No Job In Thailand, Not Of Retirement Age

[dondraper]

i know that you have to show X amount of baht in a Thai account and that is no problem for me. what i am concerned about is being asked/harassed about how i make my money if i am a young guy and live in Thailand. I have previously received this sort of treatment from police officers while being searched on the street for no reason "why you stay Thailand" "how you stay no job" who i guess were hoping i would slip up and admit to working illegally so they could extort money from me.

i am fearful of being 'taxed' so to speak with the whole 'you stay Thailand, you must pay tax on your biz'.

(i am an e-entrepreneur and my biz has nothing to do with Thailand.)

[ubonjoe]

I think you will be bothered less if you can show them you have an extension based upon being married to a Thai. Immigration does not question the source of your money. Just have 400K in the bank for 2 months or if you have income from outside the country of 40K or more you can even use that if you can get a letter from your embassy.

You don't have to pay biz tax for money earned outside Thailand. You could claim it as personal income. If you base it upon having 40K per month the rate is only 10% and you can take off about 240K off for deductions and etc. That way you could show somebody you tax ID card or your annual return if they were to ask. Just show that the income is earned outside the country.

Edited August 19, 2009 by ubonjoe

[dondraper]

So I would get a Thai tax ID, register my income as earned outside the country. Claim 40k a month and take 240k in deductions thus not paying anything?

What would happen if they see a bought a condominium or an automobile for much more than that?

[ubonjoe]

The money you used to buy them could of be money earned in previous years which is not taxable. The Thai tax department is not as stringent as other countries.

Link to revenue department website: http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html

There is enough info to do a rough tax calculation.

[PoorSucker]

Just say your fathers is big boss police in your home country.

[mca]

To be perfectly honest all the years previously I extended using my wife's salary and me not working (and I'm 42 so not of retirement age) immi have never asked once about my employment status or what I do with my time. When I did my last 90 day report and inquired about the new regs regarding the extension the officer just said "400k baht in the bank" They gave no indication that they thought a "relatively" young man not working here was in the least bit strange. Might be something to do with (and I find this quite hard to believe) the fact that last year the Nong Khai officer said I was the only person they dealt with who extended using his wife's salary.

[TerryLH]

"You don't have to pay biz tax for money earned outside Thailand. You could claim it as personal income. If you base it upon having 40K per month the rate is only 10% and you can take off about 240K off for deductions and etc."

Why would he want to do that? Why pay any tax if you're not required to?

I don't remember people saying they were questioned where the money in the bank came from.

If you were questioned, as opposed to asked conversationally, you could say from parents or previous work, whichever iy is.