Lorry

LiverpoolLou is so convinced that I suggest the following small experiment: He goes to a hotel to book a room and casually mentions, that he wants to stay there with his girlfriend for the weekend. "But she cannot book the room, because she is 15. So I must book the room for the two of us." Hopefully he will have the chance to report back to us here.

Makes sense. So if Mr U wants to gift 1m to Mr T tax-free, he has 2 choices: 1. Mr U is not a tax resident in Thailand, then he can remit from Mr U's US account to Mr T's Thai account. 2. Mr U is a tax resident in Thailand, then he better transfers the 1m to Mr T's US account. Mr T then can remit the money to Thailand, and as a gift it would be tax-free (if customary, and if a real gift, no sham). Do you agree?

100% correct And @spidermike007 and @impulse added the risk of persecution in home country. In my country, that's a very real risk. And for LiverpoolLou: the term "age of consent" is not defined in Thai law, its not a legal term. It's just an expression that English websites use, and they construct it from Thai laws by comparing them to arbitrarily selected Anglosaxon laws. They could just as well write "the legal age in Thailand is 18", it would also be only 50% true. But it would at least be what every Thai I know thinks.

Thx, I was thinking something like that when I saw the results. I don't know NT Thunder, but I still have an old TOT Sim, I wil try.

I don't get that. If Mr U sends a birthday gift of 1m THB from his US account to his friend's (Mr T) Thai account, Mr T would have to pay Thai gift tax (if over 10m). Sure. And don't let us talk about US taxes. Imho, Mr T does not have to pay personal income tax for this 1m, because it is a gift. No matter, whether any income tax in any country has been paid for this 1m. Nor does Mr U have to pay Thai personal income tax for this 1m. He never got this money in Thailand. (Ok, @Etaoin Shrdluthinks he got that money for an imaginary microsecond - it was still Mr U's money on the way between crossing the border and landing in Mr T's account. So, what if Mr U transferred the money to Mr T's US bank account, supposed Mr T has a US bank account?). Am I mistaken? RD 161/2566 specifies which kind of income are taxable according to RD 161/2566 - gifts are not. That has been clarified by the RD in the video Klonko posted. Neither are inheritances, BTW. Bringing inherited money to Thailand you shouldn't have to pay personal income tax, but inheritance tax if over 100m THB. Regardless of what taxes have ever been paid for the inherited money in any other country. Imho. I may be completely wrong, I am financially almost illiterate, please elaborate. PS to be clear: I am talking about real gifts or inheritances, not sham gifts that are "gifted back" once in Thailand (or inheritances later claimed back by the resurrected dead)

LiverpoolLou is quite misleading, and his utterances are dangerous, as has been noted by several posters. Yes, the age of consent is 15. But that only means that sleeping with a 15-year-old is not automatically statutory rape. It is still considered illegal by all Thais I know. Technically, you maybe would not be accused of statutory rape, but of indecent acts, obscenity, seduction, abduction of a minor - any law protecting decency and protecting parents' power over their children (that's why it's a compoundable offence, and that's why consent of a 16-year old can be withdrawn after the fact) The case of Big Ass is explained in Wikipedia: A high-profile example of this application of the law was a statutory rape charge filed against the lead singer of the Thai band Big Ass for allegedly having had sex with a (then) 16-year-old girl. The charge was filed by the girl after the singer refused to take responsibility for her baby. The singer has since been cleared of being the baby's father due to the results of a paternity test and he received 2 years suspended sentence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Asia For all practical purposes, consider 18 the age of consent. I have heard of 19-year-olds who tried the same as Big Ass' girl, but they were too old and nothing came of it.

I think (just guessing, I admit) what won't work is what has been mentioned most often in this thread: Gifting money to one's Thai wife and then living off this money (it has even been suggested that she could "gift back"). That assumes the RD are imbeciles (I don't think they are) or they don't take this whole thing seriously (a possibilty, imho)

Not just "designate" money as a gift. It really must demonstrably be a gift. Examples: What many people give to their TGF obviously is a gift. But a gift to a gf must be customary, see the video. I would say in Thai culture a gift to one's dek is customary. And even more so at special occasions like her birthday. More difficult imho is a gift to one's spouse. It could be used for the living expenses of both, husband or wife. But if e.g. the wife uses the money to buy land in her name (not the land of their common home), it's difficult to argue this was not a gift. Another situation: the foreigner himself received a gift from his father. If he receives a meager pension and he got a sizable lump sum from his father who sold his house, this can all be proven with bank accounts. The foreigner can then remit the gifted money to Thailand, its not one of the different kinds of income listed in order 161/2566. Same if its an inheritance.

Right now True fiber: 554 Mbps down, 220 Mbps up, ping 5ms AIS 4G+: 1.90 Mbps dow, 25.9 Mbps up, ping 26ms Yes No chance I have DTAC postpaid also, but until now I only used it for phone calls. For just 100 B more they give me 90 GB, dont know which speed, it starts in 3 weeks and I will see how it is

10m resp. 20m per 1 year in Thailand

That answers my question above about gifts gifted (given and received) outside Thailand. Yes, I think the same. A gift sent from the gifters foreign bank account to the receivers Thai bank account is tax free up to 10 resp. 20m, thank you for the video @Klonko It may be a good idea to ask your local RD office if you want to send gifts to a Thai wife or your children in Thailand: is it ok to send the money from your foreign account to the receivers Thai account? Or should it be sent to a receiver's foreign bank account? I could imagine that different RD offices will give different answers and that you can find offices that will not accept one or the other. I cannot imagine that an office would refuse both methods. That would mean foreigners cannot give tax-free gifts to their Thai family.

VPN, yes, I tried this. Because they said the cable to Europe is cut I used a VPN to a server in the US. Didn't help at all.

In central Bangkok. Downloading from Europe. That's why True said, the cable to Europe is cut. Maybe I should volunteer to glue it together, I just bought some glue at Mr DIY anyway

True said that, so is it really true?

I have AIS 10MB unlimited which used to be good enough for me. Now I often cannot download anything ( download of 120 kB took 5 min yesterday, today download of 76 kB required 5 trials). Is it worth the trouble to port the number to True? Or even Dtac?? BTW I have True fiber at home, and that has become very unreliable too.

I tried it and you are right Surprising indeed Thx BTW they sell packaged coffee too, but didn't know where. They sent me to another branch where staff was incredibly rude (I am seriously thinking of complaining to headquarter, we are in Bangkok after all, not in Pattaya or mainland China) and didn't know anything either. Any idea where to buy it? https://www.cafe-amazon.com/index.aspx?Lang=EN&PageID=1

Thanks a lot, a very clear answer. Threshold for inheritance tax is 100,000,000 THB. The inheritances I was taking about are less than that. So we arrive again at the question whether to file if no tax due. This question has been discussed in this thread ad infinitum...

a friend will bring money into Thailand that he inherited in his home country. He can easily prove the money has been inherited. It should be tax-free, right? (Thinking about it, I could do the same, but I might have comingled the funds already, I will have to check)

Can I receive a gift from relatives (spouse, parents, kids) living abroad when I am abroad visiting them, and transfer the money to Thailand tax-free (or just bring the cash, it won't be more than 10,000 USD)? I know nobody knows the answer, but at least I see nothing in the RC saying gifts must be made in Thailand. Or did I miss something?

I know a foreigner who went there and asked. They said they will use the tax credit method. BTW i hear Thais saying "now foreigners must pay tax" quite often. Nobody ever said "now rich people must pay tax". I never believed that the new rules aim at rich Thais. Thaksin is one of them, and Srettha too.

That would be nice. But it has been all over tiktok (and other, less important media) that "now farang must pay taxes, like Thais do" Thais who until yesterday couldn't spell "tax" (and who never in their life have paid taxes) have talked to me about it. So, Somchai the tax inspector has certainly heard about it. What he is going to do about it is anyone's guess. BTW the tax office in Buriram, which is not exactly the center of the universe, does have someone who knows English, is well informed about the new rules and even knows what a DTA is and how to apply it.

I perused this report, I haven't seen it before. I found it very interesting. Yes, the statistics are a bit old, and I find some parts of the report ridiculous, but I don't think the rough picture changed a lot. Probably more Chinese now, certainly more refugees from Myanmar and a lot more Russians and Ukrainians. I don't know whether many Westerners left, personally I know 3. I am sure LiverpoolLou will bring us new, up-to-date statistics very soon.

There are many coffee threads. But recommendations of 3 in 1, coffee from Macro or a supermarket is not what I am looking for. If someone comes from a coffee drinking nation, used to espresso, what can I offer him? Illy is good, Starbucks espresso (NOT any lattecino) is good. Lavazza and Casino (from BigC) are acceptable for myself, but not really good (too acid). All of these are imported, 100% arabica (that's a must) and relatively expensive in Thailand. Some Illy brands are not sold in Thailand. I once had espresso from Laos which was of comparable quality (it didn't survive covid). Can anybody, preferably from a nation where these kinds of coffee are common, recommend one of the smallish Thai or Lao coffee roasters that produce espresso of comparable quality as the mentioned brands?

So here is the whole quote. You wrote "foreigners", didn't you? I did not misquote you and I did not violate forum rules. All I did, I am just as pedantic as you are. "99.5% Thais/0.5% foreigners" is just wrong. The population of Thailand does not consist of "99.5% Thais", they are much less. Foreigner are a very sizable minority here, more than 5% (but I guess less than 10%) As for the word " expats", you avoided to say who exactly that might be. Only anglophones? Only westerners? Or does the word include Eastern Europeans? Does it include Russians? Arabs? Indians? Chinese? Burmese, Laotians, Cambodians? Hill tribe people born in Thailand without Thai ID card? etc...

Wow. Good to know for the future. Bangkok Bank, SCB and Krungsri Bank all let you keep the canceled bank books. I just asked K-bank's call center, they said normally the staff will punch a whole in the old bank book and the customer can keep it (same procedure as the other banks). There is no rule that the bank has to keep the old book. Yeah, "normally"... What's normal in Thailand?