K2938

8 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

Oh and Capital Gains Tax will also be a problem, currently don't need to pay anything on profits from share sales, now going to have to try to keep track of when I bought each individual share, what money (Savings, Dividend, Income from House) I used to pay for it & how much I made/loss on it

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.

8 hours ago, redwood1 said:

O-Boy  The Elite sellers were sure lucky lucky lucky with their timing.....Just perfect timing.....

A little too perfect....

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.

36 minutes ago, Conno said:

Who in their right mind is going to pay that?  So I'm speculating in the dark corridors of power there might be a good chance the Elite visas also end up remaining exempt. 

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.

23 hours ago, clearance said:

So, for example, if I'm a foreigner who lives in Thailand on an Elite visa. In 2024 I'm planning to buy a house or apartment there. I will transfer money from my savings abroad. And they will tax me for 35%?

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

On 9/21/2023 at 10:35 AM, Yumthai said:

According to 2023 PIT rules, need to declare a bit less than 1.75 M THB (~$48K currently) basic deductions included to get that rate.

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

On 9/21/2023 at 10:34 AM, stat said:

If you read my post carefully you would have noticed I mentionend to use the cc of a relative, friend etc ... Not even sure if the payment of cc even satisfies the wording of the law as brought into Thailand...

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.

4 hours ago, Pla Sai said:

I've been reading information they provided in approval letter and it says some nationalities need tourist visa prior to arriving to Thailand to get visa affixed at the airport - anyone knows anything about it? Sent email to their support to ask but thought I ask here as well.

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.

34 minutes ago, ukrules said:

They're going to be coming for the wealthy Thais way before they come after us lot.

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

5 minutes ago, stat said:

Maybe consider using credit card to withdraw cash 33x30.000 Baht and you "should" be under the radar. Additional layer of security, use someone elses credit card (family member that does not live in Thailand if possible). I know not allowed by cc companies...

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.

6 hours ago, BE88 said:

If you are taxed in your country the reciprocity of the agreements applies so theoretically you should only present documents proving taxation in England and not be taxed here in Thailand

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.

56 minutes ago, JimGant said:

Why? I got my LTRWP based on military pension and social security. These are all untaxable by Thailand, under treaty rules. But, if Thailand did tax some of my income, I'd just get a tax credit on my US taxes -- and nothing would change.

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.

2 hours ago, Ben Zioner said:

And I have little on the effect on Thailand Elite. 

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.

8 hours ago, khunjeff said:

I'm not sure why you think that. The tax benefits for LTR holders weren't some kind of loophole - they were formally and legally implemented even before the first visa was issued. Royal Decree no. 743, gazetted on 23 May 2022 and titled  "Decree Issued in Accordance with the Revenue Code Concerning the Reduction of Tax Rates and Exemptions (No. 257)" made the provisions official, and there's no indication that this new decree changes that in any way.

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

4 minutes ago, Puccini said:

What do you mean with CRS?

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

10 hours ago, Thorgal said:

As per another press release of the same subject this income tax change is only for Thai citizens (no need to thank me...)

 

"Thais earning income abroad and exploiting a well-known tax loophole are about to have their vibe killed by the country’s greatest party pooper: The government. A statement issued by the Revenue Department Friday announced that all money earned by Thai citizens must be taxed as personal income, effective January 1, 2024. 

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)

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I'm an American, and a full time resident of Thailand. I have only non-Thai income from the U.S. and I pay taxes on it as required to the U.S., which has a DTA agreement with Thailand. Therefore, I ought be off the hook for all of this.

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.

1 hour ago, Jenkins9039 said:

Ref Elite (2019)

 

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20230608060701/https://www.thailandelite-direct.com/en/faqs

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/

13 minutes ago, JimGant said:

But, it is nice to see that Thai fat cats may have to ante up towards paying their govt's bills.

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

12 minutes ago, mrmagyar said:

The commentary in the second related article suggests this is designed to be aimed at Thai's, but it seems LTR visa holders would be caught in the net: https://www.thaienquirer.com/50748/new-tax-regulations-raises-questions-and-concerns/

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...