Renting out your Condo - Immigration & Tax

[thaidallover]

Few question for those with experience please.....

I own a couple of condo's in Pattaya. One in which I live most of the time , and another which I have kept for friends and family to stay whilst on visits, they would pay me token amounts to cover expenses.

But in these austere times, I would like to rent it out. Have had one guy interested in renting for 12 months, which I am happy with. The only thing is the renter would like a contract. no problem there, I have the dual language pro-forma contract obtained from TV.

However, I understand he will need to show this at immigration to obtain residency certificate for motorcycle purchase and apply for his ED visa with the MoE..

My questions are:-

• As part of the contract, what backup documentation should I provide, copy of:- Chanote, Passport or Thai driving license??
• Is this likely to open up a can of worms? Anyone any experience of this. I.e. is this likely to cause me more hassle than the rent deal would be worth, or am i worried unduly??

• Are immigration likely to pursue me as a "landlord" and redflag me for questioning, how well are they connected

• Is it essential that I now registered for tax. I do not work here and this would be a small income. ( i understand the first 150k is except, so at 10k rent per month would be under).

• Given that most will say "yes" to registering for tax, then I'm not aware of a simple mechanism to even register without a job, work permit etc.....is it simple?? I do not work here, nor do I want to. My income is derived from overseas.

Please try to refrain from "som num na" style comments for buying two, etc.

[ezzra]

I have renting out several units to multitude of foreigners over the last 20 years and while I'm sure

that some of them had to use the condo address for what ever purpose, no one ever came knocking

on my door with tax or other issues queries,

if you're registered as a rental fee's tax payer than you have nothing to worry about, and if you need to

provide the renter with supporting documents for his needs, do so, but make sure that they will be

used for that intended purpose and nothing else...

[KittenKong]

Is this likely to open up a can of worms? Anyone any experience of this. I.e. is this likely to cause me more hassle than the rent deal would be worth, or am i worried unduly??

Technically you are responsible for declaring that you have a farang living on your premises. Technically you may be breaking the law for working (collecting rent, managing a rental condo) without a work permit. One way round these responsibilities is to employ an agent.

Never actually heard of anyone being hassled for either ..... yet. But this is an age of progress and new hassles.


Are immigration likely to pursue me as a "landlord" and redflag me for questioning, how well are they connected

Currently? Maybe not. In the future? Surely much more. I would expect them to pass info on to the revenue department also one day, if they dont do it already.

Is it essential that I now registered for tax. I do not work here and this would be a small income. ( i understand the first 150k is except, so at 10k rent per month would be under).
Given that most will say "yes" to registering for tax, then I'm not aware of a simple mechanism to even register without a job, work permit etc.....is it simple?? I do not work here, nor do I want to. My income is derived from overseas.

Yes, you are supposed to register and declare. I found that registering at Jomtien revenue office was very easy. Photocopies of my passport and a half-hour of my time. The pleasant staff did it all for me. They also fill in my yearly return for me which I use for getting my deposit withholding tax back.

[riki48]

Hi

Yes, you are supposed to register and declare. I found that registering at Jomtien revenue office was very easy. Photocopies of my passport and a half-hour of my time. The pleasant staff did it all for me. They also fill in my yearly return for me which I use for getting my deposit withholding tax back.

Whats this deposit withholding tax?

Regards

[thaidallover]

Gents

thanks very much for the useful answers.

Will take a look down the Jomtien Revenue office

WRT "deposit withholding tax", any chance to explain this.

Also, I am UK citizen but registered non resident with HMRC . If I register as "rental fee's tax payer" , I can do this as a part time resident. I wouldn't want this to make me tax resident in Thailand, if so they can technically have a taxable charge on your global income, which is a big NO NO. if that the case my Pattaya rentals will have to sit empty

[KittenKong]

WRT "deposit withholding tax", any chance to explain this.

The withholding tax paid on interest earned on bank deposits.

Also, I am UK citizen but registered non resident with HMRC . If I register as "rental fee's tax payer" , I can do this as a part time resident. I wouldn't want this to make me tax resident in Thailand, if so they can technically have a taxable charge on your global income, which is a big NO NO. if that the case my Pattaya rentals will have to sit empty

You are liable to tax in Thailand if you spend more than 180 days per year here, or have any Thai income, but you are not necessarily liable to tax on your worldwide income. For me this is the main advantage of living in Thailand.

I suggest you learn how tax in Thailand works.

[ldnguy]

What austere times are you referring to?

[thaidallover]

What austere times are you referring to?

you sound like you have plenty of money and haven't read newspaper since before 2008. wanna rent a nice condo?

[cheeryble]

You may deduct a blanket 30% on income for expenses running a condo.

As you say you may earn 180k pa before tax, that's 180k AFTER deducting 30%.

Income from abroad will most likely be covered by automatic withholding tax abroad (say on dividends) and you will not be required to pay again in Thailand as per the dual tax agreements.

Pensions....if you are lucky enough to have one unlike me....are very much repayment of principal rather than income.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

Edited September 2, 2014 by cheeryble