K2938

So you did actually manage to speak to the person dealing with your case? The reason I am asking is because prior to this I thought this was not possible.

I will follow the law, but even reputable tax advisors have expressed their doubt about the effectiveness and efficiency of the Thai Revenue Department: "Although Revenue Departmental Order Por. 161/2566 overturns the longstanding exemption and establishes blanket PIT collection on offshore-sourced income when it is brought into Thailand, the effectiveness and efficiency of the Thai Revenue Departmentʼs collection of the tax due remain to be seen. Generally, PIT collection depends on taxpayersʼ faithful and full declaration of income in their PIT returns filed by the end of March each year." (https://www.tilleke.com/insights/thailand-new-order-closes-tax-loophole-for-offshore-sourced-income/)

You are an eternal optimist if you believe these things concerning life from 01 January 2024 will be fully announced BEFORE 01 January 2024😎

If you have time and are interested, then please read the Q&A provided by the Thai Revenue Department at the beginning of October. And you will see that interestingly in all their examples they always only talk about the condition of being tax resident at the time of earning the income. This looks highly suspicious and is unlikely to just be a coincidence. However, at the moment there is no certainty on this like on so many other things.

While the lack of details on the precise working of the remittance tax is deplorable, I do not think we can also blame the Thai Revenue Department for not accepting or providing tax returns in English. I do not think there is any Western non-English speaking country either which would allow tax returns in any language apart from its official one.

I do not think that based on the current state of knowledge this is necessarily true. That you have to be a Thai tax resident when you earn it, is clear. That you also have to be a Thai tax resident when you remit it to Thailand, is not clear at all (which by the way was also discussed in this thread further up).

If you scroll up in this thread or the main tax thread you will already see that the BOI interpretation of the Royal Decree is in the most minimalist way possible

No problem, as long as you legally enter Thailand. But only members holding a Tourist Visa, Visa on Arrival, or a 30-Day Exempted Tourist Visa are eligible to validate their Elite Visa within Thailand. So depending on how you enter, you might have to exit again before actually getting the Elite Visa into your passport.

What is your plan C with 5% tax or is this just what it comes out for you if you were taxed?

Even though there might be tax advantages with this, I would be very careful if it were significant amounts as you might well have trouble getting the money again out of Thailand and as your funds are much better protected in Western institutions

What is meant with "line Minister", please?

Not necessarily true. If you are remitting something which could be construed as being income or being partially contaminated with income from a prior year in which you were a tax resident in Thailand, then there are indications that you might be taxable when submitting these funds to Thailand even if at the time of remittance you are not or not yet a tax resident of Thailand.

Indeed. They are deluded about the future demand for their visa and act with more and more arrogance and disregard to their customers. This never ends well.

While making detection a little more difficult, this is highly unlikely to be a legal way around the remittance taxation. However, as there currently is no detailed guidance from the Thai Revenue Department nobody really knows

It is actually in the text of the new Thai Elite application agreement which was posted there as well as follows:

According to a fb post, the Thai Elite visas now also have an application fee of 50 000 THB. If your application is not approved, you will lose this money. Only in case of approval will it be credited towards the total visa fee.

There was a recent seminar at AMCHAM in Bangkok where it was stated that Thailand does plan to track credit/debit card use. Posted somewhere higher up in the maybe ten last pages of this thread

While this is a very creative argument, I can virtually guarantee you that the Thai Revenue Department will NOT agree with this.

While the Thai tax authorities will not get the older data automatically, they can ask for it from most tax jurisdictions in case of need based on various mutual assistance agreements. So if they find something which makes them want to investigate, they will in most cases be able to do so. The data will just not be received automatically.

Just time your move to Thailand such that in your first year you will be in Thailand less than 180 days.

I trust the Thai prime minister also pointed out to Hong Kong investors that to further increase the investment attractiveness of Thailand there will be a 35% tax on most remittances which is particularly nice for Hong Kong investors where taxes are extremely low in general and capital gains are not taxed at all. So all these investors will surely appreciate to lose 35% of their investment even before it has started.????

It gets even worse than this. While the Thai tax authorities have not really much focused on remittances from foreigners in the past, they of course will do now. And in the course of complaining about your transfers in 2024, they will then probably also ask you a lot of questions about transfers you made in the past and also start complaining about those because maybe they were not really tax-free according to their logic even under the old tax regime. And they can demand back taxes from you for up to 10 years. So this will be real fun.

Why would that be? As of now based on all what has been announced there would be absolutely no exemption for this. So if it is a taxable remittance, than it is taxed regardless of what you do with the money. And if not, then not. But just buying a car or condo does not change this.

There appear to be two things to differentiate: (1) The time at which the money is remitted to Thailand: The new tax law interpretation indeed only covers remittances made on or after Jan 1, 2024. (2) The other thing however is the time the foreign income arose, i.e. not when it was remitted, but when it arose. According to the Thai language Q&A from the Thai Revenue Department on the new tax law interpretation from a few days ago the link to which is posted higher up in this or the general tax thread it would appear that this is NOT limited to income which only arose on or after Jan 1, 2024.

The UK and various former colonies of the UK or countries with a legal system in the UK tradition for example have remittance taxation for certain non-domiciled, but tax resident individuals. You can google on the internet. Somewhere higher up in this or the LTR thread I also as an example posted a link to some of the rules from the UK which can give you an indication of how complex things might become.