ConcernedBrit

I've been following this thread and I just signed up (more on me and my/our situation below, if anybody cares) to question a couple of points in the quote above: 1. "Previously, remitted savings were never taxable, exempt income was never taxable and income covered by a DTA, was not taxable in Thailand....those things haven't changed." Ok, definitions required here I think. When does income become savings? To me (gifts aside) savings come from excess income - so any income that is not required to cover bills in the period it is earned (say, monthly, if paid on a monthly basis) would become savings. Or perhaps annnually, when a tax return is submitted. In that sense, the previous Thai rule worked. Taken at face value, the Thai tax people's new definition would mean that essentially any funds that existed prior to Jan 1 2024 would be treated as savings and all else would be income. That would be quite bizarre. Effectively you'd get a free pass on anything that existed across all your bank and investment balances prior to 1/1/24 but perhaps only as long as you could prove it. 2. "Previously, foreign tax residents with no assessable income in Thailand, are not required to file a Thai tax return." Well, the problem there is knowing for sure what is assessable. And keeping evidence to prove that what is remitted is not "assessable" or is within allowances. Ugh. Tax authorities often try to create uncertainty and hope that people will cough up cash to sleep at night (e.g. IR35 legislation in the UK). For that, folks would "over declare" rather than under-do it and perhaps just pay whatever is assessed for an easy life (that is what they hope, I'm not saying it's right). Overall key point Money is a fungible resource. For example, if you were to tell me that you can't pay your energy bill this month and you need £1... so I lend it to you and then tomorrow I see you eating an ice cream that costs £1, then I might be tempted to say "Hey! How can you be eating that when you needed my £1 for energy?". You might say that you didn't buy it with my £1 but with one of your own £s, but that doesn't hold water - since money is fungible i.e. I can't tell which exact £1 you used, all that matters is the overall picture which is that my £1 created an excess of funds allowing you to buy that ice cream. So I'm entitled to be a little miffed. Silly example, but it makes the point - the exact £s or $s that come into the country don't matter, it's the overall picture as at 1/1/24 that matters. If you had £1million in savings at that point then you will have £1million of tax free remittables from now onwards. Or - a new arrival will have whatever they had prior to becoming resident in Thailand (as long as they can prove it). What this adds up to is that if you are still working then everything from then on will be treated as income, therefore assessable. My/our situation My wife and I were thinking of moving to Thailand. She recently went there and loved it. We've become increasingly concerned over the migrant situation in the UK and wanted to get out while we still could, before Sharia law is imposed within our lifetimes. However, this Thai tax situation has made us think twice. It's not the individual issue, it's the realisation that we would be at the behest of every daft thing any government present or future could decide to throw at us (including the series of daft governments we've had in the UK for the last 30 years or so). And going back to the UK would be very difficult later in life, if it were even desirable at all. So in the end, we will probably find a remote place in the UK that will hopefully be safe in our lifetimes.