oldcpu

31 minutes ago, xxeo said:

My second visit today at Jomtien Tax Office.

Bank statement is needed.

Health insurance is deductible.

I assume your health insurance is from a local Thailand branch of a health insurance company?  is that correct?

31 minutes ago, xxeo said:

Many forms, many signatures.

The Kingdom charged me a tax of 1,431 Baht.

I immediately accepted and paid.

Case closed, see you next year.

Is your income local (earned in Thailand income) or a pension from another country?  May I ask which country?  and is your pension a government pension (ie that of a civil servant or ex-military) or is a state pension (one that every citizen gets if they contribute to their county's pension system)?

57 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

You still think it's going to play out that way.

 

Maybe it will, maybe it won't. 

 

Assessable income, non assessable income, pre 2024 savings, DTA's, blah blah blah. 

 

In my opinion, foreigners will be made to pay "something."

Well, the Thai RD, when contacted, disagree with you.  OK.  They disagree with you

So you think you know better than the Thai RD and Thai tax law, ehh   ? 

I don't think so.

57 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

  Does it matter why?  Are you going to take on the TRD / Thai government in Court, and risk your happy life in Thailand, no.

There is no need to go court when one is 100% compliant with Thai tax law, according to the Thai RD.  

Ohh ... you mean go to court for the KhunHeineken countershuffle?  Ha !  Now that is funny.

Ohhh ... apologies ...  I forgot ... you think you know better than the Thai RD.

6 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

If you are under the tax free threshold, then fine. 

 

I don't know many expats that could live here comfortably on that amount, but good luck to you.  

The tax free threshold uses assessable income to determine the threshold. Those expats whose income is exempt Thai tax due to a DTA don't need to include such in threshold calculation and hence don't need a TIN ( if no other income puts them over the threshold) nor do they need to file a Thai tax return. 

Unlike you, I do know a number in that category. 

If you don't know many,  perhaps you need to get out more.

It is important expats understand the DTA  of their income source country has with Thailand to assess if their income is excluded from Thai tax, or taxable in both the source country and Thailand,  or if such income only taxable in Thailand.

26 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

 Of course, BOI has a vested interest in making THEIR product as appealing to buy as possible.

 

In the end, it's not what the BOI says, or what Siam Legal says, but what kind of tax regime the TRD puts forward and tries to enforce that will matter.

Absolutely and Thai RD confirmed. NO TAX on remitted foreign income for LTR visa holders.  NO CAVEATS in that confirmation by the Thai RD. (Edit - I refer specifically to LTR-WP, LTR-WGC, and LTR-WFTP visa holders)

That information has been posted a number of times already on this forum in different threads.

42 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Another niggly detail I've been coming across is the whole area of tax exemption for LTR visa holders. I've seen it described here and elsewhere as a blanket exemption for bringing in foreign source income.

 

But now, both Siam Legal and another tax advisory firm have both been limiting that, advising that the tax exemption for LTR holders ONLY applies to remittance of foreign income earned from the PRIOR year... and not the current year, like if someone was transferring their salary every month as it was earned.

 

Example, per Siam Legal:

 

 

https://youtu.be/syQXa8gcVfE?t=1915

 

Meaning, the TRD seems to be interpretting the LTR exemption in the same, prior year way that they used to treat all foreign remittances, that they were tax-free as long as they were earned in the prior year (and not the current year).

 

 

And a phone call to the Thai Revenue Department will remove that incorrect interpretation.  One of our forum members checked with the RD tax department. No tax on remitted forum income for LTR visa holders.  The Royal Decree is worded that way because when filing annual Thai tax returns one is always referring to the previous tax year.

However those tax advisory companies don't want to go the extra check to confirm their error (by contacting the Thai RD).  Why?  Because clarifying is not in their financial interest as they may lose a potential frightened LTR visa holder as a client, where the LTR visa holder (and the Tax Advisory companies) did not bother to check with the Thai RD help line (or read the Forum user's post who noted what the THAI REVENUE department confirmed)

(Edit - I refer specifically to LTR-WP, LTR-WGC, and LTR-WFTP visa holders)

Some seem to take a joy out of posting misinformation - without taking the time to check themselves.

.

33 minutes ago, NoDisplayName said:

 

Nice choice!

Read his video summary:

 

Are you a foreigner living in Thailand for more than 180 days a year? Then listen up - Thailand considers you a tax resident, and that means you're required to report your worldwide income if it's brought into the country during the same tax year.

 

He claims:

If you are tax resident, regardless of income, you must obtain a TIN.

If you remit ANY 2024 income, exempt or not, regardless of amount, you must file a return and declare it.

 

 

And if you paid attention in the video, the word assessable income was later noted.

45 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

 

 

It's been posted before.  He's the Senior Legal Officer in the TRD.

 

What more do you need?  Do you want Thaksin himself to tell you, face to face?   

Not much stated in that video for the aspects most of us are discussing.  The hard questions were not asked/emphasized.

Why you even posted that, given what it lacks to clarify, is a puzzle to me.

17 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Oh great! So a foreigner remits 5 million baht to save his life in a Thai hospital and then needs to pay a very high tax rate if he does survive. Yes, lots of people either don't have insurance and/or can't get covered because of preexisting conditions. I think this might become a growing GOOD reason to leave Thailand because of taxation. This has occurred to me before but haven't heard anyone mention it yet. Expats without insurance for good or bad reasons, this is really something to think about. 

In regards to the quality of hospitals in different South East Asian countries. Singapore and Thailand have the best hospitals.

After that, in order of decreasing quality are Malaysia, Philippines,  and Vietnam. So if leaving Thailand,  but staying in South East Asia,  that may be a consideration.

1 minute ago, KhunHeineken said:

I posted the video because he read the Thai Law. 

He read only part of the law. He cherry picked a small part.  Then he then deliberately ???? ignored other salient parts of the Thai tax code.

Why?  Why?  Why ignore such?

Why would that youtube blogger NOT quote other salient parts of the Thai tax code that others on this forum have pointed out?

Inquiring minds want to know.

1 minute ago, KhunHeineken said:

I don't know the guy.  I don't engage the services of his business.  I couldn't care less about comments being turned off or on. 

 

He read the Thai Law and it seemed clear to me Thailand tax residents must have a TIN. 

So you believe him over (1) local Thai RD officials from different provinces (where the RD HQ in Bangkok has delegated the assignment of Thai TIN to the local provincial RD officers , and you believe him over (2) Thai experts from the Thai RD help line, who made the time and effort to double check the questions asked, before answering.

Just another youtube blogger trying to drum up business.

1 minute ago, KhunHeineken said:

I think you will find most living here remit more than the threshold.  I know I do. 

That may be.  I don't know. 

But what I do believe, is most living here should be given good advice, and not inaccurate advice pushing them to file a tax return if it is not needed.

Again , it needs to be assessable income over the threshold.

1 minute ago, KhunHeineken said:

Good Luck to all in dealing with this tax policy. 

We are 100% in agreement there.

.

Just now, KhunHeineken said:

The 800k baht law has been in since to 2008.  That's over 10 years, so, yes, we now talk in "decades" but we can say 17 years, if it makes you feel better. 

 Decades eh  ... pure exaggeration on your part. ...  Plural , no less. 

1 hour ago, KhunHeineken said:

You don't see any truth in it, and the possibility the amounts will change in the future?

 

It's been 800k / 65k for decades.  It can't stay at those levels forever. 

Really ?  Decades?

Are you certain on that?

EDIT: I  vaguely recall it was much lower in the 1990s, and only changed some time after year 2000.

On 2/1/2025 at 9:59 PM, stat said:

The Thai RD Help line will be utter useless in our special situation like the german helpline is useless for me here in Germany with any out of the ordinary circumstances.

I am not convinced that the case for the Thai RD help line.  Just the opposite.

Definitely NOT useless. Very very very far from it.

As I already noted, I give that help line far more credence than I do a local RD tax office, and more credence than the youtube bloggers/professional tax advisors who have not asked that specific question of the RD.  Instead the blogger/tax advisors give their own interpretations, and I have already pointed out cases where the tax advisor/bloggers (on their website) clearly were wrong (or best case misleading). 

1 hour ago, KhunHeineken said:

How's this sub-topic relevant to you then?

I used to have a type-O, and when my LTR expires I may go back to one, considering my age.

I also used to trade currencies for a living. 

15 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

That's literally what I said to the word and is included in your quote.

 

My error. I misread your post. 

As noted,  if one remits foreign income from any year, to Thailand, when earned  in a year when one is not a tax resident, and remitted when not a tax resident , then there is no Thai tax on such.

On defining residency for taxation purposes,  Thailand has relatively favorable laws there where one only needs to stay out of the country more than 185 days and one is not considered a Thai tax resident.  For some other western countries  ( Canada comes to my mind) one must do more to be considered a non tax resident. 

13 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

How did your 800k baht extension money go?  Did you get a whopping 1.5% on it? 

I used it to buy super dirt cheap Australian dollars, as I no longer need it being on an LTR visa.  Given drop in Aus$, that was worth more than 10% return while in Thai baht 

On 2/4/2025 at 3:34 PM, KhunHeineken said:

The Australian dollar isn't going so well at the moment, but there's nothing I can do about that.  Still, the earning on my 800k is around 6%, so pays for the agent, and subsidizes the exchange loss.

 

Betting on the baht - risky.    

... and better on the Australian dollar is safer?

Hows that working out for you?

... I leave in a few weeks for Australia - given week Australian dollar, I thought i would go there and spend some of my Thai baht (which did better MUCH than Aus$ the past year).

8 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

I can, you can, we all can. 

 

It's called a prediction.  We can predict things based on the information at hand, at the time. 

 

No one is saying it's a fact, otherwise, there would be link after link backing up the fact. 

 

Nothing wrong with preparing and exploring options for all scenarios, based on predictions.   

 

Thai's and MONEY, I would say it's highly probably. 

 

Please post your case for why you think it will not happen. 

My case is you can not accurately predict it will happen. 

The future is not ours to see.

8 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Yeah, yeah, I know.  There's been no mention of it to date, blah blah blah.  That's why it's called a prediction. 

 

Many members like you posting why it will not happen, but not posting why they have formed such an opinion.

....  (see below) ...

8 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Go on the record. 

 

Post why YOU think none of this tax policy will be linked to annual extensions.  

I just went on the record.  I  believe neither of us can accurately predict the future.

What concerns (?) you have may indeed happen.  It may not happen.

It hasn't happened yet. Not yet today, not yesterday, not a decade ago.  

So ON THE RECORD i make no predictions, but I think those who make such predictions are going out on a limb.

8 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

I will live in Vietnam for 6 months if I have to.  I have already picked the city and the condo block.

Vietnam is a nice country.  I have a former work colleague in Germany, who has a Vietnamese wife.  He is thinking when he retires he and his wife will move to Vietnam from Germany.

1 minute ago, CallumWK said:

 

The realist in me is thinking, similar as with every government department, each office will make up their own rules on the spot.

In case of immigration offices, the local immigration offices do LEGALLY have a lot of leeway to interpret the rules the way they see fit.  I think in the immigration threads, that has been noted time and time again.

As for the local RD taxation offices, i suspect they too have some leeway, although there is so little reported (yet) on this,  I think most of us don't yet have a solid assessment as to how much leeway.