chiang mai

A conundrum: Only about 3.4 million people pay income tax in Thailand yet in 2023, revenue from PIT 395,744 million baht. That averages to about 113k baht per person! We know the poor don't pay taxes and it's said that the wealthy can always evade taxes....so who are these 3.4 million people and what is this source of revenue? Inheritance perhaps? Dunno.

Except loss of exports resulting from US tariffs wouldn't happen in one fell swoop overnight. They would more likely happen over time and would not extend to the entire export destination. During that time, new markets would be developed, perhaps not to the full extent of the loss but the point is, it's not an instantaneous drop or loss that is total.

I expect the new remittance rule announced a year ago will be in addition to the suggested changes to VAT. There's a wide array of tax classes and types so potentially they can adjust many of them at the same time. I don't think anyone should get excited and think that changes to VAT might negate changes to foreign remittances, I don't believe it will.

True, but 75% of Thai exports are to regional and Asia/Pac countries with only 25% to Western countries. So a potential loss of a single large trading partner, whilst painful, is not catastrophic. And let us not forget, China is not fully back on line yet. https://oec.world/en/profile/country/tha

The country does many things poorly but the one thing it does extremely well is it finds new markets when the old ones dry up. That's especially true of tourism where they move from country to country and attract visitors. I expect the same will be true of exports also.

Hey, I'll buy you a happy meal, the day you start to understand what the rest of us are talking about.

I doubt seriously that Thailand is concerned about US import tariffs, the US is only around 16% of Thai exports.

Depends how you want to measure it, 56% or 61%, take your pick. Thailand Government debt accounted for 55.9 % of the country's Nominal GDP in Sep 2024, compared with the ratio of 55.8 % in the previous quarter. Thailand government debt to GDP ratio data is updated quarterly, available from Dec 1997 to Sep 2024. The data reached an all-time high of 56.0 % in Mar 2024 and a record low of 5.7 % in Mar 1998. https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/thailand/government-debt--of-nominal-gdp#:~:text=Thailand Government debt accounted for,Dec 1997 to Sep 2024.

Household or consumer debt is high but government or public debt is low, compared to many countries, less than 60% of GDP. The idea behind closing tax loopholes is to make sure wealthy Thai's who evade tax offshore, pay their fair share, foreigners just got caught up in closing that loophole.

It is not true that hardly anyone pays income tax at present, it is the third largest source of tax revenue, second only to VAT and Corporate tax.

That's the way to do it.

Thanks, a lot of people think the State Pension is a government pension, it's very confusing at times.

The State Pension is NOT considered to be a government pension. A government pension is one paid to civil servants, armed forces members, etc etc. Can we be clear about the source of your two small pensions please?

No, that's not what I've done. I have one area that is laid with pebbles, it works well. It's a walk way/redundant area behind the house that I don't want to lay to grass, stones laid and I can forget about it.

We have a large area laid with pebbles, it's easy enough to maintain as long as you lay them a couple of inches deep.

The first 150k is indeed zero rated for tax. You are entitled to deduct 50% of the value of your pension, up to a maximum of 100k. If for example you receive 300k per year, you can claim 50% of that or a maximum of 100k as a deduction. But if you only receive say 150k, 50% of that would be equal to 75k as a deduction and you wouldn't have enough to claim the maximum. Health insurance premiums are tax deductible, as long as the premium is paid to a Thai company, in Thailand, maximum 25k.

typically per cubic meter here in Thailand

How can that be, Thailand operates a remittance based system of income tax. If you sell but don't remit, you are not liable to tax.

That's UOB Singapore, a different entity to UOB Thailand. Perhaps suitable for some but I suspect the bar may be set quite high.

I couldn't agree more. The Chinese market has barely been tapped, Thailand is extremely clever at reinventing itself as a desirable destination and presenting that to new countries and new classes of society.Where I live in Chiang Mai I am surrounded by Chinese, almost 70% of the moobahn is from China and they all have money. As long as Thailand remains neutral it will attract those people wishing to escape conflict zones and there's plenty of those right now!

Yes, maybe. But I'm not sure how many truly wealthy people retire to Thailand any longer. In the 1990's and 2000's it was a good place for pensioners on limited incomes, the ever strengthening baht in the two decades that followed slowed down that flow of new arrivees. The older guys are well established here plus many have no other place to go, they will not leave. The offshore oil and gas industry has pretty much dried up so there's another segment that has reduced. The middle income guys who came here to give it a try, they may make different plans but the truly wealthy guys will just not come in the first place because there's no incentive.

Yeah.........!

It's interesting to note that some expats see tax exemptions for buying property whilst Thai's such as the Chair of the Thai Condominium Association are calling for increased purchase taxes and capital gains on the sale of units, both parties seem to be pulling in opposite directions.

In their "Practical Scenarios and Case Studies" they suggest a 100k Pension Allowance, because the remitted pension is 300k, ergo, within the 50% rule. Pension income is classed as Category I income. Most classes of income have an associated expense deduction which varies from class to class. If you look at the table in the Sherrings link below, you will see that Cat I income attracts a 50% deduction, to a maximum of 100k. https://sherrings.com/personal-tax-deductions-allowances-thailand.html

Don't forget that the TRD's primary objective is that it wants to tax wealthy Thai nationals who invest offshore and avoid tax. The benefit to them of doing that is almost certainly far greater than the loss of a few foreign expats, if world wide income tax is implemented.