Ricardo

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.

Thanks, on that basis, I definitely won't be taxable for many years to come ! Indeed, I should love to live that long ! Thanks, it was the difference between "remitted income" and "on any income arising", which had been concerning me. The sooner the TRD make this all crystal clear, the sooner I'll be able to relax, and get back to my hobbies.

So has it now been absolutely confirmed (Sorry but I haven't been paying-attention) that a tax-resident (which I undoubtedly am) is now taxable on worldwide-income, interest/dividends/pensions/unrealised-capital-gains, not just on money actually transferred into Thailand during a tax-resident year ? I had thought worldwide-income was still up-in-the-air ? Currently I'm still aiming to reduce my visible-transfers, and hoping to stay below-the-radar, by bringing-in less than B500k so not filing because I don't owe anything. Does that definitely not work now ?

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 !