K2938

And on top of this there is no certainty that you might actually be able to separate these components. They could also say that partially contaminated funds are to be entirely taxed or they could even say that any remittances regardless of their components are taxable. Currently, nobody knows.

Since you do not need to go ahead with your Elite visa if you do not want to, your conspiracy theory does not really work. Any time before payment you can withdraw your application.

Entirely agreed. Unless Thai Elite visa holders will be protected from remittance tax, their applicant numbers will totally collapse. Many justified the huge visa fee with the tax benefits. If the tax benefits are gone, then of course Thai Elite will not make a lot of sense any longer for a lot of potential applicants.

According to a fb post the BOI now appears to have confirmed that for LTR visa holders foreign earnings regardless of their remittance remain tax-free: Question: "????????????, ???????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????? ????????????????????????????????? That is really what is supposed to be taxed based on the new tax law changes, regardless of the time it is brought into Thailand. Please kindly also comment on this for LTR visa holders." Answer BOI: "We would like to address that for the LTR tax benefits: the revenue department has already announced a royal decree to exempt the LTR- Wealthy Global/ Wealthy Pension/ Work from Thailand from paying the income tax derived from oversea business/ work and assets." This decree could of course also be changed, but for now LTR visa holders appear to be safe. So it remains to be seen how the situation will be with 1) Elite visa holders, 2) retirement / marriage visa holders.

On this fb thread the BOI now appears to have confirmed that for LTR visa holders foreign earnings regardless of their remittance stay tax-free: Question: "????????????, ???????????? ???????????????? ???????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????? ????????????????????????????????? That is really what is supposed to be taxed based on the new tax law changes, regardless of the time it is brought into Thailand. Please kindly also comment on this for LTR visa holders." Answer BOI: "We would like to address that for the LTR tax benefits: the revenue department has already announced a royal decree to exempt the LTR- Wealthy Global/ Wealthy Pension/ Work from Thailand from paying the income tax derived from oversea business/ work and assets." So if this is true, then this would be good news.

Entirely possible, but it depends on what the detailed regulations will say which nobody knows yet

What deductions are included in your calculation, please? Asking because just looking at the tax rate table, a 15% marginal tax rate is already reached at more than 500k THB

You might then be charged for money laundering so this might not necessarily be the best way forward. If you do this once or twice, of course the likelihood of anybody noticing is slim. But if you constantly use it and withdraw significant amounts of money this way, then things might be different.

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...