Thailand to tax residents’ foreign income irrespective of remittance

[naboo]

Got my yellow Tabien Baan today in Lamphun.

My wife went down a few weeks ago and asked what was required. They stated:

Translation of passport photo page

Two 2" photos

My work permit

My wife's (head of house on blue Tabien Baan) ID card

The blue Tabien Baan

Our Puu Yai Baan (cost not yet clear, but he's now coming to our Christmas Party and I'll introduce him to some of Scotland's finest whisky, I have another issue I need to chat to him about).

Our Puu Yai Baan's Tabien Baan (God knows why).

Copies of all the above.

Wife made an arrangement with the Puu Yai Baan, called the office and agreed a time, 2pm today. Turned up, straight to the front of the queue, wais all round, three photos (not two) needed, thankfully Fuji Photo had done four for me that morning, all done in 10 minutes.

Surprised really, I was sure that immigration would have been involved somewhere, but no. Maybe because there is no immigration in Lamphun province.

Very easy. Looking at my new number, it looks like I'm within the first 100 to complete this process in Lamphun (or Amphoe Muang Lamphun at least).

[bangmai]

I am single and own a condo in Su Thep, Mueang, Chiang Mai. I got a Blue and a Yellow this year. Girlfriend was hekpful. Letter of Residency from Immigration, and translated photo page from passport,,,that was 300 thb at cmu LI. It can vary widely, even from one side of the street to another. Find the right office, have them double check, then see what they need. It's impossible in some Tambons, but very easy in others.

[CP3]

Appreciate to get some input on my questions.

• If I am the owner of the condo and I don't have a yellow book, 1. do I still have to report whenever I arrive in Thailand to immigration? 2. currently my rental apartment owner has to report to immigration then I can only extend my visa exemption, if I own a condo now, what will be the process?
• I'll live in with my burmese partner(WP holder) who is not legally married. I believe she can get yellow house book(I don't wish to have one for myself). when she apply for it, do we have to mention the relationship between she and the condo's owner(which will be me)

[naboo]

If you are the owner and you don't have a Yellow Book, then I assume you have the Blue Tabien Bahn with the address and no people listed as resident.

In this case, nobody is considered "Head of House". To get your Burmese girlfriend a yellow book, the head of house needs to "accept" them into the house. I'm not sure how this could happen without a head of house.

[Swiss1960]

If you are the owner and you don't have a Yellow Book, then I assume you have the Blue Tabien Bahn with the address and no people listed as resident.

In this case, nobody is considered "Head of House". To get your Burmese girlfriend a yellow book, the head of house needs to "accept" them into the house. I'm not sure how this could happen without a head of house.

"Head of House" will be the condo owner / house owner / director of the company owning the house or condo. If company owned, you will need all (updated) company documents and the company stamp also.

[Swiss1960]

so here is my experience: Basic is that I live in Nongprue, Banglamung and I live in a company owned house, of which (the company) I happen to be the director.

First of all, we did go to Amphur Banglamung Office in Naklua to find out what is needed, but we were informed that for Nongprue, everything with Tabien Baan (blue and yellow) can be done at the Tessabaan (Municipality) Nongprue itself (address Nongmaikaen Soi 2). So we went there and first and best thing is that NOBODY was there. On all visits, we took a queue number which was immediately called out.

First visit, got my wife registered in our house, meaning her name was put in the blue book. Required documents:

- House document (chanote)

- Land purchase document

- Company document from company office (ATTENTION: Must be recent, not older than 1 month we were told)

- Company stamp

- wife ID card

- blue books (wife's current and our new)

Good thing: NO COPIES required. Every employee there has a scanner in front of him and scans the necessary documents, when needed prints them and gives them for signing. Cost for that was zero. Registration for wife was 30 Baht.

Same visit go to next desk for the yellow book. Needed

- translation of my passport pic page into Thai. Did not know about that, but the lady at the desk knew somebody to do it... (well invested money to make sure that it is accepted and the lady is happy to have some additional income...)

- all company documents as above

- 3 pictures of me

- additional a residence certificate from immigration

- two witnesses, one was my wife and the other a joint girlfriend of ours, NO head of village needed.

- loads of documents to be signed

- had to give name of my parents

Again no copies of nothing needed, everything is scanned immediately into the system.

IMPORTANT: The lady at the desk (who btw spoke good English) pointed out and made sure that my name - which is already in Thai on the company document - will be translated exactly the same way on all further documents, i.e. my parents name, translation of my passport etc etc.

Second visit 4 days later for signing the "official" documents that were prepared by the Municipality office, Me and both witnesses had to be there, total of 15 minutes in the office.

Now all paperwork sent off to another office (not sure where they go), was told to expect waiting time of 3-4 weeks until I get a call to pick up my yellow tabien baan.

So far, I have been full of praise for Jomtien immigration in other threads, also Land Transportation for my drivers licences was ok, but Nongprue Municipality beats them... I guess from a bureaucrazy point of view, I am one lucky guy living in the right place... so far with everything from DL to 90d report to tabien baan to retirement extension was just flawless, pain-free, nothing unexpected and more easy than I every did dream of.

Will update when my book arrives and tell you about the cost

[blackcab]

If you are the owner and you don't have a Yellow Book, then I assume you have the Blue Tabien Bahn with the address and no people listed as resident.

In this case, nobody is considered "Head of House". To get your Burmese girlfriend a yellow book, the head of house needs to "accept" them into the house. I'm not sure how this could happen without a head of house.

"Head of House" will be the condo owner / house owner / director of the company owning the house or condo. If company owned, you will need all (updated) company documents and the company stamp also.

There is a problem in more commercial cases. As an example, the company I work for owns a number of apartment buildings. Each building has a blue house book, and each house book is completely empty. There has never been a head of household or anyone registered in any of the books.

The company itself has four Thai directors who are registered in the house books of the properties they actually live in (ie their houses).

The difficulty is that one person can only be in one house book at any one time. You are removed from one book and added to the next during the same process.

Yes, a company director could move house books but in this situation they are not going to want to. And what happens if the company owns more buildings than it has directors? There would not be enough directors to be head of household.

[blackcab]

so here is my experience: Basic is that I live in Nongprue, Banglamung and I live in a company owned house, of which (the company) I happen to be the director.

The only downside to this arrangement is that the company is liable to pay par see rong ruan.

This is because a building that is owned by a company and where a company director resides is not classed as being owner occupied.

The tax rate is 12.5% of either the annual rental income or the assessed rental income if no rent (or too little rent) is paid.

Don't get too excited though - the district offices are not pro active about collecting the tax in this situation.

[Swiss1960]

If you are the owner and you don't have a Yellow Book, then I assume you have the Blue Tabien Bahn with the address and no people listed as resident.

In this case, nobody is considered "Head of House". To get your Burmese girlfriend a yellow book, the head of house needs to "accept" them into the house. I'm not sure how this could happen without a head of house.

"Head of House" will be the condo owner / house owner / director of the company owning the house or condo. If company owned, you will need all (updated) company documents and the company stamp also.

There is a problem in more commercial cases. As an example, the company I work for owns a number of apartment buildings. Each building has a blue house book, and each house book is completely empty. There has never been a head of household or anyone registered in any of the books.

The company itself has four Thai directors who are registered in the house books of the properties they actually live in (ie their houses).

The difficulty is that one person can only be in one house book at any one time. You are removed from one book and added to the next during the same process.

Yes, a company director could move house books but in this situation they are not going to want to. And what happens if the company owns more buildings than it has directors? There would not be enough directors to be head of household.

That is not what I was told by my lawyer and that is not how it worked for me. The blue tabien baan on page 1 points to the owner of the house, which in my case (and the cases you refer to) would be the company. Same is true with the land purchase contract and the chanote that all point to the company owning the house.

Yes, for company owned real estate, there is not a private person in the blue book as head of house, but through the company ownership, each director of the company (or two directors together, if they do not have single signature rights) can act as head of house in the blue book and request from the tessabaan / amphoe that Thai people shall be put into the blue book or foreigners shall be issued with a yellow book. That is waht happened in my case and that is why the tessabaan requested up-to-date company documents to ensure that I am still acting director of said company.

Company directors do not "move" a blue tabien baan except if they would sell the house to a new company or a private Thai owner. Only then would the blue book have to be re-issued based on the sell contracts (which would include changes in the land office registry of course).

[FruitPudding]

Do you really need to be married?

[bangmai]

A friend told me he is paying taxes of 18,000 thb per year on a company house worth 8 million in Hua Hin. He also said it was being contested in court, as it seemed to be a tax only levied on farang.

[TheCruncher]

A friend told me he is paying taxes of 18,000 thb per year on a company house worth 8 million in Hua Hin. He also said it was being contested in court, as it seemed to be a tax only levied on farang.

That 18000 Baht probably goes to an accountant to file his fictitious tax return, because he doesn't do any real business, and in reality he pays no tax at all.

[bangmai]

nope, he has a legitimate company, and has been using the house as a vacation rental.

[Swiss1960]

so here is my experience: Basic is that I live in Nongprue, Banglamung and I live in a company owned house, of which (the company) I happen to be the director.

First of all, we did go to Amphur Banglamung Office in Naklua to find out what is needed, but we were informed that for Nongprue, everything with Tabien Baan (blue and yellow) can be done at the Tessabaan (Municipality) Nongprue itself (address Nongmaikaen Soi 2). So we went there and first and best thing is that NOBODY was there. On all visits, we took a queue number which was immediately called out.

First visit, got my wife registered in our house, meaning her name was put in the blue book. Required documents:

- House document (chanote)

- Land purchase document

- Company document from company office (ATTENTION: Must be recent, not older than 1 month we were told)

- Company stamp

- wife ID card

- blue books (wife's current and our new)

Good thing: NO COPIES required. Every employee there has a scanner in front of him and scans the necessary documents, when needed prints them and gives them for signing. Cost for that was zero. Registration for wife was 30 Baht.

Same visit go to next desk for the yellow book. Needed

- translation of my passport pic page into Thai. Did not know about that, but the lady at the desk knew somebody to do it... (well invested money to make sure that it is accepted and the lady is happy to have some additional income...)

- all company documents as above

- 3 pictures of me

- additional a residence certificate from immigration

- two witnesses, one was my wife and the other a joint girlfriend of ours, NO head of village needed.

- loads of documents to be signed

- had to give name of my parents

Again no copies of nothing needed, everything is scanned immediately into the system.

IMPORTANT: The lady at the desk (who btw spoke good English) pointed out and made sure that my name - which is already in Thai on the company document - will be translated exactly the same way on all further documents, i.e. my parents name, translation of my passport etc etc.

Second visit 4 days later for signing the "official" documents that were prepared by the Municipality office, Me and both witnesses had to be there, total of 15 minutes in the office.

Now all paperwork sent off to another office (not sure where they go), was told to expect waiting time of 3-4 weeks until I get a call to pick up my yellow tabien baan.

So far, I have been full of praise for Jomtien immigration in other threads, also Land Transportation for my drivers licences was ok, but Nongprue Municipality beats them... I guess from a bureaucrazy point of view, I am one lucky guy living in the right place... so far with everything from DL to 90d report to tabien baan to retirement extension was just flawless, pain-free, nothing unexpected and more easy than I every did dream of.

Will update when my book arrives and tell you about the cost

As promised my update: Received a call on Friday 5th of February that my yellow book is ready for pickup. Went on Monday 8th, showed my passport, was handed out my Yellow Book, checked writing of my name, cost zero...

So the only costs were "outside" for the translation of my passport to Thai (cost 1'000 including stamps) and updated company docs through my lawyer (cost 1'500).

So once again, it is possible, took 4 weeks from start to end, no hassle and no brown envelopes needed, but again probably good thing is to live in a village (Nongprue for me) that has a municipality which is allowed to issue and update blue / yellow books. I never had to wait in any queue and was treated with respect all way through the process.

[bangmai]

My passport translation was 300 at CMU LI....including official stamps, and can be issued another one, with a fresh stamp for 50 THB, any time in the future. But congrats....it, too, was more of a hassle than filing taxes in the US, but not as bad as doing a retirement extension in CM.

[blackcab]

Do you really need to be married?

You do not need to be married to get a yellow house book.

[blackcab]

nope, he has a legitimate company, and has been using the house as a vacation rental.

He might be being charged Par See Rong Ruan, which is a tax on commercial or non owner occupied properties.

I can assure you that Thai individuals and Thai companies pay that tax as it is applied to just about every apartment building you can see.

[OneZero]

Can I get a yellow book if my wife is owner of the condo (Chiang Rai)?

Edited September 30, 2016 by OneZero
Clarify its a question

[blackcab]

2 hours ago, OneZero said:

Can I get a yellow book if my wife is owner of the condo (Chiang Rai)?

 

Yes, but only if she gives permission.

[OneZero]

Good.  Thanks for the update.

[Harveyboy]

On 10/01/2008 at 11:22 AM, off road said:

Greetings, and Happy New Year to you all.

Over the past couple of months i have been gathering the documents required to submit with the application for a Yellow Tambien Baan. They are:

Copy of passport & certified translation (of main page).

Copy & certified translation of my birth certificate.

Certified copy of my marriage certificate.

Copy of my retirement visa.

Letter from Embassy (UK)+ certified translation.

Copy of Thai driving licence (car & motorbike).

Copy of wife's ID

Copy of wife' blue Tambien Baan...every page.

Family photograph.

6X photos of myself.

My wife had previously (late Nov) called into the Amphur office....(Prachon Chai...Buriram).....and spoke to the chap at the front desk. He was aware of the existance of the Yellow Tambien Baan...and wrote a list of the requirements for me.

My wife and I went to the Amphur on Jan 3rd to submit my application. Prior to going, my wife called and spoke to the head man in the Amphur....to make sure that he was available. It was very crowded and the chap on the front desk gave us a ticket to go straight through to the head honcho's office at the back. Well........this guy did not want to know a thing. He was hostile from the very start. He claimed to know nothing about the Yellow Tambien Baan. ....and sent us out ...to wait.

So wait we did.....and 2 hours later we were called to this chap's office again. There was no change in his attitude and I could see that no amount of pleasantrys and fact producing on my wifes part was going to change things. He asked why I wanted the Tambien Baan.....and then said that my passpoet was good enough for me.....being farang. We left empty handed. At no time was my wife or I discourteous to anybody.

My questions are: What is my next best approach? The Amphur in Buriram town ?

Does my application have to be submitted in the Amphur where my house is?

I look forward to any replies,

Regards.......Off road

  HI MATE   not all of the Thais are as rude as this bloke  i went with my wife last week to our Ampur friendly sorted all my paperwork took about an hour or so gave me all the docs for the head man in my wifes village to sign the sort of Mayer if you want should get my yellow book end of this week done and sorted   hope you have better luck with your next interview   but as one of the posts here said  dont forget all of us Farangs here in Thailand are RICH   perhaps he was waiting for an envalope eh  

[off road]

  HI MATE   not all of the Thais are as rude as this bloke  i went with my wife last week to our Ampur friendly sorted all my paperwork took about an hour or so gave me all the docs for the head man in my wifes village to sign the sort of Mayer if you want should get my yellow book end of this week done and sorted   hope you have better luck with your next interview   but as one of the posts here said  dont forget all of us Farangs here in Thailand are RICH   perhaps he was waiting for an envalope eh  

Gee...that was all in 2008! It was not long after that i did receive the yellow book. There was a change in admin in the Prachon Chai office....to a very nice gentleman.
Pink i.d. card also now acquired lst year - painless procedure. Regards,
Off road

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