Well after my run ins with Bangkok bank, I want to change SCB as that was said to be an ok bank on forums.

 

I went in and found out what was needed to open an account, after my marriage extension was finalised I went back and was told after they got my paperwork that it would be a week after they ran checks(I was not told this beforehand).

 

Im running out of time to get money transferred to get my 12 monthly amounts for my extension

 

Any suggestions for other banks.

 

What the hell are they checking that takes a week.

Kasikorn, been trouble free for 10+ years. Krungsri also been good

25 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Kasikorn, been trouble free for 10+ years. Krungsri also been good

Thanks will give it a try

In late 2021 I went to open an EZ Savings (1.5%, max 1M) account at SCB.  At first they said I needed a work permit.  I told them I was on retirement extension and am not allowed to work.  I also asked them to call their main office to check if I met the requirements for an account.   They affirmed that I could.  They decided I should also have a regular savings so they opened that for me but when trying to open the EZ account they couldn't proceed for some reason.  I asked them if they could open the EZ account if I got a Thai tax ID and they said yes.  The next morning I went to the main Thai Revenue office for CM and had my tax ID in 20 minutes.  I then went back to the same SCB branch and they finished setting up the EZ account.  I also asked them to not withhold any tax from the interest.  They complied and I have never had tax withheld from the start.

 

Since BKK bank has gone rogue, I've been using only SCB. The EZ account has no bank book, but it seems Thai Imm. is familiar with it and does accept it for extensions.  I use the regular savings for my daily QR payments and top it up with a couple of transfers from the EZ account each month.  I try to make it easy for Thai Imm. to see the required balance for extensions is always in the EZ account.

 

Sometime in the last 2 years SCB switched to monthly interest deposits to the EZ account.  SCB has also doubled and then lowered again the maximum balance (to get the 1.5%) since I opened the account.

Well it has been a week and 3 days and not a peep from SCB bank, so me being me I went to Kasikorn bank to try and open an account there, major fail, I dont know who mentioned immigration it wasnt me maybe my wife who was doing the translating, but ran into the cant open an account it must be 400000 baht for 2 months for verification, I said I dont need it for verification I use 40000 per month and only require confirm that it is my account, I said this numerous times and naturally was a tad sick of saying it in the end. I also may have mentioned who has the right to tell me what I can use an account for.

 

Anyway I have now asked head office what do I have to do to open an account. Im running out of time to get 12 monthly payments in.

15 minutes ago, BillyBloggs said:

Well it has been a week and 3 days and not a peep from SCB bank, so me being me I went to Kasikorn bank to try and open an account there, major fail, I dont know who mentioned immigration it wasnt me maybe my wife who was doing the translating, but ran into the cant open an account it must be 400000 baht for 2 months for verification, I said I dont need it for verification I use 40000 per month and only require confirm that it is my account, I said this numerous times and naturally was a tad sick of saying it in the end. I also may have mentioned who has the right to tell me what I can use an account for.

 

Anyway I have now asked head office what do I have to do to open an account. Im running out of time to get 12 monthly payments in.

 

You're not doing yourself any favor visiting a  bank branch with your wife as your translator/interpreter. Go there alone; they'll be forced to get one of their smarter staff members to serve you who can speak English.

 

I have opened each and every Thai bank account on my own and I've never had any of the issues people keep reporting here when rocking up with locals "to help".

On 10/21/2025 at 6:07 AM, gamb00ler said:

I also asked them to not withhold any tax from the interest.  They complied and I have never had tax withheld from the start.

 

Interesting. I thought they always are required by the BOT to withheld 15% on all foreign account holders. On what basis will they agree to not withhold any of your earned interest for taxes?

8 hours ago, BillyBloggs said:

I also may have mentioned who has the right to tell me what I can use an account for.

 

They actually do have the right. Their bank, their rules. 

8 hours ago, FriscoKid said:

 

Interesting. I thought they always are required by the BOT to withheld 15% on all foreign account holders. On what basis will they agree to not withhold any of your earned interest for taxes?

If the banks don't have your Thai tax ID, they are required to withhold the 15%.  If you do have one, they don't have to but can still do so if that's what you wish.  The banks do not withhold from Thai account holders because they have their tax ID (national ID #).  Of course, interest income is reported to the TRD in all cases.

16 hours ago, BillyBloggs said:

Well it has been a week and 3 days and not a peep from SCB bank, so me being me I went to Kasikorn bank to try and open an account there, major fail, I dont know who mentioned immigration it wasnt me maybe my wife who was doing the translating, but ran into the cant open an account it must be 400000 baht for 2 months for verification, I said I dont need it for verification I use 40000 per month and only require confirm that it is my account, I said this numerous times and naturally was a tad sick of saying it in the end. I also may have mentioned who has the right to tell me what I can use an account for.

 

Anyway I have now asked head office what do I have to do to open an account. Im running out of time to get 12 monthly payments in.

After we moved to Thailand I approached Kasikorn for an account and enlisted the assistance of my stepson.  He had been a KBank customer for many years and he asked his friend to also help.  His friend was a regional manager with KBank.  KBank still refused to open an account as I held only the original non-O 90 day visa.  

On 10/25/2025 at 8:04 AM, gamb00ler said:

If the banks don't have your Thai tax ID, they are required to withhold the 15%.  If you do have one, they don't have to but can still do so if that's what you wish.  The banks do not withhold from Thai account holders because they have their tax ID (national ID #).  Of course, interest income is reported to the TRD in all cases.

 

I just spoke directly with the manager at the bank branch I use. She had never heard of the option to avoid tax withholding on interest. She said that the bank withholds 15 percent tax on interest for everyone, including Thai nationals. She explained that Thai citizens obviously all have tax ID numbers, which are the same as their national ID numbers, but that the tax is still withheld on all interest earned for everyone.

 

She asked what forms or information you would submit to the bank to request no tax withholding, and I admitted I wasn’t sure. She said, frankly, she didn’t know of any such process. According to her, everyone has 15 percent withheld for tax on bank interest, and the bank will provide a form at the end of the year if you want to request a refund from the TRD. She added that anyone is eligible for a full refund as long as total bank interest income does not exceed ฿20,000 in a year, regardless of other personal income or your progressive tax bracket.

 

I did a bit more digging and learned there is a method where you can submit tax form P.N.D.54 from the TRD which is a form regarding withholding tax and profit remittance, and then they are not obliged to withhold the tax. I am assuming that this method is fairly uncommon, though otherwise she probably would've known about it. The other problem is that if the bank does not still report the interest to the Revenue Department properly, when you file your annual tax return, you must declare it as regular income, which could potentially increase your taxes instead of reducing them.

 

My takeaway: I'm not 100% sure which is the best method, but I'm inclined to just let the bank still deduct the 15 percent tax, then get the tax form from the bank at the end of the year, and file it with your tax return to claim a refund. This way, you can get all the money back if your interest does not exceed ฿20,000 in total. This approach avoids the risk of the bank possibly failing to report the income as interest income to the Revenue Department and ensures you keep the exemption in place on interest earned.

On 10/27/2025 at 4:02 PM, FriscoKid said:

I just spoke directly with the manager at the bank branch I use. She had never heard of the option to avoid tax withholding on interest.

Then my first reaction is she hasn't been trained very well and or bothered to stay up to date.......

I walked into a local SCB branch some years ago and the cashier I dealt with added my Thai TIN without any issues as far as I remember. 

 

If I remember correctly they cannot do for Fixed Accounts but I may be wrong on that.

 

Many posters have successfully reported having this done over the years so it is not "uncommon".

 

I think even Thai's have to request it as it is a choice of the individual.

On 10/28/2025 at 5:55 PM, topt said:

Then my first reaction is she hasn't been trained very well and or bothered to stay up to date.......

I walked into a local SCB branch some years ago and the cashier I dealt with added my Thai TIN without any issues as far as I remember. 

 

If I remember correctly they cannot do for Fixed Accounts but I may be wrong on that.

 

Many posters have successfully reported having this done over the years so it is not "uncommon".

 

I think even Thai's have to request it as it is a choice of the individual.

Thanks for the clarifications. If it doesn’t apply to fixed deposits, then it kind of defeats the purpose. Even if you avoid the withholding on your savings account, you’d still need to go to the tax office to claim a refund for the fixed deposit portion of your interest. So it’s probably easier to just leave everything as is and claim it all back at once, which is what I plan to do. In my case, it’s a relatively small amount anyway.

 

Also, when I spoke with the woman at the bank over the phone, I think she did mention that it wasn’t available for fixed deposits. So maybe she did know about the savings account portion, but thought I was talking about fixed deposit interest, since it would be higher than savings account interest. That could explain the confusion.

You can go to 3 different SCB branches in the same city and get 5 different rules and ways on how your file will be handled. 

 

So try another branch of the same bank, You might get lucky. 

On 10/27/2025 at 4:02 PM, FriscoKid said:

 

I just spoke directly with the manager at the bank branch I use. She had never heard of the option to avoid tax withholding on interest. She said that the bank withholds 15 percent tax on interest for everyone, including Thai nationals. She explained that Thai citizens obviously all have tax ID numbers, which are the same as their national ID numbers, but that the tax is still withheld on all interest earned for everyone.

 

She asked what forms or information you would submit to the bank to request no tax withholding, and I admitted I wasn’t sure. She said, frankly, she didn’t know of any such process. According to her, everyone has 15 percent withheld for tax on bank interest, and the bank will provide a form at the end of the year if you want to request a refund from the TRD. She added that anyone is eligible for a full refund as long as total bank interest income does not exceed ฿20,000 in a year, regardless of other personal income or your progressive tax bracket.

 

I did a bit more digging and learned there is a method where you can submit tax form P.N.D.54 from the TRD which is a form regarding withholding tax and profit remittance, and then they are not obliged to withhold the tax. I am assuming that this method is fairly uncommon, though otherwise she probably would've known about it. The other problem is that if the bank does not still report the interest to the Revenue Department properly, when you file your annual tax return, you must declare it as regular income, which could potentially increase your taxes instead of reducing them.

 

My takeaway: I'm not 100% sure which is the best method, but I'm inclined to just let the bank still deduct the 15 percent tax, then get the tax form from the bank at the end of the year, and file it with your tax return to claim a refund. This way, you can get all the money back if your interest does not exceed ฿20,000 in total. This approach avoids the risk of the bank possibly failing to report the income as interest income to the Revenue Department and ensures you keep the exemption in place on interest earned.

 

What you were told is not exactly correct. You may still be able to get all of the withheld tax back even if it exceeds 20k. When you file your tax return you have the option to have interest taxed as regular income instead of the 15% withholding. If your total taxable income in Thailand is under 150,000 then there is no tax owed. So if bank interest is your only source of income taxable in Thailand then you can get all of the withholding back if the total annual interest received is less than 150,000. Above 150k is taxed as regular income. If your Thai taxable income is very high then it could be better to just pay the 15% withholding instead of making the declaration to treat it is regular income.

 

The 20k limit is the threshold that the banks are allowed to exempt you from withholding. After 20k they need to apply withholding, which you may be able to get back in whole or in part depending on your total income for the year. To get this 20k exemption you need to provide a tax id.

On 10/27/2025 at 4:02 PM, FriscoKid said:

 

I just spoke directly with the manager at the bank branch I use. She had never heard of the option to avoid tax withholding on interest. She said that the bank withholds 15 percent tax on interest for everyone, including Thai nationals. She explained that Thai citizens obviously all have tax ID numbers, which are the same as their national ID numbers, but that the tax is still withheld on all interest earned for everyone.rtment and ensures you keep the exemption in place on interest earned.

 

 

The Thailand income tax act has information on this.  My research on this topic is as follows:

 

"For a Thai tax resident, bank interest income (classified under Chapter 3, Section 40(4)(a) of the Revenue Code), from which the Thailand bank has applied the 15% withholding tax (under Section 50 of the Revenue Code), offers a crucial option. Chapter 3, Section 48(3) of the Thailand Revenue Code explicitly states that for assessable income under Section 40(4)(a) (interest income) where tax has been withheld by the Thai bank, the taxpayer may elect to pay tax at the rate of 15.0 percent of that interest income, without including it in the annual assessable income computation under Section 48(1) or (2) of the Thai Revenue Code.

 

This election means the 15% withheld tax fully discharges further Thailand tax liability for that specific interest income. Consequently, the taxpayer is not required to include it in their aggregate assessable income for the Thailand annual personal income tax return (P.N.D. 90/91). Therefore, this specific interest income does not contribute to whether the individual meets the general income thresholds that would otherwise trigger a mandatory Thailand tax filing. If this bank interest is a Thailand resident's only Thai-sourced income, they generally have no obligation to file a tax return because the tax liability on that income has already been settled at source."

 

The above is my research ... perhaps if this crucial you can double check yourself.  Basically, its your option. Either have bank NOT withhold tax, or have the bank withhold tax.

 

Hence while some of us, may wish to file a Thai tax return to see if we can have the Thai withholding tax refunded, others , like myself, find it advantageous to have 15% withholding tax, as it removes any further tax obligation for that interest income, which in my case, means no Thai income tax return required.

On 10/21/2025 at 6:45 AM, scubascuba3 said:

Kasikorn, been trouble free for 10+ years. Krungsri also been good

 

Unless you are over 70 then Krungsri thinks you are too old to use a banking app.

4 hours ago, henryford1958 said:

 

Unless you are over 70 then Krungsri thinks you are too old to use a banking app.

Although many over 70 still use the app