Mike Teavee

If the flight originates in Thailand then it's considered remitting money into Thailand so doesn't matter if you book Thai Airways, Emirates, KLM, Qantas etc... if the flights starts from a Thai Airport, you've brought money into Thailand to pay for it. However, if you booked a flight to a 3rd country & booked a different itinerary to then take you onwards to your home country, that flight wouldn't be remitted income even if it was on Thai Airways.

I believe Gifts under a "Moral Obligation" are valid so would say that C is technically correct and you could even argue that the Husband could gift his Wife 2Million to support herself & 100% of the costs of supporting the kids. But whether TRD would see it that way, especially if you were living together is anybody's guess. Edit: Also think that by reporting an income of 1Million THB you're greatly reducing the risk of being audited.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/residence-domicile-and-remittance-basis/rdrm33520 Credit card issued by an overseas bank or other financial institution Where an overseas credit card is used in the UK, the cardholder is effectively authorising the credit card company to pay the bill for the goods or service in just the same way as if they had instructed the bank to make a payment directly to the person supplying the goods or services. Which to me says Credit Card use is remittance, so I change my previous opinion on it being a loan but still won't be reporting it 🙂 (NB I only use my CC for Airfares & overseas Hotels, Airfares arguably remittance, overseas hotels not).

Section 535 is referring to gifts that cannot be revoked, remuneration for a gift is not mentioned anywhere else in the "Laws". There is mention of receiving a Service in consideration for a Gift, but I wouldn't classify the Wife paying all the rent, groceries, utilities etc... and giving you "Pocket Money" as a Service. But my main point is as posted above, you put yourself at higher risk of being audited if you were to only remit money as a gift to your wife and not remit anything to yourself to live on.

No, but they might ask you where you're getting the money to live on. Pure speculation but my guess is when it comes to auditing people who have filed no/low tax returns they'll focus mainly on:- People who have remitted large sums of money People who have remitted low/no sums of money You remitting 20Million to your Wife & nothing to yourself would put you at risk of being caught up in an Audit in both those categories.

Gifts: https://www.thailandlawonline.com/civil-and-commercial-code/521-536-gift-is-a-contract NB Section 521. A gift is a contract whereby a person, called the donor, transfers gratuitously a property of his own to another person, called the donee, and the donee accepts such property If somebody were to Guft their wife 20Million THB & have no income coming in to support themselves then clearly there is an expectation she would be supporting him & so the Gift wasn’t give gratuitously.

There is an implicit rule that a Gift is only a Gift if you receive no direct benefit from it, so you gifting the wife 20Million & letting her pay all of the bills/give you pocket money wouldn't (technically) meet the criteria of being a Gift & if you/your wife were audited, it would be easy for them to show that you did receive direct benefits from it, so it wasn't a legitimate Gift & is taxable. The 10Million to a GF also comes with some strings as it needs to be for an occasion where in your country you would normally give a gift (E.g. I'm "Gifting" my GF 100K for her Birthday) & again shouldn't be receiving any direct benefit from it (I actually owe her 60K for some investment she made through me in the UK so that will make us straight, but am receiving that "Benefit" in the UK🙂). Edit: Link to Thai law re Gifts: https://www.thailandlawonline.com/civil-and-commercial-code/521-536-gift-is-a-contract NB Section 521. A gift is a contract whereby a person, called the donor, transfers gratuitously a property of his own to another person, called the donee, and the donee accepts such property.

I agree as spending on a Credit Card is a actually short term loan between you & your bank, and money remitted from a Loan isn't assessable income however it's still a grey area - Personally I won't be declaring anything I spend on my UK CCs. A Debit Card would (Technically) be remitting assessable income if the service you're purchasing is in Thailand (e.g. a Flight from Bangkok) but I don't believe it would be if the service isn't in Thailand (e.g. a Hotel in Vietnam).

Anybody who spends > 179 days in a calendar/tax year in Thailand is Tax Resident & potentially liable for Tax on money they've remitted so a Wealthy Tourist spending 6 months would be liable for Tax & a Non-IMM O Holder only spending 5 months would not, the Visa you have doesn't matter except for an exemption for some LTR Visa holders. I believe the change was aimed more at Thais using the "1 year rule" to make money overseas & bring it back tax free & us Expats have been caught up in it, but the net result for Thailand is going to be negative in my case as:- I'll only be remitting approx. 25% of what I normally remit (to stay under the amount where I would have to pay tax) & spending down savings I already have here. I'll be taking more holidays outside of Thailand reducing the amount of money I spend in-country so Thai hotels, bars, restaurants, tour companies etc... will lose custom.

Savings - No Tax, Cash ISA - No Tax, Premium Bonds - No Tax Stocks & Shares ISA (Or other Investment accounts) - Could be liable for tax on Capital Gains & Dividends

This could be viewed as "Evasion" if you plan to change it to THB, but I've brought £7,500 from the UK & plan to use it when I'm travelling outside of Thailand (I.e. exchange it for MYR, PHP, VND, TWD, SGD etc...), typically I'll get a better rate using GBP to buy other currencies than I would for THB so it's a double win for me. One way to reduce tax is to reduce how much money you need to remit by spending less in Thailand, for me that means taking more holidays outside of Thailand. We typically spend >60 nights in hotels travelling around Thailand which we'll now spend most of visiting other countries Airfares* & Hotels being paid for on my UK credit cards - We planned on doing more overseas travelling anyway, this just gives me an added incentive to do it - a double loss for Thailand. *NB It's questionable whether the Airfare would count as remitting money to Thailand as I'm using a service from Thailand but I don't think anybody could argue that booking a hotel in Vietnam on a UK Credit Card would count as remitting money into Thailand.

It's up to the individual to look at their circumstances & assess what the best course of action is for them, I'm one of those people that tends to follow the rules so will be adjusting how much money I remit into Thailand & limiting it to... Maximum I know has no tax owed on it (in my case it's 235K) Same for the GF (in her case 210K) ... But I won't be filing a tax return for either of us, even though I know I should, the 2K file is not enough of a deterrent to make me file especially as it would end up with them owing me > 5K in withheld interest from my Thai Bank accounts. The rest of the money I need to live on will come from savings already in Thailand until 2026 when I plan on spending 6 months outside of Thailand, & applying for an LTR Visa (remitting 10-12 Million to buy a Condo & meet the $250K investment needed for the LTR). I can't be the only one that's going to be remitting less money because of this change, would be interesting to get any stats on just how much less is being remitted as a direct result of the change (I'd say I'm remitting approx. 25% of what I would normally plan to remit)

You posted... I am Australian. In Australia, if you do not supply your bank with your individual Tax File Number (TFN) the bank withholds tax at the highest marginal rate on any interest earned. Simple for the bank to implement. A computer does it it all, and sends the money to the Australian Tax Office. (ATO). At the request of the RD, what's stopping Thai banks doing the same, but not for interest earned, but for all remitted funds? Which I think anybody would read as Banks withholding Tax on Remittances. However, if your point is around Banks providing remittance data to TRD then that is exactly what I expect to happen & believe they'll use this data when deciding who to audit.

Technically No I wouldn't agree - We always should have been conscious about when Income was Earned Vs when it was remitted & filed returns where necessary. Practically Yes I would agree, I've never heard of anybody being Tax Audited for not declaring Income earned in the same year as it was earned, those who understood the rules may have filed returns & paid any necessary taxes, but those who didn't I don't believe were at any risk of being audited, even when bringing in several Million THB to purchase a Condo etc... It just always seemed to be assumed that it came from Savings/previous year's income.

Interest is "Income" generated for you by the Bank & (Tax efficient accounts aside) is always taxable (even if you're not Tax Resident), so it makes sense for the Government to ask the banks to retain it. Remittances are not always taxable & are dependant on you being Tax Resident so it makes sense for them to ask you to report it at the end of the Tax Year...

To be clear there is no new policy only a change to the implementation of an existing policy that means people who maybe weren't following the old policy correctly now have questions on how it works, but the way it works hasn't changed. The only thing that has changed is prior to 1/1/24 any income "Earned" in a previous Tax Year was treated as savings, which meant you could earn income from Dividends, Rent, Capital Gains, Overseas Employment etc... sit on it until the following January 1st then remit it tax free however I am sure some people remitted income in the same year as it was "Earned" without realising that they should have been reporting it & it is only because it is now more likely that they will need to report it, that they're trying to understand the rules. But there is no difference in the way tax should be calculated between:- Getting a Dividend on 1/1/2020 & remitting it 31/12/2020 (Same Tax/Calendar Year) Getting a Dividend on 1/1/2024 & remitting it 1/1/2026 (Different Tax/Calendar Year)

With the exception of Tax that is withheld at source (e.g. PAYE, Interest on Bank Accounts, Dividends etc...), I think most Tax is done on an "Honesty" basis and relies on people declaring the right level of "Income" under threat of being audited. TRD have no automatic way of being able to delve into all of your financial affairs (They couldn't even point at my UK/SG Bank accounts as they have no way of accurately linking me to them) so the only way I can see them doing this is to set themselves criteria on what they're going to Audit & add in some Random Audits to keep people honest. E.g. Take a pool of people remitting money into Thailand... Remove everybody who has not spent 180 days in Thailand *Remove everybody who has remitted less than 120,000 THB Remove everybody who has an LTR visa that is exempt from tax on remittances .... Then from this pool, audit everybody who has brought in > X THB & a random Z% of the rest (could be a sliding scale depending on how much money has been remitted). *I would also add in a random Audit of people who were bringing in < 120,000 THB (maybe even higher) as I would be checking where they are getting the money from to live on (could be legit & their wives work so they don't need to bring in more than 120K) the threat of Audit would help deter people doing things like living off withdrawals from foreign ATM cards.

The Elite Visa is a essentially a Tourist Visa so not exempt from tax on income brought in from overseas, only the LTR has the exemption. The LTR exemption means your overseas sourced income is not assessable but you would still need to file a return if you had Thai sourced income (E.g. rental income or interest from your bank accounts) of > 60K as an individual, 120K for a joint return however you would not include your overseas income on the return.

Contact Maneerat in Pattaya, they did the conversion for 3 of my friends that made the move & it only took a few days, especially if you have a Bangkok Bank account already

Expires June 2025 but my extension is due end of September so if I don't renew it before then I'll only get 9.5 months instead of 12. As I got the passport in Oct 2014 (Used to get up to 9 months extra if you renewed it early) I was warned at the check-in desk that I would need to renew it before Oct 2024 if I wanted to travel to the Europe as even though there would be 9 months left on it, passports >10 years old are not valid for entering Europe. Wouldn't have been a problem flying MAN-AMS-BKK as you're not entering Europe (Don't pass through Border Control/Security in AMS) but you'd be relying on the check-in staff understanding that.

Though you're technically/"Legally" correct, each IO can implement their own policies & Jomtien/Sri Racha changed theirs in 2023 to require a TM30 dated after your last entry into Thailand for any immigration matters that you need to do with them... https://ground.news/article/chonburi-immigration-bureau-tightens-address-reporting I don't know if this is still in effect or if you'll be fined were you to turn up with a TM30 dated before your last entry but that could be where the Agent is getting their information from. Have to confess that I got back from the UK last Tuesday & have no intention of doing a new TM30 before I renew my Passport next month so will see if they need one when I have my stamps transferred over & pay the fine if I need to,

Trip to Pattaya? - Approx. 25K to do the conversion...

The technically correct answer is 120K if filing a single Return, 220K if filing a joint return, you don't take your allowances into consideration when it comes to whether you should be filing a return or not, it's just the assessable income that counts. Practically I'm remitting up to my total tax free number (235K for me) and if asked to file a return I'll plead ignorance & pay the 2,000B fine out of the 5,000B they'd owe me from withheld tax on interest in my Thai Bank account.

I honestly think TRD are just looking for you to do all of the calculations & declare what Tax you believe you owe, that way they don't need to update their systems to add sections for different kinds of income &, more importantly, don't need to understand the nuances of how various incomes are taxed in different countries... They'll just apply basic Tax fundamentals & assess whether what you are telling them passes the "Sniff Test". If it doesn't pass the "Sniff Test" they can audit you & check your calculations but again, I think they'll just be looking to see if what you're saying looks correct based on their local Tax knowledge & maybe a cursory knowledge of your countries tax, I don't believe they're going to become Tax Experts in all of the 61 countries that Thailand has DTA's with. Using my hobbyhorse of CGT as an example, I don't believe TRD cares about what cost basis you used to do the calculation from they just want to see the remitted income/what percentage of it was gains and as long as if audited you can show how you did the calculations & justify using that method (e.g. as a Brit dealing in British Assets I can argue the case for using Average Cost but couldn't legitimately argue a case for LIFO unless I was dealing in US Assets) then I don't think you'll have a problem passing the "Sniff Test".

I know that's the case for normal UK CGT calculations, but in the scenario where it's a Non-Dom remitting Gains into the UK from the US is it still the same calculation or could they avail themselves of the flexibility in the US rules to minimise the gain?