JimmyTobacco

I don't think that's true. If you spend money from a Wise account in Thailand, you are there and then remitting it to Thailand. However, there's currently no way for them to check. That will become much easier when the Bank of Thailand is involved obviously.

Mmm, so does this mean that my account will be suspended, since foreigners on a DTV are not allowed to open bank accounts in Thailand? I currently have a Wise account which I opened in my home country. The main currency is EUR, it has a Belgian IBAN and it's registered to my Thai address. However, I am worried that with the "additional documents" required by the bank of Thailand, this might not be allowed anymore. ALSO: will money in my Wise bank account then automatically count as money remitted to Thailand for tax purposes?

For people on a DTV who spend most of their time in Thailand and have no fixed address in their native country: what do you put on your TDAC form as country and address of residence?

My experience so far is that the import duties and VAT are very random. I get a package about once a month from back home. So far I've received about 5 in the past 5 months. Mostly the same contents: some vitamins, local food items, creams. My family always uses the local post and the package comes with Thai post. The value the sender puts on the package is usually 0 or below 30 USD and it's classified as a gift. The content written on the package so far differs between things like chocolate, cheese, cream and other similar wordings. So far out of the five times, twice I've had to pay nothing at all. Once, in December, they estimated the value at 1500 THB and I had to pay only 7% VAT = 105 THB. Then in January, I think I had to pay around 150 THB, although it was not clear what this was based upon cause on the package there was QR code with a link to the customs website which didn't work. This time around, they didn't even deliver the package and told me I had to come to the post office personally to pick it up. The value was estimated at 1600 THB, the import duty 10% and the VAT 7% for a total of over 280 THB. It definitely seems the duties have gone up, but it is not entirely clear what this is based upon. I feel like custom officers have probably had the message that import duties needed to be hiked up in any case, despite the new tax on low-value items. I must admit though that the total value of these packages is usually at least 3000 THB, so I really can't complain. However, given the ease of bringing in things to Thailand on international flights, it feels like a rip off.

I really don't understand what's the news here. I've been on the DTV for nearly 2 years now

Certainly the first two prices you mention are in THB whereas the 170K is in GBP?

Besides savings before 2024, aren't any savings I bring into Thailand that I had before I was a Thai tax resident exempt from tax as well? Say I was not a Thai tax resident in 2025 but I am one in 2026 and I have 100k USD in savings in my western bank account in December 2025. I bring this 100k USD into Thailand on January 1st. Then I am still not liable to pay tax on it, am I right? where I do think it gets confusing is if you have say 100k sitting in a foreign bank account and you start sending your income to that bank account as well, while remitting some of the balance to Thailand sometimes. in other words, say I get 2000 in foreign income every month and add that to my savings, but I also remit 2000 a month to Thailand, but I claim what I actually remit are my savings from before and not my income. I am assuming the tax liability is then only triggered once the barrier of 100k remittance is crossed, since that was my balance before I became a Thai tax resident?

I use Moreta Pay, which is free to top up with SEPA for amounts over 250 USD or something in that region. Unfortunately it can only be used with business QR codes. Then I use DeepPocket, which I charge via my Thai gf. They charge 2%. Of course when I send money to my girlfriend with Wise, that also costs me about 1%, so overal I end up paying about 3%. If I can, I always pay with my Wise debit card though.

I might need 4T since I have a four stroke engine. 😉 Im thinking to add the Liqui Moly 4T additive since it's easy to find in Thailand. I've had some trouble recently with the bike starting only with full choke on and then stalling if I leave the choke on. The carbs also started making a bit of a hard sound every now and again. ChatGPT told me it might be the pilot jets in the carbs.

Chiang Mai. Not too bad I suppose. I found 3 PTT's within 20 minutes now and two Caltex stations that have it as well. Guess I will be filling up there next.

Yes, this is definitely part of the plan, but I will have to remove the rust first. I'm just dreading it a little bit ... I know it will be a lot of work. I don't even have a great deal of experience with draining the petrol and removing the tank, and then there's also the backup tank which might be rusty as well or could need some maintenance.

Yeah exactly the problem I have. The tank is very rusty and now the carbs seem to be clogging up already. I'm already facing to clean out the tank sometime soon. Hoping that I can find someone to do it for me since that might be an annoying bit of work. I just found a PTT about 20 minutes away from here that has "bensin", so maybe I'll try that in combination with a fuel/engine cleaner like Liqui Moly 4T.

How did you get a blue book for a bike anyway? 😉 The problem might have been that you didn't make the transfer yourself. As far as I'm aware, normally the buyer does the transfer. I transferred a motorbike from a seller in another province about a year ago. I bought the bike here at a local dealer, but the motorbike was still in the seller's name. I went to my local transport office with the certificate of residence, the sales contract, a power of attorney signed by the seller, a copy of the ID of the seller and the transfer forms. They first transferred the bike to my province. That took about a week. Then I had to come back to transfer it to my name. Everything went quite smoothly, except the waiting times 😉

Can I get ethanol free petrol in 2025 in Thailand? I have an oldtimer and the carbs are pretty sensitive on this machine. I read it might leave less gunk in the carbs if I switch to ethanol free petrol. I read probably Caltex should have 95 "gold" without ethanol, but I'm not near a Caltex. The PTTs and Shells that I checked don't seem to have it.

However, the gift cannot be used for your benefit and not to evade taxes. Anyhow, if your gift is somehow not liable for Thai tax, it might be liable for UK tax.

Do you have a decent one that you can ask a few informative questions for a good price?

Also, I believe it does not mean that Thailand cannot "tax again" if tax has been paid in another country. I believe the tax paid in another country can be deducted against the Thai payment, which means effectively no tax is paid to Thailand, but it is still "taxed".

if he is interested in bringing money into the country without the RD knowing about it, I suggest there are much better ways. in any case, doing it this way is not very clever for sure.

This is clearly a case of tax evasion, although that does not mean that anyone will be interested in it. Remember that there is a gift tax in Thailand, I believe it's 5% for money gifted to a spouse. However, I also read that gifts cannot be used to evade taxes. I would suggest it's risky to do this on a large scale.

I believe this has still not been approved. I am sure we will find out more by the end of next year ...

There was another video on YouTube where they directly asked a tax revenue officer what should be considered as remittance, for example creditcard payments in Thailand from foreign creditcards or ATM withdrawals and currency exchanges ... the answer seemed to imply that there is no real way for them to check this, but if you live in Thailand and report 0 remittance to Thailand you might get into trouble with the immigration department which might start asking you what money you live from. Of course it seems it's hard for them to check such things. If I pay for my groceries at Big C or buy stuff on Lazada with a foreign creditcard, it would be hard for them to link this to my persona. In reality, it should probably be included in the amount remitted to Thailand. Of course if the remittances are from savings earned previously to becoming a tax resident in Thailand, they also don't count for income tax. Personally I am not even allowed to open a bank account in Thailand at the moment since I'm on the DTV.

DTV indeed.

Of course remittance is useful for tax "planning" 😉 I'm not arguing with that. I just find the whole concept outdated. If money is only taxed when I put it in a Thai bank account, why would I ever do so, if I can also pay with foreign creditcards/bank accounts/etc. or potentially find other ways around this. If you look at this part of a video where someone is directly asking this question to the revenue department, it seems like they are not quite sure: What I gather from the response is: no we do not track your creditcard payments in Thailand and no we do not ask you to include them in your tax filing, but if you only live from creditcard payments and never bring money into Thailand/a Thai bank account, you might get into trouble with the immigration department because they will ask what money you are living from. Which seems to be an invitation to bring in money earned previously (before tax residency in Thailand), use that for small living expenses, and then spend as much with your creditcard as you can.

Is there any news on the tax rules for 2026 on foreign income? I am planning to be a tax resident for the first time in 2026, but I don't even have a Thai bank account, nor do I have a visa that allows me to have a Thai bank account. I do wonder if leaving my money in a Wise account that is registered to my Thai address counts as remittance, in case remittance of foreign income to Thailand will still be taxed in 2026. Of course remittance is a debated topic and I would even call it outdated. I still have never seen any clear verdict on whether or not credit card payments, ATM withdrawals or foreign currency brought into Thailand and exchanged into THB count as remittance. I've been sending my girlfriend money from my Wise account for rent and spending but I'm considering changing that strategy a bit for 2026.

I've been using Deeppocket for a while now. The newly introduced membership fee was waived a while back, since it was quite hefty. Now there is a 2% top up fee via QR and 3,5% top up fee via credit card. I personally get topped up by my girlfriend with money I send her from Wise. So far the app has never failed me.