Puccini

Check Thailand's DTA with your country. Not all DTAs are equal.

In the context of income taxation, there is income, there is assessable income, and there is taxable income. Not all income is necessarily assessable income, and not all assessable income is necessarily taxable income.

I suspect that there has been an error in translation. Machine translators — Google Translate, ChatGPT, Google Bard, etc — have a problem with the translation of Thai numerals.

From the news article liked to in the OP: ...the new rule is in the Revenue Department Order No. P.363/2017 regarding payment of income tax according to Section 47, paragraph two of the Revenue Code, dated September 15, 2023, Isn't there something wrong with the quoted number 363/2017?

The link https://www.rd.go.th/english/38306.html you posted does not lead to the "tax code", ie not to the Revenue Code, but to an undated Advisory Notice of the Revenue Department on a web page with the footnote "Last updated: 19.10.2017". For all we know, this Advisory Note may be covered by Section 2 of the new Revenue Department Order, which reads as follows:

I agree with that. Pay no heed to quotations of obsolete text excerpts from obsolete versions of the Revenue Code. The most updated English translation of the Revenue Code I could find is this version I downloaded from krisdica.go.th with citation of all amendments: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zR9uui8btXvlMNlfbba4r4Y4Uc2hgQWX/view?usp=drive_link Pay no heed to misquotations or faulty translations of the Revenue Department Order 161/2566. The original Thai text is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EM9zzhFWVS8YNPamaMkl1_jKClbYE3Sz/view The English translation I use is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MDPzd98gSCP5qFu8adZvqCW65qWDC8Dj/view?usp=drive_link

This not true. From the Revenue Department Order: This means that if based on the Double Taxation Agreement the foreign-earned income is not assessible in Thailand, the foreigner must not declare it in his tax declaration to the Thai Revenue Department.

There is now new amendment to the Revenue Code coming into effect on January 1, 2024 What comes into effect on 1 January 2024 is the Revenue Department Order 161/2566, which is, as its first paragraph says , "for revenue officers to use as a guideline in inspecting and advising persons residing in Thailand who have assessable income under Section 40 of the Revenue Code in the past tax year due to duties or business performed overseas or due to assets located overseas under Section 43 (2) of the Revenue Code" The Revenue Code is not being amended, but an effort it being made to apply its section 40 more correctly in future.

The quoted text of Section 41 in the version of the Revenue Code to which the above link on the website of the Revenue Department leads appears to be outdated, as it does not reflect the amended text of the second paragraph introduced the by the Act Amending the Revenue Code (No. 8), B.E. 2496 (1953), which reads as follows: Source: http://web.krisdika.go.th/data//document/ext810/810212_0001.pdf

Oops. Forgot to double-check the number in the search results.

There was a section 41 already in the original Revenue Code of 1939 and it has been amended once, by the Act Amending the Revenue Code (No. 8), B.E. 2496 (1953) Link: Revenue Code 1939, as amended

This seems to be it: https://www.rd.go.th/2578.html

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Does this mean, for example, that if an Italian tourist on a four-week vacation in Thailand applies to open a saving account at SCB, the bank will ask for a Thai TIN or is it his Italian TIN they want to see?

It is understandable that some people may think that what we call a Double Taxation Agreement is meant to ensure or allow double taxation. However, "Double Taxation Agreement" is shorthand for what, in the example of the DTA with Australia, is officially called "AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND AND AUSTRALIA FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBLE TAXATION AND THE PREVENTION OF FISCAL EVASION WITH RESPECT TO TAXES ON INCOME"

Ask three tax accountants and you get five different opinions.

Interesting. Are you sure about that?

All money that is not assessable income, ie income that is not assessable in Thailand fot the calculation of income tax. Check the DTA between Thailand and your country for for details about what income is taxable in which country.

I've looked at a few DTAs, because of this topic and others on this subject, Germany, Canada, UK, USA, Italy, and I found them to be very clear. How's it with the DTA of your country?

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It expect the Revenue Department Order 161/2366 to be implemented exactly the way it is written: starting from 1 January 2024, if you are a tax resident in Thailand you must include in your annual Thai tax declaration any part of your foreign-earned income for that year that is assessable income, ie income assessable for the Thai tax calculation. Where a DTA is in place, that DTA says in what country the foreign-earned income is assessable and that's the end of the story. If the DTA says that the income is assessable in your country, you must not include it in your Thai tax declaration, regardless whether you transfer any part or all of it to Thailand at any time.

A lot of countries do that with the Value Added Tax (VAT), in some countries called other names, eg General Sales Tax and similar names.

It is an internal guideline for Revenue Department officials and as such doesn't require publication in the Royal Gazette.

1. Yes 2. No.

1. Not for assessable income earned in countries with which Thailand has a Double Taxation Agreement. For other countries, the existing law remains in place and the new Revenue Department Order merely explains its correct application. 2. No