Are Thai Banks obliged to reveal my account transactions to the Government?

[covanwoerkom]

Are Thai Banks obliged to reveal my account transactions to the Government?

[how241]

What gov't. ? Thai ? or your home gov't. ??

[covanwoerkom]

Both i.e. Thai and Dutch government.

If I were to receive say £ 50,000 from a UK Bank into my Thai Bank Account and I wanted to transfer the £ 50,000 from my Thai Ban Account to a Bank Account outside Thailand.

[Jeffrey346]

From what I understand, Thai banks report all transactions over $20,000 US.

[Estrada]

Yes... Blame the US Government, CIA and FBI. The forms were introduced as an anti-terror/anti-money laundering (AMLO) excercise. All transactions over a certain amount have to be reported primarily for the US Government's benefit. The forms start off by asking if you are a US Citizen and even if you are not, they still want as much information as they can get. I think I filled out three forms last time just to transfer money from my old time deposit account to a new one.

This info goes to "America - World Police"

At the beginning of this month Maybank requested me to fill in a form for AMLO purposes to report when I transfered B10,000 to my wife's brokerage account.

[gandalf12]

Why would you want to transfer the money into Thailand and then transfer the same amount out again? Sounds very much like money laundering

[deepcell]

LOL. Use bitcoin to do such a thing or bring the notes in your underpants!

[TerryLH]

"If you are a US citizen you have to report all monies in foreign banks every year on two separate forms..."

That's bad info. Not true.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

"If you are a US citizen you have to report all monies in foreign banks every year on two separate forms..."

That's bad info. Not true.

Terry is correct. The prior poster was wrong.

There are reporting requirements for Americans who have overseas financial accounts, but only for those with amounts exceeding certain thresholds.

For one very simple reporting, it's only if Americans have more than $10,000 total in foreign accounts at any time during the year.

For the other more detailed reporting, the thresholds are much higher depending on if you live outside the U.S. vs. inside, and whether you are married or single. For a married person living outside the U.S., you have to exceed a couple hundred thousand dollars abroad in order to have a reporting requirement.

[Beng]

Money transfers of more than (I think) 50K Euro must be reported to the Bank of Thailand using their form.

[ggt]

"If you are a US citizen you have to report all monies in foreign banks every year on two separate forms..."

That's bad info. Not true.

What about my foreign bank accounts? What are FBAR and FATCA Form 8938?

We saved the best almost for last. In order to help it track those Americans who are not reporting their foreign income, IRS and the US Treasury have recently instituted a number of informational forms that must be filed.

1. The FBAR. This is a relatively simple form that is used to collect basic information on foreign financial accounts controlled by a US citizen living in the USA or overseas. The form is filed with the Treasury Department and is not filed with your tax return. As it is only an informational form, it will not have a direct impact on your tax liability. Financial account definition includes: a bank account, brokerage account, mutual fund, unit trust, or other types of financial accounts. Reporting is required if the combined total of such accounts totals $10'000 or more. As of July 2013, this form is supposed to be filed electronically. More info at FinCEN.

2. It's important to note that the FBAR must be received by the Department of the Treasury by June 30th each year. There is no extension for filing this form. The FBAR is filed separately from your tax return. It should be filed electronically on the FinCEN website.

3. FBAR Penalties. The penalties for non-filing of the FBAR are extremely harsh. They range from an automatic penalty of $10,000 to 50% of the balance of the account. It gets worse - if the IRS investigator can prove that you willfully withheld the information from the government, criminal charges can be filed.

4. In addition, Form 8938 will be required starting fiscal year 2011. Form 8938 (FATCA) must be attached as an annex to your 1040. The reporting requirements for foreign financial assets are more extensive and more complicated than those for the FBAR (which has to be filed as well). The threshold for reporting depends on the total amount of foreign assets held, on where you are domiciled, and whether you are filing jointly or otherwise.

Form 8938: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8938.pdf

Instructions for Form 8938: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8938.pdf

Form 8938 is required under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), passed into law in March 2010. FATCA also requires foreign financial institutions banks, brokers, pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds, mutual funds, trusts to report to the IRS holdings of their clients who are US persons. This will come into force on January 1, 2014 and will allow the IRS to cross-check between reports of foreign financial institutions and individual filings of Form 8938. Institutions that do not comply will have a 30% withholding tax imposed on all transactions concerning US securities. In addition, FATCA will require that any foreign company not listed on a stock exchange or any foreign partnership which has 10% U.S. ownership to report to the IRS the names and tax I.D. number (TIN) of any US owner.

[attento]

Welcome to the 21st Century.

Most governments have access to bank transactions, although few are prepared to admit it, and many would deny it.

[Pib]

This Bangkok Bank Q&A webpage on transferring funds out of Thailand may be helpful. Link