Are Older Men in Thailand Trading Love for Financial Ruin

[TM77]

Thanks to prevoius good reports here tried my luck today with the revenue service branch in Bonkai, Hua Hin to get refund of paid tax on fixed account interest from 2014.

I could produce all demanded documents and the usual tons of copies but the lady requested a list of all my income comes to Thailand.

She then would "calculate" whatever and any balance would be payout or not.

I live with retirement visa 9 months each year on my own funds transfered to here and do not want to show any records of them to the Thai taxoffice.

Unfortunatly that was a completly other experience as the ones described here where the tax payed on interest from fixed accounts where so easy to get back.

Is anyone here could advise, maybe to avoid this tax office branch? Hua Hin has any other branches or a certain tax office person to speak to who have done that before without any problems?

Thank you!

[SantiSuk]

I'm sorry I can't help you with local knowledge of any alternative tax office where you might be given an easier ride. In theory I believe that the only office you can register with is the one within your amphur and AFAIK there is only one office per amphur. You could of course move. Others might be more helpful ... and might appear to be less pedantic than me, as I point out that anyone who lives in Thailand for more than 180 days in a tax (=calendar) year is potentially liable to taxation in Thailand and that would include taxation on income arising in the tax year in your 'home country' to the extent it has been remitted to Thailand in the year it was earned. Income includes earnings, interest, pension income and capital gains (the latter subject to some exemptions). As far as I know you are not required to register for tax if you know that you would have a nil tax liability even though you have taxable income. There are personal allowances (tax credits) and a reasonably high nil rate tax band (think 150,000 baht) which means that having income (Thai derived or derived elsewhere) does not necessarily mean having tax to pay.

It seems very likely in view of potential Thai tax liabilities that farang may have (ie where their income is decent and they have to use it hand to mouth to support their lifestyle) that any tax official is well within his or her rights to enquire into the sources and uses of income for such a foreigner that they know to have resided in the country for more than 180 days in the tax year.

It seems they have hitherto played foreign residents who do not work in Thailand with a very low key. When I tried to force them to register me for tax at my local amphur for 2013 (helpful to me as I wanted to establish non tax residence in my home country) they verbally almost pushed me out of the office having only asked if I worked in Thailand, whether I had fully retired, what my Thai non-earnings income were (my interest income here fell short of the 'personal allowances plus zero rate tax bracket') and taking at face value my response that I had enough assets that I did not need to rely on my current year home country pension and interest earnings to support my remittances. On reflection they probably just wanted me to avoid claiming back the Thai tax that had been deducted at source on Thai bank interest! They probably should have been more interested in whether I had something more substantial to target in their favour (which I don't as it happens!)

Regrettably like many other aspects of life under the XXXXX (xxxxxx xx xxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) {self-censored on edit} I could understand there being a crackdown in this area, causing some falang to duck their heads even further under the parapet . Most countries in the developed and semi-developed world seem to be increasingly looking to tax avoiders to provide extra cash in time of government need.

[While I am a retired Chartered Accountant who knows quite a lot about his own tax position, I am not a tax specialist and no-one should rely on anything I say without checking it with an expert relevant to their tax regimes when it comes to matters taxation].

Edited January 27, 2015 by SantiSuk