lordgrinz

3 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Reported in the BBC news yesterday, I expect this tragic news has gone world wide by now, it must be quite embarrassing as this LM law is political, a tool to shut down a careless political opponent.

If she chose to be, or not, she is now a Martyr. Hopefully something good arises from her sacrifice, the LM laws need to be abolished.

I am trying to find a way to handle part of the problem, just ordered a Wise debit card, might make use of that, as I highly doubt they will be tracking debit card purchases using a non Thai bank for payment. Hopefully I can make purchases using that, and avoid any scrutiny over sending actual cash to my SCB account, which would definitely be a very visible remittance.

On 5/10/2024 at 1:29 PM, Mike Lister said:

Fair enough, it's your decison.

This is what scares me, unless the RD makes some changes.

I just hate having to pay custom fees and VAT on imports from home after already paying higher shipping costs, just because nobody in Thailand can provide quality products for sale. I find about 50 percent of quality items I am looking for are not available here, fixing that issue would be a better direction.

"Nero fiddled while Rome burned"

57 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

If you have pre 1 January 2024 savings and you have a bank statement showing the amounts on that date on near to, you are in the clear to remit those funds, why wouldn't you be?

 

And, I don't know what the average statistics are but if 100 people remit funds to Thailand, and file a tax return, what percentage do you think will get singled out for audit? I'm guessing perhaps one!

 

I'm still not buying the it's ok to remit the prior to 2024 savings amount, until I have concrete proof of others doing so, there is no way I am going to be the first to test that theory. 

I also don't want to be part of those willing to test the less than 1 percent audit theory either.

4 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

A fella's got to be fair and reasonable about this. It's not a half baked mess and it's not a so called tax! It's a single adjustment to one of the tax rules, that's all. The half baked mess part is the panic and scurrying that many foreigners have created that results from their very recent awareness that they too have to pay tax in Thailand and have been required to do so all along. That coin is now dropping!

Well not exactly, most of us have lived off the income stored for over one year before being remitted approach, which is now in jeapordy. The other issue is how they will now handle savings that we have that were there before January 1st 2024. I hope all of the guinea pigs remitting money this year give us a rundown of how their tax situation plays out when doing there taxes next year.

Got stuck at DM yesterday after our JAL flight from Tokyo was diverted, due to bad weather at Swampy, we spent almost 7 hours on the runway before finally flying to Swampy from DM. A 6.5 hour flight turned into about 15, at least we had air conditioning.

Does the Thai tax return have a section for applying Foreign Earned Remitted income, and is there a worksheet that defines what it assessable, or not? Meaning we would have to file a return for all money remitted to Thailand, then use a worksheet to reduce out exposure to taxes based on a DTA's, etc?

7 hours ago, JimGant said:

There are many examples of both countries having taxation rights on the same income -- otherwise, why would you need a credit system, if only one country could tax..... The rental example is the purest, because others involve the "saving clause," whereby the US has secondary taxation rights on all income taxed by Thailand, even tho' the DTA gives Thailand certain "exclusive" taxation rights. [Private pensions, IRAs, etc.] Thus, because of the "saving clause," even tho' Thailand has "exclusive" taxation rights on my private or IRA pension, it practically results in Thailand only having "primary" taxation rights, with the US having "secondary" rights. In this case, Thailand keeps all the collected taxes, and the US gets to keep only the taxes collected after absorbing the Thai tax credit. So, double taxation is avoided, but the country getting "first dibs" per the DTA, gets to keep all the taxes, by not having to absorb a tax credit.

 

But back to Article 6, and rentals. Here, the US is "primary" taxation authority -- per the DTA language of "may" collect taxes -- if the DTA said "may ONLY" collect taxes, then the US would be the exclusive taxation authority, and Thailand would not have secondary taxation authority:

 

 

Thus, Thailand also has the right to tax your rental income, but must absorb a tax credit equal to the taxes paid the US. A fat cat Thai, with rental property in the US, and in the Thai 35% tax bracket -- would probably find he owes quite a bit of tax to Thailand, as the US tax credit for this rental income would probably be small. But, this is why Thailand would like to have this option of secondary taxation rights, even tho' for paupers like you and me, the US tax credit would probably cancel out any Thai taxes owed.

Wouldn't it be easier to just let us pay our taxes in our home countries, which we also state we are out of the country for whatever amount of days anyway, then maybe add an area for which country we reside in, and then let Thailand and the Home country tax authority decide who gets what behind the scenes? Since I am just a guest in this miserable hellhole anyway, why treat us like permanent residents?! My main objective is to not file taxes in Thailand, ever.

16 minutes ago, CartagenaWarlock said:

It definitely feels empowered when you carry $1,000 with you. You feel rich, but I feel more secure when I have access to a million dollars through my credit cards. 

Can I borrow one of these million dollar credit cards? 🤪

Love the fact that the motorcyclist is wearing a helmet, but the child's safety is forgotten.

44 minutes ago, JimGant said:

But of course. The bank clerk will sit down with you and divide the $15000 into four piles. The first is from your latest private pension check, say $2500, so it's assessable income. The second, say $5000, is from your govt pension, thus it is not assessable, per DTA. The third, say $5000, is from a savings account that was closed on 31 Dec 2023 -- thus this is money grandfathered, and thus not assessable. And the last $2500 is from rental receipts from a house in your home country. Now, home country gets primary taxation rights on this, but Thailand has secondary rights, per most DTAs, so it is assessable income ('tho Thailand will have to apply a credit of home country tax against its Thai tax). So, you have a total of $5000 (180000 baht) of assessable income. Now the law says you must file a Thai tax return for assessable income  over 120000 (single, 220000 married). Stupid law, since if you're over 65, you won't have any taxable income until assessable income exceeds 500000. So you won't owe any tax. And there's no fine or foul if you don't owe tax. So ask yourself -- why file?

 

Anyway, back to the bank. Obviously, this scenario is absurd. As it would be for all cash flows -- SWIFT, Wise, etc. So, it's "up to you" (famous phrase of Alfred E. Somchai) to self-assess your remitted cash flows as to whether or not they're savings or income. And if the latter, is that income assessable, or not. Just keep good records, including rationale for judgement calls (like using FIFO), in case you're amongst the 1% called in for a compliance audit.

 

Way too much over-thinking on this matter.

I'm still going with the wait and see attitude, I was just thinking of padding my account a little more to accommodate all of 2025 just in case things are still not set in stone. The whole Remitted part is the absurd part of this, either tax us on worldwide income, or not. I would like to avoid filing any taxes here in Thailand though, or have to explain where my money comes from, it comes from Wise.....no other explanation needed. I files taxes in the US where the money is sourced, I don't feel like handing them any information about any accounts held there, because I don't trust anyone in Thailand to have that info, even my wife 🤪

Anyone know if the money we bring back when we come in on an airplane is considered assessable income? If I understand correctly, we don't even need to declare anything over 450,000 baht (or USD 15,000), correct? So no paper trail of where it came from, or would the issue arrive after I try to deposit it in my Thai bank account?

https://aip.caat.or.th/2023-12-28-AIRAC/html/eAIP/VT-GEN-1.3-en-GB.html#:~:text=1 Any person leaving or,when carrying over 450%2C000 THB.

3 minutes ago, Accidental Tourist said:

A typical "I hate farangs" message from Mr. Anutin...why not ban foreigners in all from the country? Law should be equal to all regardless of nationality or status...a mission still not accomplished by Thailand 

Umm....I think he would if he could, be careful what you ask for.

Just now, Mike Lister said:

If you're not going to take a US CPA tax experts advice, there's no point looking for anyone better or asking the question here! Out.

A US CPA is not a Thai CPA....Out.

1 minute ago, Mike Lister said:

I say seriously because you've already asked these questions and recieved sound advice from Jim Gant who is expert on US taxes, in the thread linked below:

 

 

I take his advice with a grain of salt, I still don't want to be one of the first Guinea pigs in this mess, I hope he is right......but I'm not betting on it.

1 minute ago, Mike Lister said:

Seriously?

Yes, seriosuly.

3 minutes ago, Presnock said:

Once the embassy stopped issuing income verification letters, I began monthly payments and my income was strictly from a US government pension so I have never FAILED to pay taxes where none are due.  I don't have a Thai TIN and don't plan to get one at least until they change the tax law to require that all ex-pats must get one.  The law now says we only need to get on within 60 days of remitting assessable income - I don't have any.

 

The problem is, who is deciding what "assessable income" is, and how would anyone verify that is, or is not?

12 minutes ago, Hellfire said:

 Although I acknowledge that Russians are often perceived as rude and may have weird drinking habits, it is evident that in recent instances, it has predominantly been older (comparatively) Western Europeans who have caused trouble. Many of them visit here with the intention of feeling like millionaires and playboys simultaneously. However, when they realize they are neither, their frustration and aggression start to show up. It is difficult to overlook definite sociopathic tendencies among this group of foreigners.

Well, overseas Thailand is more known for what foreigners consider a lawless society (which it almost is), sex everywhere you look, and partying without consequences. Not saying I believe any of that is completely true, but that's the perception, and these types of people head for places like Pattaya, Phuket, seedier sides of Bangkok, etc.

My wife asked me before we met (that was back in the USA), if I had ever visited Pattaya, I told her I never visited Thailand, let alone Pattaya. She said if I had visited Pattaya, she probably would have never dated me, glad I answered correctly.....LOL