JBChiangRai

It comes from Income.

I agree, gifting has to be extremely carefully set up and generally to a wife or girlfriend it's unlikely to be safe.

In my case, I am using gifting and it is not a "stunt". I have 2 adopted Thai daughters (orphans) at a distant university where I have bought them a house and cars. I have gifted an annual sum to each of them to cover their university fees and day to day living expenses. I cannot gain any benefit from it, the gift is entirely for them and it is under the 10M baht limit. Would you call that a "stunt" ?

Indeed it will, but it is and it will continue to lose market share as the market share of EV's continues to increase.

Could you clarify "stunts"?

I posted this elsewhere, but I will repeat it here as it is important. My opinion on this whole fiasco, is that September's announcement aimed at Thai people should have just slid under the radar. A minor change that would probably impact foreigners in a minor way or not at all has been picked up the expat community and trumpeted from the rooftops as doom & gloom and because of all that "noise" it now faces the risk of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The change was simple and to earned income being transferred in a year subsequent to when it was earned. My accountant told me years ago that they would close this avenue. Expats started noisily shouting "What about me, What about me?" What everyone failed to notice was that we have always been liable to Thai Income Tax on earned income brought here in the same year. They have never enforced it, now because of all this noise they may in the future. Thai governmental style is to float something in the media and quietly watch the reaction. You've seen it recently with Cannabis legislation. If the public hate it, then they issue a statement saying it's not going ahead. All the noise from Expat's has been incredibly damaging. Absolutely the worst thing that could happen now is hundreds or thousands of expats start filling in tax returns. You want to make the whole expat community an easy mark? Then go ahead. If you want this to disappear, then keep quiet and do nothing and wait for clarification addressed specifically to us. It's important that any kind of public feedback you give furthers the cause of this disappearing. DO NOT publicly say you will fill in a tax return. When I received the questionnaire from Thai Privilege Company, I told them unequivocally that I would leave Thailand if they taxed me transferring funds from the UK. Feedback is important - don't make this a self-fulfilling prophecy!

My opinion on this whole fiasco, is that September's announcement aimed at Thai people should have just slid under the radar. A minor change that would probably impact foreigners in a minor way or not at all has been picked up the expat community and trumpeted from the rooftops as doom & gloom and because of all that "noise" it now faces the risk of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The change was simple and to earned income being transferred in a year subsequent to when it was earned. My accountant told me years ago that they would close this avenue. Expats started noisily shouting "What about me, What about me?" What everyone failed to notice was that we have always been liable to Thai Income Tax on earned income brought here in the same year. They have never enforced it, now because of all this noise they may in the future. Thai governmental style is to float something in the media and quietly watch the reaction. You've seen it recently with Cannabis legislation. If the public hate it, then they issue a statement saying it's not going ahead. All the noise from Expat's has been incredibly damaging. Absolutely the worst thing that could happen now is hundreds or thousands of expats start filling in tax returns. You want to make the whole expat community an easy mark? Then go ahead. If you want this to disappear, then keep quiet and do nothing and wait for clarification addressed specifically to us. It's important that any kind of public feedback you give furthers the cause of this disappearing. DO NOT publicly say you will fill in a tax return. When I received the questionnaire from Thai Privilege Company I told them unequivocally that I would leave Thailand if they taxed me transferring funds from the UK. Feedback is important - don't make this a self-fulfilling prophecy!

Even your own irrelevant statistics show a burgeoning EV market share. I think you have a problem with personal trucks, I don't think there is a single EV offering.

And I would urge Japan to prioritise BEV's for sustainability and to fulfill customer demand. I would caution Japan that customers want BEV's not ICE in any form and they are over-relying on legacy solutions with ridiculous numbers of moving parts and gross inefficiencies. Thailand has already advanced past being a hub for ancient technology and has embraced the future and it's clear from increasing market share they made the correct decision. I would further advise those in Japan to stop spreading disinformation regarding impractical new ICE engines, or mythical solid-state batteries, and other nonsensical information designed to do nothing more than slow BEV adoption by spreading fear or promising milk & honey in the future that clearly is a step back from the clear technological advantage and customer satisfaction of BEV's. In summary "Don't fight the customer".

You're right, I am not aware of any of them addressed to foreigners living here regarding overseas income.

Not it isn't. The lady head of the tax office talked about wanting to tax worldwide income (for Thais). I'm not aware of any other official statements addressed towards us. This whole thing has been blown out of all proportion by those with a stake in any potential fees. There may be some clarification coming but until then nothing has changed for transferring income earned this year.

That is your opinion. I disagree. Until they come out and say something officially, <removed> for listening to tax advisers looking for fees and nonsense in the media which has all all been about Thai people. Nobody has said anything official, you are scaremongering. As I said, last year is the same as this year in the circumstances I outlined.

I don't know.

Let me make it clearer with an example that I hope will resonate with many people Fred is 75 years old and lives off his private pension from the UK, he pays tax on it. He has lived here more than 180 days per year for the last 10 years. He has been transferring his pension here for 10 years, he has had no savings for 10 years. Fred's income was tax assessable for the whole 10 years by the TRD before 1/1/2024 just as it is now. Nothing has changed for Fred. What has changed is the rule for savings overseas. The difference is that the only savings you can bring here tax free, is those savings you had prior to 1/1/2024, in other words, that date will not advance every year as it used to do. Looking at Fred, should he do a tax return at the end of this year? Why didn't he last year? Why only one year out of the last 10? Nothing has changed for Fred.

With all due respects, I don't ask questions to which I know the answer. Maybe you are confusing me with someone else. I asked for a link because I know there isn't one. I agree with what you state. However, that IS NOT what I said. I said income transferred here in the year it was earned has ALWAYS been tax assessable. You mentioned savings, that is a separate case and I made that clear too. Nobody from the government has said that income previously transferred to Thailand in the year it was earned is NOT tax assessable, because it is! This is the situation for this year, 2023, 2022,201 etc etc Current Practice Before the issuance of this recent departmental directive, a Thai tax resident was subject to income tax on foreign-sourced income only if such income was transferred to Thailand within the same calendar year in which it was earned. In other words, foreign-sourced income remained non-taxable if it was brought into Thailand in the following calendar year.

How can you have answered a question several days ago to a question I asked 3 hours ago when that question related to a post made a few minutes before that? Do you have a time machine? I have already gone through the legal situation correctly.

If constructed correctly gifts up to 10 or 20M baht per year can be tax free. It's important you don’t benefit from the gift directly or indirectly.

Very wise. I am doing the same for me and gifting from UK funds my Thai children their university fees and living expenses for the entire year in one go. It also encourages them to budget.

I agree with you there. Until we hear otherwise from Government sources, do nothing different than last year.

The big change is income you bring in a year that was earned in prior years is now taxable. If you (for example) a UK pensioner with a decent pension and you brought it into Thailand in the year it was earned - it was always taxable but if you left it there till the following year, even 1st January, it was not taxable and that concession has gone.

Thanks to @mistral53 another fake news (above) has been debunked. His post below Nikkei Asia is jumping on the bandwagon of China EV bashing with a very low rent hit piece that is full of fake news - to wit, they claim there are 490,000 unsold Chines EVs in Thailand, which is basically forcing the Japanese car manufacturers to shut down their factories here. From Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand - EVAT: 'Been in the auto industry for over 23 years, countless interviews in the media, but never has the information been so distorted by Nikkei news. “Thailand now has 490,000 unsold EVs, according to the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand (EVAT), equivalent to 63% of all vehicles the country turned out in the past 12 months.“ I want to clarify that the above information is not from me and the Thai Electric Motor Association สมาคมยานยนต์ไฟฟ้าไทย Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand - EVAT The number of 490,000 cars. I'm referring to the production capacity forecast of 7 electric car companies that enter EV 3.0 and it has nothing to do with the unsold electric car numbers. But NIKEI News Agency provides information that distorts reality differently. Note: Last year, Thailand registered electric cars for the whole year about 76,000 cars and electric car registrations accumulated at the end of May. 2567 around 121,000 cars. How can we have more than 490,000 electric cars stock?' https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Electric-vehicles/Thai-subsidies-for-Chinese-EV-makers-wreak-havoc-on-auto-sector edit: It appears Nikkei Asia just modified their original (dated July 26) and removed the 490,000 unsold EVs......... took them 2 days, their intentions seems obvious! The statement is on their Facebook OFFICIAL page, made by them, not a member of the public. https://www.facebook.com/EVAT2015

From your link, this is what it said about last year and prior. I am correct in what I said. Current Practice Before the issuance of this recent departmental directive, a Thai tax resident was subject to income tax on foreign-sourced income only if such income was transferred to Thailand within the same calendar year in which it was earned. In other words, foreign-sourced income remained non-taxable if it was brought into Thailand in the following calendar year.

The pertinent point in the new bill it is now a reserved occupation for Thais only.

That has already been debunked on another thread. Nikkei Asia withdrew the statistics they quoted.

Theft of catalytic converters is a big thing in the UK I wonder when we will start seeing theft of EV battery packs?