Revenue Department to amend tax on foreign income remittance

[Photoguy21]

There seems to be a misconception in Thailand. If you bring foreign currency into the country, Thailand is getting the use of that for foreign transactions. Outside of Thailand the value of the Baht is next to nothing.

[Yumthai]

1 hour ago, KhunHeineken said:

If you speak to some of the foreigners owning businesses here, tax is "negotiable" through their accountant.  I don't have a business here, so no need for an accountant, however, the agent does a similar job.

 

I concur. It's called flexible accounting, commonly used along with flexible lawyers.

 

Some people with no first-hand experience doing serious business in Thailand can't really comprehend how things are managed in this country, and end up flooding forum threads worrying uselessly about tax law and rules compliance. Yet, everything is negotiable here and expected to be.

 

I've seen people running successful businesses in Thailand and other failed. The successful ones have always adapted to the Thai system, while the ones who failed were systematically trying to strictly stick to the rules wasting time, energy, to eventually losing their business.

 

[ukrules]

6 hours ago, Millian said:

Got some examples, or stats on this?

 

Yes thanks but it's spread across many websites - the information is out there and in 2024 so many left that it was far more than many previous years combined with predicted results for this year also very high.

 

It's OK though as the intent was to make the rich pay - which worked - so they left. Job done, except now they're running out of other peoples money.

 

There's a long history of this kind of policy failure over the decades and nearly all of them were eventually rolled back and abolished.

 

So either they're completely and utterly incompetent or planned this.

 

[KhunHeineken]

2 hours ago, Yumthai said:

 

I concur. It's called flexible accounting, commonly used along with flexible lawyers.

 

Some people with no first-hand experience doing serious business in Thailand can't really comprehend how things are managed in this country, and end up flooding forum threads worrying uselessly about tax law and rules compliance. Yet, everything is negotiable here and expected to be.

 

I've seen people running successful businesses in Thailand and other failed. The successful ones have always adapted to the Thai system, while the ones who failed were systematically trying to strictly stick to the rules wasting time, energy, to eventually losing their business.

 

No argument from me.  I agree.

 

Rather than possibly leave myself open to extortion at a later date, my decision was to be proactive and take it out of corrupt official's hands.  I posted on this forum in 2024 that I would be filing, declaring, paying, and receiving proof of payment.  There was no secret.  Once again, I just see it as compliance for living in Thailand, permanently. 

 

As I minimized my remittances, we are not talking about a lot of baht.  A foreigner owns my condo.  He has Wise.  I now pay him through Wise, rather than to his Thai bank account.  He's happy, and so am I.  We both cut out the Thai bank and the TRD for this amount each month.  

 

The flip side to your post is, I have also seen many here take short cuts.  Some in business, but mostly  individuals, usually around property, by simply putting the property in their Thai girl's name, you using Thai nominees. 

 

I didn't take any short cuts on this one.  I don't see it as losing money.  I see it as covering my a**.  It's the price I pay to deal with any nasty surprises the Thai government might come up with in the future. 

 

Yes, I use agents for just about everything here.  The less I have to deal with Thai officials the better, and all my documents are in order.  As you allude to, I have created the illusion of compliance, which is all the Thai's care about. 

 

Will it all fizzle out, maybe.  Will they tighten the screws, maybe.  Either way, I'm good for this year.  I'll decide next year whether to do the same, or do nothing, but sleeping well knowing they can't bite me on the a**. 

[K2938]

Is their now already any clarity on if credit card payments with a foreign credit card for purchases in Thailand are remittances?

And if yes, then I guess a flight back to Thailand is not a remittance since it is not for something in Thailand?

Thank you.

[samtam]

2 hours ago, K2938 said:

Is their now already any clarity on if credit card payments with a foreign credit card for purchases in Thailand are remittances?

And if yes, then I guess a flight back to Thailand is not a remittance since it is not for something in Thailand?

Thank you.

 

There is no definitive answer, but TRD seem to hedge it with "as long as you're not making an obvious habit of it with large purchases", which is utterly meaningless.

 

Furthermore, the latest Expat Tax (ET) webinars (with their tame TRD officer) say that the touted (in BP) changes will not take effect this year. Again, only sayso. In addition, ET included an IMM officer regarding tax certificates for visa renewals/extensions. Those for Retirement on a monthly income basis are taxable, those on money in the bank are not. Whether anyone is experiencing this at IMM will be interesting to know, or whether it is just an opinion, (albeit from an IMM officer) is another matter.

 

All these things are up in the air, and likely to get more vague as the governance of Thailand lurches in the coming weeks. 

[K2938]

7 minutes ago, samtam said:

There is no definitive answer, but TRD seem to hedge it with "as long as you're not making an obvious habit of it with large purchases", which is utterly meaningless.

Thank you so much for your tremendously insightful and helpful answer.  Just as a follow-on may I ask where the TRC stated that credit cards are ok "as long as you're not making an obvious habit of it with large purchases" or something similar?  Thank you!

 

 

[samtam]

1 hour ago, K2938 said:

Thank you so much for your tremendously insightful and helpful answer.  Just as a follow-on may I ask where the TRC stated that credit cards are ok "as long as you're not making an obvious habit of it with large purchases" or something similar?  Thank you!

 

 

 

The same source I mentioned - Expat Tax in one of their webinars. It was a "fudged" answer. But there really isn't anything specific, as it's not directly addressed.

 

As far as your specific question, buying an airline ticket, I really don't think I would concern myself with that. I tied myself into knots trying to classify what is and isn't a "remittance" for my first tax file (FYE 2024), and frankly it seems to have been a complete waste of time, energy and anxiety. They simply do not know.

[anrcaccount]

7 hours ago, K2938 said:

Is their now already any clarity on if credit card payments with a foreign credit card for purchases in Thailand are remittances?

And if yes, then I guess a flight back to Thailand is not a remittance since it is not for something in Thailand?

Thank you.

You want clarity?

 

IMO - not a single person has ever paid thai tax on a foreign credit card purchase.

 

 

 

 

[anrcaccount]

5 hours ago, samtam said:

 

. In addition, ET included an IMM officer regarding tax certificates for visa renewals/extensions. Those for Retirement on a monthly income basis are taxable, those on money in the bank are not. Whether anyone is experiencing this at IMM will be interesting to know, or whether it is just an opinion, (albeit from an IMM officer) is another matter.

Jing lor? (Really?) 

So the pet Immigration officer is stating retirement visa extensions using the income method require a Thai tax return?

If this was even remotely close to the truth - you'd be seeing it in multiple reports across the forum.

Have I missed something?

But as is usual with anything from this "agency",  it's a sly fabrication slickly presented as fact. 

Be very careful with anything you read or see from this source. 

 

 

5 hours ago, samtam said:

 

[Peter Crow]

1 hour ago, anrcaccount said:

So the pet Immigration officer is stating retirement visa extensions using the income method require a Thai tax return?

He definitely said so. My understanding was that immigration would now use the Thai tax return as a proof of 65K/month (40K for marriage extension). Which makes sense I reckon as the one of the topic of the webinar was the cooperation between RTP, TRD and IO. 

 

He also kept repeating "don't worry, be a law abiding subject..", which we all are, aren't we?

[CallumWK]

10 minutes ago, Peter Crow said:

He definitely said so. My understanding was that immigration would now use the Thai tax return as a proof of 65K/month (40K for marriage extension). Which makes sense I reckon as the one of the topic of the webinar was the cooperation between RTP, TRD and IO. 

 

He also kept repeating "don't worry, be a law abiding subject..", which we all are, aren't we?

 

No he didn't say that. He said that monthly income is taxable, not that they need a tax certificate to renew their extension