Yumthai

"Flexibility" in Thailand is still a big, often underestimated, pro compared to western pseudo-democracies.

You might be surprised to see that people who hang out there are, for a substantial part, local staycationers.

You're not tricking them if they're tricking you at first. Under OECD CRS reporting rules made for financial institutions, providing a TIN is NOT a mandatory requirement. The individual just needs to give an explanation why he is not able to obtain a TIN from his country of tax residence. Banks/brokers that require such TIN are applying an over-zealous internal policy, interpreting and not strictly respecting CRS regulation.

You don't fail to comply, you provide a random TIN. There is no way financial institutions can check the validity of a foreign TIN.

Any random number would have worked as well. Authorities willing to implement rules that they cannot realistically enforce do not deserve strict compliance.

Many, if not all, real-life reports contradict your bold statement.

Estate Tax considerations????? Indeed. US estate tax is a major concern for non-US persons (unless they don't care about their heirs) investing in US domiciled assets (there are some tax exceptions as interests from US treasuries). https://www.deadsimplesaving.com/blog/us-estate-tax-non-resident/ "The challenge with using US brokers is the US estate tax on non-residents. If you die with more than $60k in ‘US-situs assets’ (i.e. investments considered to be based in the US), your portfolio will get hit by a hefty tax. For anything just over the $60k allowance, you pay 18%, rising to 40% over $1 million." https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Nonresident_alien_taxation "Although the US generally classifies US source interest as fixed, determinable, annual, or periodical (FDAP) income, and taxed at a 30% flat US rate, the wide range of exclusions means that in practice the US does not actually tax the most common types of US source interest that nonresident aliens receive, such as that paid by banks, savings and loan institutions, credit unions, and insurance companies. This means that holding US treasuries can be a tax-efficient way for you to hold some US assets. US source interest that does not fall under an exception may be taxable to the US for a nonresident alien. Examples include interest effectively connected with operating a US trade or business, and broker interest on cash deposits held at US brokers."

I'll go further. If you don't declare income in Thailand, you don't pay tax. Period. We're still waiting reports of individuals being tax audited and fined on their foreign sourced remittances.

Fill the first 10 digits, Revolut will never call TRD to check it's valid anyway.

You forgot to mention "tax enforcement" in the non-happening list. I start thinking that constant contradictory announcements are meant to maintain the non-enforcement status quo. You can't practically enforce any rules that are ever changing.

If that scenario -quite unlikely- happens, I predict it will be a one-shot event to collect funds as most of foreign taxpayers will become non tax residents for the next tax year, remit and spend the least amount of money to mitigate/dismiss their tax liability, or even leave Thailand for good.

His understanding is not of any help. Where in doubt in Thailand, always get information from the horse's mouth i.e. Thai authority.

This is Thai tax law. It applies to Thai financial institutions and corporate entities only. https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/thailand/individual/income-determination You may have to pay tax in a country even not being tax resident there. For instance, US non resident aliens (not tax resident in US) have 30% WHT (lower rate if DTA applies, 15% WHT as Thai tax resident) deducted from US stocks dividend.

PWC: Interest received from bank deposits, loans to finance companies, debentures, and bills issued by a corporate entity is subject to WHT at a flat rate of 15%. Individuals may choose to exclude interest income from other income, in which case they pay the 15% WHT, or they may choose to include such interest income with other income and pay tax according to the PIT rates, in which case the tax withheld at source is credited against the tax liability. 15% is by default applied as a final tax on interest income, which dismiss the obligation to file a tax return and obtain a TIN.

You're underestimating the power of number and the economy waterfalling from the (relative) masses compared to way fewer wealthy spenders. These kind of expats do not complain as either all the Thai administrative burden is taking care of by their company or they use VIP services (that they can afford) not to be bothered.