Yumthai

OK so you assess TRD is effective enough to enforce tax laws on individuals, is that correct? Personal tax collection figures prove otherwise.

What are you trying to say? TRD = HMRC/IRS or you do agree TRD cannot compare in term of capacities and reach?

Rather nicely put. 45 years ago HMRC presented me with an estimated tax bill of a reasonably large number of thousands of pounds. Reading the notice closely I found that unless I filed a dispute within a few weeks the estimate would become my tax bill with no appeal possible. I filed a tax return with zero tax owed, sorted. It is unlikely that the TRD acts much differently. It is always the taxpayers duty to prove that the tax they pay, or don’t pay, is accurate and can be supported by proof. Tax authorities are quite reasonable if you show that you are following or trying to follow the regulations and will often overlook small differences or missing receipts or documents . They are Jekyll and Hyde if they feel you are trying to pull a fast one. You just forgot one lil detail: TRD is not HMRC or IRS. I suggest you walk in any main Revenue Department office in Bangkok, maybe you'll figure out what actually they are capable of.

Indeed corruption is the inner problem, lax and inconsistent Law enforcement is just the direct consequence of it. So, for all people hoping worrying believing Thailand will be able to successfully enforce their tax rules soon (as in the West), the only way they can achieve it is to drastically mitigate their tea money standards and law-bypassing services. Good luck with this one.

Maybe, maybe not. Thailand has still a looooong way to go in term of Law enforcement.

I'm not saying I'm in this situation but I know many people mainly old chaps living from cash they bring in Thailand. They've never been questioned about the source of their money but it's off topic.

If ever questioned, the husband's got cash savings at home. He could have brought up to 15K USD undeclared from each trip abroad for years.

Neither one nor the other. I assume TRD can't enforce gifting back cash for daily expenses. If you think they can without pulling CIA/NSA efforts and resources please elaborate.

Unless there's a bank to bank transfer of the gifted amount from wife to husband, this is practically unenforceable. Among other workarounds, wife handing cash to husband for daily expenses is untraceable. Rules that cannot be enforced are not well thought to say the least.

Not everyone's got millions of baht non-assessable income (to buy property) parked in an offshore account waiting to be remitted. The years passing by there will be less and less tax-free savings prior 01/01/2024.

Are you implying that everybody should comply and pay more and more taxes because it's just and fair? You have to be kidding. Au contraire, I think that blindly abiding by unfair rules leads to less individual freedom, privacy and gives more power to the untouchable elite who lives comfortably milking the brainwashed crowd. Number makes history. Mass people have the power to build their own future if they stand all together for what they think it's right, not following a global agenda.

When your wife hands you a couple (or more) of thousands of untraceable cash for your "daily expenses" it will be a gift too.

Of course not, this is my opinion.

Where do you get that idea? P161 & P162 only effect calendar 2024 and returns for that can not be submitted until 2025. i have heard of no significant numbers of people desperately filling 2023 returns https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2799906/tax-refunds-delayed-by-surge-in-fake-submissions. From Bangkok Post: "There were 11.9 million personal income tax forms filed for the income year 2023, submitted between Jan 1 and April 29, 2024, an increase of 3.34% from the same period last year."

OK so their calculation is partly based on forecasting, that says it all.

Aren't they the same ones who rule this country?

I assume this is a Thai fund therefore no tax on capital gains right? Any other Thai funds based on US market that provide dividend/income you can recommend?

Individuals file aggregated total amounts per period of 12 months, how can TRD extract "9 months of one year and three months of a second year"?

From BP: "There were 11.9 million personal income tax forms filed for the income year 2023, submitted between Jan 1 and April 29, 2024, an increase of 3.34% from the same period last year." Increased filing is certainly subsequent of fall 2023 announcements. The article is misleading as it's mixing corporate and personal income tax information. PIT is calculated with data collected during the full calendar year. There is no way to extract a specific period from individual tax returns. Applying a 9/12 coefficient to get a Fiscal Year approximate amount would be imo absurd. Whatever. Tax has increased. Fine. You assume that it could be because of the concrete actions (audits, penalties, ...) taken by TRD during 2023, that you can't factually back up. I assume it's not. I think it's because of the increase of filings (fact) and possibly that people who filed made more money (my guess).

"In Thailand, the government's fiscal year (FY) is 1 October to 30 September of the following year.[63] For individual taxpayers it is the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December." We're discussing tax on individuals. Sept. 2023 and further announcements had impact on worried individuals feeling the urgent need to start declaring or declare more early 2024 (their 2023 income).

I've never said TRD is doing nothing, they are apparently very good in Marketing as their communication - only - is being fruitful.

Some sheep obey because the shepherd just says beware of the wolf, although there is no wolf. The change in regulation that is the purpose of this thread!

The fact that the tax revenue has substantially increased only proves that more people voluntarily declare and thus pay more tax, partly because of alarming (for some) TRD announcements. We have no clue if these announcements where followed by concrete, systemic and successful in-field actions being taken nationwide to audit and collect tax money from residents.

In my view the bigger Thai residents crowd paying on average little tax would, if efficiently collected, generate more tax in total than the smaller foreign residents crowd paying on average a higher amount of tax. It would be indeed easier to enforce tax on foreigners via immigration but it will be highly discriminatory.

In the same way, you're guess-working on effective future tax enforcement. A very small % of Thai residents pays tax, that's factual, and it's certainly a consequence of the lack of TRD enforcement don't you think?