TAX RESIDENCY forms from UK bank.

[DaLa]

Anyone have any advice on this one please. I am a UK citizen with bank accounts in the UK. I run a business from there however I have not returned due to Covid-19 since November 2019. I don’t work here or have income from any other source than UK pensions. I have a bank account here at the insistence of Thai Immigration.

 

In order to operate my bank accounts I contacted my main bank in the UK and asked them to change my address to here in Thailand.

 

Now I have received a ‘TAX RESIDENCY’ form that I’m sorely tempted to bin.

 

One of the requirements is to take my passport to my branch in the UK and have it ‘certified’ as a true copy. So let's forget that one.

 

Or I can indicate to being a Tax Resident here in Thailand. OK, so I explore the OECD website and establish Thailand aren’t a member country and thus there’s no advice on whether I’m tax resident here.

 

Isn’t it wonderful with thousands dying, world economy and individual livelihoods at stake, freedom of movement as documented on my passport rescinded that bureaucracy still ploughs on unabated.

[Oxx]

You are tax resident in Thailand if you're in Thailand for 180 or more days in a tax year (which happens to be the same as a calendar year for Thailand), ergo you're tax resident in Thailand.

[taxout]

That form is part of the Common Reporting Standards procedures which banks are, for better or worse, required to implement.

 

Most banks will pester you a bit, then block your account if you don't respond.

 

So ignore it at your peril. For better or worse.

[dabhand]

I have received a similar form from my UK banks, all have my Thai address as point of contact. I stated I was tax resident in Thailand but had no need for a Thai tax ID number as I was on a retirement visa and was not working in Thailand.

This was about a couple of years back and, except for one indicating they were satisfied with that response, the others did not respond. However all the accounts are still operational, so all seems to be fine for the moment.

 

That may, of course, change in the future with a requirement to obtain a Thai Tax ID to satisfy the UK banks. From reading reports from other posters that does seem to be a fairly simple process.

[Oxx]

48 minutes ago, dabhand said:

From reading reports from other posters that does seem to be a fairly simple process.

 

But several reports suggest that that is only possible if you have taxable income arising in Thailand.

In any case, to date I've had no problem is stating that I do not have a Thai TIN.

[dabhand]

9 minutes ago, Oxx said:

 

But several reports suggest that that is only possible if you have taxable income arising in Thailand.

In any case, to date I've had no problem is stating that I do not have a Thai TIN.

I have seen reports that suggest otherwise.

 

In any event, most folk who are considered to be tax resident in Thailand would likely have some deposit interest from which tax has been deducted. Even if only a few baht. If the revenue office were to query the reason for requesting a Thai TIN likely that showing the tax deduction, or indicating that future tax deductions are expected, would suffice. There would be no need to actually submit a tax return, if pressed just indicate you will do that 'later'.

In my case I would prefer not to request a TIN unless pushed to the limit by a UK bank demand. Even then, after receiving a TIN, I would be very wary of actually submitting a Thai tax return as, once filed, it could lead to follow up questions which may prove problematic. 

[topt]

4 hours ago, dabhand said:

There would be no need to actually submit a tax return, if pressed just indicate you will do that 'later'.

Even if you obtain a Thai TIN which is necessary to reclaim tax on interest you should only need to fill in a 1 page document for that specific purpose. In 6 years or more I have never completed a full Thai tax return. I have been sent several through the post in the past but when I queried with the tax office I was told to just ignore. 

[Mutt Daeng]

16 hours ago, Oxx said:

 

But several reports suggest that that is only possible if you have taxable income arising in Thailand.

In any case, to date I've had no problem is stating that I do not have a Thai TIN.

Same here. HSBC sent me a form to complete after I changed my address from the UK to Thailand and I just stated that I don't have a TIN and they accepted this.

[OJAS]

23 hours ago, Oxx said:

 

But several reports suggest that that is only possible if you have taxable income arising in Thailand.

In any case, to date I've had no problem is stating that I do not have a Thai TIN.

 

7 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

Same here. HSBC sent me a form to complete after I changed my address from the UK to Thailand and I just stated that I don't have a TIN and they accepted this.

 

When my UK bank sent me one of these forms 3 years ago I informed them that, since I was not currently a taxpayer in Thailand, I had not been issued with a TIN. I did, however, state that I still paid tax to HMRC and quoted my 10-digit UTR on the form. That seemed to do the trick since I haven't heard from them again since (fingers firmly crossed that these don't turn out to be famous last words!).

[partington]

On 1/22/2021 at 8:07 AM, Oxx said:

 

But several reports suggest that that is only possible if you have taxable income arising in Thailand.

In any case, to date I've had no problem is stating that I do not have a Thai TIN.

This wasn't the case for me living in Asoke area of Bangkok.  As a result of getting these tax residency CRS forms from both my offshore banks I decided, after reading some posts here, to just go to the local tax office to try to get a Thai TIN, though I had no Thai income of any sort and never would have.

 

Banks, like most bureaucrats,  will just file and forget if you respond with what they want, because their box has been ticked off, but will keep flagging it up if there is some question.

 

In any case I applied for a tax number stating it was "for bank account interest"* - and got one pretty easily. The bank account interest didn't exist and wasn't verified in any way by the tax office, who gave me a card with a tax number about five minutes after filling in the form they supplied and helped me with. They spoke english reasonably well, though this may be because that particular office is right in the middle of the expat area.

 

Of course being Thailand, this experience does not mean every other office, or any other office will do it so readily...

 

*EDIT thinking back, I'm not even sure I mentioned "interest"- I think I just said it was "for a bank" just to avoid complications.

Edited January 23, 2021 by partington