Ricardo

Dear TDAC/Immigration, I do not have a mobile-phone or smart-phone, how should I try to comply with the new entry-system ? As a twenty-year resident of Thailand, I do have a current re-entry permit, and am used to giving my finger-prints to identify myself & my Immigration-status, will that still be sufficient ? I do also have a computer-printer, it is located at my residence here in Thailand, so I cannot access it (to print a copy of the QR-code) until after I have arrived, and been let back into Thailand. I have looked into completing the new arrival-form, but it does not currently allow me to give my country-of-residence as being in Thailand, how should I complete the entry-form in this case ? Of course I don't want to give an incorrect address/country-of-residence, to you. I will return to Thailand, from my next trip overseas, on 13th May ... and hope that all will become clear, by then.

Thailand is aiming to become a Hub of AI-writing in S.E.Asia, sometime this century. Hubba-Hubba !

They have known (from my residential-address) for twenty-years that I was tax-resident in Thailand, and have long said that they needed to know my Thai T.I.N., so that they could report certain information annually under the enhanced-C.R.S. requirements. I had repeatedly explained to them that, since my funds sent to Thailand to live upon were always prior-year-funds, I had been able to live here for twenty-years but have never been legally-required to make a tax-return here, hence previously no T.I.N. could be obtained. They had found this odd, but had long accepted my word on it ! They also report information to H.M.R.C. in the mainland-UK, since that is where some of my annual-income arises, although I've been assured by HMRC recently that they do not want me to make an annual tax-return there. Perhaps, in recent years, banks have been required to improve their reporting & Know-Your-Client information, as part of some global-drive against money-laundering or tax-evasion ? Which might increase pressure upon them ?

FWIW one more experience, I went to my local tax-office outside Chiang Mai a week ago, and played old (which often helps, here) & stupid but willing, saying (well, it was true !) that my overseas-bank wanted to know my Thai T.I.N., so that they could send year-end information about me to Thailand. They didn't speak much English, I (of course) don't poot much Thai, either. They asked if I was married to a Thai, "Yes". Did I live in my wife's house, "Yes". They then asked did I have the house-papers, "Not with me, and anyway I'm not on them". Did I have a copy of my marriage-certificate, "Not with me, Sorry". At this point she spoke to her senior-officer, made a brief phone-call, took copies of my passport & visa & recent sole-name/offshore bank-statement which has my Thai residential-address. Then punched my details into her computer, made me sign her book of newly-issued TINs, and handed me what I wanted ... a simple certificate (3-inches square) showing my name/address/new T.I.N ! I thanked her profusely, lots of wai-ing, and made my retreat. At no time was I asked-for, or did I offer, to make an annual-return for 2024. Which would anyway have shown, that my local bank-interest & transfers-into-Thailand fell a few-thousand Baht short, of owing them any income-tax, for the year ! Result !

If you made a transfer to your wife or sisters, describe it as a "Gift", there's supposed to be a B10-million allowance for that. So use your own full-allowance, see Anchadian's post above, then make a suitable 'Gift' to one of the sisters ?

In that case, I apologise, I did indeed read it as being mildly critical.

You're assuming the ticket has cost me more. Not sure why it would ? Agree that everyone's situation is different. I was just showing how some of us, with overseas-income & banking, can avoid using transferred-into-Thailand money to pay for overseas-travel (and hotel/living-expenses too, not only flights), and hence have a better standard-of-living within the limit set by the new rules, before having to pay tax & make a return. The latter being hassle I'd always like to avoid, if possible. I also disagree with your slightly-pejorative wording "dodging some tax" ! I don't necessarily evade tax, which might well be technically illegal, but I do avoid tax-liabilities (and not just in Thailand) where possible, by arranging my affairs so as to not incur a liability. I've been fairly successful at that, since I retired to Thailand, over two-decades ago. It is my right to do so, and I intend to continue.

It's always good to chat with a fellow professional-accountant, like yourself. Let's turn your question around, instead. The TRD wants to tax expats on transfers into Thailand, agreed ? Please explain, with sources, how a transaction in a foreign-currency taking place outside Thailand, and which is paid-for with a credit-card from a non-Thai bank, creates a potentially-taxable (or reportable) transfer into Thailand ?

Just to add another thought, one might perhaps 'Gift' funds from overseas, to an adult (defined as over-18 ?) child living here, for them to fund their Thai-university costs without it being viewed (for tax purposes) as your own spending ?

Currently flying frequently, using China-Eastern, haven't flown Thai for several years. But even so, if I bought a ticket on them in Sterling, via an overseas-OTA and using an overseas-bank credit-card, then I definitely haven't transferred any money into Thailand which might be assessable, have I ? The airline itself would probably only use the funds overseas, paying landing-charges or fuel-bills or catering-costs overseas, but it certainly couldn't be viewed (or reported by MasterCard to the TRD) as me transferring funds into Thailand. What TG uses their income for is their problem, not ours. No, I obviously didn't make myself very clear, in my post responding to KannikaP , Sorry about that ! I generally agree with what he said, about people being able to live simpler-lives here, within the avoiding-tax limits (mine's B500k p.a.). But some things he listed like foreign-travel or overseas-school/uni-fees for our kids, well those can potentially be funded/paid-for without the money ever coming near Thailand, so you can avoid risking their becoming assessable. OK that doesn't apply to everybody, but it is possible for some people to spend money on overseas-activities, without the money being generated here or brought into Thailand. You can sometimes have a better standard-of-living, than the level he had suggested, without it increasing your transfers into-Thailand. In my own case, I certainly do.

Just to point out that foreign-trips, financed via offshore-income & paid-for using foreign credit-cards, don't really count since the funds are never transferred into Thailand. I also pay for the university-costs of one of my sons, entirely using overseas-generated funds, which never come near Thailand. So aren't assessable, either.

Perhaps the USA, as the World's biggest oil-producer, should join OPEC if he wants to have more influence ?

I have a feeling of deja-vue, coming on once again. "Everyone will have a laptop like mine", she said as she held up a B35k piece of hardware, instead some students got a B3k Chinese knock-off which rapidly became disfunctional ... the old scams are the goodies, eh ?

I well recall PM-Samak's cooking-shows, and friendly chats to the nation, he was a Thaksin-lite temporary-substitute back when Thaksin was on a long investment-tour of Africa & the Middle-East.

I'm not a pixel, I'm a leprechaun or boggart, myself !

Every tourist who comes in for a week's visit, surely the hotel reports your presence on your first-night, yet they're not tax-resident at all ... so TM30 would be pretty-useless for looking for possible tax-residents ? Even filing a TM47 would just mean a visitor was staying more-than 90-days or-so in-one-go, but perhaps still not visiting long-enough to become tax-resident here, so either would mean that the TRD would be searching for us farang-needles in a very-large haystack of data ? I'm hoping for Santa's present to me to be, that the TRD announce this whole thing will just go-away ! Merry Christmas, everyone !

Regarding ongoing running-costs, don't forget that the sick-buffaloes will require land to be purchased to live on, and regular visits from the (expensive, farang-price) vet ? Also check that your Tirak doesn't have a brother or male-cousin hanging around, of a similar age to her, that will likely be her Thai-husband, who may not like having a farang competitor.

Useful pdf-file, and pretty clear, as far as it goes, Thank-You for posting it. But it still doesn't say whether the TRD will still want a form filing, when one doesn't actually owe them any tax, as I calculate that I myself do not, after allowances & zero-tax band are applied. I'd also read it to say, they do not expect to tax income earned overseas, which isn't transferred into Thailand ... FWIW.

I politely disagree, I think that statement of yours above is over-simplified, I currently believe those old-age pensions might still only be liable to Thai tax if/when they were being remitted or paid-out in Thailand. Although they may, or may not, be taxable elsewhere. Which is a whole other discussion. It is a complicated situation, and there is still only limited-information available, from official Thai-sources ... we just have to wait & see, how it is actually implemented January-March next year, for the Thai tax-year 2024. Knowing Thailand, it may well be dropped or not-enforced, without being officially withdrawn.

That seems entirely sensible to me ! Happily in late-2023, I changed the basis of my retirement-extensions from monthly-transfers to B800k on-deposit in-the-bank, so my registered-transfers from my overseas-bank to my Thai-bank this year are very-much reduced, to below the B0.5-million or so which are covered by my allowances & zero-rate tax-band. And I keep a running-note of those transfers, just in-case they ever ask to see them, although they are already aware of them from my Thai-bank's reporting. Agreed ... also our electricity/phone-bills are paid out of a dedicated BKK-Bank account, which is solely in her name. I occasionally make a Gift-to-Wife transfer from overseas, into that account. What a kind fellow ! And the chances of dear-wifie ever making a transfer into my local bank-account, well pigs might fly !

Of course they might just be partly-motivated, by the fees they can generate from the current confusion & worry, a cynic might say ! We must just wait & see how things pan out. And meanwhile try to take a cautious posture.

Thanks for posting that link, I'm reading it but still don't believe it, as it goes completely against what I've always believed to be true ! Yet it is clearly a UK-government source ! 🤔 I wonder whether they really mean Old-Age-Allowance (aka State Pension) is not even assessable, or whether it's just non-taxable itself, because they don't want to bother to try to collect the tax due on it, due to the paperwork involved for the DWP, who actually make the payments ? Hence they charge the tax on any other sources of UK-arising income, such as annuities or private-pensions, which take total income-arising past the £12,570 Personal-Allowance, and which method is administratively-easier for HMRC/DWP ? I'd also view the word "usually" with some suspicion, I wonder what the exceptions are, that they don't spell out ?

One wonders whether & how the (long anticipated) new problems of the current (or rather, previous, as it now appears) PM, might impact the income-tax change-of-policy, or not ? Obviously it's not the government's main concern just now, but one can always hope that the new rules might fall-through-the-cracks, before they actually take effect and technically require some of us to possibly make tax-returns early next year ?

The UK Old-Age-Allowance is definitely taxable, but HMRC prefer to collect from one of your private-pensions, telling the administrators to use a revised tax-code to collect it, rather than saddling their colleagues at the DWP with the extra administration. Which their admin-systems may not be set up to do. Given that they can take 3-4 months to pay-up, on a legal-uplift due-to-temporary-visit, and that there's no simple online-form to claim that uplift (you have to phone-in or write) , my view is that their systems are not very good. So you're absolutely correct in what you say above. As frozen personal-allowances continue, and some other sources of UK-arising income increase, more retired-people are finding that they now owe UK Income-Tax again ... but whether the relatively-small sums collected are worth the extra revenue raised, is a moot point.

I read it as you remitting money from overseas, direct to your spouse/family-members' Thai bank-account, so not remitting it in-your-own-name to your own account first ? Or else, as you say, it risks being taxable here.