25 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Impressive stats on a failed system 

 

Probably by design......a form of vote buying.

5 hours ago, gravia said:

I am a farang, cannot be a Thai citizen ! , I have to have a visa to stay. just like a tourist. So cannot see that this applies to me . My Thai wife does not work so unsure if this will affect her

 

You have to be joking.

 

If they apply it to themselves, do you really think they will exempt farang? How about they just put a proviso "or anyone residing in Thailand longer than 6 months". They can do whatever they want.

24 minutes ago, khunPer said:

In a way it's both fair and about time...

 

Except the low income people will be receiving very little to next to nothing in benefits....A few hundred baht maybe that will do nothing to improve their life..All this helping the poor talk is just talk....Thailand has a long track record of only throwing the poor a few bones..... 

would love to see how they will monitor this

1 hour ago, lordgrinz said:

 

Probably by design......a form of vote buying.

With such losses on taxation I wonder where the government get all their money from.

Rhetorical

23 hours ago, motdaeng said:

if this really gets implemented by 2027, then the many retired foreigners living in thailand who knowingly don’t follow the new tax laws (2024) can no longer use the excuse "but most thais also don’t pay taxes ..." and also the saying "the tax authorities will have to come personally to my door before i pay a single baht in taxes ..." maybe won't work anymore ....  

 

 

Article suggests Thais not foreigners to be affected.

7 hours ago, gravia said:

I am a farang, cannot be a Thai citizen ! , I have to have a visa to stay. just like a tourist. So cannot see that this applies to me . My Thai wife does not work so unsure if this will affect her

 

As we all know, the articles are often mistranslated or the "journalist" is simply cuttin'-'n-pastin' a press release from one of the ministries.

 

Other articles on tax specified "Thais" when the intent was for "tax residents of Thailand."

 

In this case, the project is intended to match welfare/social benefit payments with income, so would likely only be for Thai citizens, perhaps could include non-citizens on work visas.

 

I would suspect expats continue under the current system, filing only if assessable income reaches the taxable threshold.

7 hours ago, lordgrinz said:

 

Between this and my personal pet peeve "property taxes", Thailand is heading down a pretty horrible rabbit hole. Property taxes being the worst, as it allows governments to force people off their own property, usually handing it over to the Elite.

property taxes are the worst, I pay about 400 baht, maybe less yearly for our 4.5 plot of land with four houses on it. back in the states this would be costing thousands of dollars a year.

18 hours ago, JensenX said:

Who needs an excuse? No one seems to know what's required, so the smart move is to do nothing. If, in the future, they make a move and start enforcing it, we worry about it then. Why spend your time worrying about stuff that isn't currently a problem.

Wait til it’s published in the Royal Gazette

50 minutes ago, Hugh Jarse said:

Article suggests Thais not foreigners to be affected.

 

Yep.....The Thai government is always going the extra mile to take care of the farangs.....They would never want to tax us.....lol 

I would be happy to register but nobory and  I mean NObody knows where the office is.

20 hours ago, Hellfire said:

More control plus more nationalism. Make our future impossibly idiotic!

 

"Communism ..  and you can thank shin for bringing in the WEF

On 8/19/2025 at 4:21 PM, snoop1130 said:

In a move set to overhaul Thailand's welfare and tax system

Welfare system???

On 8/19/2025 at 4:21 PM, snoop1130 said:

In a move set to overhaul Thailand's welfare and tax system

I'm from the government and I'm here to help. RUN!!!!!

14 hours ago, redwood1 said:

 

This whole tax thing for farangs has already been discussed on countless tax threads here....

 

And all discussions lead back to DTAs which are vastly complicated and they are all different and open to interpretation, hell even the experts cant agree..The Thai tax people have no chance....

 

Also we would be back to seeing investment in Thailand by farangs  falling off a cliff due to being taxed......Good bye home, condo and auto sales.....

 

Any one with half a brain could see taxing farangs would cost Thailand enormous amounts of money for a tea cup full of income taxes....

 

Thai government shooting themselves in the foot, same as the UK government is doing driving people away with taxes, rules and regulations. Cambodian GF asked me a few datys ago "why are so many farangs now moving to Cambodia?" Wonder why... Here's the answer. Easier beaurocracy in Cambodia and less checks such as TM30 and 90 day reports. Not difficult but anything that requires effort or scrutiny has friction and will lead to people taking the easier option.

 

 

 

 this is a wet dream for yet another TAX thread........

19 hours ago, cracker1 said:

"According to the National Economic and Social Development Council, only 10.7 million of the 19 million registered workers in 2022 filed tax returns, with a mere 4.2 million earning enough to owe income tax."

 

So a little less than half of the workers are completing Tax Returns and of those about 40% need to pay  tax ?  That could be a substantial amount of money ?

 

I think the Tax Departments biggest headache will be "How do we process 9 million additional tax returns ?"

 

And based on the info published above, 60% will not need to pay?

That is only half the problem. 19 million registered workers - 50 million other Thais not registered. Not all of them are children or pensioners etc, Probably 20 million work in the informal economy. Tax department would need to maybe treble in size......

On 8/20/2025 at 6:35 AM, thesetat said:

How could this possibly be implemented effectively or even honestly? Most of Thailand is using a cash in hand for their income. Vendors, sex workers, farmers, as well as businesses collect and pay out or get paid using cash in hand. Can you imagine the average sex workers claiming income tax on money made from her working on her back? Or the vendor being honest about their profit selling noodles? I really do not see how this will make any changes except removing those from welfare who do not make enough money to file taxes or those too old to understand what they need to properly fill out their taxes. 

Exactly!  👍    In my neighborhood on the edge of Phuket Town I don't know anyone who pays taxes or who pays into Social Security. Soc Sec is such a great deal as it includes healthcare. One would be crazy not to join and pay in the pittance per month. I guess they don't want to be registered in the system.

I wonder what the government will do when the masses get mad about registering for the tax scheme. The government is famous for backing down... It's Thailand's version of TACO. 🤨

6 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

 this is a wet dream for yet another TAX thread........

 

Where is Mike Lister when we need him....lol

On 8/19/2025 at 4:39 PM, JoePai said:

This will go down like a lead balloon 

And likely cost far more than it will raise.

18 hours ago, redwood1 said:

 

Except the low income people will be receiving very little to next to nothing in benefits....A few hundred baht maybe that will do nothing to improve their life..All this helping the poor talk is just talk....Thailand has a long track record of only throwing the poor a few bones..... 

Agree with parts of your post. But don't forget it won't cost the low income people anything, only benefits for them.

On 8/20/2025 at 9:14 AM, NorthernRyland said:

This is a new low for Thailand. Really sad to see them going down this route after so many of relative freedom. This needs to fail and fail hard.

The Western governments, and the likes of the WEF want more control over people, their money, and where and how they spend it. CBDC's are the next big move. Thailand is just adjusting to be a part of the plan.

 

Money laundering, and tax evasion are just excuses. KYC is just another data collecting tool.

Look at how the EU and UK are talking about raiding people's bank accounts and savings.

25 minutes ago, Galong said:

Exactly!  👍    In my neighborhood on the edge of Phuket Town I don't know anyone who pays taxes or who pays into Social Security. Soc Sec is such a great deal as it includes healthcare. One would be crazy not to join and pay in the pittance per month. I guess they don't want to be registered in the system.

I wonder what the government will do when the masses get mad about registering for the tax scheme. The government is famous for backing down... It's Thailand's version of TACO. 🤨

 

The Thai lifetime non filers will not be filling out tax forms or paying taxes in 2027 or 2028 or 2029 and beyond....That is a certainty...I will take the tax office a very very long to get lifetime non filers to change

 

If they wanted to be in the tax system they would already be in it...

19 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

 

As we all know, the articles are often mistranslated or the "journalist" is simply cuttin'-'n-pastin' a press release from one of the ministries.

 

Other articles on tax specified "Thais" when the intent was for "tax residents of Thailand."

 

In this case, the project is intended to match welfare/social benefit payments with income, so would likely only be for Thai citizens, perhaps could include non-citizens on work visas.

 

I would suspect expats continue under the current system, filing only if assessable income reaches the taxable threshold.

If they bring this in I can see it being extended to non-Thais residing in Thailand for x days. Some may remember it's not that long ago that we had to get a tax form to leave Thailand. So they could implement you're in Thailand x days so file a tax form farlang even its for below the tax threshold.

14 hours ago, JJ-Thailand said:

Welfare system???

You not heard of the social security system here?

On 8/19/2025 at 5:24 PM, smedly said:

changes nothing except adds a lot of people officially having to lie

Hey how else is thaksi supposed to pay for all his freebies

7 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

If they bring this in I can see it being extended to non-Thais residing in Thailand for x days. Some may remember it's not that long ago that we had to get a tax form to leave Thailand. So they could implement you're in Thailand x days so file a tax form farlang even its for below the tax threshold.

 

You are already deemed to be a tax resident of Thailand if you spend more than 180 days in the country per annum. On this basis I think that your x will probably equal 180.

 

Not sure about the feasibility of requiring every foreigner to file a tax return, even if they don't have any sources of assessable income (as, I believe, many Americans don't on account of their social security payments being exempt from Thai tax as a result of the USA/Thailand Double Taxation Agreement). That said, this is, of course, Thailand lest we forget, so it may well, indeed, be the case that all foreigners will need to file tax returns, even if they contain loads of zeros!

 

23 hours ago, Galong said:

Exactly!  👍    In my neighborhood on the edge of Phuket Town I don't know anyone who pays taxes or who pays into Social Security. Soc Sec is such a great deal as it includes healthcare. One would be crazy not to join and pay in the pittance per month. I guess they don't want to be registered in the system.

I wonder what the government will do when the masses get mad about registering for the tax scheme. The government is famous for backing down... It's Thailand's version of TACO. 🤨

If it's registered work they pay into SS. However many thai work irregular, unofficial jobs. Call it freelance if you like. 

But regarding healthcare, if they have an ID card they're in the 30 Baht system, which is not related to SS healthcare.

20 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Some may remember it's not that long ago that we had to get a tax form to leave Thailand

Been living here for almost 30 years, never had to get a tax form to leave Thailand. So if that's true, it really was a long time ago.

On 8/20/2025 at 5:06 PM, redwood1 said:

 

Yep.....The Thai government is always going the extra mile to take care of the farangs.....They would never want to tax us.....lol 

 

Wish they did not tax me... Got my yearly bonus yesterday..........30% went to the government 😞