shortstop2

If you really want a bank account you can try telling the bank officer that you will buy their insurance product that you don't need if they open an account for you.

On what Line of the tax form would one claim credit for the remittance that is excluded due to the bilateral treaty?

Should have wrote that my remittances are non-accessible since they are Social Security payments which are specifically excluded by a bilateral treaty. The relatively small amount of interest is accessible.

Can't seem to edit my post. This should read December of 2024.

I stopped filing once I got things set up at all my banks to stop withholding. But in December of 2014 my banks started withholding again. Before Dec 2024, 20K was the treshhold per account where there would be no withholding. Although in the past,my concern was filing to get a refund, this year my concern is about opening a can of worms if I file this year; the flip side is opening a can of worms by not filing. I am leaning towards not filing unless I hear from the Revenue Dept or if Immigration forms begin to ask if Ifiled. I'm thinking it's not a big deal if I have to file later than March 31st, just the 200 baht fee. No tax should be due since Social Security is non-accessible supposedly and my interest income minus allowances puts me in the 0% bracket. I just wanted to get some opinions here. Thanks for all the input! The Revenue Dept is quite close to where I live but won't be going there to get verbal guidance

American expat, stayed more than 180 days in Thailand in 2024. Only remittances to Thailand are direct deposit Social Security payments to Bangkok Bank. This is excluded from accessible income due to a bilateral treaty. Earned Thai interest approx 30K. 2K baht withheld. Not a big deal to lose this money. I have a TIN and filed to receive a refund on withheld interest in the past but not for about 4 years. Am I correct that I don't need to file a Thai tax return because the Social Security is non-accessible and tax was already withheld by my Thai banks?

I set things up at my banks so no tax would be withheld and it all worked well for years until December, 2024. I posted the following on January 3rd in another thread: I went to SCB today and the teller called a customer service line and the guy said that perhaps my total interest at all banks exceeded 20K baht. This sounded like he might have been making something up because I figured how would SCB know whether or not someone had other accounts which would bring the total interest over 20K per year. When I got home I checked my other banks and they had also withheld tax in December. The banks had never withheld tax before because I had jumped through hoops to make sure no tax was being withheld from any of my accounts.. So it's possible that individual banks are hooked into a Revenue Dept database and because I earned more than 20K in interest this year or perhaps last year that's the reason tax was withheld. Or perhaps all farangs are now having tax withheld as of December. Even though my interest from all banks is greater than 20K, I won't owe any tax and will get a refund.

Social Security is specifically excluded from being taxed in Thailand by a USA-Thailand bilateral tax treaty, Article 20. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/thailand.pdf I suppose in case of a potential audit, you would want to make sure that the remittance into Thailand is coded correctly.

Good post. One incentive would be to get a refund of withheld tax. I put lots of effort into arranging with banks not to have tax on interest withheld. But in December my banks all started withholding but not an amount greater than the December interest payment. It appears that somehow the banks knew that my total interest payments at all banks combined were greater than 20K even though I didn't earn more than 20K in interest at any individual bank. A friend of mine that earned less than 20K interest at all banks did not have tax withheld at the same bank in which I had tax withheld. So the question is whether to not file to get a relatively small amount of withheld refunded so as not to get into the tax system not to file since it appears we might be required to file even if we are in a 0% tax bracket. That;s one reason to consider filing. Referring to hypothetical #1 above, it is probably not easy for the Revenue Dept and Immigration Dept to coordinate so that refusing to issue an extension of stay will almost certainly not happen this year. But two simple questions on the extension of stay form, even if not followed up, might induce tax residents to file. The questions are 1) Did you stay in the Kingdom for more than 180 days last year? and 2) Did you file a Thai tax return this year?

Is there an online 2024 Thailand tax form?

I went to SCB today and the teller called a customer service line and the guy said that perhaps my total interest at all banks exceeded 20K baht. This sounded like he might have been making something up because I figured how would SCB know whether or not someone had other accounts which would bring the total interest over 20K per year. When I got home I checked my other banks and they had also withheld tax in December. The banks had never withheld tax before because I had jumped through hoops to make sure no tax was being withheld from any of my accounts.. So it's possible that individual banks are hooked into a Revenue Dept database and because I earned more than 20K in interest this year or perhaps last year that's the reason tax was withheld. Or perhaps all farangs are now having tax withheld as of December. Even though my interest from all banks is greater than 20K, I won't owe any tax and will get a refund.

Thanks. Was the deduction the exact same amount as the interest?

I have a SCB Easy account set up so no tax is deducted or perhaps no tax deducted if my yearly interest is less than 20K baht. Just noticed that my December interest payment was paid and then immediately reversed. I can't read Thai well but the same note is with the interest payment and the removel of the exact same amount seconds later. I'll go into a branch and ask about but before I do so I want to find out if anyone else had this issue with their December interest payment. This happened on December 25th.

I'm trying to understand this. Last August, I was in Bangkok for a few nights and I assume but don't know for sure, that the hotel filed an online TM30, maybe to a Bangkok office, maybe to a national database, don't know how it works. I didn't encounter a problem with my 1 year extension of stay last September. So the difference between this year and last year would be that last year was for 4 nights in Bangkok and this year 1 month in Chonburi province. Would one scenario require the refiling of a TM30 but not the other? Maybe I'll forget about the one month rental if it will impact my extensions of stay since my main landlord is out of the country and won't be able to file a TM30 for the second time.

The second landlord said she must file the TM30. She said even though Immigration hasn't done onsite inspections this year, they did do it last year. She wants to remain legal.