mudcat

If you have an air conditioner try the fan only at lowest setting.

I would like to add some clarification to the discussion about Social Security benefits for Thai spouses who are US citizens or who lived in the US for a minimum of five years as a permanet resident. Thai (and all) spouses collect spousal benefits first based on their US work (if any) and can collect an additional beneft as a spouse only if their spouse has already filed for benefits. Spousal benefis are a maximum of 50% of your Full Retirement Age benefit and can be applied for beginning at 62 years old that subject to a reduction of as much as 30% for claiming before your spouse's full retirement age (for most today 67 years old). It is important to apply for this benefit as soon as eligible as it establishes your spouses eligibilty and payment details while you are around to assist her in the application, as the spouse benefit converts to the higher survivor benefit automaticaaly when you die. The survivor benefit is a much more important, as it is designed to replace the portion of the family income that came from your Social Security benefit. Your spouse can claim beginning at 60 years old, again taking a reduction for claiming prior to their full retirement age, and is capped at your benefit as reduced by your early rerirement if you took it (RIB-Lim or widow's limit) Your children can claim a smaller but still significant benefit up until 16 years old so long as you filed with embassy or their US citizenship. Both your spouse's spousal benefit and her (but not your children'' benetits) are compromised if your spouse re-marries before she turns sixty - the spouse benefit disappears but her survivor beneft can be re-established if tha marriag ends. I have cautioned my wife that even a village my put her benefits at risk. To ease the way forward for my wife I have pre-filled out the spouse, survivor, and death benefit forms so she has the required information and documents at hand during the telephone application with the Federal Benefits Unit attached the embassy in Manila. I update and we review these forms fogether every year and have draft emails to the Bangkok embassy and the Manila FBU to send after I die.

Downoad the form SSA-1199-OP107 using a google search to get a current form.

https://www.rd.go.th/english/37749.html#section42 Section 42 The assessable income of the following categories shall be exempt for the purpose of income tax calculation: 13) Compensation against wrongful acts, amount derived from insurance or from funeral assistance scheme.

https://www.ssa.gov/international/AlienTax.html This applies only to non-resident aliens, not dual nationals. Makes me glad I insisted that wife get her U.S. citizenship before moving here. Similar 30% withholding applies to retirement account distributions as taxes are generally due on withdrawals: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-distributions-to-foreign-persons-require-withholding

I am not sure and my browsing history does not real a source. I was looking for tm61 not locked to Bangkok at the time.

Note the URL - https://tm47.immigration.go.th/tm95/#/login Of course it is down for system maintenance. The ordinary tm.47 website for reporting is up and running: https://tm47.immigration.go.th/tm47/#/login

Doing the extra step of a bank draft for return postage was a bother but understand the separation of passport fee and mailing fees that differ country to country. I have given up on Thai experts and professionals, so I just use https://epassportphoto.com/ The one issue I had is finding the immigration photo sizes - look under Greece and Japan. My wife and I applied for our new US passports at the same time (me to get my full LTR 10-years and hers to coordinate with her first ten-year Thai passport) What we got back were passport numbers separated by one e.g. mine ending in 16 and hers in 18, nut fortunately the same issue and expire dates.

Or your tax transcript which truncates your name, address, and Social Security number along with a key where your SSA benefit and pension are shown as the PDF is locked.

After the immediately above back and forth I reached out to the BOI to see if I could get some clarification - you situation may be different so I would recommend that you address BOI directly and copy their response to you here for everyone's benefit. ส่ง: 8 พฤษภาคม 2567 9:39:07 ถึง: ltr(at)boi.go.th ชื่อเรื่อง: Clarification on Royal Decree's Section 5 treatment of Pension and Social Security Good morning. I hold LTR-WP Visa xxx/65. There is a discussion in the LTR topic on AseanNow forum about the treatment of current year 'income' under the Royal Decree that could use a clarifying statement from the BOI rather than the speculations from some of the more excitable participants in the discussion. Section 5 Income tax under Part 2 of Chapter 3 in Title 2 of the Revenue Code shall be exempted for a foreigner categorised as Wealthy Global Citizen, Wealthy Pensioner, or Work-from-Thailand Professional who is granted a Long-Term Resident Visa under immigration law for assessable income under section 40 of the Revenue Code derived in the previous tax year from an employment, or from business carried on abroad, or from a property situated abroad, and brought into Thailand. A plain reading of Section 5 leaves current year income from employment, business, or property situated abroad subject to Thailand's Personal Income Tax when remitted. However, it is difficult to understand whether the term 'property' in this section includes savings and investments (particularly private retirement plans or IRAs), Social Security, or government private pensions as these were 'earned' in prior years (in many cases, many years prior) but are 'paid' in the current year. Can you work with the Revenue Department to provide further guidance beyond their Notification No. 427 of August 2022 on the tax status of prior year earnings remitted in the current year. -- Their response re savings and investments (particularly private retirement plans or IRAs), Social Security, or government private pensions as these were 'earned' in prior years (in many cases, many years prior) but are 'paid' in the current year Dear Stephen, Greetings from the LTR Visa Unit. To clarify the overseas tax exemption under the three mentioned categories, you will begin to benefit the moment you hold the LTR Visa. For instance, if you obtain the LTR Visa on January 1, 2024, and transfer income on January 5, 2024, that income will be exempt from tax. However, income transferred into Thailand before January 1, 2024, or before officially obtaining the LTR Visa will still be subject to regular taxation. This tax exemption only applies to income transferred into Thailand. Savings that are already in Thailand and properties are not included, nor are personal effects transferred into Thailand, as these are considered properties rather than income or cash transferred from overseas banks into Thai banks. Kind regards, LTR Visa Unit

I need to do nothing as I have a LTR-WP visa and my income comes from a government pension and Social Security. My investment assets are mostly in my Roth IRA which I do not touch. The reason Roth IRAs aren't discussed in the US-Thai tax convention is they coincidentally both took affect in January 1998. While not applicable for qualified withdrawals (>59 1/2), the 'ordering' the IRS uses for non-qualified withdrawals are contributions, conversions, and only lastly earnings, with contributions always exempt and conversions <5 years taking a 10% penalty and earnings fully taxable should you choose to draw it down or close the account

I have always maintained that the reading material that Thai people are most interested in are menus.

As we all know, Thai Personal Income Tax is self-reporting, so it is up to you and your tax advisor to determine where pensions are taxed. My reading is that dual-nationals pay taxes on pensions received in the country of residence, you believe that sub-paragraph b stating that dual-nationals pay tax in state of residence does not apply to dual-nationals. For me this is academic as my wife is not be eligible for part of my government pension, so I defer to your interpretation for your spouse's tax liability.

The Thailand/U.S. tax convention treats Social Security benefits and Government service pensions in two adjoining articles - 20 and 21. I based my comment that Thai/U.S. citizens beneficiaries of a government pension (such as mine from a local water utility) they, as a Thai national would have the pension taxed in Thailand rather than the U.S. In her case she will not be receiving her 50% of my pension as we married after we retired, so the difference is academic and we get the benefit of my government service pension while I am alive and she needs to struggle along on the ThB65,000 Social Security survivor benefit. Should you be reading the convention differently I suggest that you do a close reading of the relevant sections I posted earlier in this thread. TAX CONVENTION - ARTICLE 21 Government Service 2. a) Any pension paid by, or out of funds created by, a Contracting State or political subdivision or a local authority thereof to an individual in respect of services rendered to that State or subdivision or authority shall be taxable only in that State. b) However, such pension shall be taxable only in the other Contracting State if the individual is a resident of, and a national of, that other State.

This is incorrect. U.S. Social Security is taxable only in the U.S. by treaty and that includes the survivor benefit my wife (a Thai-U.S. citizen) who because of her low income will pay no taxes to either Thailand or the U.S This differs from my government pension which is taxed only in the U.S. for me but would have been taxable in Thailand for my wife. Take a look at the attachment Convention and explanation for Articles 1, 20, 21.docx

My initial thought when I had difficulty walking without pain was 'hip replacement'. My GP immediately diagnosed it as spinal stenosis based on the relief I experienced from bending forward at the waist that was confirmed by a MRI. A few staples and some scraping later I was mostly better.

Toyota is continuing to expand and refine its Hybrid options, no longer is it Prius only, but over their full range. The Yaris Cross are available in three flavors around your price point. https://www.zigwheels.co.th/en/new-cars/toyota/yaris-cross/specifications#sec-variants

I describe this 'double exemption' as belt and suspenders. I have been retired for many years and have two principal sources of income both exempt under the U.S. Thailand tax convention, my U.S. Social Security (Section 20.2) direct deposited here into my Bangkok Bank account for living expenses and my U.S. government entity pension (Section 21.2) which is deposited into my U.S. checking account for credit card, atm, or investments. Anything I remit to Thailand is exempt based on my LTR-WP visa. Anything I transfer to my wife in the U.S. or Thailand is covered by exemptions under the Thai Revenue Code Section 42 paragraph 10 (inheritance) or paragraph 27 (maintenance and support)

I did manage in October 2022 to get BOI to accept my Roth IRA which was well in excess of the $100,000 requirement. I plan on re-submitting this account upon renewal and seeing if they accept it as it is part of my estate planning portfolio and does not get touched. I did make a point of pointing by including a plan description out that a Roth IRA is a liquid account with no taxes due or early withdrawal penalties. My brokerage statement includes a 3-year look back chart on the first page of the statement which may have convinced them the money was available had been available over time. I also have a Pacific Cross policy that qualifies, but given the uncertainty of being able to maintain that policy should I ever cost Pacific Cross real money I would prefer to have BOI accept real assets rather than a marketing promises on a Thai Insurance company brochure.

You truly can't make this stuff up - Big Joke returning on April Fool's Day. We knew April first in San Francisco as St. Stupid's Day https://brokeassstuart.com/2023/04/06/st-stupids-day-parade-2/

The IRS allows a widow/widower to file jointly in the year of their spouse's death. The power of attorney allows the surviving spouse to obtain assistence from the agent.

Use of Power of Attorney (PoA) by a U.S. Expat to file U.S. taxes. As an older expat with a Thai-U.S. wife I had been relying upon my existing (and older) general power of attorney to have a trusted friend to file our U.S. taxes if I am unable. I do not believe that my wife would be able to file U.S. taxes for us so I have executed new Powers of Attorney for us that meet the IRS's standards. The right of an expat to have an agent file individual or married filing jointly taxes is contained in 26 CFR § 1.6012-1(a)(5). To be effective I have prepared mirroring Bangkok Embassy PoA forms each of us giving two trusted individuals who can get our taxes prepared and then sign and file them. 26 CFR § 1.6012-1(a)(5).docx Template POA for taxes.pdf MCLR_Signing_a_Tax_Return_for_Someone_Else.pdf

One of the reasons for a required over night stay is the hospital can charge the insurance company at their rack rate. Important if your policy is inpatient only where you might request a itemized estimate. Scheduled a colonoscopy at our provincial hospital and was given the option of overnight stay prior to the procedure or one day service. Chose the overnight stay as would not want to get caught short on the hour drive.

I have a question about the 'inheritance' of tax exemption and onward transfers to my spouse. I receive two income streams that both taxed in the U.S. but are tax exempt under Thai/U.S. tax conventions Section 20 and 21. U.S. Social Security (remitted to Bangkok Bank in Thailand) A local government pension in the U.S. direct deposited into my U.S. checking account. From these funds I transfer money to my Thai/U.S. wife for support and savings in both Thailand and the U.S. Needless to say these amounts are <20 million Thai Baht per year, but well in excess of her personal tax exemption. Does my wife have any tax liability for these funds?

N is Neutral, E is Earth, another name for Ground