maphraw

The Siam Commercial Bank that I use told me that the cash advance option with a foreign credit or debit card is more expensive than using it with their ATM machines, despite the 180 Baht fees. I didn't ask how much more expensive but they assured me it is. This is what they told me at the bank. Next time I go the the bank I am going tod find out what the exact charges are.

I will be completing my contract with a Thai company end of July. I am wondering what I might have to do to stay in the Kingdom. Would I have to leave Thailand and get a Non O in Laos for example. Would I need evidence that my work permit has been returned to the Labour Department. Would I need evidence that I have paid my taxes. If I want to apply for a marriage visa ( I have a Thai wife and the marriage is registered) would I have to leave the country? And if I want to apply for a retirement visa would I have to leave the country? Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

I went back and looked at my 2013 return. An accountant did my retunr last year. He completed a Form 8621 for our Thai mutual fund. I remember him telling me that the IRS has an unusual way of calculating foreign mutual funds. He said they look at the amount you have in the fund in the very beginning of the tax year and then compare it with the amount you have in the fund at the end of the tax year. That is what he put into the Form 8621. Those two figures and the difference. So that is what I did. Exactly what he did. The fund paid subsatntial dividends so I, probabaly erroniously, included them on schedule B where I put interest and dividends from my American mutual funds. I did this to be on the safe side. I googled 'Form 8621' and an awful lot of people have no idea how to complete the form or get the kind of information form the mutual funds that is required to complete it correctly.

Anyway, I ended up not owing any taxes.

I received a W-9 form from the Thai mutual fund that I have in a joint account with my Thai wife. We have more than $10000 in the fund. I signed it and then returned it to them. I called the mutual fund company and asked them what information they provided to the IRS or Treasury Dept.--dividends, capital gains etc. They said they don't provide the information to the US government. They send it to the Bank of Thailand which in turn sends it to the US. She then said they have yet to send any of the information about our mutual fund to the Bank of Thailand. I also have four bank accounts in Thailand and none of them has given me a W-9 form to fill out.

I have just finished doing my tax return for the IRS and I was meant to complete a form 8621 for foreign mutual funds. If you could figure out how to correctly complete this form I will give you $500.Turbo Tax would not complete the Form 8621 for my mutual fund.They told me I would have to print it and fill it out myself. I also have four bank accounts in Thailand and none of them has given me a W-9 form to fill out.

I have completed the FBAR thing and sent it into the Treasury Dept. as required and I have included all of my interest from my Thai bank accounts and some information about my mutual fund on my 2014 IRS tax return.

Turbo Tax will not let you download Form 8621. This, apparently, is the form one needs to fill out and include if one has a mutual fund from a foreign country. I have a Thai mutual fund a that has paid dividends and I have been told that it should be included on Form 8621. Turbo tax informed me that if I want to include that form I have to download it myself from the IRS and fill it out myself. I would then have to print my Turbo Tax return and mail it along with Form 8621.

But I am paying Turbo Tax to do my taxes so I was surprised they couldn't get their act together to do my entire return. They also would not accept my American Visa debit card because it has a foreign address. I then contacted my American bank and they said they could not change my Thai address to my American address because I am living in Thailand. Last year T. Rowe Price sent me an urgent letter informing me that I had to change my Thai address to an American address or else they would liquidate all of my accounts and transfer them to my American bank. Turbo Tax also informed me that since I am filing a joint account and my foreign assets are less than something like $250,000 I don't really have to claim anything. It seems like a bit of a contradiction. My accountant included my Thai mutual fund on a form 8621 last year. Is any one using this form I wonder. I like using Turbo Tax because they import my tax data from the American mutual fund companies I have investments in. Any comments?

"while others shouted inappropriate comments towards her." How dare they shout such comments. Why the picture of an American passport I wonder.

I just bought a new Samsung smart phone at the AIS centre in Central Festival. I am using my old phone number from my ancient 2G phone. They put in a temporary Sim, gave me another new Sim that I have to insert into the phone after about three days. They said they would notify me by SMS when to put the new Sim into the phone. When I left, I stopped at a 7/11 and bought a 100 Baht 1/2 phone slip to top up my account. I called my wife and chatted for a few minutes. In about 2 hours I got a message from AIS telling me that they will give me an emergency 20 Baht to use until I put more money into the phone. The next day I bought a new 1/2 card, topped up the phone called my wife, talked to her for about five minutes. At the end of the day I got another message from AIS saying that i had used up my 1/2 account but they would give me another 20 Baht worth of call time until I topped up my account. Knowing something must be wrong I waited for my wife to call me. In the meantime I bought another 100 Baht 1/2 call card, inserted the number and now had another 80 Baht worth of calls. I called my wife, talked for about three minutes and the next morning I got a message from AIS saying that I needed to top up my account but they would again provide 20 baht worth of time until I topped up my account again. Does anyone know what is going on? Three hundred baht for three phone calls that did not exceed 12 minutes of telephone conversation. I sent no SMS messages either. Since it is a brand new smart phone I thought I must have inadvertently been pressing things that were triggering unwanted calls or messages. Of course, there was no user manual that came with the phone. Can anyone suggest why this new marvel of technology is gobbling up my 1/2 phone cards?

The Siam Commercial Bank that I use said that I could use my debit card and passport to get some cash but the fee would be more than the fees that are charged when using their ATM. I didn't asked how much the fee is.

I got it. I went to a downloaded PDF document, right clicked and then made adobe the default pdf reader. I was then able to download the FBAR. Amazing. As usual. it was right under my nose.

I wonder what all of the troll posts were about. I must have annoyed the hell out of some of the posters with my computer ignorance.

Once again JimGant, thanks for your comments--suggestions!

.Thanks very much for your reply. I went back http://bsaefiling.fi...gFBARFiler.html

click on: How to file the FBAR Electronically and followed their directions. The adobe version is enabled. I then tried to download the FBAR again but the same warning appeared.

Please wait... If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document. You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows®, Mac, or Linux® by visitinghttp://www.adobe.com...reader_download. For more assistance with Adobe Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/go/acrreader. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries."

I am not quite sure what you meant when you said 'tweak your browser to default to Adobe Reader for pdf files?' I just don't know how to do this despite playing around with my computer and the default options etc. I remember downloading the FBAR at work last year. It took me and the computer guy(who is very good) at work a couple of hours to download it. But we now have new management and new computers and I have to get permission to download the Adobe reader from our admin people which I am going to try and do today.

I can't understand why this is so difficult but I am clearly pretty hopeless with anything other than very basic computer skills.

Once again,thanks for your advice and your time. It's always helpful.

I mistakenly said that my accountant completed a Form 8938 for my Thai interest and dividends last year. He did not, He just included them on the schedule B Form 1040. This clears up much of my confusion. There is no need to be concerned with Form 8938,unless I suddenly come into huge amounts of money here.

Still working on trying to download the FBAR document. Unsuccessfully of course. I just got the Adobe reader 11.0.10 version but the FBAR documnet still doesn't download.I'll have to try the computer at work.

I have been trying to download the baseline FBAR thing and I just downloaded an Adobe reader (version 11.0.10) but when I went to download the FBAR all I get is the following;

"Please wait... If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document. You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows®, Mac, or Linux® by visiting http://www.adobe.com/go/reader_download. For more assistance with Adobe Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/go/acrreader. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries."

This happened last year and I had to call the computer guy at work and we finally got it downloaded but it took about an hour. We now have new management and new computers.So I tried to download it on my home computer and I got the same message. I wonder what I am doing wrong. It is very frustrating.

I have no idea what a PDF viewer is and if it cannot display the FBAR document what am I supposed to do. How do I get the appropriate PDF viewer.

If you are married and you and your spouse file a joint income tax return, you satisfy the reporting threshold only if the total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $400,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $600,000 at any time during the tax year.

I googled Form 8398 IRS and got the above information. I was led to believe that I had to report all foreign bank account interest and brokerage interest and dividends no matter what the amount. But according to the IRS, I don't have to bother since I am way under the reporting threshold of $400,000. Maybe I am missing something. Last year I had an accountant in Bangkok do my US taxes, at considerable expense, and he included all of my interest from my Thai banks and mutual fund stuff but it appears, based on the above information, that it was unnecessary. Any comments?

Yes. I pay Thai income taxes every year but will retire this year. I will continue to live in Thailand full time.

Can you get all of the forms (2555, 8938) that an epat needs to file from TaxACT? I have been using TurboTax but some issue always seems to surface that is not clearly explained by them. PC News evaluated the major online tax preparation services and they gave TaxACT the best review based on cost, reliability, ease of use, tax payer guidance.

www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2475881,00.asp

Sorry but I don't think you read my post correctly or I didn't state clearly that I live and work and file my US taxes here. For the past 17 years to be exact. I record my earned income on a Form 2555 and pass the physical presence thing. During these past seventeen years, I have never been out of Thailand for more then ten days in any given year. It would seem that this is my 'Tax Home".

I would think that Thailand qualifies as my "tax home". I have been living here for more than 17 years, have a Thai wife, file a 2555 every year and pass the physical presence test. I haven't been back to the States since 2004 when I went back for a week for a funeral. I want to be sure everything I do with the IRS places me beyond scrutiny since I have only been doing the FBAR for a few years and have only just begun to report my Thai interest from bank accounts and dividends from a Thai mutual fund. The mutual fund informed me that they will be providing Uncle Sam with information about my mutual fund and they sent me a Form W-8 (I think that is what it was called) to sign.

Maybe I am being a little paranoid since I am such a little fish among so many hugely wealthy expats.

Thanks for your info everyone. It's really helpful.

Thanks for your clarification.Although the contradictory advise is a bit confusing. I am not being sarcastic. Perhaps the best thing to do is to file the 8938 regardless. Just to be on the safe side. I have been living and working in Thailand for many years and I file every year and always pass the physical presence tests and have never owed taxes.I have filed with the IRS ever year since I was 18. But last year year is the first year I did a FBAR and I had a local American accountant do my taxes and he put my Thai assets on a Form 8938. I had never filed my Thai assets before and I had never filed a FBAR because I didn't know about it. My Thai wife has a tax number from the IRS and we always file a joint account. She doesn't work. My Thai assets have grown over the years and now exceed $50,000. TurbTax concluded that I owe no Federal taxes (I also have a substantial amount of savings in the US which I declare) but they said I had to FBAR. They did not mention anything about my Thai assets. They didn't ask me anything about my monthly US social security benefits either(I get a meager monthly payment but declared it last year--since I have worked overseas much of my adult life I never put much into it so my benefits are marginal).

In any case, I probably don't have a enough money for the IRS to be very concerned, especially since I am sure I owe no taxes but I do want to meet all of the IRS requirements so as to avoid any complications. On another note, I am amazed at the large number of US expats who do not file with the IRS despite

having considerable amounts of money offshore and in the US. Most don't know what a FBAR is.

Any comments?

From the IRS:

"Taxpayers living abroad. You must file a Form 8938 if you must file an income tax return and:

• You are married filing a joint income tax return and the total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $400,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $600,000 at any time during the year. These thresholds apply even if only one spouse resides abroad. Married individuals who file a joint income tax return for the tax year will file a single Form 8938 that reports all of the specified foreign financial assets in which either spouse has an interest.
  
• You are not a married person filing a joint income tax return and the total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $200,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $300,000 at any time during the year."
  

From TurboTax:

Turbotax question : "Was the total value of your sets of your specified foreign assets more than $600,000 at anytime during the year?

My answer is"no".

TurboTax answer: "Based on what you told us, it turns out you don't need to report your foreign financial assets".

My question is "Do I still have to file a Form 8938 if I have about $60,000 in Thai banks?". (I know all about FBAR)

Based on some the of the posts above, existing Thai bank accounts that were opened before FBAR requirements will not be reporting your financial information to the US government. So I guess I could keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in my Thai bank accounts that existed before the FBAR requirements and it would go undetected by the IRS. I have a Siam Commercial Bank account that I opened 14 years ago and I use it quite a bit. They have never asked me for my SSN or any other information. But I recently opened another Siam Commercial bank account and they actually interviewed me and asked numerous questions about my work here, family members etc. I don't remember if they asked me for my social security number or not. A Thai mutual fund that I have had for the last 12 years sent me a W-8 form ( I think it was a W-8 form) for the IRS and said it must be completed by me and then they would send it to the IRS along with all of my financial information regarding the fund to the IRS. I have 2 other Thai bank accounts that I have had for more than 15 years and they have yet to ask me for my social security number.

In my wife's village, where there are quite a few expats living, I was told that when an expat dies the wife takes the death certificate and marriage certificate to the bank and the bank then transfers everything to her name or account.Even without a will. Especially if one is well known or often seen in the bank. I don't recommend relying on this kind of procedure. I sent an email to Siam Commercial Bank asking if I needed a will for a joint bank account. They replied saying that, in the event if my death, my wife could keep using the account until there was no longer any money in it. But once the account was empty, she would have to open a new account. As for our mutual fund with Krungsri Asset Management, they said I would definitely need a will to transfer funds to a single account. I sent an email to Krungsri Bank asking if we would need a will for our joint accounts and they said yes.Our local bank manager then called us and asked us to come to the bank and discuss the procedure used to transfer funds in the event of one of our deaths. I talked to a lawyer in my wife's village, one recommended by a number of expats, and he said it is best to have a will but if the bank accounts are joint accounts, my wife or I would not have much difficulty in getting the account changed to a single account either of our names.,even without a will. He seemed to say that, especially because we have no children, a death certificate and marriage certificate would do the job. He was very generous with his time explaining the procedures that we would have to go through in the event that one of us dies. It did not try to convince us or pressure us to use his services. But, just to be on the safe side, we are going to have him do our will. He said he would keep a copy in his office and since he lives near by we could consult him if either of us ran into a problem. I don't think I need to have an English translation since I can read Thai. 2000 Baht for everything which sounds reasonable. One law firm I contacted in Pattaya wanted 15,000 Baht. One in Korat wanted 4,500 Baht.

Any comments?

Could anyone recommend a reliable and not too expensive lawyer who could assist my Thai wife and I to make out our will for our Thai assets only. Not much --- a few bank accounts and a mutual fund. Thanks.

I got it. It is 50/50 ownership. So if I die, the wife needs a will to claim my 50%. Silly me.

I can't understand why I, or my Thai wife, would need a will for joint bank accounts. My Thai wife has complete access to our joint accounts as do I. We don't need each other's permission to withdraw money from the accounts. It stands to reason that if one of us dies the other has a right to continue to have complete access to the funds in the joint account. Same with our Thai mutual funds. They are joint accounts. I guess the only way to get clarification on this is to ask a competent bank official or manager.

Only my wife and me, no kids, The car is in my name but it's old. My assets in the states are made out to her with instructions on what she has to do for the investment company to forward them into her bankk account in Thailand. Of course she has complete access to our accounts. She is my wife. It's our money.