Hi I wonder if any of you guys or gals can shed some light on this for me.

I was just talking with my girlfriend and she told me that her English teacher had told the class that any farang working legaly and having there wages paid to them within the Kingdom pay a flat tax rate of 15 percent, no matter how much or how little they earn.

Is this correct and if not what are the tax brackets for a foreign national here?

Many thanks in advance for any informative replies.

Noodles.

Hi I wonder if any of you guys or gals can shed some light on this for me.

I was just talking with my girlfriend and she told me that her English teacher had told the class that any farang working legaly and having there wages paid to them within the Kingdom pay a flat tax rate of 15 percent, no matter how much or how little they earn.

Is this correct and if not what are the tax brackets for a foreign national here?

Many thanks in advance for any informative replies.

Noodles.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So long as you are a resident in Thailand (live here more than 180 days per annum) - AND your company is not availing itself of any special tax provisions, e.g. as is the case with a Regional Head Office, see:

www.rd.go.th/publish/317.0.html

SM

I'm paying between 20-30% on a yearly basis, I have never heard of this rule before. This is definately not the case, Thailand will not mind farang paying more tax than Thai nationals. They would mind farang paying less than Thai nationals while earning more..

Have you never seen how tax rates are calculated?

Can't remember the exact thresholds or rates, but Thailand uses a progressively increasing tax rate dependent on income. It is quite low to start with but really ramps up if you're a high earner (say, >THB 1M p.a.)

Personally, my effective tax rate here is just under 30%

Teachers tend not to be the highest paid people in the world, so may pay tax at 15%. Maybe this is where any confusion came from?

The reason why 15% sticks in my mind is because I think that is the rate that a foreign expat employee of an RoH pays, if:

1. they work in Thailand for 2 years or less;

2. they are not employed in Thailand for 1 year + 1 day following their relocation out of Thailand.

As far as teachers go, I vaguely remember a teacher telling me they paid this based on some Double Tax Treaty basis.

However, as neither of the above 2 apply to me, I'm only familar with the RD progressive rates others have mentioned.

Tax rates are very misleading. Like the systems of personal income tax in the USA and other countries, Thailand's system not only is progressive, but has huge exemptions up front. A teacher who's single and earning 300,000 baht per year will pay less than 10% of the GROSS - maybe closer to 5%.