Ricardo

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 Knowing Thailand, it may well be dropped or not-enforced, without being officially withdrawn.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 !

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 !