Revenue Department to amend tax on foreign income remittance

[TPDH]

https://theinvestor.vn/thailand-considers-easing-rules-on-income-from-overseas-d14531.html
 

I found this news article from 3 months ago where they said the exact same thing. If they were saying this 3 months ago I’d say the chances of it happening increases. This is something they’ve worked on for a while so I’d say it’s most likely to go through. 

[motdaeng]

5 hours ago, TPDH said:

https://theinvestor.vn/thailand-considers-easing-rules-on-income-from-overseas-d14531.html
 

I found this news article from 3 months ago where they said the exact same thing. If they were saying this 3 months ago I’d say the chances of it happening increases. This is something they’ve worked on for a while so I’d say it’s most likely to go through. 

 

please keep in mind, we live in a flip flop country ... 

[FruitPudding]

What happened to them thinking about making it stricter?

 

Weren't they going to tax all income even if it wasn't remitted? Lol

 

Absolute 🤡s

[ukrules]

5 minutes ago, FruitPudding said:

Weren't they going to tax all income even if it wasn't remitted?

 

Some moron at the RD was mouthing off about that - but that's all they do, they make publicity for themselves.

 

[Everyman]

16 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

Some moron at the RD was mouthing off about that - but that's all they do, they make publicity for themselves.

 

 

In Thailand they make the announcement before the decision.

 

I think about all the hysterical, panicking foreigners over the last two years wasting money on tax advisors and time trying to get a TIN.

 

All they had to do was nothing. 

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, Everyman said:

 

In Thailand they make the announcement before the decision.

 

I think about all the hysterical, panicking foreigners over the last two years wasting money on tax advisors and time trying to get a TIN.

 

All they had to do was nothing. 

 

Right, if you bought money in last year and were a resident then you owe tax on it - don't make the mistake that you don't because you do. Until they get around to changing it then the announcement back in 2023 stands.

 

[hotandsticky]

3 minutes ago, ukrules said:

 

Right, if you bought money in last year and were a resident then you owe tax on it - don't make the mistake that you don't because you do. Until they get around to changing it then the announcement back in 2023 stands.

 

 

 

That is just not going to happen for most people.

 

I am glad that I am not regarded as a resident.

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, hotandsticky said:

That is just not going to happen for most people.

 

I am glad that I am not regarded as a resident.

 

Me too, a lot of people have filed tax returns already, in fact anyone who hasn't is now a 'late filer' this year for last years taxes if they were resident and remitted more than the paltry allowances.

I left Thailand last year for just over 6 months as I sold something which I one day planned to remit as and when required over the next 10 to 20 years, my plan was always to use the 'next year' remittance method, then they cancelled that but the sale of my assets didn't happen until late last year.

I was quite disappointed but as this was quite a bit of money, potentially enough to last for life - I left just to make sure I never have to pay anything on that.
 

 

[hotandsticky]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

 

Me too, a lot of people have filed tax returns already, in fact anyone who hasn't is now a 'late filer' this year for last years taxes if they were resident and remitted more than the paltry allowances.

I left Thailand last year for just over 6 months as I sold something which I one day planned to remit as and when required over the next 10 to 20 years, my plan was always to use the 'next year' remittance method, then they cancelled that but the sale of my assets didn't happen until late last year.

I was quite disappointed but as this was quite a bit of money, potentially enough to last for life - I left just to make sure I never have to pay anything on that.
 

 

 

I quickly became bored with all the hyperbole surrounding the 'restatement' of the tax rule and I will rely on the fact that it wasn't designed to trap expats.

 

That, plus the fact that HMRC insist on me being a UK tax resident.

 

That, plus the fact that I will, if necessary, direct all remittances to the missus' account.

 

That, plus the fact that the only way the Thai authorities can cause me to pay taxes is via the annual extension process - and they are currently incapble of doing that.

 

If all that fails then I shall split my time between Thailand,Vietnam and Europe.

[ukrules]

30 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

That, plus the fact that HMRC insist on me being a UK tax resident.

 

Do you spend a lot of time over in the UK or something? Personally I haven't stepped foot in the place in over a decade and have zero income or liabilities over there.

 

Under the 'Statutory Residence Test' they now use at HMRC they booted me off the tax register many, many years ago.

No declarations required these days.

[hotandsticky]

25 minutes ago, ukrules said:

 

Do you spend a lot of time over in the UK or something? Personally I haven't stepped foot in the place in over a decade and have zero income or liabilities over there.

 

Under the 'Statutory Residence Test' they now use at HMRC they booted me off the tax register many, many years ago.

No declarations required these days.

 

I usually visit once a year but it is my shareholding/directorship that ties me to the UK tax rules.

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, hotandsticky said:

 

I usually visit once a year but it is my shareholding/directorship that ties me to the UK tax rules.

 

Oh yeah, there's no escaping that if it's earned in the UK then you're taxed there regardless of what it is or how it's earned.

 

 

[JB300]

2 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

I usually visit once a year but it is my shareholding/directorship that ties me to the UK tax rules.

When I 1st became non-UK Tax resident, I still had my LTD company so anything involved with that was subject to UK Tax but dividends from my other holdings were treated as “Disregarded income” so did not have to pay any additional (high rate) tax on them.
 

I even managed to reclaim the PAYE Tax I’d paid as although I was working for a British Bank, I was based in Singapore so paid the income tax (12%, no NI) there. A

[Everyman]

7 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

Right, if you bought money in last year and were a resident then you owe tax on it - don't make the mistake that you don't because you do. Until they get around to changing it then the announcement back in 2023 stands.

 

 

I wasn't a Thai tax resident in 2024 and I won’t be in 2025. 

[hotandsticky]

13 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

Oh yeah, there's no escaping that if it's earned in the UK then you're taxed there regardless of what it is or how it's earned.

 

 

 

Yep 

 

I am OK with that (I have no choice)....but I won't pay additional tax in Thailand.

[K2938]

On 5/19/2025 at 10:00 PM, Barley said:

So it is an attempt to lure foreign earned money back into the country quickly, by making it tax free, if you do it within the same year or the following year after it was earned.

This leads to interesting questions.  Let's say you have 100 abroad which is 70 savings and 30 income.  You missed the 2 year deadline.  So you now put it into the stock market and sell it at 110.  If you now transfer the 110 to Thailand immediately, i.e. within 2 years of earning it, what happens?  It is all tax free because within 2 years,  only the 10 are tax free because only these were gained in the last two years, it is 10+70 (old savings) because old savings are never taxed, but seen as capital, or what is it?  And of course excluding gifts and inheritance all savings are really former income of some previous time anyway.



 

[anrcaccount]

15 minutes ago, K2938 said:

This leads to interesting questions.  Let's say you have 100 abroad which is 70 savings and 30 income.  You missed the 2 year deadline.  So you now put it into the stock market and sell it at 110.  If you now transfer the 110 to Thailand immediately, i.e. within 2 years of earning it, what happens?  It is all tax free because within 2 years,  only the 10 are tax free because only these were gained in the last two years, it is 10+70 (old savings) because old savings are never taxed, but seen as capital, or what is it?  And of course excluding gifts and inheritance all savings are really former income of some previous time anyway.



 

 

 

This example shows why remittance taxation is an absolute joke, and why almost nowhere in the world has it. It's unworkable in the real world. 

 

In your example, the 110 remittance wouldn't be liable for any thai tax under the proposed reinterpretation of the foreign income exemption. 

 

 

 

 

[JohnnyBD]

I would think the current rule exempting pre-2024 monies will continue to apply so those monies can continue to be remitted to Thailand tax free. It seems that the new proposal is targeting only new foreign earned monies from 2025 going forward.

[K2938]

37 minutes ago, anrcaccount said:

This example shows why remittance taxation is an absolute joke, and why almost nowhere in the world has it. It's unworkable in the real world. 

Remittance taxation is feasible. Remittance taxation where taxation is based on the time remitted maybe not or highly complicated

 

[JB300]

Article from yesterdays Pattaya Mail makes things look very positive 👍🏻

 

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/financial-world-expects-policy-reversal-on-taxation-of-foreign-income-repatriated-to-thailand-502050
 

(sorry I don’t seem to be able to post hyperlinks from my phone). 
 

 

[JohnnyBD]

2 hours ago, JB300 said:

Article from yesterdays Pattaya Mail makes things look very positive 👍🏻

 

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/financial-world-expects-policy-reversal-on-taxation-of-foreign-income-repatriated-to-thailand-502050
 

(sorry I don’t seem to be able to post hyperlinks from my phone). 
 

 

Thanks, Pretty clean article. I hope the questions answered in the article were done by someone with authority.

[K2938]

2 hours ago, JohnnyBD said:

Thanks, Pretty clean article. I hope the questions answered in the article were done by someone with authority.

I doubt that very much.  They probably just rephrased the Bkk Post article.  But since nobody at the moment really knows what will be happening, we just have to wait.

 

[treetops]

On 5/25/2025 at 2:13 AM, JB300 said:

(sorry I don’t seem to be able to post hyperlinks from my phone).

 

It's not you or your phone, the forum software only allows approved sources to be linked.

[Thailand J]

First the flip flop.

Now it seems the new policy still depends on when the money was earned (after 2027).

If TRD wants to encourage foreign investments, why not make all foreign transfers tax free, clear and simple.

 

[ukrules]

I guess they better hurry up and make any changes if they want the annual mass remittance event which happens at the beginning of January every year to happen.

 

Then again if they begin it immediately then it would exclude remittances in the current year even if realized in the current year which would be this year.

 

Some clarification would be nice though.

[samtam]

On 5/19/2025 at 2:00 PM, NoDisplayName said:

 

Nothing to worry about.

 

Your return was flagged by the automated system for manual intervention.

 

I had similar with my return.  Needed to provide bank letter, dividend receipts, marriage certificate (filed joint return).

 

I have now received an SMS saying that TRD are sending me a Form K.21 tax refund notification by mail. I think a Form K.21 is an authorisation that I have to complete and take to K Bank for the refund. I tried to find a sample of K.21 on the TRD site, but it states "no result". Honestly it's a rather worthless palaver (2 months after filing online).

[NoDisplayName]

3 hours ago, samtam said:

 

I have now received an SMS saying that TRD are sending me a Form K.21 tax refund notification by mail. I think a Form K.21 is an authorisation that I have to complete and take to K Bank for the refund. I tried to find a sample of K.21 on the TRD site, but it states "no result". Honestly it's a rather worthless palaver (2 months after filing online).

 

Nothing to fill out.  Take the letter and your passport/pinkID to Krung Thai to redeem.

 

Be sure to read the letter.  There is at least one report that it is now possible to take the letter to any bank to cash or deposit into your account.

 

https://fitravelife.com/life/money/receive-tax-refund-for-income-declaration-of-year-2021/

[samtam]

16 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

 

Nothing to fill out.  Take the letter and your passport/pinkID to Krung Thai to redeem.

 

Be sure to read the letter.  There is at least one report that it is now possible to take the letter to any bank to cash or deposit into your account.

 

https://fitravelife.com/life/money/receive-tax-refund-for-income-declaration-of-year-2021/

 

Thank you! I thought it might get transferred by PromptPay, but no matter, there is a K Bank and others in the vicinity. I will deposit it into the nearest if I can.

 

Interestingly, I discovered that because I had used my pink ID to register for a TIN, (and it's the same number), the TRD officer said that was not registered with my bank, (which is correct, as I only obtained it earlier this year), so it is not specified on the Tax Cert, and this caused a delay, as they couldn't reconcile it. Without it, there is no digital connection between bank and TRD, (despite the claims of CRS & FACTA being able to monitor every transaction).

 

Anyway, I guess we'll wait to see how the last TRD ambiguous blah about the need for tax filing in this tax year, and perhaps it will all have died a death, as some suggest from the unclear statement, and we go back to how things were pre Por.161 & Por.162.

[Zaphod Priest]

17 minutes ago, samtam said:

despite the claims of CRS & FACTA being able to monitor every transaction

 

Not claimed - at least not claimed correctly.  Banks provide summary information only.

[Yumthai]

22 minutes ago, samtam said:

Without it, there is no digital connection between bank and TRD, (despite the claims of CRS & FACTA being able to monitor every transaction).

CRS & FACTA reports provide mainly accounts balances and do not apply within Thailand banks and residents but between different tax authorities (countries).