I understand why he raised the point. Each district tax office in Thailand seems to operate a bit differently. I’ve read reports online from other foreigners who went to their local district tax office to request a tax ID number. In some cases, the tax officials questioned why they needed one and ultimately decided that they would not need to file a Thai tax return in the future, so they were unwilling to issue a TIN. Having a good reason for needing one might therefore help if they start asking a lot of questions. But things have changed recently. Many Thai banks are now asking foreigners to reverify and fill out a form declaring their tax residency and provide their TIN, basically the same thing you encountered online. I just went through this process with one of my local banks, even though I had already given them that information when I opened the account. But now the banks want more information about the matter. As a result, many foreigners residing in Thailand now need a Thai TIN simply to maintain a Thai bank account, even if they won’t owe any annual income tax to the Thai government. Perhaps the tax offices have become aware of these new banking requirements, and maybe that’s why they didn’t ask you any questions about why you were requesting a TIN. If it were still 2024 or 2025, the process of obtaining a Thai TIN when you had no income in Thailand was still more difficult.
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