Mike Lister

You worry too much, you're stressing, chill, it'll be OK

Easy, just ask the seller, they'll tell you. ????

We've been there and done this together in a different thread PIB, I'm sorry but I'm not going through it again with you.

There are a number of threads that discuss this, one is million plus pages long, you may wish to look at them.

Who knows and does it really matter? There apparently was a reason why but I don't know or care what it is was, as long as it's there. I suspect it is probably because it was an after thought or temporary in nature....dunno.

As said many times PIB, on 15 September 2023, the Director General confirmed via a myriad of reports reports and in RD Instruction Por 161/2566, that the foreign source assessable income law, "doesn't tax income in the year it arises", instead, liability arises "upon bringing assessible income into Thailand".

I should have written, only 11% file a tax return and pay tax, the remainder work cash in hand and/or don't earn enough to warrant filing a tax return. What those stats tell me is that the grey economy and workforce here is massive and I think anyone who has lived here for a while knows that to be very true. People work cash in hand, that's it.

Here's the link you need read.

That is incorrect and was the subject of debate and evidence in a separate thread, poster @Larry will be able to point you towards it.

Don't forget that there's a host of other allowances and deductions that are available, based on your circumstances, even the premiums you pay for health and life insurance.

Yes, over 65 years old gets an allowance of 190k, off the assessible income, it's the first deduction in the tax calculation. The next one is Personal Care Allowance at 60k (and also for spouse if married and she doesn't file). The net of all of that is then applied against the tax tables, the first 150k of which is zero rated/tax free (slightly semantic). Tax is then applied in bands thereafter, according to the tax tables. In your example: if you import the equivalent of B480k into Thailand, it sounds as though your deductions and allowances might total 400K so you would have to pay tax at 5% on the last 80k, or 4k baht. (Note, your deductions and allowances being, -190, -60k and -150k).

Most people work self employed, few people have tax deducted at source, the question is how much of those earnings is declared to the RD, I think very little. My wife runs a business from home that turns over 1 mill per year. When she first went to register for tax and file her first return, the local revenue office used all sorts of tricks to keep her under the taxable limit, even to the point of creating a false tax declaration. This is the problem when the local tax office is staffed by people from the community you live in.

If you import 100 Pounds and you paid 10% UK tax on that money, you will pay additional tax in Thailand, only if your tax band is higher (see note below). You would receive a credit for the 10% UK tax in Thailand, under the DTA. If however the Thai tax was less than 10%, yoo would not pay anything in Thailand. The rate at which you pay tax in Thailand will depend on your total assessible income, minus your deductions/allowances and all these things can vary from year to year.

Only 11% of the workforce pay tax, only 4% pay tax via the equivalent of PAYE. VAT is the biggest tax earner, followed by corporate/business tax.

Typo above - 2012 should read 2022.

There are two versions in English, one is "for translation purposes only" and the second is for "filing". The online system however is solely in Thai.

If you were in Thailand during the 1990's and could compare what the country was then to the way it is today, you might see things differently, Thailand has come a long way very quickly, In the mid 1990's it was still am R&R spot with cheap booze and cheaper women, finding Western goods was not easy, the road system was poor and English language skills were often very hard to find.....Koh Samui for example only had a dirt road round parts of the island. Today it's a totally different place, for better or worse it has grown and developed. Sukhumvit is now a respectable road, 30 years ago it was end to end beer bars and hookers, the shopping, hotels and infrastructure are worlds different. The same is true elsewhere in the country, you may not have seen it but the country has changed 1000%. The problem is that the country still doesn't have a joined up government or political infrastructure, they're still learning how to do those things. The problem that exists is people push to get elected, then push to announce their new policies and new laws (like this one) and then struggle with the realities of implementation. In Western countries this move on taxation would have been subject to two years of review and study by HMRC, before it was even announced, here it's announced and then they do the study. Don't blame the country, blame the speed with which they've made change. And also blame covid because if that hadn't come about the country would be easily over 45 million tourists per year and this law wouldn't even have been considered.

A day is based on where you are at midnight, that's the UK Revenue definition.

There are 61 Double Tax Agreements in Thailand, not 200, in fact there's only 195 countries in the entire world so it would be impossible for any country to have 200! The tourist tax was first suggested in 2019, not 20 years ago! It was approved in 2012 but implementation was delayed because of covid. https://www.thailand.go.th/issue-focus-detail/002_019 Here is Sherrings Tax law for Thailand, you should read it and perhaps you''l learn something. https://sherrings.com/assessable-income-foreign-sources-thailand.html

A combination of UK tax return and bank statements should cover 90% of that easily I imagine, one proof of is income, the other savings. I agree that investment accounts may be more difficult.

Not if it comes from capital rather than income and you can demonstrate that.

Yes, which will be the first 150k of it at 5% and the remaining 230k at 10%, that's 7,500 + 23,000.

Fear of the unknown, uncontrolled imaginations, misconceptions about what the RD is trying to do, ignorance, bar stool chatter promoting nonsense.....and then some.