(Tax paranoia 2025) Swift transfer or atm withdraw?

[Yumthai]

18 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

you call it "zero enforcement," but it's actually the law. as foreigners and guests in this country, shouldn't we at least try to follow the law?

Complying with unenforced laws is nonsensical, and lead to totalitarianism. An authority that lays down rules without enforcing it has lost all credibility.

[Everyman]

8 hours ago, motdaeng said:

 

just to clarify: the tax laws in thailand have not been changed or canceled yet, and with the current political situation, anything could still happen ..

 

you call it "zero enforcement," but it's actually the law. as foreigners and guests in this country, shouldn't we at least try to follow the law?

(and please, don't use the argument that thais also break the law  ... we're not thai!)

 

i almost forgot... thailand also attracts some foreigners with a criminal past or those involved in petty crimes, because the laws here are not always strictly enforced. of course, those types of people don’t really care about laws, especially when no one is seriously enforcing them ...

 

but i think it it possible, that sooner or later, we foreigners will be held responsible when it comes to taxes ... in one way or another. and under the current tax law, the authorities can go back and review up to 10 years in the past ...

 

You wouldn’t believe how many things are illegal in Thailand. If the police enforced every law, the country would be unlivable. 

 

As far as having a special responsibility to obey laws that Thais don’t, who are you trying to please? Buddha? If general Thai people don’t care and the police don’t care and the government doesn’t care, are you trying to earn a medal or something? Just relax and live your life 

[motdaeng]

.

[motdaeng]

53 minutes ago, Everyman said:

 

You wouldn’t believe how many things are illegal in Thailand. If the police enforced every law, the country would be unlivable. 

 

As far as having a special responsibility to obey laws that Thais don’t, who are you trying to please? Buddha? If general Thai people don’t care and the police don’t care and the government doesn’t care, are you trying to earn a medal or something? Just relax and live your life 

 

... no matter which country i live in, i always try to follow the laws and respect the local culture and customs ...

this has helped me personally to live a relax and peaceful life in thailand (20+ years) ... 

[Everyman]

11 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

 

... no matter which country i live in, i always try to follow the laws and respect the local culture and customs ...

this has helped me personally to live a relax and peaceful life in thailand (20+ years) ... 

 

I respect Thai culture and customs.

 

I don’t obsess about half baked, unenforced bureaucratic nonsense that is in the process of being reversed. 

 

If you want to feel like a good person, donate some money to a needy temple.

 

Part of adapting to Thailand is understanding why Thais aren’t bothered by silly requirements. It’s because they know it’s crap. Follow their lead. Adapt their culture. Be more Thai.

 

 

[oldcpu]

On 6/19/2025 at 6:19 AM, sanook 1 said:

Is it recomended to use a foreign atm card for withdraws rather than Swift transfers in 2025 if you here moore than 180 days a year? 

 

As was pointed out, if you can prove the money you have abroad, was earned prior to 1-Jan-2024, then you can bring the money into Thaliand via either method, tax free.  The comparison then comes down to where is the most fee?  is it the cost (admin/exchange-fee) of multiple ATM withdrawals or one large swift transfer.

 

Why 1-Jan-2024?  Because in year 2023, two Thai ministerial documents , Por-161 and 162 noted that any money in one's foreign accounts pre-1-Jan-2024 could be considered 'savings' and not taxable when remitted to Thailand. So what many of us did, was obtain an official bank statement of one's foreign savings as of 31-Dec-2023.  And after that, keep a spreadsheet recording the money that one brings into Thailand, so to prove that the money remitted to Thailand is credibly from before 1-Jan-2024.

 

In which case (if pre-Jan-2024) there is no Thai tax on that remitted to Thailand income.

 

However if one is living from pay-check-to-pay-check and has no pre-1-Jan-2024 savings, this is all irrelevant. 

 

Note also, this likely applies to cash savings in one's foreign accounts and does not apply to pre-1-Jan-2024 equities or other holdings. 

 

I am also no tax expert, so its best to confirm such yourself.