Bank Book Updated and Letter, or just the bank book

[Felt 35]

12 hours ago, Pib said:

Bangkok Bank fixed accounts are fully touchable...can withdraw the funds at any time "however" you will lose all or most of the interest if withdrawing before maturity.  I use to use Bangkok Bank "fixed" savings accounts for my annual retirement extension of stay. 

 

Yes, since the account is in your name only, for some one else to withdraw funds from the account in case you can't you must do the POA thing at the bank....I also did that on my fixed accounts with the wife being able to withdraw if I couldn't. 

 

But with savings interest rates dropping way down starting a few years ago and since fixed account savings accounts result in a 15% tax withholding on any interest earned which requires you to file for a tax refund request each year to get that 15% withholding back (which is not hard), I stopped using fixed accounts. 

 

Now I use a Krungsri Mee Tae Dai (MTD) savings account for my Bt800K for retirement extension of stay/emergency money purposes.  MTD pays almost the same as  many fixed accounts (MTd pays 1.3% right now), comes with debit card, has ibanking, funds are accessible at any time, and no 15% tax withholding unless exceeding Bt20,000 interest earned per year.  It's basically a regular savings account that pays approx 3 times the interest rate of a regular savings account.   It's really geared towards folks who don't need/want to access the funds multiple times per month....you can if you want to....no problem...but after two fee-free withdrawals per month subsequent withdrawals for that month will incur a Bt50 fee.

Interesting that Mee Tae Dai, but what about tax. I pay taxes here and will I have to add this to the 800K when doing the tax filing every year?

Felt.

[Pib]

16 minutes ago, Felt 35 said:

Interesting that Mee Tae Dai, but what about tax. I pay taxes here and will I have to add this to the 800K when doing the tax filing every year?

Felt.

Not sure by what you mean in "....will I have to add this to the 800K when doing the tax filing every year?" 

 

If you are already filing a Thai tax return then each year this yes, the interest you earn from bank accounts is reportable on your tax return just like other income.

 

Or if you mean do I need to deposit "extra" money to offset the tax withholding in order keep the balance at/above Bt800K, well, no you would not need to add any additional money because the interest and tax transactions occur at the same time on a "fixed" saving account and the interest earned will be greater than the 15% of the interest withheld so you still remain above Bt800K.

 

On a fixed savings account the bank will apply a 15% withholding tax on any amount of "interest earned"....it's not on the balance.  So if you earn Bt1000 in interest the bank withholds Bt150 and you end up with Bt850 interest.   Earn Bt10K interest the bank withholds Bt1.5K and you end up with Bt8.5K interest.  You get that Bt150 or Bt1.5K back by filing a refund request with the govt each year during the Jan-Mar time frame when tax returns are to be filed.  It varies among the local tax revenue offices whether a person must  file an actual tax return (just parts or it) or do it on a separate one-page form.   In the past my local revenue office just did the one page form, except one year when they used regular tax return form but only completed the interest/dividends area.   Once again this is how tax withholding works with a "fixed" savings account...15% is withheld on "any" amount of interest earned.

 

But with a regular savings account or hybrid like the MTD there is no tax withheld until you exceed Bt20K in interest earned per year.  This means you would need to be earning around 2.5% interest on Bt800K to exceed Bt20K interest earned and trigger a 15% tax withholding which means if you want that withholding back you will need to file a tax refund request with the govt each year OR you end up letting the govt just keep the money which does things such as help fund the immigration offices, buy submarines, build roads, pay govt employee salaries, etc. 

[Felt 35]

11 hours ago, Pib said:

Not sure by what you mean in "....will I have to add this to the 800K when doing the tax filing every year?" 

 

If you are already filing a Thai tax return then each year this yes, the interest you earn from bank accounts is reportable on your tax return just like other income.

 

Or if you mean do I need to deposit "extra" money to offset the tax withholding in order keep the balance at/above Bt800K, well, no you would not need to add any additional money because the interest and tax transactions occur at the same time on a "fixed" saving account and the interest earned will be greater than the 15% of the interest withheld so you still remain above Bt800K.

 

On a fixed savings account the bank will apply a 15% withholding tax on any amount of "interest earned"....it's not on the balance.  So if you earn Bt1000 in interest the bank withholds Bt150 and you end up with Bt850 interest.   Earn Bt10K interest the bank withholds Bt1.5K and you end up with Bt8.5K interest.  You get that Bt150 or Bt1.5K back by filing a refund request with the govt each year during the Jan-Mar time frame when tax returns are to be filed.  It varies among the local tax revenue offices whether a person must  file an actual tax return (just parts or it) or do it on a separate one-page form.   In the past my local revenue office just did the one page form, except one year when they used regular tax return form but only completed the interest/dividends area.   Once again this is how tax withholding works with a "fixed" savings account...15% is withheld on "any" amount of interest earned.

 

But with a regular savings account or hybrid like the MTD there is no tax withheld until you exceed Bt20K in interest earned per year.  This means you would need to be earning around 2.5% interest on Bt800K to exceed Bt20K interest earned and trigger a 15% tax withholding which means if you want that withholding back you will need to file a tax refund request with the govt each year OR you end up letting the govt just keep the money which does things such as help fund the immigration offices, buy submarines, build roads, pay govt employee salaries, etc. 

Sorry some words come in wrong place. What I meant was if I had to pay taxes on the 800k placed in the MTD account on top of what I already transfers to Thailand monthly which also are in total around 800K +- annually.

Felt

[Pib]

11 hours ago, Felt 35 said:

Sorry some words come in wrong place. What I meant was if I had to pay taxes on the 800k placed in the MTD account on top of what I already transfers to Thailand monthly which also are in total around 800K +- annually.

Felt

You don't pay taxes simply for placing Bt800K in a Thai bank account.  But there is the possibly that you have to pay taxes on the "interest earned" when/if you fill for refund of the 15% tax withholding.   Typically until you earn more than Bt150,000 per year of income (i.e., wages, interest, dividends, etc) you don't pay any tax....you get refunded all tax the govt took from you during the year like the 15% tax withholding on a "fixed" savings account.   Since you will not be earning Bt150K in interest on a Bt800K deposit, you get the entire 15% withholding back when you apply for the refund....I always did for the 4 years or so I applied for the refund.

[cyberpixie]

On 1/25/2019 at 5:19 PM, ubonjoe said:

To be safe I would update it every month to be sure you have the transfers showing in your bank book. You supposedly can get a one year statement that will show them as well.

I'm confused. Is the activity in the bank book not the exact same data as you will get in the 12 month statement? I do not recall having to get the 12 month statement last year but my agent asked me for it this time.

[BritTim]

Adding to the discussion in an over four-year-old thread when the rules have subsequently completely changed is pointless and misleading. This thread is

 

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