Thailand to tax residents’ foreign income irrespective of remittance

[CANSIAM]

13 hours ago, oldcpu said:

 

Hopefully a tax clearance certificate will not be required for annual extensions. 

 

I do believe the tax clearance certificate requirement is still on the books (it was once required for exit out of Thailand if one had certain visas), but its enforcement was dropped over a decade ago (maybe dropped much longer ago than that).  so I suppose it could be brought back again if a very strong desire was to do so. 

 

BUT I don't think it is all straight forward ...  If one already has a LOT of savings in Thailand, one could easily go for years and never bring money into the country, and if retired never 'qualify' for a Thai tax ID (an example of this is myself BEFORE when I had a Type-O/OA visa).  Ergo in that case, one who does not have a tax-ID would not nominally qualify for a tax certificate. Or would they?

 

Further, a tax certificate would thou create a bit more work for immigration to have to collect the certificates, and possibly even spend time confirming such certificate is valid via contact with the RD who presumably would issue the certificate.   I suspect immigration (and possibly the RD who have to issue the certificates ??  ) may not want that extra work 

 

...  so lets hope that does not come to pass.

 

I'm thinkin if necessary,  a non compliance tax clearance certificate bribe is on the horizon - all involved big smiles.... 

[jayboy]

13 hours ago, oldcpu said:

If one already has a LOT of savings in Thailand, one could easily go for years and never bring money into the country

 

Yes, but if I understand the position correctly the savings do not necessarily have to be retained in Thailand.Thus if one remits funds that were accumulated before 31.12.2023 (and can prove it) then this is not assessable income and not subject to tax.Isn't that correct?

[chiang mai]

3 minutes ago, jayboy said:

 

Yes, but if I understand the position correctly the savings do not necessarily have to be retained in Thailand.Thus if one remits funds that were accumulated before 31.12.2023 (and can prove it) then this is not assessable income and not subject to tax.Isn't that correct?

That is correct.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

13 hours ago, oldcpu said:

 

Hopefully a tax clearance certificate will not be required for annual extensions. 

 

I do believe the tax clearance certificate requirement is still on the books (it was once required for exit out of Thailand if one had certain visas), but its enforcement was dropped over a decade ago (maybe dropped much longer ago than that).  so I suppose it could be brought back again if a very strong desire was to do so. 

 

BUT I don't think it is all straight forward ...  If one already has a LOT of savings in Thailand, one could easily go for years and never bring money into the country, and if retired never 'qualify' for a Thai tax ID (an example of this is myself BEFORE when I had a Type-O/OA visa).  Ergo in that case, one who does not have a tax-ID would not nominally qualify for a tax certificate. Or would they?

 

Further, a tax certificate would thou create a bit more work for immigration to have to collect the certificates, and possibly even spend time confirming such certificate is valid via contact with the RD who presumably would issue the certificate.   I suspect immigration (and possibly the RD who have to issue the certificates ??  ) may not want that extra work 

 

...  so lets hope that does not come to pass.

 

 

I was working here when tax clearance certificates were required for exit. This requirement was dropped roughly thirty years ago. 

 

I recall that there was pushback from the various foreign chambers of commerce against the tax clearance requirement and given the much larger size of the foreign business community, perhaps this would keep it from being re-activated.

 

Now that government databases are linked up to a greater degree than in the past, there may be easier ways for the RD to prevent tax delinquents from leaving the country without making suitable arrangements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chiang mai]

8 minutes ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

 

I was working here when tax clearance certificates were required for exit. This requirement was dropped roughly thirty years ago. 

 

I recall that there was pushback from the various foreign chambers of commerce against the tax clearance requirement and given the much larger size of the foreign business community, perhaps this would keep it from being re-activated.

 

Now that government databases are linked up to a greater degree than in the past, there may be easier ways for the RD to prevent tax delinquents from leaving the country without making suitable arrangements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's both reassuring and promising.

[motdaeng]

58 minutes ago, CANSIAM said:

... Further, a tax certificate would thou create a bit more work for immigration to have to collect the certificates ...

 

i recently completed my 1 year permit (retirement) at immigration. all my papers and documents were complete and in order (they carefully checked everything before i was even given a counter number). but the officer in charge handed me five additional forms to fill out and sign, checked all documents twice for safety, and stamped about 50 times all the document!!! the whole process for my simple 1 year permit (i didn’t have to answer a single question) at the counter took around 20 minutes ... a process that could easily be completed in under 5 minutes!

 

all government offices, banks, immigration, etc., in thailand love to make things as complicated and time-consuming as possible. an extra tax certificate would probably make the immigration officers even happier ... they’d have one more reason to make life difficult for us...