Interest withholding tax

[Mike Teavee]

1 minute ago, nigelforbes said:

It's not just you, all fixed deposits for everyone are treated the same way.

 

Be aware that when you complete a Thai tax return to reclaim the tax paid in the FD, you will be obliged to declare any other income in Thailand, including pensions received during the year they were earned and any rental income. If you don't declare those things, you will have filed a false or invalid tax return and are liable under Thai law. (Note: US SSc pension payments do not need to be declared). This is the downside of reclaiming tax paid on savings, the alternative being not to file and to forgo the tax paid.

Thanks... This is genuinely the only income I earn in Thailand as I'm too young to get a pension (3 years & 3.5 weeks until I hit 60 & can start getting my company pension... sometimes feel like I'm wishing my life away waiting for it!) & whilst I do get rental/dividend income in the UK it is all subject to tax (& reported on my annual tax return) there + I never bring into Thailand anything that was earned in the same calendar year. 

 

 

 

 

[DrJoy]

40 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

but it was withheld against the Fixed Deposit

Fixed Deposits are taxed regardless of nationality, taxed from the 1st baht earned @ 15%    

[mran66]

Based on some other threads in aseannow from earlier yeatrs, went to my krungsri branch yesterday with my newly issued tax ID which I thought would enable the withholding tax to be discontinued on my 800K retirement saving account (not fixed deposit) AND to get issued documents to claim back 3-4 yrs tax payments for refund application.

 

Verdicts

 

1. Sorry tax ID does not help with withholding. However we can issue you the document for refund application.

 

2. Sorry the document for refund application is only available for last tax year (2022), not for earlier years.

 

Point 1 I guess nothing can do.

For point 2, is this really true i.e can not apply for tax refund other than the last tax year?

 

Not a major issue per se as the tax on interest with current rate levels is something 1k+ a a year. 

 

Maybe not even worth the hassle to go to tax office to try to get the claim applied, not sure how co-operative they are for non-thai able farangs in Jomtien tax office.

 

 

 

[proton]

11 minutes ago, mran66 said:

Based on some other threads in aseannow from earlier yeatrs, went to my krungsri branch yesterday with my newly issued tax ID which I thought would enable the withholding tax to be discontinued on my 800K retirement saving account (not fixed deposit) AND to get issued documents to claim back 3-4 yrs tax payments for refund application.

 

Verdicts

 

1. Sorry tax ID does not help with withholding. However we can issue you the document for refund application.

 

2. Sorry the document for refund application is only available for last tax year (2022), not for earlier years.

 

Point 1 I guess nothing can do.

For point 2, is this really true i.e can not apply for tax refund other than the last tax year?

 

Not a major issue per se as the tax on interest with current rate levels is something 1k+ a a year. 

 

Maybe not even worth the hassle to go to tax office to try to get the claim applied, not sure how co-operative they are for non-thai able farangs in Jomtien tax office.

 

 

 

Contact head office by email they will sort it. I claimed 2 years tax back and they stopped withholding, however it was not plain sailing with some of the staff as anything other than deposits and withdrawals confuses some of them. The tax office took 6 months to give the refund, several phone calls and on their part lies about not giving them all the documents, record everything. 

[Mike Teavee]

23 hours ago, mran66 said:

not sure how co-operative they are for non-thai able farangs in Jomtien tax office.

I’d advise double checking which Tax Office you need to use as I went to the Jomtien one & found out I needed to use the one in North Na Klua as I live in Wongamat.  
 

Both offices were very helpful & from what I could gather the refund process is reasonably straight forward.
 

 

[mran66]

On 1/18/2023 at 11:35 AM, proton said:

Contact head office by email they will sort it. I claimed 2 years tax back and they stopped withholding, however it was not plain sailing with some of the staff as anything other than deposits and withdrawals confuses some of them. The tax office took 6 months to give the refund, several phone calls and on their part lies about not giving them all the documents, record everything. 

Your advice was good. Contacted HQ via the website feedback channel. Within 2hrs got response. Couple of email exchanges on top of that, and in the evening the Pattya Tai branch manager called me, apologizing the 'misunderstanding' and asked to come visit him. Went today, and issue settled as expected i.e tax ID stored, and the branch manager told no more withholding if not over 20k baht interest.

 

Have to say I was pretty surprised and impressed about Krungrsi's professional and quick resolution of the issue. One of the rare occassions that an organization in this country resolves issues as they should.

Edited January 19, 2023 by mran66

[proton]

5 hours ago, mran66 said:

Your advice was good. Contacted HQ via the website feedback channel. Within 2hrs got response. Couple of email exchanges on top of that, and in the evening the Pattya Tai branch manager called me, apologizing the 'misunderstanding' and asked to come visit him. Went today, and issue settled as expected i.e tax ID stored, and the branch manager told no more withholding if not over 20k baht interest.

 

Have to say I was pretty surprised and impressed about Krungrsi's professional and quick resolution of the issue. One of the rare occassions that an organization in this country resolves issues as they should.

Glad you got it sorted, you have to persist as some of them act like it's the first week on the job. In the end you find out somebody who knows what they are talking about and they sort it out. Now apply for any tax refund owed, it's not the money more the principle. They only pay it back through Krungthai bank though, so may not be worth the considerable bother. I could not have done it without the Mrs help.

[skatewash]

7 hours ago, proton said:

Glad you got it sorted, you have to persist as some of them act like it's the first week on the job. In the end you find out somebody who knows what they are talking about and they sort it out. Now apply for any tax refund owed, it's not the money more the principle. They only pay it back through Krungthai bank though, so may not be worth the considerable bother. I could not have done it without the Mrs help.

I believe based on my experience with my refund last year that they are back to mailing refund checks rather than requiring the filer to deal with Krungthai Bank.  I did have to deal with Krungthai Bank for my refund a few years ago, though.