NorthernRyland

How terrible driving is in Thailand can not be understated. Every day you need to use the roads and these people make simple things like driving and parking a total headache. I used to think I was in Thailand because the "laid back" lifestyle but when I stay in Colorado for the summers my life is notably less stressful because people are actually polite and respectful on the roads. It snuck up on me fast, maybe my age, but living in Chiang Mai is officially a source of stress in my life so I rented a house up in the mountains and stay here with my dog and let the wife come visit on the weekends when she's off work. If it wasn't for her career she invested years in to I would leave that city for good tomorrow. Rural Thailand may be boring if you're not well occupied but at least it delivers on the promise of Thailand which is cheap and laid back. People are still annoying and make noise and burn things though so there's that.

Makes sense. How much more debt can Thailand can take on? GDP quadrupled in the last 20 years who knows how much of that was debt. Household debt is 90% of GDP so they're reaching the limit already.

This is 100% true with Thai people. They don't seem to understand opportunity cost and investment. Less money today could be more money in the future if you actually do something with it. The land market is especially outrageous. Every guy with a little plot of unremarkable land is convinced it's going to moon and will let it sit vacant for decades before they reduce the price to something which people can actually afford today. My opinion is that it's their culture of gambling. There's always a chance some rich person is going to come along and solve all your problem by paying ridiculous amounts for property which has no potential to return on their investment. Makes no sense but you just gotta believe harder until it becomes true.

Thailand drives me nuts about 9 months so I leave for 2 months. Lucky my parents are still around or this wouldn't be possible. Getting stuck here full time would be a problem for sure.

I thought the whole idea is to tax based on income regardless of where it's earned providing you're a tax resident. Apparently this is illegal anyways so maybe the tax rate is mute. I already replied but yes 400k in the bank. They asked and I didn't want to refuse an answer. Probably stupid but I'd rather be upfront and sort it out properly.

TR? I assume that's me? Anyways yes, I do just that. I even spend 2 months a year in the US so I'm not totally detached even. That's an interesting idea. Lots of extra headache though so I'd need to know how serious these new laws turn out to be and if they really start targeted people and talking with the IRS etc... Opening a company which has no presence in Thailand and no employees is probably fraud I would assume too.

I'm taking no such exemptions, I don't think your location matters to the IRS anyways because I never got an accountant, just TurboTax. As far as they're concerned I live in the US and pay federal + state tax based on my parents address.

I really loath to lie and I figured I had no option anyways because how else does the 40 year old get the 400k while he's living in Thailand? Everyone knows what's going on and at least I'm not competing with Thai people so there's no victim to speak of. It sounds to me like the best move for people like myself is just not tell the revenue department we're employed and just pay taxes on imported monies and consider that your income. If they start auditing people and requesting tax documents then the illegal employment thing is going to come up again and then it's an immigration. I don't know how the Thai tax forms work but it may not be required to disclose sources of income. If they do require that information then it's up to them if they report us to immigration I suppose. This whole thing could fizzle out like so many others so it's probably too early to get to worked up about it.

Living in Thailand you trade one set of problems for another. It's not a magic paradise. Happiness comes from within anyways so why would changing countries matter that much?

When I got the *12* month extension they literally asked me about my employer and my income. It's illegal based on old laws that no longer make any sense and everyone knows it apparently. Instead of kicking us out taxing us makes more sense I would think.

Is it illegal to live in Thailand more than 180 days a year while employed by a US company? Not sure what you mean, getting a work permit is not possible if you're already employed by another company. Thailand obviously knows people are doing this but they've turned a blind eye because there's no victims. I'm sure the new tax rules are aimed at people like us because there's money on the table and they know it.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear, this topic was meant for companies that are in America and have literally no connection whatsoever to Thailand. I don't understand how this doesn't intersect with immigration. So they're expecting people without work permits to file taxes on money earned while living Thailand? If they want us to pay taxes they really should make this clear. I don't expect they will of course and we'll just keep doing what we do until we get pulled aside and questioned.

This is the reason I wanted this topic because despite Mike's helpful document people are having a hard time understand this, myself included. True or false: your tax rate is determined by your income so if you're earning enough to be in the 35% bracket it doesn't matter if you import 100k per month or 10k per month, your rate on that money will be 35%. I understand there are myriad deductions but those on are your income, not the amount imported. Can anyone confirm this?

Sorry I missed this before. So it's a graduated tax rate like the US. Hmm median salary in the US appears to put you in a similar nominal tax rate, near 30%. That may not be on accident. My wife earns ~50k/month (which above middle class for Chiang Mai?) and pays less than 10% tax. I could be paying a 3x higher rate than her despite spending less money in the country. But I'm working in Thailand illegally so I will probably be deported once I file my first tax receipt which immigration will require. 😂

The exact opposite problem I'm having. 🙂

Then why are they asking us to expose our income if we're living in Thailand more than 180 days per year? Shouldn't they be saying if you're living in Thailand more than 180 days and HAVE a foreign income stream then you're working illegally and should have your visa revoked? It seems like they know people are earning abroad and living here and they want our money now.

The police only care _after_ someone gets hurt. Before then feel free to ride anywhere at any speed. Worse than useless.

that's the worst when they pull that crap. Give me your money or you're cheap. Some Thais seem to have a beggars mentality like they're entitled to your money.

I'd like to start a topic about Americans who are living in Thailand while employed by American companies and paying income tax as employees or contractors. Some basic numbers which please anyone correct. For people earning the median salary (like 60-70k USD) I believe you're going to be in the top tax bracket in Thailand at 35% but paying somewhere around 30% income tax (state and federal) in the US. Is it likely they're going to apply the difference in the tax rates for money imported? This is the key information I want to know, what really is our tax rate going to be set at? The way I see it Thailand is about to get x% more expensive for everything so I'd like to know what that percent is. The more concerning thing is how we're expected to show our employment details to the tax authorities and then immigration because they're going to request this information before issuing visas most certainly. I watched a video on YT today where the Thai Embassy in Switzerland said this is going to be the procedure. This basically means we're admitting to working while in Thailand, which is something you could kind of hide or they would ignore in the past but now it's right in the open. Has anyone thought about this and what they're going to do? In fact I got quested when I did my first marriage extension just last year and the IO warned me to not work outside my house and made a little fuss about it. I did disclose I was employed when I did my extension (they asked for the company name and income amount so I told them). None of this makes sense of course because where did I get the 400k from and why did they ask anyways if it's illegal to work? The IO let it go but now they're taking this issue to the next level now for everyone to know. Sorry a rant I want to get off my chest. It's really outrageous to me that I'm going to be taxed based on my income as if I'm rich even though I only spend about 30k baht in the country per month. This money is a premium for the economy and pure liquidity. Compare that to money earned in the country which has changed hands between Thai and not new money like ours is. That should have been enough for them. If what I think is going to happen does I'm going to be paying more tax than my wife but receive zero rights or benefits. It's just a crass money grab because they know they can get away it.

Thailand is the hub of number throwing also.

Post photos or it never happened.

but if you don't get your living situation correct Thailand can be miserable. OP may be living in some crap city trapped in a floating sky box. That would make me miserable also.

Most of the things that annoy me about Thailand are Asia/Asian related. Maybe try a cheap Eastern European country like Georgia which has comparable cost of living?

🛑🇨🇳

I'm seeing many normal Thai restaurants go up to 60 baht. Wages aren't going up so I don't know how these people are surviving. Bad times ahead.