Sending Money From Thailand To Home Country

[Burgernev]

Can anyone help with the following, I have done extensive searches but could not find the answer exactly.

Say you stay in Thailand for 5 years, do not work, have monthly funds of say for example 4,000 USD sent from your home country, but you only ever use 3,000 USD per month.

At the end of the 5 years you want to return to your country and have 60,000 USD left over in your Thai bank account.

Can you transfer this 60,000 USD (albeit in several transfers under the 20,000 USD limit), back to your home country bank from your Thai bank ? I'm only after info regarding bank transfers, not using ATM cards back home, taking cash, travellers cheques etc.

You do not have tax receipts for it as you were not working in Thailand.

You do not have the 'Foreign Exchange Transaction Certificate' for it as all amounts were sent in under 20,000 USD.

Is it legally possible ? Is it just a case of showing your Thai bank that you did actually bring the money in by keeping records of the small'ish transfers from your home bank each month ?

Thanks in advance

Edited May 18, 2006 by Burgernev

[Misty]

I've found it difficult to get hold of any specific regulation on the rules regarding money transfers from Thailand to overseas for non-Thais.

According to staff at my bank, what you describe is fine, and so is transferring it all in one go. If you transfer it all in one go, you'll need to fill out a special form letting the BoT know about the transfer. As I understand it, even if you transfer in several smaller amounts, you may need to fill out the form if your bank believes the transfers could be "suspicious."

However, in neither case are they supposed to keep you from transferring the money, as long as you can show that the money originated from legal activities. This means you'll need some documentation showing where the money came from--what documentation is required could be up to bank interpretation.

That's as I understand it. How it gets enforced, of course, can be a different matter!

Good luck,

Misty

[Burgernev]

Thanks for the info Misty.

It seems very difficult to get difinative information on how the banks manage/regulate this process.

Someone may stay here for say 5 years, bring in 10m Baht legitimately, spend that 10m Baht legitimately, earn another 10m Baht through 'other means', yet as they originally bought in that amount, they are free to remit that amount again ? Where/what are the checking processes, if any ?

Cheers.