I read that if you earn money outside Thailand and then bring it here within a year you are liable for tax (even if you paid already in the country where you earned it).

Has anyone had any experience of this? If someone got paid for some work they did overseas directly into their Thai bank would they really have to pay tax on it?

Obviously I don't want to discuss any illegal tax avoidance schemes. But how likely is it that someone would be asked to pay tax on money going directly into their personal account from abroad?

If you have already paid tax at source then the thai tax man is not going to bother you, dont know what country we are talking about but go and look up reciprocal tax agreements with Thailand, ie if you have paid tax somewhere else, and the country concerned has a reciprocal tax agreement in place, you will not be taxed on money you have already paid tax on.

However in theroy, if the tax you have paid is lessor than the amount you would have paid in Thailand, they could ask for the difference.

If your not registered for Thai tax ie have a Thai tax number, you not in the system anyway, so they are not going to bother you IMHO