chiang mai

It doesn't, but once gifted the gifter must not benefit from the gift. If the spouse then decides to gift back, that is a totally separate exercise. But I can imagine with some confidence that any Revenue Department faced with that scenario would designate the manoeuvre as aggressive tax evasion.

I'm not sure if you're patronising or trolling me here because I've just looked back through my recent posts to see where I've used the word "must" and they all relate to examples where the Tax Code or Big 4 advice says you must do something or not. For example, the giver of a gift must not benefit from the gift; gifts between husband and wife must follow certain protocols. I suggest that if you have future queries in this regard you raise them at the time and seek clarification.

Which makes sense. That's even more reason to believe that if they were closing a loop hole, they wouldn't allow another loop hole the size of the Grand Canyon to remain in place.

20 million per year is extremely generous, even for the wealthy elite of Thailand, who I expect are the main targets of the rule. It's bad enough that TRD loses tax on the received 20 million of income that is gifted but to then suggest they also forgo tax on the income that generated the gift, that's just unsupportable in any tax regime.

If there is a historic precedent derived from the Court of Appeals, I would have expected the Code to have been updated to reflect such a ruling, that would make it clear for future claimants. As things stand currently, the English language version of the Tax Code leaves the giver of any gift, tax unaffected by the Gift Tax rule and playing no part in it, only the receiver is granted rights. Perhaps if @anrcaccount can supply the facts that led to his accusation of scaremongering, things will become a little clearer.

There is no exemption, deduction or allowance for any of the eight types of incomes that allow tax to be reclaimed or negated when a gift is given, plus I have not seen anywhere on the tax forms that tax can be zeroed or reclaimed when it is. Finally, there is nothing that I have seen in the Code that says gifted assessable income becomes not assessable. when it is gifted. If a gifter was able to negate tax on gifted assessable income, every husband and wife in the country would be gifting their salaries to their partner every year, in order to avoid tax and the country would have no tax receipts.....every foreigner married to a Thai would be remitting assessable income from overseas, to their spouse, to avoid tax and no married foreigner would pay tax. In Western countries, there is a tax deduction or allowance for gifting funds, within low limits, to charitable and tax free organisations, those donations benefit the gifter but the gift is given far beyond their reach. If Thailand is unique in that it allows givers to escape income assessability by gifting to their partner, the Revenue Code doesn't mention or even imply this. If the Revenue Courts have determined it is possible, I have never seen or heard word one about it and would need to see first hand proof of it before I begin to believe it to be true. I would add here that it's called Gift Tax, a tax or tax benefit on gifts, that is not a tax benefit on donated income. The gift tax rule is intended to benefit the receiver of the gift, not the giver and certainly not both.

What are you talking about, scaremongering! If income is assessible it is taxable, giving away your income doesn't negate tax, where is it said that you can do that? If that were the case, everyone would earn income and immediately give it to somebody and nobody would ever pay tax! Show me where it is said that there is a tax benefit to the gifter by gifting income, any source will do.

If the giver is not Thai tax resident in the year the gift if remitted, the funds cannot be Thai assessible since Thailand taxes tax residents on a remittance basis only. Question 5 of the attached link helps. https://sherrings.com/foreign-source-income-personal-tax-thailand.html

20 million baht per year is the maximum. But no, the gift does not push the tax liability to the receiver of the gift. The tax liability remains with the giver of the gift, if the funds were assessible. See a few posts further up the page.

Here's some quoted fact that may help some: Section 41 "A taxpayer who in the previous tax year derived assessable income under Section 40 from an employment, or from business carried on in Thailand, or from business of an employer residing in Thailand, or from a property situated in Thailand shall pay tax in accordance with the provisions of this Part, whether such income is paid within or outside Thailand. A resident of Thailand who in the previous tax year derived assessable income under Section 40 from an employment or from business carried on abroad or from a property situated abroad shall, upon bringing such assessable income into Thailand, pay tax in accordance with the provisions of this Part. Any person staying in Thailand for a period or periods aggregating 180 days or more in any tax year shall be deemed a resident of Thailand". https://www.rd.go.th/english/37749.html#section41

...UNLESS it is quoted fact.

Which can be avoided if the giver is not tax resident when the gift is made and all the rules of Gift Tax are followed. The most important one being that the giver of the gift must not benefit from the gift, in any way..

The following is fact: https://www.rd.go.th/english/37748.html

What you've just defined is tax evasion, hiding out and working cash in hand and never declaring income....that's a whole different story. I gave you an answer that complies with tax law and the Revenue rules that exist and doesn't define what happens if you break those rules and act differently. So no, it's not the end of the story, not if one day somebody from the Revenue has cause to begin asking questions which become difficult or impossible to answer.

Yes, thank you, did you have a point you wanted to make? Ah, it looks like the editor is screwed up and your post to me appears as my post....gottit.

Gifts between husband and wife must follow certain protocols and conventions and must be documented. It's not a straight forward matter of simply giving your wife money and calling it a tax free gift, there are rules that must be followed. Most importantly, if the giver of the gift is Thai tax resident and gifts money to their wife in Thailand, those funds may still be assessable to Thai tax on the part of the person making the gift. A person cannot escape Thai tax by gifting remitted assessible income to a spouse, if they are both tax resident here. The giving of the gift does not imply any form of tax immunity on the part of the giver, nor does it magically negate any tax that would be otherwise due from the giver. The receiver of the gift is free of tax by receiving the gift, as long as the amount does not exceed the current gift tax threshold but nothing changes on the part of the person making the gift..

There is a multi stage appeals process (below) that is dedicated to the Revenue. If anyone claiming to have non taxable savings, can't get that fact recognised within that process, they probably aren't non-taxable savings. https://www.rd.go.th/english/37746.html

She is tax resident because she spends more than 180 days per calendar year in Thailand, just like anyone else. The fact she has never paid tax is not relevant to anything.

In case anyone should need it to help formulate and substantiate an argument, the TRD Code is here: https://www.rd.go.th/english/37748.html

Despite the thousands of posts on tax over the past eleven months, the numerous authoritative links from the TRD and other professional sources, the embassy meetings and the numerous videos involving law firms, the basics of Thai taxation and the operation of DTA's is still not understood by so many people. I don't know what it will take to force that learning in many people, it's remarkable really, the problems so many are having, understanding tax outside of their home environment where everyone is spoon fed.

You'll need far better bait than that.

Why should I reinvent the wheel, based on your whim, there's zero mileage in that for me. Your failure to learn is your loss.

I've filed taxes here without a problem for almost a decade. I've declared current year income and I've informed the TRD about exempt income and I've paid tax some years. I've not had a problem. So you ask me if I'm willing to be the first.....I did that years ago. Personally, I think you're scaremongering.

I don't know what the long term answer is to the current tax issues but I'm certain that you don't understand tax or the issue being discussed in these threads. You keep demanding proof of things from external sources, despite those links being supplied many times, the TRD, PWC, Sherrings etc, they've all been shown here many times yet you insist on relying on what's written in an English language Thai based paper. If you were in the UK or US, would you use similar sources for your information! You see what's said here as disinformation, which is bizarre at best given the sources that you read.

Because the Thai Enquirer is not the best source of tax law information, the Thai Revenue Code or the Big 4 accountancy firms are..