Everything posted by Mike Teavee
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LTR Visa is Now available for Long Term Residency
Capital Gains can be included (something that doesn't really make sense to me TBH)... Unearned or passive income includes, but are not limited to pension, rental, capital gain, dividend, and interest payments https://ltr.boi.go.th/#type But I'm not sure how you prove the gain if you don't need to report it on your home country tax returns.
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What Movies or TV shows are you watching (2024)
Rebecca Welton from Ted Lasso 🙂
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
I've done no such thing as I still believe Gifts remitted into Thailand are exempt from Income Tax but we all agreed that we were not going to agreed to park it pending "Official" confirmation one way or another. As it's been brought up again, I will just state my argument for why I believe this & people can believe what they want until it's proven one way or another. The Thaksin Wife case shows that at that time there was scope for remitting Gifts tax free into Thailand with no limit on the amount that could be gifted, there was no income tax due on the Gifter at that time. The law was changed in 2016 to add the 20/10 Million limits, add a 5% Gift Tax for gifts over that value & put some criteria about what is & what isn't a gift, to the best of my knowledge there was no change to the fact that the Gifts could be remitted free from Income Tax I hear the argument about it being a big loophole that people can exploit but that's why limits were included & if anything I expect TRD will reduce these over time rather than abolish them all together. That's me out... (Literally, the GF is nagging me to go shopping)...
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
By snipping my post you've completely misrepresented what it said, I was answering the question around whether Gifts are conjugal property, there was no mention of the (what I thought was parked) argument about whether the Gifter needs to declare the Gift assessable income.
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Anyone run into this Notification from Chonburi Immigration?
Were you doing something else with Immigration at the time or did you just go in to do the TM30? Others have reported that they didn't need to do a TM30 as they were on a Non-IMM O, returned on a Re-Entry permit & were returning to the same address, which is exactly my situation. Besides, it's absolutely ridiculous to expect somebody to report within 24 hours after they've just spent >24 hours travelling, I flew Business Class & it still took me till Day 3 before I felt up to going into town.
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Anyone run into this Notification from Chonburi Immigration?
Assuming you have a Non-IMM Visa/Extension & came back on a Re-Entry permit to the same address, I don't believe you needed to. I obviously believe this as I didn't do a new TM30 when I got back from the UK on 7th May.
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
From the ExpatTax videos I've seen, Thailand isn't allowing you to use an asset's value as at 31/12/2023 as the basis from which to calculate Capital Gains, you need to use the original cost. For Savings yes, whatever balance you had in your savings account as at 31/12/2023 is clear from being assessable income.
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
235,000 for you (as you have the 25,000 allowance for your Pacific Cross Health Insurance Policy), I'm in exactly the same position.
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LTR Visa is Now available for Long Term Residency
I've been curious about this for a while, how do you show Capital Gains if not through a Tax Return (As a UK Expat I don't pay Capital Gains Tax on my share dealings so they don't appear on my UK Tax Return). Does BOI accept copies of the purchase/sale contract notes? It doesn't feel like they would, but then again, Capital Gains don't feel like they should be counted as income to me.
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Anyone run into this Notification from Chonburi Immigration?
When was this? Only Jomtien changed their rules in (IIRC) May 2023 to say that you needed a TM30 dated after your most recent entry into Thailand but they quietly dropped this around October 2023 (I think) so it's no longer required. I'm hoping it's no longer required as I didn't do a new one when I got back a couple of weeks ago.
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
Gifts between spouses (or explicitly given to one of the spouses) are considered "Sin Suan Tua" (Personal Property) & not conjugal property... Personal property (Sin Suan Tua) under Thai marriage laws (section 1471) consists of: property belonging to either spouse before marriage property for personal use, dress or ornament suitable for station in life, or tools necessary for carrying on the profession of either spouse property acquired by either spouse during marriage through a will or gift Khongman. Jointly owned matrimonial property A marriage in Thailand creates jointly owned marital property (Sin Somros) of husband and wife. Property acquired during the course of the marriage (subject to the above section 1472) and 'fruits' of personal property during marriage will become jointly owned property between husband and wife. Jointly owned property (section 1474) between husband and wife (Sin Somros) consists of: property acquired during marriage; property acquired by either spouse during marriage through a will of gift made in writing if it is declared by such will or document of gift to be Sin Somros (jointly owned property); fruits of Sin Suan Tua (personal property). https://www.samuiforsale.com/family-law/personal-and-marital-property.html
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
As I said it's an outstanding question because, as you say, none of the information out there really covers tax status at time of remittance, it all focuses on Tax status when the income was earned. My personal opinion is that it is not taxable as you wouldn't be filing a Tax Return if you were Non-Tax Resident, but I won't be taking that chance with the >10Million THB I'll be remitting from the tax free lump sum I get when my pensions kick in so will be getting the money & remitting it in a year when I'm non-tax resident.
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UK passport renewal - latest requirements and advice please
UK Passport, going to use one of the Pattaya based agencies to do it for me. Account is a Fixed Deposit account so I think all of the transactions would actually be on the 1st page 😊
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
Just my thoughts, as you say there is scant definitive information available yet. I believe the exemption on "Mutual Finds" is for Thai Mutual Funds, assuming yours are not in Thailand I don't think you'll get any relief for them The < 180 days in Thailand will work, but there is an outstanding question around whether income/gains accrued whilst you're Tax Resident in Thailand, will be taxable even if remitted it in a year where you're not Tax Resident? If they are then the 6 months out every 3-4 years would only work if you accrued/remitted all of your income/gains in the year you were Non-Tax Resident. Have you considered the LTR Visa? - $80K of income pa which can include Capital Gains or $40K pa income (again can use Capital Gains) plus a $250K investment & you get exemption from Tax on remitted overseas income.
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UK passport renewal - latest requirements and advice please
Thanks, I try to avoid going to Immigration whenever possible & usually only need to go to have my photo taken at the Retirement Extension desk, so my rough plan is to: Start the Passport Renewal process on 15th July with an expectation that it will be back around 12th August Do my 90 Day report (due 5th August) online using old passport details on 22nd July Do my Extension/Re-Entry Permit on 15th August (via Agent) My extension isn't due until 26th September so if I do need to do a stamp transfer first, the agent will probably do it for me at the same time as doing my extension but worse case, I can do it & then go back to get them to do the extensions once it's done. Many thanks for the heads-up around needing an updated Bank Book, I'm used to making a small addition to my FD account before getting the letter/statement for my extension so will make sure I do an extra one if I need to for the stamp transfer.
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UK passport renewal - latest requirements and advice please
I'm going to be getting my extension/re-entry permit more or less straight away after renewing my passport so do I need to have the stamps transferred over or can I just hand in both passports? [I use an Agent for convenience & do keep the 800K in the Bank but if I need to transfer the stamps across before extending I'll apply for a new passport a week earlier than I'm currently planning to]. Also, if my 90 day report is due during the renewal process I'm assuming I can just do it online as usual using the old passport number up to the date the new passport cancels the old passport?
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
I think the point is, if TRD Audit you & find that you’ve been using an overseas credit card for all of your living expenses then they’re going to class it as remitted income & a “Sniff Test” suggests they’re correct. Buy a new laptop/plane ticket on your OS CC & (IMHO) they’re not going to class it as a remittance.
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
Quote from the ExpatTax FAQ, go to https://www.expattaxthailand.com/your-questions-answered/# & search for Credit… Credit cards and debit cards are quite a grey area, as they are not specified in the Thai income tax law. Under audit, if it is seen that these are being used for day-to-day expenses and living, then credit card usage is likely to be classed as remittance. If you use your debit card, it depends on the source of the funds in the debit account. If it is classified as foreign-sourced income, then it is assessable income.
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
Perhaps people struggle to understand it because there is no evidence that it’s true & indicators that it’s not. Same with your stance on Credit Card usage, absolutely no facts to back up your stance but indicators from UK (only other country that I’m aware of which taxes on a remittance basis) & statements from ExpatTax to suggest your wrong. If you’re so sure that you’re right, share the proof with us all so we can put the matter to bed.
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One way ticket UK to BKK
Based on being > 50 years of age, usually referred to as "Retirement" but you don't need to be retired to get one. It's that or marriage to / parent of a Thai, you cannot get a Non-IMM O for Tourism on the eVisa site https://thaievisa.go.th/ select Don't worry that it says "With State Pension" you can then go on to use proof of 800K equivalent in your UK Bank Account to support your application.
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One way ticket UK to BKK
In my experience, Emirates are one of the stricter airlines when it comes to checking return/"Exit" tickets so I would advise getting the Non-IMM O upfront (You can get it in the UK even though the Website seems to suggest you can't) or buy a throwaway onward ticket (e.g. https://onwardticket.com/) - approx. $15 USD will get you a ticket out of Thailand to one of the neighbouring countries that is verifiable should the airline check it (which they won't).
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
That argument only makes sense if you accept the argument that the sender of the Gift has to treat it as assessable income, for those of us who argue they don't & it's only the receiver of the gift that TRD is interested in then Point 1 can be true whilst the 3rd scenario is false. Feel like we're arguing around in circles now so in the absence of anybody being able to show anything at all that suggests Gifts remitted directly to the Giftee are considered Assessable Income to the Gifter, I'm going to draw a line under it & leave you guys to it.
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
The case was from 2008 & the 20/10Million rule brought in 1st Feb 2016 to limit the amounts that could be class as a Gift without incurring Gift Tax, there's no mention in the new rules about the remitted Gifts now being assessable income. I think I've provided enough links that show Gifts are not specifically stated to be assessable income, perhaps somebody could show 1 article that suggests they are.
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
Why would Thaksin's ex-wife make a defence that the shares she transferred were "Simply a gift & not taxable" if there wasn't scope to remit Gift's tax free? And why did the prosecution counter her claim with "It wasn't a gift it was a business deal" if the Gifts were taxable anyway. Ex-Thai PM’s wife guilty of tax evasion The wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been sentenced to three years in jail for tax evasion. Thailand’s criminal courts found Potjaman Shinawatra guilty of failing to pay $16.3 million in taxes. Her case relates to a transfer of 4.5 million shares in the family company, Shin Corporation. Mrs Shinawatra told the court that the share transfer was simply a gift and was not taxable. Prosecutors disagreed and said it was a business deal and therefore she should have paid tax on it. Shinawatra told the court she was completely innocent of any wrongdoing. The high-profile case was televised nationwide. Mrs Shinawatra’s husband and children looked on gloomily as the verdict was read out. The judge’s decision could have serious consequences for Thaksin Shinawatra. He is accused of a series of offences including major fraud, corruption and abuse of political power. Prosecutors will charge the former Prime Minister of redirecting funds from an illegal $120-million loan to Burma into his own bank account, and of a shady transfer of government land into his wife’s name. Thais are split over whether Mr Shinawatra should face trial. He is still seen as a hero by millions of farmers and poor people. A lecturer from a top Bangkok university said the convictions of Mr and Mrs Shinawatra would be the “beginning of transparency, legitimacy and counter-corruption” in Thailand. https://breakingnewsenglish.com/0808/080801-tax_evasion.html
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Legal Strategies to Reduce Thai Tax
The gifts that I read about were shares in a company given on occasion of a family wedding but if she did give monetary gifts to her staff then why if she was still liable to pay tax on the money?