presented with an Enlish documebt.

Does anyone have a source link or a copy of the 1996 Thailand-U.S. tax convention in Thai?

IRS form 8621 is for U.S. citizens who invest in foreign mutual funds that are considered PFICs (Passive Foreign Investment Company) because the companies do not report or withhold earnings to the IRS. Filing Form 8621 has a low $25,000 asset threshold for individuals and a high tax rate that makes investing in any foreign based mutual fund tax unfriendly.

I needed to go back and report my wife's bank activity to get her coverage under US Treasury's 'Streamlined' FATCA reporting on FinCEN114. The principal issue were her accounts from before our marriage which I mistakenly belied were not covered. It was a slog but to get current activity compliant I saw no option other than to correct the errors of the past. I am not sure about TRD's enforcement of foreign remittance's, but I had a go around with FinCEN about a transfer to a Cuban friend and it took most of a year to get my $10,000 back and it cost us our relationship with Fidelity.

I am not sure of your point. My full SSA benefit is $26,250 and my government pension is $63,750. 15% of my SSA benefit is exempt from taxes, I receive a tax exempt $3,300 health insurance benefit and we earned $2,000 in our small investment accounts. Our standard deduction is $30,750 for a taxable income of $57,850 on which we pay 6,500 in Federal income tax. There is no Thai tax liability as most of my income is taxable in the US and have a LTR-WP visa that exempts any other US remittance's, credit card or ATM use

Some DTAs do serve to exempt some income from being taxed by the other country, in our case by Thailand. The U.S. Thailand tax convention reserves for the U.S. taxation of U.S. Social Security and government pensions for U.S. persons who are not also Thai nationals. The result of these two reservations and standard deduction for a married couple results in an effective tax rate of less than 9% on a gross income of around $95,000.

Just to get everyone on the same page the initial TRD change to remittance's tax status for assessable income was in No. 161 from 15 September. It was walked back to exempt pre-2024 savings, income, or assets on November 29 in No. 162. I would attach a pdf with the Thai and unofficial translation to English but pdf are not one of the acceptable file types, so do a Google search

I have no use for a Thai credit card as I am pleased with the benefits from my U.S. Visa card associated with my JPMorgan Chase banking relationship and United Airlines mileage plus program. But I recently switched from Bangkok Bank's 'Union Pay' ATM Debit card to their Mastercard ATM Debit card because Google would not accept my U.S. Visa card any longer (pricing differences in different countries). Works for that monthly transaction as well as at the ATM machine. We will see if Microsoft accepts my U.S. Visa card for OneDrive in February.

A further point - you may need to show your end of 2023 statement - to establish the balance pre-2024 was savings in your Roth. To show that 'taxes' were paid on contributions or conversions be ready with your f5498 (1099 for source taxable IRA) and f8606 (non-deductible IRAs with highlighted section 2 showing that taxes were due on the conversion) - I keep these documents with each year's tax return

Your description describes Roth IRA qualified distributions. Roth IRAs were established contemporaneously with the Thailand-U.S. tax convention so their special character was not addressed in the convention or the the technical explanation. In the model convention from 2006 (https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/131/Treaty-US-Model-TE-2006.pdf) Roth IRA (Section 408A) plans were noted on page 11 and treatment of them was discussed under the technical explanation of Article 17 paragraph 1 on pages 54-55: " However, the State of residence, under subparagraph (b), must exempt from tax any amount of such pensions or other similar remuneration that would be exempt from tax in the Contracting State in which the pension fund is established if the recipient were a resident of that State. Thus, for example, a distribution from a U.S. "Roth IRA" to a resident of the other Contracting State would be exempt from tax in the other Contracting State to the same extent the distribution would be exempt from tax in the United States if it were distributed to a U.S. resident. The same is true with respect to distributions from a traditional IRA to the extent that the distribution represents a return of non-deductible contributions. Similarly, if the distribution were not subject to tax when it was “rolled over” into another U.S. IRA (but not, for example, to a pension fund in the other Contracting State), then the distribution would be exempt from tax in the other Contracting State." I recognize that this treatment of a Roth IRA is not binding, but it would provide support for argument that Roth distributions are not assessible income but rather savings to the extent of their valuation as of December 31, 2023.