SamSpade

What are the rules for LTR holders, is it money from previous years is exempt or does it include income from this year? With a bit of luck the proposed change will get back on the table & we’ll all be able to bring in income from this/last year tax free.

Amen… We all need to decide what we believe is best for us… I've decided to file (to the best of my abilities) so at worse will get a slap on the wrist for filing incorrectly. You've chosen not to file & I highly doubt anything will happen to you (Unless you've sent serious money over).

The very definition of First In First Out is that if you take money out of an account you are subtracting it from the very earliest monies that was in there. Putting it back at some point later even with the same serial numbers (IMHO) doesn't change that & I can't see a Revenue Department entertaining that as an argument. Again, I'm talking about Technically here not suggesting how TRD would treat it, I just believe that people blindly believing their balance at the 31/12/2023 as a given for how much they can remit is a little bit dangerous, especially if there are large sums involved.

I think a lot of guys are doing it just to avoid the hassle with TRD but once you have your TIN and get in the habit of documenting each remittance you make, it only takes a few minutes to do the return online. I'm planning on doing it this year as I want to buy a Condo and >80% of the money will come from my PCLS (Pension Commencement Lump Sum) which is Tax Free in the UK so fully taxable in Thailand and I guestimate I'm looking at >3Million in Tax which will pay for a few nice holidays :).

Again all of this is from a "Technical" viewpoint and I don't believe TRD would do this unless they were auditing you (BTW I've seen a couple of videos that say the criteria for audits is >1.2Million (originally this was reported as >2 Million) remitted OR >400 remittances. For the cash, it doesn't matter TRD would see it as new money going into the account so unless you could prove it wasn't from income (Take pictures of the seriel numbers withdrawn/deposited) then it's up to them whether they treat it as income or not. CRS gives TRD the right to ask for full transaction data from any other CRS country's Tax authority so if the RD of the country where the income/assets are has a list of your transactions, then TRD could get that list.

I'm planning on doing exactly this in 2026 (Planning to buy a Condo) & would love to learn where guys are spending the 6 months or so outside of Thailand?

How TRD would know is very easy... They ask you for your Bank statements (kid you not, I filed my 1st tax return in 2022 & they asked me for every bank statement since the account was opened... even though I wasn't a tax resident until 2020 & the account was opened in 1984 so technically they were asking for 38 years of Bank statements, I never did get my withheld tax back)! Look at your Bank Statements from 1/1/24, each time it goes down that's the new balance that FIFO rules says you have left to send from 31/12/2023, it never goes back up from that but each withdrawal after that takes the balance down even further. Look, I'm not suggesting TRD will do this or anything else I'm just sharing how FIFO works (technically). Edits... 1) Taking the money out and putting it back in again means you've withdrawn the money & it will be "Last In" if you put it back. 2) Technically, CRS means TRD can see all of your transactions...

Sorry but you’re wrong, if you spend any of the $100K before remitting it to Thailand then it’s spent, you can’t top it back up with Income earned after 31/12/2023… That’s what First in First Out means, what you describe is First In Last Out.

My understanding is that only cash held before 1/1/2024 counts as savings, for Stocks & Bonds the potential tax on any of it remitted to Thailand will be the Capital Gain (Pro Rata) from the original purchase + any Dividends/Interest earned since 1/1/2024 . Also the FIFO approach used by Thailand means that you cannot just point to the amount of money you had in your account as at 31/12/2023 but will need to show the transactions in & out since then. E.g. If you had £20,000 in your savings account in 2023 and spent £10,000 in 2024, replenished it from other income & then did the same in 2025 you would have £20,000 in your account but none of it would (Technically) be pre 2024 savings,

Per my reply above, I was told that if I couldn't give them the extra information they needed they would close the account so I wouldn't risk going in to try to take money out unless I was OK with the account being closed.

I posted in another thread about my experience in trying to move money from my BBL Fixed Deposit account to my BBL Savings account which I was only finally able to do by providing... 1. My Passport including my Non-IMM O "Retirement" extension valid till 26th September. 2. A copy of my UK Driving license (I don't have any other Photo ID in Thailand). 3. A copy of my lease, Owners ID & Chanote (NB 1st time I tried the lease was in my landlady's name but the Chanote was in her husband's name so I had to arrange for a new contract with him). The alternative was they would close the account (Been opened for 3.5 years). I don't think we can rely on any previous experiences of doing things in the Branch (Especially BBL) being the same nowadays. Edit: To add, the 1st 2 branches I visited told me my account was Frozen and I had to go to my "Home" Branch (Where I opened the account) to have it unlocked so in my case, they froze my FD account without me even trying to do anything with it.

As you can use Internet Banking, is there somebody you could transfer the money to so they can withdraw it for you until you get your new long term visa?

Can You Keep a Secret - Comedy recently released on BBC 1... Retired couple fakes one's death to collect insurance payout. They hide out, awaiting funds, putting family under strain with deception and unusual living arrangements. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33702417/

All sorted, owner gave me a new contract in his name, copy of his passport and a copy of the chanote, that alongside my UK "Pink" driving license was acceptible so after dozens of forms/signatures etc... I managed to move some money from the FD account to my Savings account. Again the staff were very polite & sympathetic to my situation so I had no problem smiling along and staying calm, was funny at the end when she said that there would be a charge of 105THB for moving the money (My savings account was opened in Bangkok) which was a lot less than I expected as the 1st branch quoted me 1,020 THB, second one 620THB so I expected more this time as I decided to move an extra 200K, she was pale when she came back & said she'd made a mistake & the charge was 877THB thinking I'd get very angry but this was exactly the number I was expecting (approx 0.1% of the transfer value) so smiles all round.

Had a chat with the GF and rather than ask my mate for help (and her lose face), she's going to put 400K in my Kasikorn account if we can't sort the problem. Technically that's my money (Been together 7 years & I stuck 1 million THB in her account last Jan as I was already sick of Bangkok Bank policies) but nice to see

Thank you Sir

Thanks @DrJack54, I have no problem getting my KBank account up to 400K except the crappy exchange rates... My best mate has offered to put 300K in to my Kbank account for a few months (It's not charity, we've done this for each other since either of us had money and funny enough I loaned him 300K for 6 months last year when he bought his house and misjudged the expense for furnishings, Aircon etc... ) but the GF won't allow it (Loss of face borrowing money from a friend) so I might have to eat the crappy exchange rate after all :( In your expert opinion do you think being able to show 400K in a different bank account mid-term (extension wise) would be ok (as long as I bring it up to 800K 2 months before, it will be more than that the moment they close my FD account).

Thanks, my problem is they won't let me transfer part of the account (That's what started this whole mess in the 1st place) so it's either leave the account as it is or transfer all of it to my savings account which currently only has approx 100K in it (Hence I need money from the FD account). I could rustle up 100K from my Kasikorn account but if I'm going to go down the route of having another account with 400K in it I'm thinking I should try to get that account to 400K (& then 800K come June, extension is due in September) and forget about using Bangkok Bank for future extensions.

In another post I outlined the problems I'm having with my Bangkok Bank Fixed Deposit account upshot of which is I may need to close the account and move the monies to my other Bank Account (Also with Bangkok Bank!). As this is the account I use to support my extension, will closing it have an impact with immigration and if so, what do I need to get from the Bank to ensure that I can show I've met the 400/800K in the bank ("Retirement" extension). Anybody else switched bank accounts mid-extension? Thanks Sam

And the Fun & Games continue. Handed over my (expired) UK Driving license and they weren’t interested wanted to see my lease. Hands over my lease & they want a copy of the Chanote, GF messages the landlady who emails a copy over & Big Problem… The lease is between me & my landlady, the Chanote is in her (British) husbands name so they won’t accept it, nor will they accept a CoR from immigration. So now I need to get a new contract between me & her husband. All the while I’m sat there with my other Bangkok Bank account for which none of this blox is necessary !!! Only in Amazing Thailand 😝 NB I do feel sorry for the staff as they are just following Head Office directives so when I felt myself getting angry I managed to calm down & turn it into a bit of a joke (which at the end of the day it is).

I read the OP as they've signed a new 1 year lease in which case they need to stay for the year or lose the deposit. Can't really blame the agent or the landlord if you've signed a new contract.

Thanks, after I left the Jomtien Branch we ended up wandering past the Immigration office & I thought to myself that that's exactly what I should have asked as I seem to recall when I got my TIN I got a stamped CoR from Immigration with my photo on. Will take a couple of passport pics & my Condo Lease/TM30 with me tomorrow... Thanks Again

I would use my Bangkok Bank Savings account (Blue Book) which is the account they would transfer the monies from my Bangkok Bank Fixed Deposit account (Orange Book) to. This experience has me thinking that I should beef up my KBank account (maybe open a Fixed Deposit account with them) & run it in parallel with the BBL account this year but in 2027 use that for my extension instead.

Went into Bangkok Bank today to move some money from my Fixed Deposit account (Opened 3.5 years ago) to my normal savings account and in the 1st Branch was told that my FD account was locked & I had to go to my "Home" branch to get it unlocked. As that Branch never seems to want to do anything for anybody, I went to Central Festival but again they said I couldn't do it as my FD account was locked so I had to go to Jomtien where I opened the account. Went to Jomtien, it was rammed but finally got to speak to somebody and they told me that I needed to provide another form of Photo ID & if I couldn't then I couldn't transfer part of the account but could close it & transfer everything to my savings account. Problem is, I don't have any other (valid) Photo ID (My UK Driving license expired in 2013, though I still have it and it's not obvious what the expiry date is so might get away with it), in fairness the lady was very sympathetic & tried explaining this to Head Office, even offering my TIN certificate as another form of ID but no go, it's either get another form of Photo ID (E.g. Thai Driving license) OR leave the account as it is OR close it & transfer everything to my normal savings account. I explained to them that I used the FD account for my Extension (I'm on a Non-IMM O with an Extension until Sept 2026) so don't want to close the account as this might cause me hassles with Immigration and would come back with my lease agreement and any other form of ID I could find. So my question is, if they do force me to close the account is there anything I should get from Bangkok Bank (E.g. statements/balance letter etc...) that I can use to prove to immigration that I have maintained the 800K/400K required. I realise that I might be worrying about nothing as they may well accept my expired UK Driving license as a 2nd form of Photo ID & I use Maneerat to do my extensions and they only ever want me to get a 3 month statement but that might be because I use the FD account and it's obvious from the Bank Book that I've maintained the neccesary balance. Does anybody use Maneerat to do their extension whilst maintaining the 800K in a Bangkok Bank savings account and if so, do you need get 3 months statements or are you required to get the full 12 months (Jomtien IO). Thanks Sam