Mike Lister

The article is clarification of nothing by nobody who knows anything, it's just another unqualified opinion.

Thailand's tax code does not allow it to assess tax on the overseas earnings of tax residents who are not citizens, nor will it ever do so. It's not that Thailand is not capable of doing that, it's simply that it isn't allowed to by statute. Why will it never come about? Because Thailand wants foreigners to live here, it wants the foreign currency they bring and they want local economy support that foreigners bring. Despite living here for more than 20 years and having a house, wife, family and friends here, if Thailand said it was going to tax my UK investment account each year, I would be forced to leave and I'm pretty sure others would do the same. I file a Thai tax return each year and have for the past three years, I don't mind paying some Thai tax, But if you try and make a grab for my overseas earnings, I will be gone. Only the US does that and Thailand in no way brings with it the benefits that living in the US does.

It's very accurate but incomplete, it has been the subject of many many discussions on this subject for week now! A key allowance that is missing is one for 190,000 for anyone over age 65, in addition to all the other allowances. This means that tax isn't payable for retirees until they exceed assessible income of over 400k Baht per year and even then it's only at 5% initially.

1% of the road tax value, per month, a part of a month counts as a full month.

People wanting certainty in their lives, shouldn't live in Thailand

Not do, standard deductions and allowances for San over 65 year old total 400k hence tax is zero

Yes, but that doesn't change what I wrote. Only UK government pension is exempt by treaty, aka, civil service pension or similar, not state pension.

Too difficult I imagine. Reminds me of trying to buy a plane ticket from NOK air I think at the airport. I asked for two seats to Pattaya and the girl said they didn't fly there. Apparently she thought it too difficult to explain that they did fly to utapo nearby.

There would be ,zero tax due per year on a UK pension equally to 30k baht per month. Potentially even less or nothing, based on your circumstances. You are allowed a personal allowance of 60k, an over 65 allowance of 190k plus the first 150k after that is zero rated. That means you can earn 400k baht before tax kicks on at 5 percent, on the next 150k.

Paging CRS expert poster @stat

Re: 2. US Social Security is exempt by treaty.

The UK State pension is not exempt from tax in the UK but at present it does fall within the Personal Allowance hence it is not taxed. But there is no statute that says it cannot be taxed in the future.

In English that would be you're, not your.

I’m not certain how accurate these numbers are but I think they are very close, let’s say there are about 10 million people who are registered with the RD. About 4 million pay tax on a regular basis, using pay as you earn tax payment schemes. The remaining 6 million or so is said to not earn enough to pay tax. That doesn’t mean they earn very little. On the contrary, many of them earn large amounts but are able to reduce their tax liabilities to zero through a combination of tax deductions, tax allowances and under reporting of income. In a recent post I set out how my wife has income of 600k per year (50k month) on fully reported sales of 1 mill. yet legally pays only around 1,000 income tax per year, as a result of generous tax allowances and deductions. The remainder of the workforce (which comprises 38 million and includes foreign workers) don’t file a return and don’t pay tax. To summarise: - 10% of the workforce pay tax regularly through employment - 16% file a return but don’t pay tax (including some unreported income) - 74% don’t file a return or pay tax (all unreported income)+- The 74% includes the grey economy which has been estimated by various sources to represent about 48% of the workforce. That means that around 25% of the workforce (74%-48%) don’t earn enough to warrant filing a tax return. Almost certainly, many of those who do file a return but don’t pay tax are self employed (the largest tax status group) and don’t report all their sales or income and are also a part of the grey economy. In 2010, revenue income from direct taxes was almost 20% of GDP, today it is close to 2% (see 2022 budget), the lowest in ASEAN. This has resulted from a string of populist policies and give-aways by successive governments over many years, along with a refusal to increase taxes or impose new ones. Government's refusal or inability to to better manage direct taxation means that budget revenue relies on indirect and other taxes rather than on income tax. Mostly, VAT, Sales Tax and Corporate Tax are the key contributors. https://asiafoundation.org/2015/04/15/thailand-and-taxes/ https://dmcrth.dmcr.go.th/attachment/dw/download.php?WP=rUqjMT04qmqZG22DM7y04TyerPMjBT01qmIZAJ1CM5O0hJatrTDo7o3Q So, if you were the Thai RD, which segment of the population would you target first, almost certainly you would go after the 74% which is exactly what they are doing and this includes us also. The question for each of us is, will you end up in the 16% group or will you try to remain in the 74% group, which will become increasingly more difficult, dangerous and costly to do, over time? And when somebody says the average wage in Thailand is around 15,000 baht per month, who is included in that number? Certainly the 4% but almost certainly not the 10% and definitely not the 74%! Just food for thought.

On the positive side, he wouldn't remember it.

Cuts off leg to spite small toe!

The point I was so very obviously making was that she could, so very easily, have been in the other group and not paid any tax at all, despite having significant income, surely you see and understand that.

The subject is taxation, not politics, stay on topic.

CRS data is consolidated data, it's a very high level aggregation, it doesn't show individuals detail.....can you imagine how many transactions and how much data that would mean!.

You can claim your son as a tax deduction, up to age 25 so presumably the support age is the same (if in study). https://sherrings.com/personal-tax-deductions-allowances-thailand.html

Hahaha, no, I don't think so.

Some banks don't allow foreigners to have access to certain types of accounts, mostly because their systems are not set up to accept anything other than a 13 digit Thai ID number and the passport number isn't a good substitute. That was the case with CIMB and special deposit accounts a couple of years ago, I doubt that this is a racist issue, much more likely to be driven by ID number etc.

FWIW I also use spreadsheets to track monthly expenditure and to help me budget but I don't do it at the Macro level like Rimmer, instead I track things at the transaction level, eg Cash withdrawal, debit card purchase, etc and then add some detail as needed, that way, the balance on my spreadsheet equals my account balances. I think trying to track micro level details such as how much I spent at Big C, how much for a meal etc is too laborious and after a while you'll probably drop it, unless you're really dedicated. I think you have to go back to the purpose as to why you need the spreadsheet, in my case it's to A) make sure I don't overspend in the course of a month and B)make sure the different pots of money I have total an amount that grows every month and isn't reducing. Knowing how much you spend at Lotus, on telephone and food at villa isn't that useful, except perhaps as a one of exercise from time to time, it's the bigger picture that's important.

It depends on whether your home country has a double taxation agreement with Thailand and the sources and amounts of your income. UK Government (Civil Service) pensions are exempt, State Pension is not, company and private pensions are not. The Thai tax system has fairly generous allowances and deductions plus a large zero rated band which means you can import around 10k Pound per year, without being subjected to Thai tax (which is tiered at 5%, 10% 15% 20% bands)

Not exactly, keep reading.