It depends where one lives - and from where is one's investments. I assumed this exchange was a global comment about millionaires (and taxes), and not ONLY about foreign expats in Thailand who are millionaires and whose DTA between Thailand and their brokerage source country does not automatically exempt one tax. ... Different assumptions make different assessments. For some less than double digit tax may be easy, for others (depending on nationality and income/investment source) it is a totally different ball game. The Canada-Thailand DTA, which is relevant to me, in Article 13(5) notes capital gains from Canadian shares (earned in a Canadian financial institute) are nominally Canadian tax free for non-residents of Canada, who reside in Thailand. Rather Thailand has exclusive taxation rights, and profits off of such can potentially be taxed by Thailand if remitted to Thailand (albeit other factors such as LTR-WP/WGC visa and when profit was earned and remitted can also affect this). However IF the Canadian company is with immovable property (Article 13(4) of the DTA) then Canada can tax such stocks. .... Complicated ? I find it so. Now - suppose one with a Canadian trading account, has strong research suggesting a share price (where Canadian company business is in immovable property) is about to do some transactions that could double or more the share price value, in a very short time frame. Then it would in that case make sense to buy the stock, and take the tax hit. This is just one such example. The Canadian-Thai DTA is a bit more nuanced. It depends if the company is associated with immovable property (as noted above). I should also note, I am only aware of 2 Canadian financial institutes, that allow Canadians who are not resident of Canada, to have accounts for investments. (1) Questrade (one can hold a trading margin account and/or RRIF/RRSPs (sort of like a USA 401(k)) and (2) CI Investing Direct - they don't allow RRSP/RRIFs nor margin accounts, for non-residents of Canada but they will allow Canadian's (who are non-resident of Canada) to invest in the CI Direct funds which they manage. Canadian banks typically mostly freeze RRIF/RRSPs /margin accounts when one ceases to be a Canadian tax resident which is very annoying for some (it was for me). One can sell their stocks, withdraw their cash, but can't buy into new investments. The Canadian Interactive Brokers (unlike the US) does not allow non-residents of Canada to open a trading account. ... Apologies ... i diverge ... but the point is this all gets complex once one becomes an expat. Structuring one's finances in a way to legally manage ones taxes is not a straight forward process - and hence given such, some simply say to 'heck' with it, and pay the tax.
