Paying Income Tax

[Ketsara]

Dear all,

I have been working in Thailand for 6 months now. Income tax is deducted from my salary by my company.

Few questions though:

- The amount they deducted was initially a bit low, now they start to deduct the amount that I expected (using the tool of one of the forum members). Is there any logic in that (e.g. reaching a certain treshold)?

- Should I and if yes, how should I submit yearly tax papers? How does that work?

- I plan not to work here for the full 2009. Would that mean that one day I can reclaim any taxes that have been paid too much?

Would appreciate all your knowledge on this, as these matters confuse me...

Thank you,

Ketsara

[12DrinkMore]

Dear all,

I have been working in Thailand for 6 months now. Income tax is deducted from my salary by my company.

Few questions though:

- The amount they deducted was initially a bit low, now they start to deduct the amount that I expected (using the tool of one of the forum members). Is there any logic in that (e.g. reaching a certain treshold)?

- Should I and if yes, how should I submit yearly tax papers? How does that work?

- I plan not to work here for the full 2009. Would that mean that one day I can reclaim any taxes that have been paid too much?

Would appreciate all your knowledge on this, as these matters confuse me...

Thank you,

Ketsara

As you are asking this question I guess that you are not in the big time league. The company is responsible for deducting tax on you salary. it is very low by world standards. You should be able to obtain a summary of the tax deducted and if your annual income does not reach the threshold of the tax bracket you have been paying, then you could possibly get something back.

But TIT

If you are really concerned then talk to your company. But, to be honest, unless you are up in the 100,000/month plus bracket, just sit back and pay the tax. as you said, at the beginning maybe it was a bit low, and now its about right. Sounds good. Don't go standing on your rights and insisting on them, because it only gives other people more work and then you will find them uncooperative and you will probably end up paying more and be classed as a pain in the arse....

[Ketsara]

Dear all,

I have been working in Thailand for 6 months now. Income tax is deducted from my salary by my company.

Few questions though:

- The amount they deducted was initially a bit low, now they start to deduct the amount that I expected (using the tool of one of the forum members). Is there any logic in that (e.g. reaching a certain treshold)?

- Should I and if yes, how should I submit yearly tax papers? How does that work?

- I plan not to work here for the full 2009. Would that mean that one day I can reclaim any taxes that have been paid too much?

Would appreciate all your knowledge on this, as these matters confuse me...

Thank you,

Ketsara

As you are asking this question I guess that you are not in the big time league. The company is responsible for deducting tax on you salary. it is very low by world standards. You should be able to obtain a summary of the tax deducted and if your annual income does not reach the threshold of the tax bracket you have been paying, then you could possibly get something back.

But TIT

If you are really concerned then talk to your company. But, to be honest, unless you are up in the 100,000/month plus bracket, just sit back and pay the tax. as you said, at the beginning maybe it was a bit low, and now its about right. Sounds good. Don't go standing on your rights and insisting on them, because it only gives other people more work and then you will find them uncooperative and you will probably end up paying more and be classed as a pain in the arse....

Thanks for your reply... Fortunately I am well beyond the 100,000 baht range and thus pay quite some tax (though lower compared to what I was used to...). The difference between what I used to pay and now start to pay seems to be about 20,000, which is of course nice money not to be spend on tax...

Any other thoughts on these?

Thank you,

Ketsara

[12DrinkMore]

Thanks for your reply... Fortunately I am well beyond the 100,000 baht range and thus pay quite some tax (though lower compared to what I was used to...). The difference between what I used to pay and now start to pay seems to be about 20,000, which is of course nice money not to be spend on tax...

Any other thoughts on these?

Thank you,

Ketsara

In that case get an accountant, you can afford one.

[CWMcMurray]

Yes you can and should file a return especially if you are not going to be working the entire year. Your withholding tax is based upon your tax bracket if you were to make your salary for the entire year.

For example, if you are making 150,000 a month, your withholding will be based upon 1.8 mil. If you only work 6 months, then you are making under 1 mil and have just paid a whole lot more than you should in taxes...

You can talk to your employer to ask them to withhold less, but they may not want to do this. If that's the case just file a return at the end of the year.

[hitthegroundrunning]

hello chaps,

bit late on this one - but I've read that if you earn under 150,000 a month, you are exempt. This is too good to be true. If I am a TEFL teacher, earning around 30,000 a month, can someone please tell me what my net would be? It can't be 0% tax. There must be something else.

any help appreciated!

htgr

[chalks]

The Thai tax year follows the calendar year. You would have been working about 5 months in 2008, which means even though your salary is high, for all of 2008 your total income is relatively low and taxed similarly. Unlike places like Australia which withhold tax on a monthly basis regardless of whether or not you had the same salary for the rest of the year, Thai companies can withhold tax based on what they calculate you will actually need to pay. I myself started in August (a few years ago) and my withholding tax was very low for the months in that year. Come January it shot up rather disappointingly as now they calculate tax on the full year's salary :-(

The tax return is due end of March or something. First time I think I was due a refund but since it was measured in satang I never collected!

Unless you signed a contract with an exact end date, and probably even then (see disclaimer), they will since January be deducting tax as if you will get the same salary all year. Should you stop earning before the end of the year you should be able to claim some tax back, but you will have to wait until March 2010 to do so, so sort out an accountant before you leave!

Since you are earning a big salary you are probably in a big company which means they will probably help you with your tax. For us they set up the accountants in a common room and everyone files through over a week - takes me less than 5 minutes, but then my tax situation is quite simple (just salary, nothing unusual worth deducting).

hitthegroundrunning: google "income tax thailand" and the first page is from the government. It's 150,000 per year, not per month. Sorry champ!

Disclaimer: I am not an accountant, lawyer, or even very good with money. Just reporting on my experience.

PS: Sorry for re-re-opening this twice-dead thread :-)