Mike Lister

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Your post is difficult to interpret as to what you're really asking. If a foreigner wants to buy a condo, it must be in the foreign quota and all the funds used to buy it must be remitted from overseas. If a person is married to a Thai who owns a condo, any transfer will depend on the foreign quota aspect.

The poll is now closed and the results are in. Less than 6% are leaving because of the new tax rule. A further 8% will spend less than 180 days here, although we don't know for certain that's what they would have done any way and that they weren't previously year round residents. That 6% compares very favorably to back in December when it seemed as though everyone was going to leave, so I guess the shock is wearing off. 40% remain undecided and will wait and see, fair enough! A further 40% (ish) are OK with filing a return, paying tax and dealing with whatever happens. My take on this is that the more people who understand what's involved and how they personally are affected, the less excited they become and the more rationally they view things. (This is very similar to the way I saw things in December when we started this, when large numbers of older members were extremely worried if not scared. For those of you who are sick of seeing tax threads, they are actually helping people so a little patience may be appropriate). Ultimately, people seem to be saying, this is no big deal. My other take on this is that foreigners will remit less funds into Thailand and if nothing else, be more cautious with their remittances. This will be a negative for the economy, which hopefully/presumably will be more than offset by the flow of repatriated overseas funds by residents and the tax thereon. We won't mention the 4% who think the new rule will be cancelled...."hope springs eternal". Thanks for playing.

That's fine, as along as you are fully aware of the risks then you should proceed on the basis of what you are comfortable with, not what I or anyone else thinks. I think the purpose of threads such as these is to raise awareness, not build roadblocks.

I believe you're looking at an out of date version, the Personal Allowance was increased around the time of covid as I recall. The ENglish versions of the TRD Tax Code are notoriously inaccurate and outdated. https://www.pwc.com/th/en/tax/assets/thai-tax/thai-tax-booklet-2023-24.pdf

Sort of but not really! The TRD has its own scale of taxation on different items which will be different from the way other countries tax them, one may tax a particular type of income at say 10% whilst another country may tax the same income at 20%. The DTA specifies who gets to tax the income first and whether or not the other country can tax it at all. The second country may may tax that income at a higher or lower rate, depending on what the DTA says. That may result in a small amount of Thai tax to pay, no Thai tax to pay or a Thai tax credit being issued against the tax already paid over seas.

You may wish to read this:

Not so. The target in all of this is well to do middle class and wealthy Thai's who have been exploiting tax loopholes and avoiding taxes. As much as farangs think they are the center of the universe here, they are nothing more than collateral damage, to start with, there are far more middle and upper wealth class Thai's than there are farangs in Thailand. Plus, farangs only need to be non resident for one year, during which they can import as much money as they want, free of Thai tax, that's only 185 days out of the country.

That's correct, have you never even looked at the tax guide because that information has been oublic and highly visible since December.

I don't know about the apps but I do know that THB is a restricted currency that cannot be exported as THB, it must be converted first in the currency of the receiving country.

It would be taxable on the receiver, the Thai Revenue doesn't care who sent it.

I don't see how a tax exemption granted by one country should automatically be grandfathered to another country. The taxation risk of losing that exemption was surely one of the factors in the plan to move here in the knowledge that it would be lost.

The law says, 3 months jail time or THB 10K. 3 Months in jail would put a crimp on the family hols. https://www.pacificprime.co.th/blog/driving-license-point-deductions-in-thailand/#:~:text=For example%2C if someone is,under the Traffic Law Act.

Budgeted price range?

It's against the law for ANYONE to drive without a valid license here and there's a very good chance you will get stopped at some point and asked to produce it.

Do you really think you are the only person in the history of Thai taxation to ever report an overseas capital gain!

I can't help but feel, from what you've written, that you don't fully understand the mechanics of DTA's, nor of a foreign governments sovereign right to levy taxes on residents and/or invoke internationally accepted tax policies. But we'll save that discussion for another time and place.

The panicking pensioners have already panicked, educated themselves about what their position will be and have now had their minds put at rest. We're now into the second tier, those who didn't bother to find out about the impact previously and who now see the rule change as a reality. Those waves will continue for quite some time.

Sensible.

I'm not trained in law, especially not in Thai law so I can't comment on much of what you've written. But let's look for a moment at the anecdotal evidence thus far: 1) several entities said at the outset that the new interpretation would be challenged in the courts but thus far there has been no evidence of that. In fact, the author of the new interpretation has just become Finance Minister. 2) All the major tax consultancies such as PWC, KPMG, Sherrings, Mazars and others, have all met with TRD executives and undergone many many Q&A sessions that have been published. Most of the details are understood and have been published ergo the TRD statements have been made. 3) The TRD is actively recruiting some 40 plus Thai lawyers to act as the DTA specialist in each of the areas. 4) All the major consultancies have produced their annual tax guides and have written the new rule into stone, for their clients.

From what you've written, it sounds like your income is exempt anyway so why the letter writing campaign? Either your income is excluded by treaty of the tax already paid in the US will offset any Thai tax liability.

Where you're coming from is enquiring about tax evasion so please don't go there. But to answer your question: 65) Two additional points on this subject are: 1) Funds that are gifted, must be for the use of the person to whom they are gifted. If your girlfriend does as you suggest, that once again is tax evasion, the penalties for which in Thailand are draconian.

I am told the person responsible for the new interpretation of the tax law, is the new incoming Minister of Finance, that should give you a clue as to whether it will be cancelled or not.

No new tax law was created. only a reinterpretation of an existing law which became effective on September last year. A concession was granted in November last year to make the new interpretation effective as of 1 January this year. No, it hasn't been parked, it's live and the Revenue is actively recruiting additional legal staff nationally to manage the new international rules agenda.

FWIW I'm not going to make any changes in my life as a result of the new rule. I've filed tax returns in previous years and can usually control the income I remit here to avoid tax.