K2938

Anybody getting approved for an elite visa now should ask for a deferral until there is clarity on the tax situation.

Presumably they mean those who cannot enter visa-free need to have a tourist visa to enter if they want the elite visa affixed at the airport, i.e. want to enter without having already gotten the elite visa affixed abroad via an embassy/consulate. So check if you are on the list of countries able to enter visa-free and you know the answer.

This does NOT confirm that foreign income REMITTED to Thailand will NOT be taxed which is the crucial question. Moreover, in the same fb thread further below the LTR people also repeatedly refused to answer what the situation will be concerning REMITTED foreign earnings. So they probably either do not want to clarify because the answer is bad or they just do not know.

It indeed would appear that foreigners are the unintended collateral damage in all this. And the key difference they seem to have overlooked is that foreigners start with having all their money abroad whereas for Thais it is largely the opposite. However, Thais with money abroad might also be keen to withdraw some of their foreign funds via ATMs in Thailand, so there is absolutely no guarantee that this could be a "safe" method unmonitored by the authorities

Thai ATMs are run by Thai banks. And the data of Thai banks is accessible to the government if it so wishes. So the "secret ATM withdrawal" route is unlikely to work if the government is determined enough.

Not necessarily at all. There are many types of income which are not covered by double taxation agreements. Also, they could consider capital (i.e. not income, but principal submission) to be taxable.

You are in a very small group of people where this applies. And apart from Eritrea only the U.S. has citizenship based taxation anyway. If remittances are taxable, this would have a devastating effect on both the LTR and Thai Elite visa program. And the government would also shoot themselves in the foot because the purpose of both programs was to attract high spenders to Thailand. If remittances are taxed, then of course many high spenders who have a choice will try to spend the minimum amount in Thailand they can get away with. So the whole purpose of these two visa programs would be defeated.

It would also have a big effect on Thai Elite since many people use the - then absent - tax savings to justify the enormous cost of the visa for themselves. If you look into the various Thai Elite discussion forums, countless people have already announced there that they would leave if their remittances are taxed and others are wondering if they should continue with their application.

Well, on Fb somebody asked the BOI about the taxation of money remitted in view of the new tax legislation and they refused to comment, only saying that non-remitted money is tax-free. So I guess the honest answer is that nobody knows at present

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Reporting_Standard

Unfortunately, this is most likely just an error by the journalist. The actual decree by the Thai Revenue Department says absolutely nothing about this allegedly being limited to Thai citizens only, but rather states it concerns Thai tax residents which is anybody residing in Thailand longer than 180 days in a year (https://www.rd.go.th/fileadmin/user_upload/kormor/newlaw/dn161A.pdf)

That might well be true for you as a U.S. citizen as U.S. citizens are already in the worst possible tax position anywhere since the U.S. is the only country (except Eritrea) which has citizenship based taxation. But many if not most of the people on this forum are not U.S. citizens, do not have citizenship based taxation and for them the situation is entirely different.

That is NOT the official Thai Elite website, but the site of an agent (Henley & Partners).

https://www.thaienquirer.com/50744/thai-government-to-tax-all-income-from-abroad-for-tax-residents-starting-2024/

https://www.thaienquirer.com/50744/thai-government-to-tax-all-income-from-abroad-for-tax-residents-starting-2024/

The real Thai fat cats are not really impacted by this as they have enough local Thai earnings to avoid the need to ever bring any of their foreign earnings into Thailand

How great that the Thai government now has all the financial/wealth information on LTR visa holders to make sure that they fully comply with the new tax rules...

Thank you for this very helpful information! The fact that the Qdenga vaccine has been approved by top medical authorities like the EU medical agency might give one some confidence that things are safe. But at the same time the fact that Mahidol, which was deeply involved in the development of this very vaccine, has reservations makes one wonder if it is not indeed really better to wait a little longer until more data is available.

The new one is just becoming available in Europe this or next week (COMIRNATY Omikron XBB.1.5)

Price at Mahidol is considerably cheaper at 1,639 baht per dose (https://www.thaitravelclinic.com/blog/vaccineinfo/dengue-vaccine-for-foreigners-travelers-in-thailand-should-i-get-it-update-2023.html)

Do you happen to have a link to the document you mention, please?

Better talk to the LTR people in Bangkok because they are the ones who will approve or not approve your scheme. And talk to them by email because you want a record of what is said and you want that people carefully consider their answer which will probably not happen in a phone call. P.S.: I concur with aublumberg that this is very unlikely to work. But you can of course always try. Good luck!

Even says in the contract that they can basically do whatever they want. The pretty much only exception would be if the company were shut down by government order, but the Thai authorities could do a lot of negative things without fulfilling exactly this condition. So you buy at your own risk. No compensation. The likelihood of you being totally ripped off is however low since there are also reputational factors.

If you get it at the airport when flying into Thailand, I believe you need a lot less documents. But maybe you have no immediate travel plans

If you use an agent, you should only use an official agent, i.e. one of those also mentioned on the official website of Thai Privilege. Then you might want to look for one who shares his commission in one form or another. I think Siam Legal for example does this via gift vouchers and various other free services. And for your own safety never make any payment to the agent, but only directly to Thai Privilege.