declaring a transfer of money from abroad to your own wife as a “gift” may look like a simple way to make the transfer tax-free, but it can have some pitfalls depending on how the thai revenue department assesses the actual circumstances ... the important question is whether it is a genuine gift, or whether the “gift” is simply being used as a way to avoid tax that would otherwise be payable ... there is also an interesting question regarding the husband himself. if the husband is a tax resident of thailand and transfers money from his own foreign bank account directly to his wife’s thai bank account, does the fact that the money is ultimately received by the wife as a tax-exempt spouse gift mean that the husband has no tax liability on the remittance? or does the husband still have a potential tax liability because he was the person who remitted the foreign-sourced money??? it would be very interesting to have a clear and binding statement, or specific guidance, from the thai revenue department on this exact situation ...
