Mike Lister

Respectfully, the numbers you mention wont interest the RD, nobody will suddenly bolt up right and press the alarms. It is possible that if you import enough funds on a sufficiently large scale, frequently, somebody may get curious, especially if they don't see a tax return from you that explains things. The 5 mill. for the property is especially of no interest because presumably you will state on the transfer form the reason for the transfer. The RD is more concerned about income and tax avoidance than capital transfers to buy real estate.

1) No they do not, currently. 2) I don't see why it would, it would make no sense. If for no other reason the RD is not geared up to go from receiving tax returns from 5% of the population, up to 100%.

Yes, because of the difficulty in proving whether the money was savings or income and that problem still exists today, despite Thailand joining CRS. All that really changes on that front is Thailand now has the ability to ask your home country for relevant tax information to try and determine the matter more precisely. Personally, I cannot see either the Thai RD or the overseas tax authority being too interested in getting to the bottom of whether John's USD 12k was truly savings or not.

You're really quite new here, aren't you, the media you mention rarely gets much right at all and isn't close to being a reliable source of fact.

True, but 10 out of 10 for the word play.

See point 3 at the bottom of the page in the link below. The new rules apply to funds imported from 1 January 2024 onwards. https://sherrings.com/assessable-income-foreign-sources-thailand.html

That is a minimum daily spend amount that the article declares as a tax, I can see how they might arrive at that conclusion because there is no choice but to pay it, the idea that you get something for it is not really relevant. The fact is, if you went there for 5 days and went no further than the airport and didn't eat or drink anything you would still have to pay 250 x 5.

100% agreed. Plus posters have a very narrow view of who is a foreigner and who these hospital bill evading foreigners are. The vast majority of unpaid bills result from medical treatment by uninsured workers from Myanmar and Cambodia, especially those in the construction and fishing industries. This is why the Phuket hospitals have the highest rate of unpaid medical bills because of the large number of foregn workers.

NO it is not, the RD have stated their position on this and the Sherrings link quotes the head of the Revenue.

Whilst you have raised some valid and important points in the past, you now seem to have lost perspective. An announcement of this nature is classic Thai officialdom, let's get the news out there now and we'll work out the details in due course, if we have to backtrack at some point we'll just let it quietly die. That has happened numerous times before in my 25 years here and it will continue to do so. Once again, all that is happening is that Thailand is attempting to become a fully paid up member of CRS Reporting and fall in line with international standards on taxation, it's in their best interests to do this. It will take some time before things become clear so everyone must sit back, relax and wait. Assuming worst case and that everyone is out to kill us, isn't helpful. I don't believe for one moment that every incoming remittance will be checked for tax compliance. But I do believe that increasingly larger number of tax returns will be scrutinised to see if inbound transaction reported to them previously, are being declared. I also believe that more people will be instructed to file tax returns and the tax clearance letter may be the vehicle to enforce this, it is/was in the US. The RD is not interested in pursuing large numbers of foreign retirees for small amount of tax on remitted income. If a case happens to fall into their laps they will certainly enforce the rules but retirees are not the targets in all of this, that is not to say that their wont be some collateral damage, there usually is. We've all been warned, starting 1 January 2024, all inbound transactions have the potential to be scrutinised for tax in the way I described earlier. Now would be a good time to import savings or at least, bring their importation forward to before 1 January 2024. Between now and next year there's plenty of time for things to be clarified which I'm certain they will be. But I don't expect t see any farangs on crosses, lining the road, only paranoid people would think that.

I think you must mean "assessable", not accessible, correct? If that is the case, the Sherrings article provides a link to assessible income, highlighted in blue, which it then defines. Assessible income is that income that is liable to Thai tax, when it is remitted, not all income is. Both Sherrings and the Thai RD agree that income is only liable to tax, when it is remitted. Your last paragraph is correct.

Correct.

Only the funds that are remitted to Thailand are liable to Thai tax, at the time they are remitted.

And also, Thailand's government debt is only around 54% of GDP, that's very low by anyone standards today, especially when compared to countries in the West where over 100% of GDP is common. And, the country has circa USD 214 billion in Foreign Currency Reserves. https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/thailand/government-debt--of-nominal-gdp#:~:text=Government Debt covers Central Government only.&text=In the latest reports%2C Thailand,USD bn in Mar 2023.

It what some other countries do, have you seen the airport charges and taxes in countries like the UK!

That's the wrong message. Thailand doesn't have more than 5% of foreign currency loans, all other loans are denominated in THB where the interest rate is still quite low by comparison to the West.

If you are not Thai and you remain in Thailand you are here on some kind of visa. Ergo, you may reside here temporarily but you cannot be a Resident even if you are on a long stay visa. However, if you are a foreigner and you have been granted permanent residency in Thailand you will not have to pay the charge. So no, it is not a foreigner Levy, it is a foreign tourist levy or a levy on people who do not hold Thai passports. Are we done now!

Write to Euronews and tell them!

I can see the potential for Immigration to require confirmation of taxes paid/tax return filed, before a long term visa is extended, I think that's a very real possibility.

It is for all non-Thai citizens, regardless of whether they own property or not.

The RD began sending me paper copies of tax forms to complete each year, the year after I first reclaimed tax with held on savings, that was 15 years ago. Many people will have moved house so perhaps not realised the forms are being sent out, many will simply discard them. When the coin finally dropped with me, I stopped reclaiming tax on interest paid and three years ago began filing complete tax returns that declared savings interest and pensions income, even though I'm usually under the income threshold. The tax office thought I was crazy for wanting to file because there was no point but for me it began to establish a pattern of income and filing. I was also able to use my past year tax returns as ID to open a bank account, an odd but useful side benefit.

Any foreigner who has previously reclaimed withholding tax on their bank accounts has filed a tax return and is on the RD radar, like it or not.

Yes, it's a Foreign Tourist Levy, nota general levy for anyone who travels! New taxes on tourists have become common in many countries: Barcelona taxes foreigners staying in tourist accommodation Portugal charges foreign tourists 1 Euro per night Austria adds 3.02% to foreign tourists bills Belgium add about 7 Euro's per night to room bills Bhutan charges foreigners a whopping USD 250 per day! Bulgaria adds 1.50 Euro per night to bills Caribbean islands, Croatia, Czech republic, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia etc etc etc, all charge foreign tourists more. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/09/11/tourist-taxes-all-of-the-countries-you-will-have-to-pay-to-enter-in-2022

You've been here long enough to know there are many sets of rules that apply to different nationalities and different means of inbound/outbound transportation. No farang retiree is going to go back to the UK for a holiday and walk across the border at Poipet, Immi/RD worked that out already.

I think Jenkins quote may have been forward looking rather than historic practise.