andux

Thanks to everyone for your answers.

From what I can see, the law clearly states that I should declare the foreign income brought into the country. From a legal perspective, anyone spending more than 180 days here in a given year should get a Tax ID and declare the foreign income brought into the country, as long as it's income from the current year.

There seems to be no real enforcement of this rule, but that doesn't mean the law is not there.

Now, however, I do have my concerns because in this country things sometimes work exactly the opposite of what they should, so doing the right, legal thing might actually raise some flags. Has someone ever declared foreign income brought into the country? If so, were there any questions asked?

I don't mind paying a bit of tax in Thailand; after all I've been here most of 2016, so paying is not a problem at all. My concern is that they could misinterpret what I'm doing.

I used to live in Europe, and even though I always had everything correctly declared, tax departments there always wanted more, and a visit from them was never good news. Not sure if Thailand's Revenue Department is as hungry for money as their counterparts in Europe though.

2 hours ago, overherebc said:

As a student and then a tourist why would you even think about that? Unless you were working illegally you were not earning any money.

Do you think someone on holiday here for a year should pay tax on the money they spend on the holiday?

Well, the law says that anyone who stays for over 183 days in a given year becomes a tax resident, and needs to pay tax on foreign income brought into the country. Here is the source: www.rd.go.th/publish/6044.0.html

Hello,

Last year I was in Thailand for over 183 days, hence became a resident for tax purposes of the Kingdom. I was a student for the first part of the year, and then traveled around Southeast Asia for the rest of the time, going back to Thailand often.

A few weeks ago I went to the Revenue Department to ask how could I declare the income brought into Thailand, and I was given a Tax ID, although I left with more questions than answers, and the person who helped me seemed a bit shocked, as if I was the first person ever to go to them for this (probably :) ). They told me to report this income as  บริการ (borigaan). I'm afraid, however, that this could imply working in Thailand, since there is no way to specify that the money is brought from overseas or that the source is not Thai.

Any thoughts/experiences with this?

Thanks!