Mike Lister

Inheritance is tax free in Thailand, up to a high minimum. INHERITANCE TAX 78) "Heirs are subject to the inheritance tax only on the value of a legacy that exceeds THB 100 million obtained from each testator together either once or on several occasions. The inheritance tax rate is 10%, except in the case of heirs who are ascendants or descendants of the testator, where the rate is 5%. Legacies received by the spouse of a testator are exempt from the tax". https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/thailand/individual/other-taxes

Agreed.

I can agree, but would the police officer and the court also agree when somebody somewhere decided to enforce one of them, for whatever reason.

With full respect for your US CPA qualifications, you are in no better position than anyone else in the forum to understand the risk probabilities inherent in the Thai system of tax. This is the major issue, I think you use your experience of US tax affairs and overlay them on to Thailand to project what might happen here and that is not valid. Similarly, that other poster uses his knowledge of the German tax model in the same way and that long winded Ossie bloke the Australian model. I can easily take the UK model and overlay their rules and practices onto Thailand and come up with something else entirely, in which case I would be equally incorrect. Having a little or a lot of knowledge about another country's tax operations is useful to some degree, in Thailand's case, a lesser degree.

No, nothing new.

Sadly, there is no one size fits all on this. I worry less about the same three nutters who continually run interference than I do the people who are just waking up to the tax issue and the point at which they begin to read these threads and find so much disinformation and so much antagonism. There is zero logical reason for either to exist in this topic and you have to wonder why it does. It appears to be the nature of people involved in social network forums that is why we are where we are, that doesn't mean though that we all should stop trying.

Tear up your existing diet and start over with a new one that's healthier and get some exercise because that's a large part of what helps the digestive system. For me: Fruit for breakfast and maybe cocoa lunch is whatever I want but is usually healthier than not Dinner is nearly always a mixed/complex salad....no food after 6pm No alcohol, run three miles a day. Colonoscopies,, gut issues, overweight, gas/bloating, constipation, GERD/reflux are all things of the past.

I was considering the question of whether I would pay to file a tax return in Thailand and some of you may find my thoughts on this interesting, I hope so. I know a little bit about tax because I worked for the Big 4 in The City for several years plus I've been involved in tax matters at clients and as part of running my own business for many years. Despite those things, I have always paid others to produce and file my UK tax return, even until today,, even though it's very simple and straight forward. I pay 180 Pounds a year to my UK tax accountant to compiler and file my return. I also file a US tax return as a non-resident and a long standing colleague who is a tax accountant does this for me. At some point, when I find the right person/company, I may well pay them to file my Thai tax return, in future years and 7k doesn't seem an unreasonable amount to me. Why? In each example above, I'm paying somebody who is focussed on tax full time, in their respective territory. They are more likely than me to be current on new legislation, new, rules and practise plus they have current and up to date experience and contacts. Mostly, I have an "expert" in tax who stands between me and the various Revenue departments and I like that. That is not to say that I don't spend a fair amount of time with spreadsheets throughout the year in order to plan my financial year but the mechanics of filing and interface I leave to others. When I operated my own business, my philosophy was to contract out all those things that are not central to the running of the business and making profit. Now I'm retired, my philosophy remains similar and filing tax returns and dealing with the Revenue, isn't a core part of my retirement. Heck I let an agent take care of all my visa and immigrations affairs and that's run as smooth as silk for a decade, why not do the same with tax. Your mileage may vary.

Let's just correct yet another deliberate attempt at disinformation, just so everyone understands: Members are being informed, via these threads, what laws/rules exist, as we understand them today. Nobody is being instructed or commanded to do anything, only provided with information regarding the things we believe are required in law. Members are always free to make their own decisions to do whatever they wish with that information. I have repeatedly pushed back very hard against those posters who are inclined to offer well intentioned but unqualified and unconfired Thai tax advice, based on their overseas experience and Jim has been the biggest offenders in this area. I am certain that when members make decisions about how to proceed in specific areas of tax, they want to understand the penalties and downsides that exist so they can make sound decisions. That's not scaremongering in any shape or form, that is raising awareness and keeping members informed, no more, no less.

I understand it to be 10 years from the current year.

Remitted income is measured over the course of the entire year in which you are tax resident

"the reality is that Officers across all Government positions have full legal autonomy in their interpretation and application of the 'rules'". This implies that Thailand has no legal system and no rule of law. "Thailand’s new prime minister is placing the rule of law at the center of his government’s priorities over the next four years. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced his government’s commitment earlier this month at the Rule of Law Forum in Bangkok co-hosted by the World Justice Project (WJP), the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), and The Standard news agency". https://worldjusticeproject.org/news/thai-government-announces-rule-law-commitment-during-wjp-hosted-rule-law-forum

Respectfully, your posts on this aspect, only confirm what has happened historically rather than what happens today or what is likely to happen tomorrow, as a forecast, they are not too useful.

Asia Dev, Japan and EM continues to look very very promising, they represent a combined 31% of my holdings currently. A pricey but reliable consideration is Invesco Pacific, which is up 18% since November.

To be clear, TRD regs. require tax residents to acquire a TIN, within 60 days of exceeding the minimum assessable threshold. 84) Before you can file a tax return in Thailand, you must obtain a Tax Identification Number or TIN from the RD offices in your area. You are required by law to obtain a TIN, within 60 days from when you first derive the minimum assessable income, which is 120,000 baht of income received from overseas, after becoming tax resident. For long stay residents that will be a minimum of 180 days plus 60 days in country, in the same tax year. The Thai ID card number serves as the TIN for the local population. It is not necessary for people who are not Thai tax resident to obtain a TIN, neither is it necessary to obtain one if you do not exceed the assessable income level threshold.

The penalties, as we understand them presently, for not filing a return when the assessable income level was breached yet no tax was due, amount to a fine of 2k baht and potential exposure to back audits spanning 10 years rather than the customary 3 years. I don't think however that was the entire focus of the earlier post, he raises the question, "how would you know if my assessible income exceeds 120k", or whether the funds are assessable or not.

If you are not tax resident, you have no income tax obligation in Thailand.

Revenue Departments in every country have a similar dilemma, to believe the taxpayers return (or lack of) or not. If they believe or don't think the effort is worthwhile, you get a check and pass, if they don't or they are bored and want some variety in their life, they call you in and ask questions. Perhaps they just get curious one day when they spot a transfer that they bother to take the time to investigate, because it wasn't reported ......why was that they wonder......that's how she knows, because she makes you tell her. You seem to rely on the low odds of being called in for an audit, combined with language barriers and a high work load on their part.....in other words, you're playing the odds. That's not really constructive tax guidance advice, is it, it's a lesson in percentages and gambling.

Calendar year

Oh you poor thing, can't get an answer to your "friendly" question! For the past seven months, you have engaged in a very public campaign of challenging anything and everything I say on the subject of tax. This has evolved from writing many many letters of complaint to Admin, Support and the owners, frequent abusive PM's to me and solicitation of support from other members. Today, your campaign comprises (several times) daily challenges (every day without fail) to anything I have written in posts the previous day and not so subtle remarks about, "the poster who cannot be named"....today I apparently, "behave as if you are the absolute authority on anything tax related for whatever reason". I don't really want to put you on my ignore list because many of the things you post need correcting in the eyes of members. I am sorry you are unable to get over my elevation to Moderator; I'm sorry you are unable to get over the fact that I made something useful out of the tax information and compiled the tax guide; I'm sorry you were unable to accept the official warnings and temporary bans you were given for being unnecessarily argumentative; I'm sorry that so many members ask me so many tax related questions and not you and that the "ask mike show", continues unabated; I'm sorry that you are not widely seen as the tax expert you have always claimed to be....only you can deal with those issues in your own mind. In going forward, I will continue to ignore any question you ask of me but I will correct any post of yours that I think contains incorrect information.

That the UK views pension as income does not have a direct bearing on the way the TRD views it. The TRD views income from employment differently from other types of income, mostly I suspect because of the PAYE aspect. Each of the different types of income have their own rules, including allowances and deductions but I have never looked at them that closely to understand precisely how they differ from an accounting perspective..

Possibly, possibly not. The fact the TRD officer enforces filings from even low income employment, is telling, is it not. It's difficult for me to imagine the rules would be any different where the income is from other sources.

A post from @Dogmatix in another thread where he asks the TRD officer if anyone who exceeds the threshold but doesn't need to pay tax, must file a tax return. The TRD response is that they must and that any advice to the contrary, from any source, is highly inappropriate..

We are told the new forms will be available in November/December

You seem to find it necessary to respond to / question my posts every single day, even though you're not the person being addressed. When you do that every day, as you do, in forum terms that known as trolling and stalking. Stop following me, stop trying to be so argumentative and trying to start fights, I'm not interested in any form of communication with you, on any subject.