Klonko

You must file a tax return if you have assessable income above low thresholds. But you only will be fined (severely) if you do not pay taxes owed, i.e. if assessable income minus allowances etc. is higher than the first tax free THB 150k bracket. The general consensus seems to be: you have to file but no consequences if no taxes owed.

Last year, I wanted to diversify my banking relationships geographically and approached Singapore banks, which, however, could not accommodate the investment in an Irish ETF on the MSCI World ACWI.

Because irrational bureaucracy is not limited to Thailand. If there is a principle that all offshore tax residents should provide their tax identification number in order to facilitate CRS-exchange, bank compliance may rather close an account than work with exemptions. I have two Swiss bank accounts and one bank (not UBS) already warned me to provide a TIN. I will rather get a Thai TIN, if necessary by declaring assessable income or some taxable income, than having accounts closed.

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Thanks for the case doc. Based on marital agreement concluded in Switzerland, which is honoured in Thailand, I will not have conjugal but separated property. Else it could be argued that my pension income in Switzerland is conjugal property and transfers are partially a gift from my wife to herself. With respect to joint tax filing, I consider it a little contradictory to claim THB 60k spouse allowance on the one side and keep the gift tax exempt on the other side. I could organise myself with zero taxable income and provide respective documentation, but I consider to come up with a tax payable equal to the withholding tax on the interest on my Thai bank accounts, not reclaiming the withholding tax and hopefully keeping the tax man happy and less motivated for cumbersome inquiries.

Thank you very much for case evidence.

As per Mike's comprehensive and deserving tax guide: "Only funds that are exempt from Thai tax or funds on which Thai tax has already been paid, can be Gifted. It is not possible to Gift funds that are assessable income, in order to avoid Thai tax.". I understand there is the argument that funds transferred from a Thai resident benefactor's untaxed foreign income to the Thai account of the beneficiary may be assessable income in Thailand. On the occasion of the Swiss embassy town hall February 27, 2024, after discussing tax qualification of foreign income , the senior Thai RD tax expert answered to the question "How are pre-inheritance and gift funds taxed when transferred from abroad?" with "Under Thai domestic law, exemptions are for example provided for gifts to ascendants or descendants or support payments to spouses and children. In these cases, up to THB 20 million per year are exempted. Exemptions are also provided for payments to persons who are not ascendants,descendants or spouse, if they have moral purpose or and or are in accordance with customs (maximum exempted amounts = THB 10 million).". The quote is from the embassy's transcript and I would assume that the transcript was verified with Thai RD. The quote would not make sense if funds gifted from foreign income accounts were assessable income and not exempt from Thai taxes in principle. Based on this statement, I deem it legal tax optimisation and not illegal tax evasion to transfer untaxed pension funds from my Swiss bank account to my wife's Thai bank account, provided the amounts transferred are less than 50% of our joint living expenses and not passed on to my Thai bank account, and we do not file a joint tax return. Is there any official statement of Thai RD to the contrary? I would not put too much weight on tax consultants with their fee based bias, but rather plan my taxes based on the recent statement from Thai RD.

For comparison Our OraGoodCat Ultra 500 has 500 km NDEC. Real range A/C 26° @ ≤ 90 km/h on main roads 400 km. Real range A/C 26° @ 120 km/h on motorway 280 km. Real range A/C 26° @ ≈40 km/h in the mountains 500 km The aerodynamics of the Ora GoodCat are not very good.

At the virtual townhall of the Swiss embassy February 27, 2024, Nathanan Juunprateepchai, Legal Officer, Expert Level, Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs Division from the Thai Revenue Department, answered questions submitted previously. My key take aways: You need to be well documented. English documents are generally accepted but other languages require certified translation preferably in Thai. Documents may need to be signed off by foreign government. You could interpret Nathanan's explanations that foreign withholding taxes can be offset under DTA. Foreign taxes need to be paid and fully assessed prior to be claimed under DTA. There are no rules on applicable accounting method and commingled funds. Three questions had been specifically directed to this topic but were not raised. Gifts from abroad are not taxable in the context of "traditional" support up to THB 10/20m annually. You can get a Tax ID now for next year. Thai RD hotline 1611 (also in English) answers questions. Video (mainly English) will be uploaded to "Swiss Embassy Thailand"'s YouTube channel.

"No motorways". National parks may have toll roads. "No motorcycles" indeed impractical.

I have not seen any evidence in the tax code or court rulings that gifts from the foreign account of person A foreign account to the Thai account of person B are taxable income of person A although the money was never remitted to person A in Thailand, provided that the money is not passed on to person A in Thailand.

Correct if I remit money from my foreign account to my Thai account and pass the money on as gift. If I transfer money from my foreign account to the beneficiary 's Thai account as gift, it does not constitute assessable income in Thailand, at least as long as the beneficiary does not return the money to me and does not use the money on my behalf.

Because the idiot may have been asked by a foreign bank to provide a Thai tax ID as Thai tax resident. I have no assessable income in Thailand to date, but it may be easier to get a Thai tax ID than convincing my foreign bank's compliance department.

DTA: while a DTA may well work in theory, the practical implication is unclear e.g., is certified translation required for foreign account and/or tax statements, and are foreign taxes recognised when paid or only when finally assessed by foreign RD (i.e. reclaim only possible after paying full Thai taxes). Unspecified accounting method (FIFO, LIFO, etc.) applied by Thai RD for determining the source of remittances as income or capital. ≥ 180 days for qualifying as tax resident: There was once a post stating that the Thai RD has calculated fewer days, but I do not remember if this was referring to a long past event, due to specific practice by a local Thai RD and if the calculation was based on midnight. Is there any source for the applicable calculation method? I expect that many issues will not be officially clarified but subject to local Thai RD practice rendering tax planning rather difficult.

There is political pressure to have the rich pay a minimum amount of taxes and not to use legal structures to reduce their tax rate below many taxpayers'. Such ideas emerged from the U.S. which have a habit to persuade other countries to follow up. It is not a written number yet like 15%, but I dare to say that there is a common view that the tax rate should not be lower anywhere for private persons and could be implemented globally in the longer term. Global taxation is one step towards a minimum tax and is likely to be applied everywhere as many tax consultants say now. As I said, many countries will deliberately create loopholes to attract targeted clienteles and I hope that 10 years from now I will not pay more than 15% tax in Thailand. It also is likely to become increasingly difficult to avoid any tax domicile. There are countries which may determine as domicile the country with the closest relationship irrespective of nights spent. I can adapt to even the worst case scenarios of the upcoming changes to Thai RD practice, but paying a marginal tax rate of 35% or more while preserving my wealth would have a material impact on my living standard, and I am afraid fleeing to another country will not solve the problem and/or lower my quality of life.

Thailand taxing global income should not impact tax obligations in other countries and DTA would hopefully avoid double taxation. However, applying a 35% marginal tax rate to global income above THB 5m would deter the desired wealthy foreigners. If Thailand was to switch to globaI taxation I would expect Thailand to set up beneficial tax schemes for this clientele as it is the case in some other (European) countries with warm climate. Global taxation would most likely not be introduced in the short term. There is global pressure to standardise tax systems and establish minimum tax rates, but countries have been very innovative offering favourable tax schemes to the targeted corporates and private individuals and circumventing the politically correct global or regional standards.

You did the first 90 day reporting after entering Thailand online? Is my recollection wrong that only the 2nd 90 day reporting after entering Thailand can be done online and that the 90 day reporting starts counting new after each new entrance to Thailand?

Pre-marriage assets. Probably including income derived from such assets but I have not found respective confirmation.

Tax exempt gifts will not be sufficient to cover all expenses and also rely on the trustyworthiness of the beneficiary. Not everybody wants to purchase sizeable assets in somebody else's name. Therefore, gifts are only a partial solution and not a viable route for everybody. In my case, I was lucky to expand my Christmas vacation and will transfer a few mio THB this year under the 179 days rule. No taxable income in the next few years. Worst case (1) I can transfer money with 100% offsetting DTA credit or proof of prior savings, but I prefer not to file tax returns and discuss source of funds and DTA with Thai RD. Worst case (2) gifts are not exempted from 2024 retroactively and we may have to pay <5% tax on the gifts until such new tax ruling.

I have not found any indication that my foreign remittances to my wife are excluded from the gift exemption. It is not a loophole if the remittances are not transferred back to me, not used to purchase assets in my name, and <50% of joint living expenses are funded from the remittances. It is not my money anymore. If Thailand will exclude foreign remittances from the gift exemption, I have plan B in place.

Beyond Putin, it may be worthwhile to diversify banking relationships geographically. Not only wars, also restrictions on capital transfer or holding assets such as gold have happened in the past and could happen again. I looked into dividing my assets between Switzerland and Singapore. I would never consider Thailand. Unfortunately, the Singapore banks could not offer the same investment opportunities to me. Domiciled in Thailand, considered a country with increased risk from a compliance point of view, it is not easy to maintain offshore banking relationships. My alternative is now to build up physical gold in Singapore in the longer term.

Apparently I identify as Thai woman😉

As long as Thailand does only tax remitted income, there will be possibilities to avoid or minimise Thai tax payable and Thailand will remain a tax efficient domicile. In this respect, I am relaxed which detailed rules will be established hopefully before 2025, though I am structuring my remittances for a worst case scenario. Thailand switching to a global income tax in the more distant future with no adaptations to the effective tax rates could be a game changer. While retirees in the low income bracket would probably still not pack and flee because the combination of low living costs, decent infrastructure and moderate taxes remains in place, Thailand would not be attractive to wealthy people anymore. But given that Thailand seems to be interested in wealthy people, I anticipate that a global tax system would not apply the existing marginal 35% tax rate to global income. Other countries applying the global tax system and competing for wealthier foreigners have found ways to offer attractive tax solutions for this clientele.

Do you have evidence that the midnight rule is also applied in Thailand? As the ≥ 180 days rule is unique to Thailand, I would not be surprised for Thai RD to apply another method to calculate tax residence. There was once a post saying that Thai RD has come to fewer days residence than Thai immigration, but it may have been local Thai RD practice. I wonder if flying over a country at midnight constitutes one day presence in this country.

Art.6 I "Income derived by a resident of a Contracting State from immovable property situated in the other Contracting State may be taxed in that other State." stipulates that Switzerland can tax persons domiciled in Tailand on real estate situated in Switzerland. It does not say that Thailand cannot tax respective income.