Klonko

Consistent with UOB:

44 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

Here's Thailand tax calculator, a salary of 2 mill per year attracts tax at 16%

 

https://www.uobam.co.th/en/tax-calculation

Mea maxima culpa, my calculation was using the wrong bracket and resulted in too low tax rates. My 5% become 7.8%.

Following corrected table consistent with UOB:

2 hours ago, retiree said:

Note that the IRS 709 form verifying the gift is not filed until the next year.  In my opinion, when the money enters Thailand it is still the husbands.  If it is assessable, and if he is resident in that year, then it is taxable to the husband (subject to DTA).  

Do I understand  you correctly, that the money is as long the husband's money as long it has not been assessed for IRS?  In my home country, I do not incur any tax on gifts to my wife regardless of my tax domicile and ownership passes to my wife when money is credited to her account. Question remains if Thai RD can require gifts to be transferred from a Thai account.
 

2 hours ago, retiree said:

What?  I was very much looking forward to the no-show job and no-show wife that Klonko might provide me to test his contention.   Let's not be hasty here.

Sorry, I wait for my tax lawyer's response before I would send monthly gifts of < THB 100k to my wife, who is not required to file taxes. If the tax issues are not clarified in due time, I may leave two weeks earlier for Christmas in my home country and transfer the money for two to three years living expenses this year under the 179 days rule.

12 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

How does option C (paying 5% tax) work?

Cf.:

18 hours ago, Klonko said:

Splitting living expenses 50/50% payments to my account and gifts to my wife, gifts for larger purchases in the name of my wife and forgetting DTA (100% offset). Allows for THB 2.44m living expenses.

Calculated on THB 2.44m, tax rate is 2.5% (5% on THB 1.22m taxable income).

2 hours ago, retiree said:

In my opinion, the only circumstance under which he can transfer to his wife without one of them being liable for taxes is if either a) it wasn't assessable income for him, or b) he wasn't a tax resident when his assessable income was remitted to Thailand. . 

Could you please substantiate this assumption. I agree it will be most probably tax evasion if 100% of joint living expenses are financed by gift or the gifted amount is transferred back to the husband's Thai account. However, supporting the non working wife up to ≈ 50% of joint living expenses and enabling her to finance her share of living expenses from her own account is hardly tax evasion and I have found nothing to the contrary.

23 minutes ago, K2938 said:

What is your plan C with 5% tax or is this just what it comes out for you if you were taxed?

Splitting living expenses 50/50% payments to my account and gifts to my wife, gifts for larger purchases in the name of my wife and forgetting DTA (100% offset). Allows for THB 2.44m living expenses.

36 minutes ago, moogradod said:

I am actually scared to do that. My problem is not my own tax - easy peasy even on the considerably high state pension I get (but below 1.8 m - have to give a portion to my divorced first wife). But I never understood why they do not approach my Thai wife which transfers between her accounts amounts far above 2m per year (for example to optimize risk and she recently bought a house). From all interest 15% withholding tax is deducted. So if I file so must she even if the interest earned per year might not be much after the deductioons (I actually never calculated it, but will do so tomorrow) and I am uncertain what this could mean (only in the case something goes really pear shaped with the new regulations - money I gifted her was always done under strict observance of the tax laws at the time, some even while she was not tax resident). And then there is still the risk that the IO wants proof of payment. Maybe not now, but maybe in 3 years. Even worse. So I more and more conclude that I have to file a tax return already for 2023. Need to find a good tax accountant (as well because of the language barrier). My wife does not understand these matters and can translate but probably not really make sense all the time.

While I am flying under the radar as plan A, I have retained a Thai tax lawyer (recommended by my home country tax lawyer) to get professional assessment of my personal situation and have plan B (DTA), C (paying 5% tax) and D (179 days) ready. Flying under the radar is fine as long as I am able to land safely.

23 minutes ago, moogradod said:

Does your "turnover" include incoming plus outgoing financial transactions ?.And then it depends how far back this will be. Before we moved here we did transfer many millions to Thailand - but all in strict observance with the tax laws at the time - I needed more than 1 year to clarify that. In the last few years I have no more income over 1.8m per calender year but occasionally I transferred money to my wife to one of her more than 15 bank accounts - for example as a gift when she bought a new car - which was over 1.8 m. but this is many years ago, when my account saldo was far more than it is now. We both have only very few transactions, this includes ATM and supporting the family. The biggest joke would be if they would make my poor Thai Farmer family make a tax return because of the support we send them. But I not really think that this would happen - just a play of the mind.

Cf. following clarifying post:

1 hour ago, retiree said:

https://www.mazars.co.th/Home/Insights/Doing-Business-in-Thailand/Tax/Deposit-and-Transfer-Transactions-Reporting

On 20 March 2019, the Government published the Act to Amend the Revenue Code (No. 48), 2562 B.E., in the Government Gazette. This Act became effective on 21 March 2019.

Under this Act, the following entities have the duty to report information about a person who made certain types of transactions during the previous year to the Revenue Department by March of the following year:

... 

1. Depositing or accepting transfers of money in all bank accounts 3,000 times or more in the previous year.

2. Depositing or accepting transfers of money in all bank accounts 400 times or more, for a total amount of THB 2 million or more in the previous y

Flying under the radar with less than THB 2m annual account turnover may remain an appropriate strategy for easy living in Thailand. I expect that workable solutions are also in the interest of Thai RD and doubt they will link IO extensions to tax filing. 

11 hours ago, tomacht8 said:

I do not think so.

2 - 4 Million Thai Baht has a Taxrate from 30% !!!

Tax rates after THB 310k deductibles:

THB 1m 3.9%
THB 2m 8.8%

THB 3m 12.5%

THB 4m 15.6%

2 hours ago, jacob29 said:

Proving money has been taxed is a compliance headache they may not want to deal with. That would require them to track what has been taxed, and make sure you don't claim against it twice. It would be much easier to aggregate the CRS data (worldwide income), data they have and can trust, and simply match remittances against that.

 

That would make it effectively the same as other countries systems, with possible reduction in tax liability if you don't remit the full assessed amount. Which means no new special compliance techniques have to be developed, they can apply existing systems that other countries use.

I doubt aggregating CRS data (AFAIK no tax information) solves the problem when my foreign untaxed income is 300% of my foreign taxed income (20% tax rate) and I only transfer from my foreign account with only taxed income, which transfers would be taxed with 10% in Thailand unless offset under my  DTA. I currently plan with multiple accounts unless Thai specifies a favourable ruling this year. I am confident that my DTA would protect me. However, instead of going the legal route, I would rather split my transfers between my account and as gift to my wife resulting in a 5% tax payable in Thailand, still better than being taxed on global income.

4 hours ago, jacob29 said:

If it's never remitted it seems it won't ever be taxed. I highly doubt they will allow someone to decide whether a specific transfer is of past savings or assessable income, as I don't see how that's workable.

There are many workable setups, at least from the perspective of Thai RD. For the less favourable  setups, it may help to maintain separate accounts abroad segregating taxed and untaxed income and transfer from the zero interest bearing taxed income account under DTA only when all funds in the account have been assessed by foreign RD.

Is there evidence that Thai RD applies LIFO and not FIFO.

Thai women's choice shrinks in their thirties.

Thanks for all replies. I will probably go for Daikin KZ Series and may choose higher BTU than calculated (current  "deleted" Samsung AC is increasing fan speed in silent mode from time to time to not so silent mode in order to maintain temperature). Purchase from a shop in Sattahip which has serviced our existing 5 AC..

For our bedroom, I am looking for a new inverter AC (9000 BTU) which is as silent as possible, can operate without draft (no airflow downwards) and has the best possible air filter for smoggie February/March. I have narrowed down to Mitsubishi and Daikin, but there are too many models with similar specs to choose from. Is there any company/anyone in the Pattaya/Sattahip area which can provide reliable professional advice and expertise (English not mandatory)? Quality is more important than low price.

Decent quality: https://www.pnfcoffee.com/product/eureka-mignon-specialita/

4 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Surely you are new to Thailand 

Long enough to consider it more likely within the next 20 years that agents will not be able to provide workarounds anymore than Elite not to honour existing memberships. It is interesting that as many forum members support MFP and critize corruption as many forum members use agents for visa workarounds.  

4 hours ago, JAFO said:

 ... I am surprised at some of the other posters who can't seem to find an agent to make it work for them.  I know half a dozen expats 40 to 60 who use agents.  Price ranges from 12k to 15k bht.  X 5 is 60K baht over 5 years.  ...

Assuming that future usability of agents is as probable as the validity of a 20 year Elite membership.

2 hours ago, eezergood said:

can i ask why? 

I have to un-/plug the wireless dongle because the CarPlay does sometimes not start on the Ora GoodCat's display (stuck with the initialisation screen). I have the same experience with my Honda Goldwing, but it is more cumbersome to un-/plug the dongle in the trunk while driving. I have not been able to replicate the fail scenario.

I have a dongle for wireless CarPlay, but I have to restart the dongle (un-/plugging) too many times for my taste.