Ricardo

One suspects a last-minute rush of resident-expats, getting their dosh into the country, before the deadline !

Note to self ... buy shares in biscuit-manufacturers, on the first working-day after Christmas ! But I must admit, I followed a similar strategy when having a problem at Immigration, a couple-of-years ago. Merry Christmas to all expats ! And to keep smiling !

Great, a spot-the-missing-elephant competition, much better than those too-easy spot-the-football ones !

They'll track it via the trail of elephant-poo, if by no other means ! Better invest in a strong dustpan & brush ? But probably good for your rose-garden !

How it usually works, when the bank update my own savings-account passbooks, they show entries for interest-earned and tax-deducted, on the trivial sums involved. I've never bothered to get a TIN, or file a self-assessment return, to reclaim the tax ... life's too short already. As you say, I don't yet see that principle being extended to automatically deduct 15% from all remittances received by individual expat tax-residents, in the current proposals ... but who knows what the future holds, with a mildly-socialist impoverished-government anxious to fund its promised-agenda ? Confuscious might have said, if contributing to this thread, "May you live in interesting, but less-taxing, times !" ps Apologies Mike, I was typing as you posted, you're correct IMO

Isn't the 15% witholding-tax only levied on interest earned/paid by the bank ? I hadn't heard, but am open to correction, that it would also apply to transfers-in.

I didn't need to do that, last time I needed a certificate-of-residency, to apply for a 5-year Thai driving-license, FWIW. Just a slow (IIRC 30-days wait) process at Immigration, which could be turned into next-day service, for a modest (B500 ?) administrative-fee.

Erm, wouldn't the savings-account possibly generate interest on money-X, said interest arising after 1.1.2024, which would perhaps therefore be taxable here when transferred ? Maybe see if you can get the saving-account to pass the interest to another (undeclared) account, to be safe ?

Spot-on ! I would guess that many people like myself, previously using monthly-transfers for retirement/married-extensions, will have been rushing to change to B800k/B400k on-deposit, recently ... if they can fund it.

You're tax-resident here, as many of us have been for years, but I don't think that necessarily means that you have to get a TIN or make a self-assessment return. Why trouble the RD, if you don't actually owe them anything, until they say that they do now require that paper-shuffling process ? I certainly haven't registered or filed previously, since I have always arranged my affairs so as to have no assessable-income, using the long-standing prior-year earnings route. This has never been a problem. Like you, I am now changing how I fund myself (plus family) for tax-year 2024, so that I will continue to not owe any tax here, until things become clearer (hopefully by mid-2025). This seems only sensible, to me. If it should become clear to me, that registration and a Nil-return are required in future, then I shall still have remained entirely legal. And I shall rearrange my affairs further, if it becomes necessary, as we learn more about what's expected of us.

Your tax-residency is determined by your having been in the country for more than 179 days, so I doubt that will work ? On the other hand, having transferred-in little/no money during 2024, there ought to be nothing to declare or be assessed tax on, as we currently understand the new situation ? So you can afford to await developments & clarification. And if you're a US-citizen, as your post suggests, then your DTA should shield you from part of the effects ?

The reason the TAT can't see the elephant in the room, is that the smog is so very thick, reducing visibility !

Look again, the article clearly says A320, Thai Airways don't even have any A220s, which is a single-aisle plane with 2+3 economy-seating in normal-configuration. The photo is clearly a wide-bodied plane, so not an A320 or an A320, it has to be photoshopped, for comparison purposes.

My son just spent an uncomfortable 4-days getting through Covid, he's on a short visit for a family get-together down South, whether he got it there or on the flight down isn't known, but it may well be going-the-rounds here again ? My wife & I first had it end-January 2020, among the first to get it, after it reached Chiang Mai on the daily charter-flights of tourists, direct from the source Wuhan. It was a week-long nasty winter-cold (we thought). Best avoided if you can ! I'll definitely be masking-up for my Christmas-flights back to London, en-route to care for my 93-year-old mother, who has every right to live her full-life despite what some anonymous ignorant plonker on AN might say ! They too will reach that age someday, if they're lucky !

Would the new PM care to also declare, that the widespread concern amongst foreign-residents about changes to the long-standing arrangements for taxing us, is also a "fake-news" story ? I doubt it, as it's currently still just an ill-considered proposal & internal-instruction within the Revenue Department, so only "semi-fake news". But it IS nevertheless causing very-great concern, and bad-publicity for the country ! Perhaps he might wish to clarify, that in-fact Thailand still welcomes tourists & longer-staying foreign-residents, and appreciates the contribution we all make when creating jobs & supporting our families & paying VAT/excise-duty/airport-departure-tax/land-taxes/immigration-fees, and states clearly that the proposal was all just a bad-dream (or misinterpretation or mistake by a junior official), and that we can all stop worrying about it ?