Desmond77

Dear All, I am based in Hua Hin and I have read through all the comments which everyone has shared. Very interesting. So what is going to be the tax refund arrangements for this year? I have filed my taxes on the 31 Jan 2025. On the 15 Feb 2025, I have received a sms message informing me that my tax refund has been approved. On the 19th Feb, I have received another sms message, informing me that they have mailed the cheque out. Today is the 6 Mar, I have yet to receive anything via mail from the TRD in Hua Hin. I have emailed to them, no one responded. I have tried calling them, no one speaks English. So do I continue to wait, bash into the TRD at Hua Hin and demand an answer ((just joking) or do I kiss my tax refund goodbye?

Hi everyone, Has anyone ever received a tax refund from the Hua Hin revenue Department recently? I have declared my taxes for 2024 and on the 19 Feb, I have received a notification, informing me that my tax refund has been approved and a cheque has been mailed out. As of today, I have tried to call them, no one speaks English. I have written to them receive nothing from anyone. I am just wondering if there is any other way of settling this. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Thank you very much. Certainly no regrets for us. Enjoying the tax free, hassle free life of being a LTR holder. Just filed my taxes for last year with the TRD. They have given me a tax refund and informed me that I am no longer required to file any taxes till my LTR expires in 2035. LTR may be a little challenging to apply, given the number of documents you need to upload but once you get it, you will love it.

Thank you so much, Presnock. I have gotten the LTR visa stamped in on to our passports on the 27 Jan this year. All good now.

So, either you throw in a tonne of cash as FD, or you have a work permit. There is no other way for any LTR holder (Except Highly Skilled Professionals) to apply for a credit card. So it will still goes back to the basic "Cash is king" BUT, if there are any LTR holders out there who, miraculously, have been able to get a credit card without locking up your entire fortune here in a FD account, I would be really grateful if you can kindly share your experience. Thank you in advance.

With all due respect Sir, my subject header was LTR holders applying for a credit card. That was something which I have been trying to understand. But I do appreciate your response and clarification. Thank you.

Excluding the dependents, only the Highly Skilled Professional under the LTR visa will be given a work permit by default. So the remaining categories will still pretty much have not much options then.

Appreciate the clarification.

Mm.. While you are holding the LTR? So you placed a fortune into the FD account?

In that case, I will just stick back to that one principle of all expats here in Thailand and that is "Cash is king"! Lol

Hi, I have just gotten my LTR visa under the Work-From-Thailand-Professional scheme. I am wondering if it is possible for me to apply for a credit card please? The reason why I am asking is because I am in the midst of renovating and furnishing my house here and places like Homepro and Boontharvorn are giving away alot of perks for customers with credit cards from banks like Krunsri Bank or Kasikorn Bank. I have tried with Krungsri Bank but they said that I will either need to deposit a crazy amount of THB2,000,000 into a Fixed Deposit account for at least a year or I will need to have a Thai work permit with a salary of at least THB70,000. It does not make any sense. My monthly income is more than 4 times of that minimum requirement set by the bank. If I want to run away with any credit card debt, with or without a Thai work permit, I can still run. I have explained that I could get car financing without any Thai guarantor and I have finished paying my car financing within a year. So where is the logic? Any LTR holders here have any experience in applying a local Thai credit card?

Hi, may I know if the THB50K fee is applicable to only the main applicant? What about the dependents? Will it be THB50K too?

No problem with that. You may actually kick off your application with your existing passport because when your application has been approved, you will be asked to upload the passport which you would like to use to receive the LTR. I renewed my passport in the midst of my application.

If you follow the standard application process on the website, you are right. But I have known of cases when BOI has actually requested for the insurance policy at very early stages of the application. They requested for the full schedule of my insurance policy just merely a week after my submission of the application and my approval only came in on the 27th business day. So what you can do is follow the standard application process and submit whatever documents that are required first. Fill up the declaration form to state that you are aware of the requirement of the submitting the insurance policy with a minimum of USd50k coverage at a later stage and upload that declaration form together with the initial application. Many successful applicants here in this forum will agree with me that different screeners at BOI office work a little differently but, for a common objective.

Just a personal suggestion. If you would like to proceed with your LTR application as soon as possible and you do not want to wait for your insurance to be due for renewal in Apr, you may consider getting one of those cheap "Buy & throw" kind of insurance just to fulfill the immediate requirements of the application. It is not expensive and it serves the purpose, instantly.

No doubt, these changes are really fantastic. At the same time, that may also potentially means that it will be easier for us to pass the review at our 5-year mark and enjoy the remaining 5 years of our hard fought LTR.

Hey guys, my bad for typing in the wrong category of applicants. For the benefit of everyone, I have cut and pasted the whole article here for easy reading.

Haha.. Yes, you are absolutely correct. WP refers to Wealthy Pensioners.

In a nutshell, below are the changes: WFTP: 1. Instead of USd150M over 3 years for private companies, it will be lowered down to USD50M. 2. The minimum income of USD80k per annum over the past 2 years shall go out of the window WP: 1. The minimum passive income of USD80K will be abolished as well. Dependents: 1. Currently limit to 4 but there shall be no limit on the number of dependents soon.

With this coming into the picture real soon, it will definitely helps BOI to reach the target of 1M approved cases within 5 years! Very soon, the fast track lane at the airport will no longer be the fast track lane as it is now. lol

Hey guys, big important updates concerning the requirements of the 10-year LTR visa. Just came in, hot from the oven. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14sALMiRui/

Hi anrcaccount, I can totally agree with you. Unless one is very sure that he is going to stake his life with the same company for the next 10 years upon receiving this LTR-WFTP visa, there is a certain amount of risk involved, especially reaching the 5-year mark. I am currently 47 years of age and I still have another 16 more years on that employment contract, which outlives the term of the LTR-WFTP visa. Therefore, it is definitely a good deal for me and my family. 16 years down the road, I can switch over to Wealthy Pensioner instead.

Thank you Misty, for being extremely helpful and supportive throughout the application process. Your advices have helped me alot.

Hi everyone, As mentioned yesterday, I noticed that most of the success cases in this forum are mostly Wealthy Pensioners, merely a handful of successful cases coming through under the Work-From-Thailand-Professionals. I have just finally moved my application forward yesterday after a zoom session with the BOI officers and I have received my endorsement approval today. The zoom call was very helpful and I have learnt alot from the 2 BOI officers whom I have spoken to. So for the benefit of anyone who wish to apply for the LTR under the WFTP scheme, here are the things which you need to do, upload and also to take note of when you do your submission. 25 Nov 2024: Account created and uploaded all the documents. The documents which I have uploaded include the following: 1. Old passport where I had my Non-B visa, re-entry permit and all the Thai immigration stamps. 2. New passport 3. Thai Work Permit ( I was holding 2 jobs, one with a foreign private company and another with a Thai company). If you are have a Non-B visa and a Thai work permit like me, you are required to submit the termination letter from your Thai company, stating when will your Non-B visa and Work Permit be cancelled. 4. Employment contract from my foreign company, stating my position with the company, my salary, my term of employment and my role in the company allows me to work remotely. 5. A Certificate of Employment from my foreign company, stating the details of the registration of the company, again your position with the company, your monthly salary, your annual salary package and your term of employment with the company. 6. Insurance policy stating the coverage of your policy with minimum 10 months validity from the date you submitted your application. (On the 9 Jan, BOI requested for a full schedule of my insurance coverage which I have submitted within the same day) 7. An authorisation letter from the company, stating the company registration details, stating the reason why you are allow to work remotely form Thailand. 8. Tax returns from my home country for the past 2 years, showing that I am drawing a salary of more than USD80k per year 9. All payslips for all the months of 2024, showing that I am still drawing that amount of salary from my foreign company. 10. Monthly bank statements showing that the salary are being banked into my account 11. As I have a monthly deduction of x amount of dollars from my gross salary to my pension account, I was required to show that the amount deducted from my salary every month, did go into my pension account. Therefore, I have submitted a 12-month statement of my pension account. 12. A passport photo with white background taken recently. 13. 3 years of Audited statement of Accounts, signed off by the auditors and my Global Finance Director, showing the cumulative gross revenue of USD150M or more over the last years 14. Company profile to show that the company which I am working for is a well-established global MNC 15. A corporate hierarchy, showing that the person who are signing all your letters are authorised to do so. 16. A cover letter, explaining all the documents which you have submitted. 3 Jan 2025: Past the 20th work day mark, still no news. Made a call to BOI's general hotline, the person told me to wait. 7 Jan 2025: Still no news. Called, again told me to wait as delays were expected due to festive holidays in Dec and many applications to process. At this point, I have decided to escalate the application to the top guys on my own. 8 Jan 2025: BOI contacted me, reassuring me that my application will be expedite. She also mentioned that she is committed to minimise any potential disruptions that may be caused to me and my family. 9 Jan 2025: Another BOI Senior Officer contacted me to arrange for a zoom call within the same day. After approximately a 15-min chat with 2 questions being asked during the chat, the call ended with "Look out for the update on your endorsement approval tomorrow. We will see you at Chamchuri Square very soon." Things to note: 1. All documents must be on your company's letterhead 2. The company letterhead that you are using for all documents must be the same company that is reflected on the audited statement of accounts, employment contract, certificate of employment and authorisation letter to work remotely in Thailand. BOI officers are sharp enough to pick up even just one wrong spelling in any of these documents, especially company names and registration details. This was the key reason to the hold up of my application which was clarified during the zoom call yesterday. 3. All corporate letters and documents must be stamped. 4. Please do not hesitate to reach out to BOI, either via email or phone call, when you have passed the 20th day mark and yet, you have not received any updates. The BOI officers are very helpful. One very key important question to ask when you contact BOI is "Do you understand all the information / documents which I have submitted inn my application?" That question will prompt the BOI office to do a deep dive into your application immediately and set to clear all doubts once and for all. During the zoom call, the Senior BOI Officer (She accidentally leaked the fact that she is one of the approving office in BOI for LTR) mentioned that among all the 5 categories of LTR, they are most strict with applicants under WFTP scheme and they have alot of documents to check and verify. That explains why applications under the WFTP will always take the longest. Will be doing my LTR stamping on the 23 Jan. Hope that my learning experience will be helpful to anyone who intends to apply under the WFTP scheme. Wishing everyone all the best!!