Mike Lister

I already sent you a personal message about your post but since nobody from the regular posting group has answered your query, let me give you a more public response. The Simple Tax Guide project never envisaged itself as a tax preparation service or a means of expert consultation on complex tax issues. Instead, the Simple Tax Guide project is a means of getting basic, easy to understand tax information, into the hands of people who don't understand tax and have never had to deal with tax before, mostly aged pensioners and the like......hence the name, the Simple Tax Guide. Everyone else with complex tax affairs is deemed to be capable of obtaining paid for tax advice whereas many pensioners and basic income members may not be. Your post is above average in tax complexity and not something the Simple Guide project should be involved with, if others here feel they can comment constructively on your situation they should feel free to do so, if they so wish. I said I would not post in this thread, only moderate but I am still waiting for my posting nic to arrive. If the regular posting group does not return to debate tax in this thread, I will go back on what I said and I will begin to use this thread to try and answer members concerns etc., as well as using the Simple Tax Guide thread. I hope that doesn't become necessary because if it does, one of the threads will probably become unnecessary and have to be closed. ,

I have updated the Simple Tax Guide to reflect latest information and to make some parts more easily understandable, it is linked below.

It appears to me that this might be something larger than a blip, my guess is a correction or larger. The market was well over valued any way and the Israel/Iran situation was a step too far for risk tolerance. Tin foil hat time.

Yes, I understand you can't send THB and that it must first be converted to GBP, and unless you were holding a GBP Foreign Currency Account within the BBL app, that conversion would have to be a manual process....I guess? Those things being true, what does the app actually do when it comes to overseas transfers? Just initiate the manual process in the bank?

I think the question being asked is the same one that interests me and that is whether or not the Bangkok Bank Thailand app will let you send to an overseas account in your own name, I have heard from several sources that it will not. I understand the first part of our reply above but the part in bold confuses me.

If nobody answer your question, please PM me or file a question in the Simple Tax Guide thread, please.

The question in bold is what I hope members will get to the bottom of. There is no agreement amongst members at present that there is a penalty and we do need to understand the answer because to date everyone has been told there is not. This is not my debate or decision, I merely added information about the TIN above.

One input into the question about whether or not a person must file a return, if they have no tax to pay: The rules about TIN's says - 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. .......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. I do not know if there is a penalty for not obtaining a TIN, separate from the issue of not filing a return.

Yes, noted. It's not immediately obvious where we should draw the line in trying to provide information to members within and outside of the Simple Tax Guide. The level of granularity here can be as detailed as anyone cares it to be but I most probably wont pick all of it up for guide book purposes. Those things notwithstanding the information is always useful to someone.

I think it varies from bank to bank and also depends on the account type. I have one account that requires a minimum 5k Baht. The bigger problem is the period of inactivity which can see the account charged for no transactions.

See Para 77 of the attached document for the certificate: https://aseannow.com/topic/1324294-the-simple-tax-guide/#comment-18857625 or this one maybe easier

Why don't you guys debate the point and see if you can't arrive at a consensus and let me know, for the time being I'm staying with Dogmatix view.

My reference is the post linked below:

I cannot comment on the contents of country specific DTA's because I have not read them all, I certainly haven't read the terms of the Australian/Thai DTA which has been much discussed in various threads. My suggestion to you is to start reading your DTA to try and find the answer to your questions, failing that. you may wish to look at some of the Australian specific tax threads where your fellow countrymen will no doubt have answers for you. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

The answer to your question is person specific and may well change from person to person. The deductions, allowances (TEDA) and tax tables are set out in para's 65 to 68 of the Simple Tax Guide. A further level of variation is a persons nationality and the terms of their DTA which may provide additional relief. If you need help with specifics regarding your own personal situation you are welcome to PM me with details and I will try to assist. A word of caution: I am extremely busy at present and have a substantial backlog to deal with that may take days, I also have large scale updates to make to the guide so my response will not come quickly.

I set out earlier my prefered operating model for these tax threads and also the rationale for compiling the Simple Tax Guide. The need for those things has now been substantially reinforced with poster @Dogmatix findings that penalties DO exist for not filing a tax return, when no tax is due. The message that there are no penalties for not filing when no tax is due, has been repeatedly endlessly in these threads, by prominent posters and read by potentially thousands of people. Poster Dogmatix's findings are now vitally important because it means we have to get the opposite message message out to everyone. The post in this thread that contains that information is now long gone and only a handful of people will have read it. The Simple Tax Guide and its dedicated thread are very important in correcting that error and everyone's understanding, otherwise, who will tell everyone? Ditto the need for a TIN which was previously deemed unnecessary but is of course essential if a tax return is to be filed. Members need and rightfully deserve this information, if they are to make informed choices. I regret I am unable and unwilling to enter into a discussion on these points but I did want to reinforce the need for the Tax Guide and the the non-discussion information thread.

No documents required, it's very early days on this, maybe downstream things will change

My interpretation is that you do not, because all your income is exempt hence you not exceed the threshold.

Because we now know that a fine is possible for not filing a tax return, this information changes what we said about acquiring a TIN. Previously we wrote that it wasn't necessary to obtain a TIN, if no tax was due. The new information about the fine above, now changes what we have to say regarding TIN's which may now be needed, as long as the assessable income threshold has been exceeded.

I will update the guide in a couple of places to reflect that we now understand that penalties can be levied for not filing a tax return, when the threshold has been exceeded but there is no tax to pay. Previously we had been told repeatedly that there was no penalty, we now know that there is a THB 2,000 fine but it is unclear whether it is actually levied. "the consequences of an individual tax resident not filing a PND90/91 tax return, if he/she has income over 120k but not enough to pay tax is that there is a fine of up to 2,000 baht for this under Section 35 of the RC. Section 17 is the relevant section in the context of Section 35". In practise, I don't believe this change in our understanding will impact anyone this year but it is something that should be considered in January next year.

The surgery itself was done at the Suan Doc operating theatre but everything was managed via Sriphat. Even the rooms were on the 12th floor of the IPD which is specially reconfigured and kitted out to a much higher standard.

I had very similar 18 months ago, I woke up one morning with a large black floater in the middle of my vison in one eye. A retinal exam was done and a torn retina diagnosed, this was repaired using a laser....you shouldn't wait to have that exam, it can be done easily on a walk in basis at most good private hospitals. A year letter a second floater appeared, this time in the other eye. This turned out to be age related but without the tear. I now have six monthly checks which are inexpensive and straight forward. Retinal detachment is signalled by a curtain that closes off the sight in the effected eye, and/or by lots of small floaters or sometimes one large one. The curtain effect is a big deal, don't delay in getting it inspected by capable people. Note: my retinal issues were age related. I can also recommend the Rutnin in Bangkok, it's as good as it gets anywhere on the planet.

Sriphat is a very modern building and is home to somewhere in excess of 100 specialists, all of whom are associate and assistant professors....the range of medical talent there is very impressive. The GH on the other hand is where some senior Sriphat medical staff put in limited hours, plus the building is nowhere near as nice. The other point to make about Sriphat is that it's an end to end process that uses all the diagnostics of Suan Doc, everything from PET scans to over twenty six operating theatres is all right there with an ambulance shuttle service to take you around the different building locations.

It's being run by a private company, not by the Thai Revenue.

Yes, very much so, I was the only foreigner on the very chaotic day we visited..