Thai gov. to tax (remitted) income from abroad for tax residents starting 2024 - Part I

[Mike Teavee]

15 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

Yes, your remittance to her Thai bank is a remittance and is assessable income for her, assuming you are not married.  There is an RD case about exactly this. A Thai woman received remittances from her foreign boyfriend abroad and it was deemed taxable income because they were not married. If married the RD would have accepted that the remittances were gifts from a spouse which is tax exempt up to 20 million baht a year. 

Interesting, I read somewhere that you could claim to have a "Moral Obligation" to provide support to your Thai Partner (Not Spouse) but am guessing what is classified as a "Moral Obligation" would be something like having a Child together & not supporting her because it was you who asked her to stop working 12 hour days, 6 days a week so you could spend time together. 

 

Just in case, I'll tweak my plans...

• Remit a total of 210K for her (This would be her 60K tax free allowance + 150K which is taxed at nil rate) & she can start paying 1/2 the rent, utilities, groceries etc... 
• Remit a total of 235K to me (Same 210K + an extra 25K for purchasing Health Insurance)
• Remit Birthday/Xmas gifts (thinking 100K each) which I've a strong feeling she'll be using to take me on holiday for my Birthday/Xmas presents 😉

Rest of my spends will come from savings already in Thailand so should be good for a couple of years until I can either get an LTR or confirmation that remitting my pension (starts in 2026) will not be taxed, either way I'll spend < 180 days in Thailand in 2026 so have an opportunity to top up my Thai Savings accounts as needed. 

[paddypower]

thanks. but this year we will have close to 2MM in income. so yes, I can plan to minimize the tax rate. by income splitting..

there is a secondary reason why I'm looking to contact a Danish pensioner. It is to find out are Danish citizens entitled to the govt pensions, or not. I cant get an answer from any Danish websites. I do know that you do not qualify for  the pensions, if you you do not have Danish citizenship. are there any Danes out there, please?
 

[Mike Lister]

I set out earlier my prefered operating model for these tax threads and also the rationale for compiling the Simple Tax Guide.

 

The need for those things has now been substantially reinforced with poster @Dogmatix findings that penalties DO exist for not filing a tax return, when no tax is due. The message that there are no penalties for not filing when no tax is due, has been repeatedly endlessly in these threads, by prominent posters and read by potentially thousands of people. Poster Dogmatix's findings are now vitally important because it means we have to get the opposite message message out to everyone. The post in this thread that contains that information is now long gone and only a handful of people will have read it. The Simple Tax Guide and its dedicated thread are very important in correcting that error and everyone's understanding, otherwise, who will tell everyone? Ditto the need for a TIN which was previously deemed unnecessary but is of course essential if a tax return is to be filed. Members need and rightfully deserve this information, if they are to make informed choices.

 

I regret I am unable and unwilling to enter into a discussion on these points but I did want to reinforce the need for the Tax Guide and the the non-discussion information thread.

 

[Yumthai]

22 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

The message that there are no penalties for not filing when no tax is due, has been repeatedly endlessly in these threads, by prominent posters and read by potentially thousands of people.

 

https://www.rd.go.th/english/37745.html

 

Section 17 In relation to tax return filing, it shall be filed within the time limit specified in the Chapters regarding taxes and in accordance with the form prescribed by the Director-General.

 

https://www.rd.go.th/english/37746.html

 

Section 35 Any person failing to comply with Sections 17, Sections 50 Bis, Sections 51 or Sections 69, unless in case of a force majeure, shall be subject to a fine not exceeding 2,000 Baht.

 

IMHO, the Section 17 statement implies tax return shall be filed if there is taxable income.

 

I can't find any reference of the 2,000 THB fine for not filing from the most prominent law firms.

How come? Could the English version of the RD pages be mistranslated?

 

If the fine for not filing statement is correct then all locals and foreigners must file, which is far from the case.

 

[Mike Lister]

3 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

 

https://www.rd.go.th/english/37745.html

 

Section 17 In relation to tax return filing, it shall be filed within the time limit specified in the Chapters regarding taxes and in accordance with the form prescribed by the Director-General.

 

https://www.rd.go.th/english/37746.html

 

Section 35 Any person failing to comply with Sections 17, Sections 50 Bis, Sections 51 or Sections 69, unless in case of a force majeure, shall be subject to a fine not exceeding 2,000 Baht.

 

IMHO, the Section 17 statement implies tax return shall be filed if there is taxable income.

 

I can't find any reference of the 2,000 THB fine for not filing from the most prominent law firms.

How come? Could the English version of the RD pages be mistranslated?

 

If the fine for not filing statement is correct then all locals and foreigners must file, which is far from the case.

 

My reference is the post linked below:

 

 

[JimGant]

41 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

 

IMHO, the Section 17 statement implies tax return shall be filed if there is taxable income.

Indeed. And from the Revenue Code Section 90:

Quote

Section 90 The following persons failing to comply with the provisions stated below shall be fined not more that 2,000 Baht-

(3) person liable to tax failing to file a tax return under Section 83/2;

(4) person liable to tax return filing failing to file a tax return under Section 83/3;

 

[Mike Lister]

Why don't you guys debate the point and see if you can't arrive at a consensus and let me know, for the time being I'm staying with Dogmatix view.

[JimGant]

1 hour ago, Mike Lister said:

The need for those things has now been substantially reinforced with poster @Dogmatix findings that penalties DO exist for not filing a tax return, when no tax is due

Maybe Dogmatix would like to shine more light on his findings.....

[Mike Teavee]

Section 90 The following persons failing to comply with the provisions stated below shall be fined not more that 2,000 Baht-

(3) person liable to tax failing to file a tax return under Section 83/2;

(4) person liable to tax return filing failing to file a tax return under Section 83/3;

 

To me, Point 4 would seem to suggest that if you're liable to file a tax return (e.g. have assessable income over the  60,000/120,000/220,000 depending on your circumstances limit) then you can be fined for not filing one even if you have no tax to pay (i.e. if your assessable income was less than the total of your allowances +150K). 

 

Example: If I remitted 140K in one year then I know there's no tax owed irrespective of whether the money was assessible income or not but it's still over the single persons 60,000 limit for income not arising from employment so techincally I should file a return.

 

For the sake of a 2K fine I'm not going to bother especially as if they make me file then they'd owe me money as the withheld tax that I'd reclaim would be greater than the fine. 

 

[nrasmussen]

4 hours ago, paddypower said:

there is a secondary reason why I'm looking to contact a Danish pensioner. It is to find out are Danish citizens entitled to the govt pensions, or not. I cant get an answer from any Danish websites. I do know that you do not qualify for  the pensions, if you you do not have Danish citizenship. are there any Danes out there, please?

 

 

The answer is that it depends on several factors. You can read about the rules here (official government website in Danish): https://www.borger.dk/pension-og-efterloen/International-pension/Dansk-pension-i-udlandet/International-pension-soege 

[Yumthai]

3 hours ago, JimGant said:

Section 90 The following persons failing to comply with the provisions stated below shall be fined not more that 2,000 Baht-

(3) person liable to tax failing to file a tax return under Section 83/2;

(4) person liable to tax return filing failing to file a tax return under Section 83/3;

Section 90 falls under Chapter 4 Value Added Tax.

However we could assume the same logic is applied for income tax: fine arises when a person liable to tax fails to file a tax return.

[Rimmer]

An off topic argumentative post has been removed

[UKresonant]

On 4/19/2024 at 3:04 AM, Mike Lister said:

On 4/19/2024 at 2:59 AM, Captain Monday said:

Expand  

UK State Pension is for everyone who pays into the scheme, regardless of where they worked or how they were employed.

Or perhaps not worked but had voluntary National insurance contributions, or credits from child benefit...

(Section 40 (1) of the TH RD code does not describe this benefit perhaps....in some cases. It's  from

National insurance contributions, if it were a pension from Employment, perhaps the UK DWP could not muck about with it such as freezing it if in Thailand, changinge the year it.is.paid etc etc)

 

[This was.lingering in editor so presume it did not post when I scribed most of it...sorry if duplicated]

 

 

 

[Mike Lister]

7 minutes ago, UKresonant said:

Or perhaps not worked but had voluntary National insurance contributions, or credits from child benefit...

(Section 40 (1) of the TH RD code does not describe this benefit perhaps....in some cases. It's  from

National insurance contributions, if it were a pension from Employment, perhaps the UK DWP could not muck about with it such as freezing it if in Thailand, changinge the year it.is.paid etc etc)

 

[This was.lingering in editor so presume it did not post when I scribed most of it...sorry if duplicated]

 

 

 

Yes, noted. It's not immediately obvious where we should draw the line in trying to provide information to members within and outside of the Simple Tax Guide. The level of granularity here can be as detailed as anyone cares it to be but I most probably wont pick all of it up for guide book purposes. Those things notwithstanding the information is always useful to someone.

[UKresonant]

@4myr's recent dialouge with the RD Tax  officers & lawyer gave interesting insight of there timenow knowledge at a Thai RD office.

 

So the first issue for me would be my small Gov pension, which by UK / Thai DTA is only taxed in UK. If they are not recognising exemption, the may look for that pension on a return, but it should have zero tax in Thailand.

 

So it is of assessable income type should be listed maybe, but should not be taxable income as far as Thai RD is concerned. The form perhaps does not lend it's self to correctly file.

 

I vaguely recall the UK HMRC technician I talked within respect to the .GOV pension (not state pension) back in 2018 mentioned that some times they want it listed, but they should credit / repay the tax the tax 100%. As the may want to show it on bothsides of the accounts. ( but not liking it specifically to a Thai RD event)

 

Custom and practice of Thai RD still needs some observation....

[Mike Lister]

One input into the question about whether or not a person must file a return, if they have no tax to pay:

 

The rules about TIN's says - Before you can file a tax return in Thailand, you must obtain a Tax Identification Number or TIN from the RD offices in your area. You are required by law to obtain a TIN, within 60 days from when you first derive the minimum assessable income, which is 120,000 baht of income received from overseas. .......It is not necessary for people who are not Thai tax resident to obtain a TIN, neither is it necessary to obtain one if you do not exceed the assessable income level threshold.

 

I do not know if there is a penalty for not obtaining a TIN, separate from the issue of not filing a return.

[xylophone]

28 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

One input into the question about whether or not a person must file a return, if they have no tax to pay:

 

The rules about TIN's says - Before you can file a tax return in Thailand, you must obtain a Tax Identification Number or TIN from the RD offices in your area. You are required by law to obtain a TIN, within 60 days from when you first derive the minimum assessable income, which is 120,000 baht of income received from overseas. .......It is not necessary for people who are not Thai tax resident to obtain a TIN, neither is it necessary to obtain one if you do not exceed the assessable income level threshold.

 

I do not know if there is a penalty for not obtaining a TIN, separate from the issue of not filing a return.

How does the DTA agreement fit into this.....and I have been here for 17 years but have never paid any tax on the pension I have sent here nor the monies I have transferred here for living expenses???? 

[jayboy]

9 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

The message that there are no penalties for not filing when no tax is due, has been repeatedly endlessly in these threads, by prominent posters and read by potentially thousands of people.

 

There do seem to be penalties for not filing a return if no tax is due, though the quoted fines are very modest.Did anyone ever dispute this? A cynic might argue that if the individual is confident of his ground that no tax is due and has evidence to prove it - it might be a cost effective way of proceeding - in the highly unlikely event of ever being challenged.

 

The more pertinent question however for many of us is whether a return needs to be filed if there is no assessable income, In other words if an individual only remits funds from a pre-2024 source.

 

 

[UKresonant]

(I've never been full time in Thailand )

Just thinking out loud.  

 

One other potential or theoretical, though most unlikely  problem could be filing if not physically present in Thailand 1st quarter of the next year.  If you cannot accurately list DTA aspects on online filing.

 

Whilst grasping the taxation items, not sure if it is possible for me to express it on an actual filing yet

 

The tax considerations also perhaps do not align well with Immigration stuff.  

 

The .Gov pension sould be remittable as soon as I get the UK end of year P60 in May showing tax paid.

[Thai return, gross, ~70k THB net or not at all]

 

Then there is the 60k Personal allowance, and the 150k Nil band.

[Presume that are looking for gross on the return, or should remit net 210k (under 65), if halting remittance at this level, would they then want 5% tax on the gross, i.e. of the tax already taken in home country!)

 

Any further amount then to be remitted could could be considered a bit later maybe Aug on depending on prediction of tax resident or not.

 

One year tax resident one year not could occur, but plans are not in reality dictated by tax years and Thai immigration shifting sands, they tend to be coincidental....

 

(Should they move to Global Tax it would make it very awkward)

[Mike Lister]

5 minutes ago, jayboy said:

 

There do seem to be penalties for not filing a return if no tax is due, though the quoted fines are very modest.Did anyone ever dispute this? A cynic might argue that if the individual is confident of his ground that no tax is due and has evidence to prove it - it might be a cost effective way of proceeding - in the highly unlikely event of ever being challenged.

 

The more pertinent question however for many of us is whether a return needs to be filed if there is no assessable income, In other words if an individual only remits funds from a pre-2024 source.

 

 

The question in bold is what I hope members will get to the bottom of. There is no agreement amongst members at present that there is a penalty and we do need to understand the answer because to date everyone has been told there is not. 

 

This is not my debate or decision, I merely added information about the TIN above.

[Mike Lister]

12 minutes ago, xylophone said:

How does the DTA agreement fit into this.....and I have been here for 17 years but have never paid any tax on the pension I have sent here nor the monies I have transferred here for living expenses???? 

If nobody answer your question, please PM me or file a question in the Simple Tax Guide thread, please.

[4myr]

Would like some feedback on my tax filing example according to the Simple Tax Guide.

 

I am filing for tax resident year 2025 using this PD90 form. In 2024 I was not tax resident.

I will remit all [assessable and exempted] income cases I can possibly have in 2025, just for the sake of this example.

I never filed a tax return in Thailand before.

 

Income Excluded from PD90

According to STG, I can exclude all exempted income of RD ruling P161/2566 and DTA exemptions as assessable income, so I will not declare them in PD90, but I will keep records for audit purposes:

1. all earnings before 2024
2. all savings before 2024
3. I was not tax resident in 2024, so all earnings of 2024 I can exclude, i.e. capital gains on sold stocks in 2024, director’s fee 2024, state & company pension 2024, dividend 2024 
4. my NL DTA exempted income from tax resident years, i.e.:
   1. director’s fee of 2024/2025
   2. state pension of 2024/2025
   3. sold property in NL with profit in 2025 and remitted principal and profit in 2025 

Income declared in PD90

• item 1 / salary, wage, pension: company pension 2025 [paid NL tax 30%]
• item 3.3 [dividend from foreign company] - dividend 2025 [paid NL tax 25%]
• item 3.x / capital gains sold stocks - where I can declare gains of sold stocks in 2025? [no NL tax paid]
• item 7 / income from business or sale property: not declared sold house 2025, because exempted
• item 8 / income from sale property: not declared sold house 2025, because exempted
• item 11 / tax computation
  • 11.12 / total tax payable
  • 11.13 / Less: is this the place where I can declare my total foreign tax credits from items 1 and 3.3?

Record keeping for audit purposes
Record keeping not described in STG.

• 2025 / all foreign sourced Wise transfers to my thai bank accounts. Wise also reports exchange rate 
• pre-2023 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025 - all exempted earnings, e.g. director fee or state pension statement, deed transfer 2025 of sold house, company registry extract with names of directors, annual bank statements, buy / sale receipts on sold stocks in 2024 / spreadsheet profit calculation, dividend in 2024, optional tax assessments NL-RD 2023 / 2024 / 2025
• non tax residency 2024: I will not use eGates of Suvarnabhumi so I collect all passport stamps, reminder emails 90-day reporting, 90-day reports, boarding passes exit /entry Thailand
• 2025 assessable income
  • company pension statement of 2025 [tax credit]
  • dividend statement of 2025 [tax credit]
  • tax assessment NL-RD 2025 [accrued tax credits]
  • buy / sale receipts on sold stocks in 2025, spreadsheet profit calculation
     

Edited April 21 by 4myr

[Mike Lister]

I have updated the Simple Tax Guide to reflect latest information and to make some parts more easily understandable, it is linked below. 

 

 

[Mike Lister]

10 hours ago, 4myr said:

Would like some feedback on my tax filing example according to the Simple Tax Guide.

 

I am filing for tax resident year 2025 using this PD90 form. In 2024 I was not tax resident.

I will remit all [assessable and exempted] income cases I can possibly have in 2025, just for the sake of this example.

I never filed a tax return in Thailand before.

 

Income Excluded from PD90

According to STG, I can exclude all exempted income of RD ruling P161/2566 and DTA exemptions as assessable income, so I will not declare them in PD90, but I will keep records for audit purposes:

1. all earnings before 2024
2. all savings before 2024
3. I was not tax resident in 2024, so all earnings of 2024 I can exclude, i.e. capital gains on sold stocks in 2024, director’s fee 2024, state & company pension 2024, dividend 2024 
4. my NL DTA exempted income from tax resident years, i.e.:
   1. director’s fee of 2024/2025
   2. state pension of 2024/2025
   3. sold property in NL with profit in 2025 and remitted principal and profit in 2025 

Income declared in PD90

• item 1 / salary, wage, pension: company pension 2025 [paid NL tax 30%]
• item 3.3 [dividend from foreign company] - dividend 2025 [paid NL tax 25%]
• item 3.x / capital gains sold stocks - where I can declare gains of sold stocks in 2025? [no NL tax paid]
• item 7 / income from business or sale property: not declared sold house 2025, because exempted
• item 8 / income from sale property: not declared sold house 2025, because exempted
• item 11 / tax computation
  • 11.12 / total tax payable
  • 11.13 / Less: is this the place where I can declare my total foreign tax credits from items 1 and 3.3?

Record keeping for audit purposes
Record keeping not described in STG.

• 2025 / all foreign sourced Wise transfers to my thai bank accounts. Wise also reports exchange rate 
• pre-2023 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025 - all exempted earnings, e.g. director fee or state pension statement, deed transfer 2025 of sold house, company registry extract with names of directors, annual bank statements, buy / sale receipts on sold stocks in 2024 / spreadsheet profit calculation, dividend in 2024, optional tax assessments NL-RD 2023 / 2024 / 2025
• non tax residency 2024: I will not use eGates of Suvarnabhumi so I collect all passport stamps, reminder emails 90-day reporting, 90-day reports, boarding passes exit /entry Thailand
• 2025 assessable income
  • company pension statement of 2025 [tax credit]
  • dividend statement of 2025 [tax credit]
  • tax assessment NL-RD 2025 [accrued tax credits]
  • buy / sale receipts on sold stocks in 2025, spreadsheet profit calculation
     

I already sent you a personal message about your post but since nobody from the regular posting group has answered your query, let me give you a more public response.

 

The Simple Tax Guide project never envisaged itself as a tax preparation service or a means of expert consultation on complex tax issues. Instead, the Simple Tax Guide project is a means of getting basic, easy to understand tax information, into the hands of people who don't understand tax and have never had to deal with tax before, mostly aged pensioners and the like......hence the name, the Simple Tax Guide. Everyone else with complex tax affairs is deemed to be capable of obtaining paid for tax advice whereas many pensioners and basic income members may not be.

 

Your post is above average in tax complexity and not something the Simple Guide project should be involved with, if others here feel they can comment constructively on your situation they should feel free to do so, if they so wish.

 

I said I would not post in this thread, only moderate but I am still waiting for my posting nic to arrive. If the regular posting group does not return to debate tax in this thread, I will go back on what I said and I will begin to use this thread to try and answer members concerns etc., as well as using the Simple Tax Guide thread. I hope that doesn't become necessary because if it does, one of the threads will probably become unnecessary and  have to be closed.

 

, 

[Mike Lister]

11 hours ago, xylophone said:

How does the DTA agreement fit into this.....and I have been here for 17 years but have never paid any tax on the pension I have sent here nor the monies I have transferred here for living expenses???? 

We are in a similar situation, I also have been here for 20 years and have remitted funds in the past, mostly without regard to Thai tax although I have filed returns for the past few years.

 

It depends on the source of those funds and the type of them, the DTA between your home country and Thailand is another variable because it sets out what can and cannot be taxed etc. If you want to give us some more information about you, your home country, age, married, kids, and your income sources and amounts etc, just in general terms, we can give you a better idea of how you might be affected. Alternatively, if you want to PM me with those details we can do it that way. It;'s more helpful for others if everyone gets to see the questions and the answers however.

[Klonko]

12 hours ago, 4myr said:

Would like some feedback on my tax filing example according to the Simple Tax Guide.

 

I am filing for tax resident year 2025 using this PD90 form. In 2024 I was not tax resident.

I will remit all [assessable and exempted] income cases I can possibly have in 2025, just for the sake of this example.

I never filed a tax return in Thailand before.

 

Income Excluded from PD90

According to STG, I can exclude all exempted income of RD ruling P161/2566 and DTA exemptions as assessable income, so I will not declare them in PD90, but I will keep records for audit purposes:

1. all earnings before 2024
2. all savings before 2024
3. I was not tax resident in 2024, so all earnings of 2024 I can exclude, i.e. capital gains on sold stocks in 2024, director’s fee 2024, state & company pension 2024, dividend 2024 
4. my NL DTA exempted income from tax resident years, i.e.:
   1. director’s fee of 2024/2025
   2. state pension of 2024/2025
   3. sold property in NL with profit in 2025 and remitted principal and profit in 2025 

Income declared in PD90

• item 1 / salary, wage, pension: company pension 2025 [paid NL tax 30%]
• item 3.3 [dividend from foreign company] - dividend 2025 [paid NL tax 25%]
• item 3.x / capital gains sold stocks - where I can declare gains of sold stocks in 2025? [no NL tax paid]
• item 7 / income from business or sale property: not declared sold house 2025, because exempted
• item 8 / income from sale property: not declared sold house 2025, because exempted
• item 11 / tax computation
  • 11.12 / total tax payable
  • 11.13 / Less: is this the place where I can declare my total foreign tax credits from items 1 and 3.3?

Record keeping for audit purposes
Record keeping not described in STG.

• 2025 / all foreign sourced Wise transfers to my thai bank accounts. Wise also reports exchange rate 
• pre-2023 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025 - all exempted earnings, e.g. director fee or state pension statement, deed transfer 2025 of sold house, company registry extract with names of directors, annual bank statements, buy / sale receipts on sold stocks in 2024 / spreadsheet profit calculation, dividend in 2024, optional tax assessments NL-RD 2023 / 2024 / 2025
• non tax residency 2024: I will not use eGates of Suvarnabhumi so I collect all passport stamps, reminder emails 90-day reporting, 90-day reports, boarding passes exit /entry Thailand
• 2025 assessable income
  • company pension statement of 2025 [tax credit]
  • dividend statement of 2025 [tax credit]
  • tax assessment NL-RD 2025 [accrued tax credits]
  • buy / sale receipts on sold stocks in 2025, spreadsheet profit calculation
     

It shows that record keeping and respective potential discussions with Thai RD will be cumbersome.  I have remitted a large amount in my non-tax resident year 2023. keep some existing savings on a non-interest bearing account for later tax free remittance, and I will use remittances with DTA credits only as last resort. 

[redwood1]

23 minutes ago, Klonko said:

It shows that record keeping and respective potential discussions with Thai RD will be cumbersome.  I have remitted a large amount in my non-tax resident year 2023. keep some existing savings on a non-interest bearing account for later tax free remittance, and I will use remittances with DTA credits only as last resort. 

 

I would love to hear the discussions with the Japanese, Chinese,Indians,Russians and a whole bunch of other non Thai and barely any English speaking nationalities..

[Dogmatix]

16 hours ago, jayboy said:

 

There do seem to be penalties for not filing a return if no tax is due, though the quoted fines are very modest.Did anyone ever dispute this? A cynic might argue that if the individual is confident of his ground that no tax is due and has evidence to prove it - it might be a cost effective way of proceeding - in the highly unlikely event of ever being challenged.

 

The more pertinent question however for many of us is whether a return needs to be filed if there is no assessable income, In other words if an individual only remits funds from a pre-2024 source.

 

No fines for not filing a tax return, if there is no assessable income.  The contentious area is where a tax resident has assessable income over 120k but no tax is payable, due to income less deductions being less than the tax free threshold of 150k. Bizarrely a tax return is required in this case on pain of a fine of 2k but there is no evidence that this part of the law has ever been enforce.  As previously mentioned the Prayut govt introduced the requirement to file in this situation claiming that it would put the govt in the position of being able to pay benefits to those low income earners.  There has been no further mention of these welfare payments and there was never any explanation why those earning less than 120k should be left out, if that had been a genuine argument. The real reason was of course to try to force more people doing sole proprietor business into the tax net, i.e. get someone into the habit of filing on the premise they will have no tax to pay, then whoops they suddenly find a couple of years later they do have tax to pay.

 

To your more pertinent question. No, you do not have to file a tax return for a year where your only onshore income comprises foreign source income that arose prior to 2024.  I think that because a tax return is only required where you have assessable income over 120k this is something where there is no doubt, although it is possible that the RD, if it has details of the remittances, could ask for clarification.  

[xylophone]

5 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

We are in a similar situation, I also have been here for 20 years and have remitted funds in the past, mostly without regard to Thai tax although I have filed returns for the past few years.

 

It depends on the source of those funds and the type of them, the DTA between your home country and Thailand is another variable because it sets out what can and cannot be taxed etc. If you want to give us some more information about you, your home country, age, married, kids, and your income sources and amounts etc, just in general terms, we can give you a better idea of how you might be affected. Alternatively, if you want to PM me with those details we can do it that way. It;'s more helpful for others if everyone gets to see the questions and the answers however.

Thanks for your reply Mike and will send you a PM as not sure that I would like to share my financials with others at this moment in time.

[Dogmatix]

14 hours ago, 4myr said:

Would like some feedback on my tax filing example according to the Simple Tax Guide.

 

I am filing for tax resident year 2025 using this PD90 form. In 2024 I was not tax resident.

I will remit all [assessable and exempted] income cases I can possibly have in 2025, just for the sake of this example.

I never filed a tax return in Thailand before.

 

Income Excluded from PD90

According to STG, I can exclude all exempted income of RD ruling P161/2566 and DTA exemptions as assessable income, so I will not declare them in PD90, but I will keep records for audit purposes:

1. all earnings before 2024
2. all savings before 2024
3. I was not tax resident in 2024, so all earnings of 2024 I can exclude, i.e. capital gains on sold stocks in 2024, director’s fee 2024, state & company pension 2024, dividend 2024 
4. my NL DTA exempted income from tax resident years, i.e.:
   1. director’s fee of 2024/2025
   2. state pension of 2024/2025
   3. sold property in NL with profit in 2025 and remitted principal and profit in 2025 

Income declared in PD90

• item 1 / salary, wage, pension: company pension 2025 [paid NL tax 30%]
• item 3.3 [dividend from foreign company] - dividend 2025 [paid NL tax 25%]
• item 3.x / capital gains sold stocks - where I can declare gains of sold stocks in 2025? [no NL tax paid]
• item 7 / income from business or sale property: not declared sold house 2025, because exempted
• item 8 / income from sale property: not declared sold house 2025, because exempted
• item 11 / tax computation
  • 11.12 / total tax payable
  • 11.13 / Less: is this the place where I can declare my total foreign tax credits from items 1 and 3.3?

Record keeping for audit purposes
Record keeping not described in STG.

• 2025 / all foreign sourced Wise transfers to my thai bank accounts. Wise also reports exchange rate 
• pre-2023 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025 - all exempted earnings, e.g. director fee or state pension statement, deed transfer 2025 of sold house, company registry extract with names of directors, annual bank statements, buy / sale receipts on sold stocks in 2024 / spreadsheet profit calculation, dividend in 2024, optional tax assessments NL-RD 2023 / 2024 / 2025
• non tax residency 2024: I will not use eGates of Suvarnabhumi so I collect all passport stamps, reminder emails 90-day reporting, 90-day reports, boarding passes exit /entry Thailand
• 2025 assessable income
  • company pension statement of 2025 [tax credit]
  • dividend statement of 2025 [tax credit]
  • tax assessment NL-RD 2025 [accrued tax credits]
  • buy / sale receipts on sold stocks in 2025, spreadsheet profit calculation

 

I would agree with not declaring items that are not assessable as they are foreign source income prior to 2024 when you are also not tax resident.  

 

Re item 3.x / capital gains sold stocks - where I can declare gains of sold stocks in 2025? [no NL tax paid].  I have only recent experience of filing tax return PND91 online which is in Thai only. I have given up looking at the RD's English translations of PND90/91 forms because I have found them to be often out of date and unreliable with items missing and numeration out of synch with current Thai versions. I recommend that you double check with the Thai versions using Google translate, if you don't read Thai. 

 

In the online PND91 you get to a page which lists all the categories of income under Section 40 of the RC.  You would click on 40 (g) and a page will pop up for you to declare capital gains. Capital gains on SET listed stocks traded through the market are not taxable but Thais have to pay tax on gains on unlisted Thai shares and now on remitted gains from foreign listed shares, which is probably what this is all about, given the pathetic performance of the Thai stock market, relative to NASDAQ for the last several years.

 

40 (g) gains derived from transfer of partnership holdings or shares, debentures, bonds, or bills or debt instruments issued by a company or juristic partnership or by any other juristic person.

 

For income earned in 2025 and remitted to Thailand, on which foreign tax has already been paid, I assume you will have to declare the income in the relevant pages similar to the 40 (g) example above but there is, as yet, nowhere to claim a tax credit and perhaps never will be, given the utter incompetence and disinterest the RD is showing towards this highly complex issue triggered without any detailed planning by their previous DG who is now permanent secretary at the finance ministry.  

Edited April 22 by Dogmatix