Revenue Department to amend tax on foreign income remittance

[Conno]

5 hours ago, CallumWK said:

 

That is also how I understand it, but I may be wrong.

 

If the crypto already was in the Thai exchange, your capital gains are tax free, but remitting them and exchange right away is a different story.

 

I'm happy to be corrected

No disrespect intended but I'm assuming you are not into crypto going by what you said above. Or maybe you are a newbee?  Cool, let me try and clear things up for you. 

 

Firstly crypto is borderless, it is neither in Thailand or any other jurisdiction, it is in cyberspace on a blockchain. Nowhere and everywhere at the same time if you will. You are looking at it from a national fiat currency perspective which it most certainly isn't.  It is still very early days regarding this announcement but on face value it is very good news indeed for crypto holders. I'm assuming the whole idea of this change is to encourage crypto people and their wealth to move to Thailand, Dubai style if you wish. Therefore if the tokens were originally acquired outside of Thailand, but the holder is now living in Thailand [or wishes to move here due to this favorable change] and they then transfers their self custody tokens to a Thailand SEC approved exchange for cashing out into Baht, this will be more than welcome and probably the very reason behind the move in the first place. Even if this is now exempt from tax on the actual sale event, the Baht when spent locally will help their revenue targets indirectly [VAT] 

 

Regarding your other comment about 'Was already on a Thai exchange' this is also incorrect. People who fully understand crypto do not leave coins on an exchange but rather they self custody. So in other words it is irrelevant if you had tokens already sitting in a Thai exchange or not, that's not how it works. For example, I have only ever used approved Thai exchanges since 2018 and I have left zero coins on the exchange and self custody as you should. This is actually the whole point of crypto, you retain control of your own wealth, no 3rd party liability, permissionless. In addition to saying that I have never sold a single Satoshi and only accumulated and held, because I was actually half hoping half expecting something like this to happen. It makes perfect sense for Thailand to do this, if there doesn't turn out to be some catch in the small print. 

 

Personally speaking I think the powers that be are going to be very happy with how this works out, I also have a feeling the results could prove to be so beneficial to Thailands economy over the next 5 years that there is a very good chance they may decide not to kill this policy come December 2029. I don't intend to get into a debate with no-coiners but Bitcoin is going to $1m per coin and more, it is now just a matter of when, not if. Global adoption and acceptance is here, whether some still resist that idea or not. 

[Conno]

4 hours ago, yozah said:

An unsold asset is not income—it’s still just capital. So bring your long term coins to thai exchange and sell for 0 tax.  Any way the amendment that this thread is about should make this point mostly moot anyway.

Agreed, if the remitted funds tax reversal is eventually given the official stamp of approval, it will be a moot point. 

[CallumWK]

4 hours ago, Conno said:

Therefore if the tokens were originally acquired outside of Thailand, but the holder is now living in Thailand [or wishes to move here due to this favorable change] and they then transfers their self custody tokens to a Thailand SEC approved exchange for cashing out into Baht, this will be more than welcome and probably the very reason behind the move in the first place. Even if this is now exempt from tax on the actual sale event, the Baht when spent locally will help their revenue targets indirectly [VAT] 

 

I indeed have no knowledge at all about crypto.

 

The above quote I still don't understand..

 

I live in Thailand, and own no crypto, and my money is outside Thailand.

 

Now suppose I exchange my foreign money to crypto today, while I live in Thailand, that mean I acquired the tokens in Thailand (or at least while I was living in Thailand). Is that correct?

I then transfer them to a Thai crypto exchange and cash them out in Thai baht.

Will I pay no income taxes in that scenario?

 

Second question.

 

Suppose I exchange 50000 Euro into stable coin. Transfer them to a Thai crypto exchange, and immediately cash them out in Thai baht. All this in the minimum of time required to complete all these transactions. I assume that is a matter of hours only.

 

What will be my total cost, or how much baht will I receive.

 

As a comparison, if I do this using Wise right now, the below is the result.

 

[Yumthai]

9 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

I thought the beauty of cryto was its anonymity and ability to send to anyone, anywhere without need for banks or brokers.

You need to do more research. Traceability is inherent to crypto (except some specific coins like Monero).

 

Getting rid of middlemen and giving back its financial sovereignty to the individuals is the ideal outcome but, most probably, the global banking system will adapt is adapting and will be merged or co-exist with crypto.

 

10 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

Appears it would be classed as a remittance, and in this case the authorities would have good records of who and when and how much.  You can bring your crypto into via an exchange, but can you get it out without reporting cost basis and having withholding taken out?

Crypto is classified as "digital asset" in Thailand.

 

AFAIK assets or digital assets remittance does not trigger a tax event in Thailand (unless it is considered as a payment for work), only income remittance does.

 

Nor I read anywhere in the tax law that assets cost basis has to be reported or some Thai WHT be applied at remittance.

 

Capital gain tax event will be triggered when the imported asset is sold, using the asset purchasing price (be it from abroad).

 

[Yumthai]

4 hours ago, Conno said:

Firstly crypto is borderless, it is neither in Thailand or any other jurisdiction, it is in cyberspace on a blockchain. Nowhere and everywhere at the same time if you will. You are looking at it from a national fiat currency perspective which it most certainly isn't.  It is still very early days regarding this announcement but on face value it is very good news indeed for crypto holders. I'm assuming the whole idea of this change is to encourage crypto people and their wealth to move to Thailand, Dubai style if you wish. Therefore if the tokens were originally acquired outside of Thailand, but the holder is now living in Thailand [or wishes to move here due to this favorable change] and they then transfers their self custody tokens to a Thailand SEC approved exchange for cashing out into Baht, this will be more than welcome and probably the very reason behind the move in the first place. Even if this is now exempt from tax on the actual sale event, the Baht when spent locally will help their revenue targets indirectly [VAT] 

100% Agreed. 

Besides, Thai registered crypto exchanges will greatly benefit from these new crypto inflows. Transactions fees volume will substantially increase leading to more harvested corporate tax.

 

[quake]

Does anyone trust this lot anymore.

With the shenanigans over the last 2 years.

I don't now.

I'm going to wait one more year, before bringing in

any funds to Thailand.

The Hub of the Flip Flop. not to be trusted at present.