chiang mai

Expats are always going to say that any business in Thailand that is run by foreigners is bad, up to no good, full of chancers etc, I guess it must be jealousy in most cases. An expat business could be offering free information and advice and some people would be suspicious, just as they were with Lister! Folks need to get their paranoia under control.

Pen and paper works just as well.

I'm going to revisit the earlier capital gains discussions to see if I have understood things correctly. To be clear however, I do not have friends or even contacts at Expat Tax, they are merely an entity that I think is doing a decent job of disseminating information. You must believe the same is true also since you are willing to quote them, despite urging others to exercise caution in what they have to say!

I am in a similar situation, I have sufficient funds on hand for the next five years hence I have no need to file a return, if I don't want to. But like you, I want to maintain that buffer so I will continue to remit but on a smaller scale and to file a return regardless, also to fly above the radar and be seen as a small player..

If you have only exempt income, you don't need to file a tax return. In that case, I wonder why you're putting yourself through the ordeal of trying to get TRD approval of what you already know to be true. I imagine you see that as a safety check and that if the wheel comes off later, you can always point back to your meeting with the TRD staff and claim they signed off on things. The problem with that is that audits are initiated by Region, not by District and you almost certainly are dealing with District or lower. In an absolute worst case scenario, if push came to shove, I don't know how helpful or useful your two friendly ladies would be. I think if I was in your shoes, I'd not do anything, as long as I was confident I understood that my income was exempt. But I also understand that you may wish to take a different approach, which is fair enough.

You don't do sarcasm, we can tell!

I don't believe that reiterating what the law says or reinforcing the need to abide by it, constitutes tax advice.

FWIW I agree that everyone should be proactive, but that doesn't mean rushing out to obtain a TIN or buying his or anyone else's tax services. Everyone should understand the issues as they relate to their particular unique situation and calculate their own exposure to Thai tax using pen and paper. Set up a spread sheet and update it every month with your income and your TEDA and see what the end of the year position looks like, that's sensible.

TRD has done a poor job of communicating to the regions on this, I think most people accept that is the case.

No, not unless the country has been annexed as the 51st state.

Many of the statements are invalid or not justified, the TRD doesn't require anyone to obtain a TIN until specific criteria are met, not just tax residency but also remittance of assessable income. And completing a Thai tax form does not automatically mean paying for assistance, it's easily done by the average person or with some help from TRD staff.

"When a stock is sold, the proceeds consist of the cost ( principal/capital) plus or minus any gain or loss. If there is a gain, only the gain can be considered taxable income". When overseas real estate is sold, the proceeds comprise capital and gain. If the real estate was purchased before 31 December 2023 and sold thereafter, and the proceeds remitted to Thailand, the value of the gain from year end, until the date of the sale, cannot be calculated. There is no mark to market facility for real estate values, on any given date. This means that the terms of Por 162 cannot be applied to real estate sales and the entire value of the transaction is regarded as capital gains. Since capital and gain cannot be separated, any remittance of those funds must be done on a proportional basis, until the total amount is depleted. The TRD does not have separate rules for the remittance of capital gains to Thailand, dependent on the source of the gain.

The article is nothing more than an agent touting for business and much of what is said is wrong, yet again! Foreigners who are tax resident DO NOT automatically require a TIN after becoming tax resident. A TIN is only required if the person is tax resident AND they have assessable income, above the threshold level. Foreigners WILL NOT automatically require the paid assistance of a tax consultant/agent in order to complete a tax return. The forms and instructions are in English and easily within the abilities of anyone even remotely familiar with tax returns. Failing that, the TRD staff are extremely helpful and this forum can also offer non-complex guidance. Where the article is useful is to help explain why different people in different parts of the country have been refused a TIN, the Bangkok headquarters of the TRD has not done a good job in communicating with the regions on the issue of expat tax returns or TIN's. There is other information in the article that is misleading and should be ignored. For example, nobody knows if the TRD is investigating debit and credit card transactions at this time. The advice to register for a TIN now, regardless of whether or not a tax return is due, because this reduces the risk of an audit later, is preying on fear. If you conduct your tax affairs according to the TRD rules, you only need a TIN when the criteria already mentioned, are met.

As said, we're not going down this road again and I'm not about to play your word games either. All done here on this.

"the Thai RD will possibly consider any money brought into Thailand after 31-Dec-2023 may have been income". The starting point in this exercise is what funds the expat choses to declare and as what, because those things will serve as the basis for any future audit. For example, I can remit one thousand pounds to Thailand and it can be classed as exempt income by virtue of Por162, rental income from my UK property or as investment income from my self invested pension. One of those options means the funds are exempt and no tax return need be filed. The other two options require some effort on my part to ensure the audit trail is in tact and that I can produce the necessary paperwork, if supporting evidence is required later. The boundaries and extent of any future audit is therefore within my control, I can only be audited on the things I have declared, not the things that I own and haven't declared. So coming back to the quote at the outset, the TRD will only consider the things I have declared on my return, unless of course I have committed tax evasion and purposely not declared something that should have been declared.

Ah, I just realised, you and I have been around this loop before so let's not go there again. Previously I wrote in response to one of your posts, "I was just reading back over some of your earlier post of June where you were adamant that capital can be separated and remitted separately from gain, it tok pages before you finally went quiet on the subject". As I recall you previously went quiet when evidence was produced to confirm that capital and gain cannot be separated but I'm not about to go looking for it and demonstrate it all over again. If that's what you want to think, please be my guest but do provide proof of what you believe so that others can be convinced also. There will be no further debate between us on this point.

When the Conservative-led coalition came to power in May 2010, the UK's national debt was £1.03 trillion. As of the end of 2023/24, the UK's public sector net debt was £2.690 billion, or 98% of GDP. This is equivalent to around £37,900 per person in the UK. And separately, below: https://fullfact.org/economy/labour-and-conservative-records-national-debt/

Your questions aren't entirely clear to me. The filing threshold for assessable income, derived from anything other than employment, is 60k baht US SSc is DTA exempt income if remitted to Thailand. I can see no advantage to accumulating US SSc in the US since it is exempt income in Thailand. If/when WW taxation is implemented, that will not change the exemption on your US SSc.

I referred to remittance of a CG, that is the remittance of a capital gain. Yes of course you can remit capital or principle but if it derives from a CG, it cannot be separated from the gain. I agree you cannot be taxed on unremitted gains....yet! I know you don't like this company because you thing they are not correct in all their statements. I on the other hand do and think they are doing an above average job of relaying information to expats. Early in the video below, the position with regard to remittance of CG is made clear. Unless you have something to corroborate your version of CG principle remittances (without gain), I'm going with the video.

You cannot remit just capital without gain, any remittance of CG is deemed to be a prorated percentage of both, until the total is depleted.

Pension income is category 1 income. But yes, the amount that can be deducted for expenses does vary, from category to category.

The TRD requirement is that a tax payer must apply for a TIN, within 60 days of having a minimum of 60,000 baht in assessable income.

Remitted funds can be assessable to Thai tax or they can be exempt or excluded funds. There is no point in setting a threshold limit for excluded or exempt remitted funds because there is no requirement to file a tax return, no matter how much is remitted. Assessable, in the context of tax, means that the funds must be assessed or considered for tax. Exempt and excluded funds are not considered for tax hence they are not assessable. Remitted merely means to send, transmit or remit funds from one place to another.

It is all assumed to be assessable income, I thought that would have gone without saying.

Ah, that's different. I did see some of those comments and I thought the numbers were overstated regarding the number of people leaving etc. But I agree that there is high awareness now, over 92% of expats know about this, thanks in part to threads like these.