4myr

Finally, someone like Carl Turner of Expat Tax Thailand is very clear on who needs to file a tax return! BTW he missed one item as not assessable, income earned before 2024, but TRD Sept 2024 flyer is clear on that: https://www.rd.go.th/fileadmin/user_upload/lorkhor/newspr/2024/FOREIGNERS_PAY_TAX2024.pdf

I agree and stick to this interpretation - if it is not assessable income [prior savings/income before 2024, DTA exempted, investment principal or loss], there is no need to file a tax return, thus having a thai tax ID. Benjamin Hart as always in his video rants beats around the bush as other firms like Sherrings, naming phrases like "assessable", "liable to tax", "pay tax", but not define all cases when you need to file a tax return, other than the obvious ones. Sherrings: https://sherrings.com/foreign-source-income-personal-tax-thailand.html

Thanks for explaining, very helpful! I am a bit clueless in this, please help. Is there some online manual/guidance, that exempted income like prior 2024 savings or DTA exemptions need not to be declared? Is in the online form some sections where you can put notes/comments, as in the paper PND90 of 2023 there is none?

2025 will be a more crowded B SUV EV market in Thailand. We already have BYD Atto 3, Neta X, MG ZS EV, GAC AION Y Plus and Chery Omoda C5 EV. Geely EX5 Starting February 2025, early bookers at the Bangkok Motor Expo will get their first Geely EX5 delivered. Deepal S05 Autolifethailand.tv and car250.com have rumored that Changan will launch in March 2025 the Deepal S05 under 1M baht. This car will also be produced in Thailand, according to Paul Tan. Noteworthy to know, in China the S05 can charge faster than the more expensive Thai S07 and is equipped with a LFP battery instead of NCM for the Thai S07. Hopefully we get the Chinese specced S05. MG ES5 No news or rumors, except that it is expected that the bigger brother of MG4, called the MG ES5, will be globally launched in 2025 in UK, Australia and Thailand. ES5 will replace the ZS EV. MG is not popular in China. Also ES5 did not reach the launch order magnitude of Geely EX5 and Deepal S05. Like the MG4 and the S05 it is a rearwheel drive car, so more fun to drive. Please turn on subtitles with auto translation on.

Gloomy prospect for the losers of this disruptive process, i.e. 1) Japanese, European, Korean and American carmakers that cannot transition and stay competitive 2) Chinese EV startups, joint ventures and state owned carmakers who have customers worldwide, including Thailand, that will not survive. Xpeng CEO expects 7 carmakers to survive. Check these 2025 predictions 3) Thai local suppliers that are not able to transition to become an EV supplier Losers are investors, workers and consumers of those car brands, whether ICE or EVs. In 5 years time who will ever remember these brands or companies: Weltmeister, HiPhi, Fisker, Jiyue. Next year a few can be added to the list. On a country and geopolitical scale the Western axis [EU, US, Japan, Korea] can lose 5-7% of GDP of automotive industry, as China tend to monopolize whole supply chains. They already dominate solar panels [80%] and lithium batteries [80%] from the basic materials to the end product. It would not surprise me if this would happen to EVs. German suppliers and OEMs like Bosch and Volkswagen have their main EV R&D already based in China, as there is where the action is. And it will not stop at EV manufacturing only, but will move to other advanced manufacturing like commercial aircraft, AI and robotics. Loss of GDP for a country means less earnings to pay for our security, health and retirement, unless that country can transition to activities that are at least profitable than the industry that was lost. Links: https://carnewschina.com/2024/12/30/top-10-predictions-for-2025-in-the-chinese-car-market/ https://kr-asia.com/thai-automotive-sector-has-four-years-to-adjust-to-china-evs-says-major-parts-maker

Gloomy but realistic reporting by Nikkei

If I just do an AI search [perplexity.ai], I just don't see the numbers add up for TRD to expect a good catch from expats with a retirement visa. - retirement visa: 35,846 - Elite visa: 20,884 [mostly Chinese] - Smart visa: 2,170 - LTR visa: 7k [exempted] - DTV: new - B visa: no numbers, but assume they already are in the tax net Of above group, I see only the expats with a retirement visa of which a percentage are either not aware of remittance taxation or for convenience sake have their pension remitted monthly directly into their Thai bank account. Looking at the larger groups: UK: 9,940, median income: 14k GBP with big regional variations[ Wales vs London/South East], including state pension Germany: 8,000, median: 19k euro, but male average is 25k euro, including state pension US: 5,170, median: 18k USD for male, excluding social security, which is DTA exempted In many DTA's state and private pensions are taxable in Thailand. Only government pensions are exempted. But looking at median figures above, even for the male population [as the female pension income is much lower], 25k euro amounts to less than 900k baht gross taxable income .

All BYD export bestsellers are also bestsellers in Thailand, except the plug in Sealion 6 (Song Plus).

This does not surprise me at all about BYD, or maybe specifically Rever Automotive. I still cannot understand why BYD Thailand charges so much for maintenance of a BEV. Why every 40k km instead of 80k km a gear oil change? Compare this to MG, GWM ORA, Riddara with reasonable maintenance frequencies and prices.

Remember CRS responsibility's is the Financial Institution's as part of KYC, not the customer of the FI.

I agree with @Caldera that as long as he does not get contacted by Kbank, why should he bother. It's the sender's duty to ask the customer for action. Going back to the bank's FAQ #3, as I interpret it, due to CRS obligations, the bank is only required to chase for foreign TINs, not your Thai TINs. And that's the reason @Caldera did not get this email, as he did not convey his foreign address to the bank. 3. Why did I receive an email? Ans: You are considered a tax resident based on your key documents, contact address, or workplace address in 113 countries. This means the bank is required to request your foreign tax identification number (TIN) for reporting to foreign tax authorities through the Thai Revenue Department in accordance with international exchange agreements

Using this tax calculator https://www.uobam.co.th/en/tax-calculation, with 5 M income and I use all the possible deductions/allowances - wife, 3 children, 4 parents, 1 disabled person, all the possible investments, life insurance etc. I come to a net income of 2,683,819.95 and tax to be paid 570,145.98, which is 11.4%. A tax adviser creative more than me can easily come to 10%. Back to the Bangkok Post article. A few quotes that's interesting: "For example, salaried employees bear 80% of the total personal income tax burden. However, only 4 million individuals pay personal income tax, though the labour force tallies 40 million. This means only 10% of the total workforce pays income tax."

Existing EV batteries may last up to 40% longer than expected Many of you may have read or scanned this article. This is the more technical paper. Here my takeaways having read variations of this paper: 1) the real world statistics of battery degradation of around 1.8% per year have not changed as the baseline. What has changed is that real world battery usage gives a better lifespan than the standard laboratory measured constant charge/discharge cycles. 2) So your battery can drive longer than the specified charge cycles x km range of your battery. This applies in particular to [plugin] hybrid batteries that does more dynamic cycling in HEV mode than constant charge/discharge in pure EV mode. 3) city urban driving with lots of stop/go, accelerate and regenerative braking is better, than driving on a quiet motorway using the cruise control on a constant speed. Fortunately Thailand main roads are not so quiet. 4) giving the battery a rest after driving, instead of immediately charging is better for the lifespan. However many of us will not do this when stopping to charge on long road trips. Fortunately this "bad" behavior is already included in the real world stats of 1.8% battery degradation. 5) on time induced aging. If leaving the car idle for several weeks, it is better to ask someone to drive the car to do an errand, instead of asking to start the car only to charge the low voltage battery.

For now yes, as I read the FAQ. They will likely chase you with reminder emails and/or they may change their policy in the future.

Has anyone with an EV implemented this before: V2L as automatic backup on grid outage: Install an ATS [automatic transfer switch] before the main breaker switch panel. If the car is home and not charging, connect the V2L adapter cable to the car and the ATS fallback input line. On a grid outage, the ATS will automatically switch to the V2L input of the car. Charge EV solely with grid tied solar: I have grid tied solar and excess electricity is sold to PEA. Contractually I cannot extend this array. I am using a mobile charger of which the current [Amp] can be changed by an app. I install a second array with a grid tied inverter. If I charge the EV, I can control that the car is solely charged by solar by controlling the current in the charger app and by adding the second inverter on demand, if extra power is required. In order to comply to my PEA selling contract, I limit output of the second inverter to the max power draw of the charger by connecting the ct limiter of inverter to the charger AC cable.

Still in waiting mode here to check the upcoming EV's in 2025. EX5: 100kw DC charging, more efficient than Atto 3. Will do a test drive in Dec/Jan Deepal S05: rumored to be announced March 2025, to be produced in Rayong, better drive as RWD, faster 175kw DC charging, better efficiency than Atto 3, more cargo space, incl a big frunk, less cabin space MG ES5: RWD also, when in 2025?, better efficiency than Atto 3, slow 87kw charging, will MG improve their software? BYD: will there be a Atto 3 major change or replacement with blade battery Gen 2 with faster charging or longer range? Xpeng: will Mona M03 come to Thailand?

1) no impact to Kbank services if form not returned 2) any Thai or foreigner customer of Kbank with a known address abroad gets or will get this email from Kbank Answers are all in the FAQ of Kbank:

Is a range of 420 km WLTP enough for long road trips in Thailand? YES, - my average speed on main roads is not more than 80-90 km/hr - my bladder is more the limiting factor - there are enough fast chargers on Thai main road network to stop and charge for more than 200 km not longer than 40 minutes - in the latest EU survey, almost half of non BEV drivers want more than 500 km range, while 84% of BEV drivers are OK with their current range NO, - my ICE car can drive 500 km without refueling, so why do I have to compromise - if my bladder asks me to stop, I don't need to stop for more than 15 minutes - I don't need to stop for coffee or a snack cause I have my onboard pantry in my car - my car engine is powerful enough to challenge the speed limit, so I can finish my journey faster

Before you follow our beloved budget car expert's advice, please do your due diligence where your Celerio has been produced. There are some which can be regarded as fuel efficient driving coffins. There is no record of NCAP rating that proves that the Rayong produced Celerio's do not have the same deficiencies as the Indians.

Reminds me of 2014 when I test drove this noisy car in the Netherlands and had to compete with Kia Picanto. Fast forward 10 years later, the Kia is available and priced at 19k euro and Suzuki lost the competition and is no longer available. I wonder how long you have to wait for spare parts coming from India. If you need a good short commute car, just look for a low mileage/year BYD Dolphin with plenty of battery warranty in store or wait for the Seagull.

It's still at technological infancy level 3 [Technology Readiness Level], however promising because the material used [silicone as anode] is abundant, compared to the scarce niobium anode battery of Toshiba, which is already commercially viable [TRL 9].

someone considering to buy a very affordable city car like Neta V, please watch this before you buy:

A few surprises for me on the final EV bookings ranking. Based on what the car models offer and the global size of their EV brand, I did not expect Aion [4th], Deepal [7th] and Zeekr [18th] to rank so high compared to their peers like Geely [Aion, Deepal] or Xpeng [Zeekr]. I can think of that these brands have plans to produce in Thailand, while Geely [19th] and Xpeng [20th] don't have. I had expected that for a pickup country like Thailand Riddara [23th] with plans to produce in Thailand would pick up more bookings. Perhaps brand name, range and bank loans can be a reason. I also did not expect Isuzu to drop to 11th place.

For those who have doubts about the lifespan of EV car batteries, here some nuggets: 1) https://www.wired.com/story/electric-cars-could-last-much-longer-than-most-think/ 2) traction battery warranty provided by manufacturers Most EV brands provides 8 years warranty or 160.000 km here in Thailand. There are even manufacturers providing more: - JY Air provides 8 years or 800.000 km - Neta provides a care package with a lifetime warranty, not stating the mileage - Even Honda Thailand provides for its lithium hybrid battery a 10 year / unlimited mileage warranty, even though the battery is cabin interior air cooled with the need to remove dust and small debris from the battery package, which is less optimal than a liquid cooled EV traction battery 3) Geely's announcement of their Aegis battery which claims a lifespan of 1 million km safe driving and up to 50 years

I've visited the Motor Expo and I was impressed with the quality feel of Chinese EV cars around 1M baht compared to Japanese in that price range e.g. Honda HRV, Mitsu Xpander. I would qualify Geely EX5 as top notch in terms of specs and battery. BYD Atto 3 is a bit outdated already. JY Air from Juneyao Auto is also not bad in terms of specs [e.g. 135kw dc charging] , however who ever heard of this brand. Other brands that are worth mentioning: Deepal S07 is a bit above 1M, however uses NMC battery and charges below 100 kw. Aion V has more range than the usual 420km WLTP of extended range cars in Thailand, however fails in quality feel. Not to mention Neta X that just got rescued from a bankruptcy. But still on the fence to pull the trigger. It is a buyers market. More competition and supply vs demand means more discounted prices. In a couple of years batteries get higher densities, more charge cycles and can charge faster for the same price. Compare Geely EX5 Aegis battery in 2024 vs BYD Atto 3 blade battery gen 1 from 2022. A new EV like the Geely EX5 will provide me a more comfortable ride [seats, space, suspension, ADAS/cameras, massage] and will cost me less in maintenance and electricity, however 2 inconveniences remain: 1) more inconvenience to extend long road trips. An ICE car with a range of 600 km needs refill every 500 km within 15 minutes. An EV extended range with a WLTP of 420km needs a refill between 20-80% SOC range [ 250 km ] to get the quickest charging time between 20-30 minutes. As charging between 80-100% is much slower. This means more and longer stops. You must plan your journey carefully if going to natural parks eg Khao Kho/Sok due to the absence of fast chargers. 2) more inconvenience with issues and repairs This depends how long the brand is established in Thailand. For example Geely EX5 is a new and an import only car. No plans to setup a factory in Thailand. They launched the car very low profile at the Motor Expo with a small booth space, so I expect them to wait and see before they will invest a lot in training, a spare parts hub and extend the dealer network fast. This means longer wait times for spare parts and well trained mechanics to fix and repair. And don't mention resale value. A recent study in the Netherlands shows that EVs and ICE had the same depreciation loss in % until 2022. Then due to more supply [cheaper cars from China] and the announced stop of tax credits, now an EV loses on average 15% more than an ICE car in terms of resale value. In rural areas there is less demand in low range used EVs. In the Netherlands a used EV dealer is not yet obliged to report the SOH of the car battery. In Thailand with a less transparent used car market and BYD as a market leader capable of starting discount wars, the situation is I guess worse.