Cost of living in Thailand and income tax rates for foreigner

[venkydiddi]

Hi

I got Job offer from Thailand company as a software engineer 65000k/monthly is it sufficient for single and save some money to send home

please let me know cost of living and tax rates

and how much i can save monthly

please let me know asap i need to accept offer...

thanks in advance

[chiang mai]

Here's the tax tables, work out how much tax you will pay, I estimate you'll pay about 10% in tax:

http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html

Is it enough:

Where, what is your lifestyle and expectations? Thailand, especially Bangkok, isn't cheap any more.

Good luck.

Edited July 16, 2015 by chiang mai

[venkydiddi]

i am single so no alcohol and veg food and i can stay in sharing

and job is in bangakok only

lifestyle means like ordinary (middle level)

i will prefer almost saving

[JockPieandBeans]

Is a software engineer not a Thai only job ?

[venkydiddi]

yes software engineer job

[chiang mai]

Is a software engineer not a Thai only job ?

No, it's not on the restricted list and consulatants can be deployed.

[JockPieandBeans]

Is a software engineer not a Thai only job ?

No, it's not on the restricted list and consulatants can be deployed.

Fair enough. Just thought I had read it somewhere, and with the abuse that was being dished out to those named as '' Digital Pikey's '' I thought I might have been one of those jobs restricted on the restricted list.

Thanks for clarifying.

[CWMcMurray]

Can't see any reason a single person who doesn't drink and only eats veggies can be comfortable in BKK

Can find a decent studio off of sky train or subway for 7-10k / mo with a/c...

Utilities apex 5 k using air at nights...

Internet / true visions / mobile ... 2k if bundle at true

Maybe 10 k for groceries / necessities to be comfortable

Let's say 100 thb a day for travel.. 3000 thb

Let's say 150 thb a day for breakfast and lunch ... Assuming not going to pack... 4,500 thb

So about 35,000/ before any entertainment

This can be a couple thousand a month to tens of thousands a month... But since you don't drink...

Seems not likely to be too much...

Do see any reason why shouldn't be able to easily put aside 10-15k a month if you want to without being too hard up ...

Although life can get a lot more expensive if you end up in a relationship or have kids...

Or move out to the suburbs and so need to buy a car..

[CWMcMurray]

Would just add.. If going to splurge anywhere .. Should be on room..

As if comfortable , can spend more time at home ... Which leads to spending less money...

[zierf1]

Comeon man. Stealing good jobs from Thai people. Shame on you! And I'm sure a Thai would work for less money than that.

[fish fingers]

i am single so no alcohol and veg food

Not for long (all 3)

[fish fingers]

You can find a nice apartment in Bangkok for less than 20,000 a month. Bills are not very much at all but electricity can be quite high depending on air con use and if the condo adds their own rate. Trains and taxis are cheap

Your main costs will be eating out and massages..

[rwdrwdrwd]

Comeon man. Stealing good jobs from Thai people. Shame on you! And I'm sure a Thai would work for less money than that.

If they could find someone qualified then I'm sure they would be hiring Thai first. Thailand is well behind other areas of the world in terms of skilled software engineers.

[Korsow]

Renting a unit (simple room with toilet/shower, 24 square meters) across Vibharam Hospital in Suan Luang, about 10 minutes walking from the airport link. Rent is 3500 excluding utils. About 400 baht per month for unlimited internet, about 700 baht for electricity. It takes about 15 mins with the airport link to Phaya Thai station. Food depends on what you are used to, but on average 150-200 baht a day. Total budget per month: about 8-10.000 baht. It's not luxurious, but good enough

So with your income, you should be more than fine.

[pinkpanther99]

There's so many variables with this one.

On paper then yes, imo 65k is enough to live on, and maybe even save a little bit each month too, if you're sensible.

However, if you're a young bloke who likes to go out and spend his evenings living it up in lower Sukhumvit then you'll probably get through 65k pretty quickly.

Have you been to Thailand before?

If not, then it's pretty normal for a single guy just arrived in Bangkok to go out and 'explore' all the things the city has to offer - this will quickly eat away at funds.

Other stuff that can add up is what food you eat. It's pretty easy to go through a good bit of cash spending at Villa Market (supermarket selling mainly imported foods).

[playbgnow]

There are a lot of expats out there who would kill to have a job offer that pays 65,000b/m.

I'm guessing a lot of westerners would kill for that in their own countries as well.

[Suradit69]

If they could find someone qualified then I'm sure they would be hiring Thai first. Thailand is well behind other areas of the world in terms of skilled software engineers.

"Thailand is well behind other areas of the world ..."

Maybe you could be more specific about the location of those "areas" where one can find these super-skilled "engineers."

You mean like the skilled software engineers that caused the New York Stock Exchange to crash for 3 1/2 hours or that left all United Airlines aircraft grounded a week ago or maybe the UK Border & Immigration system fiasco or the several debacles at the British airports or the colllapse of enrollment in the "ObamaCare" program?

UK border and immigration system: One of the costliest software failures which is estimated to cost up to £1 billion and resulted in a 29000 applications backlog. The department also failed to locate 50000 people when asked to find information about them.

A major technical issue forced the partial closure of London’s airspace, causing delays to scores of flights and travel misery for hundreds of passengers around Europe. The UK’s air traffic control centre, Nats, suffered a serious computer glitch at its state-of-the-art headquarters in Swanwick, Hampshire.

Healthcare.gov was unavailable again, thanks to an unspecified software glitch that prevented users from creating new accounts. The US Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the site, said a flood of users compounded the problem.

Edited July 17, 2015 by Suradit69

[mmh8]

should be able, would help if you find a girl to do some work as well, cleaning, cooking, washing and earning a wage

[rwdrwdrwd]

"Thailand is well behind other areas of the world ..."

Maybe you could be more specific about the location of those "areas" where one can find these super-skilled "engineers."

You mean like the skilled software engineers that caused the New York Stock Exchange to crash for 3 1/2 hours or that left all United Airlines aircraft grounded a week ago or maybe the UK Border & Immigration system fiasco or the several debacles at the British airports or the colllapse of enrollment in the "ObamaCare" program?

UK border and immigration system: One of the costliest software failures which is estimated to cost up to £1 billion and resulted in a 29000 applications backlog. The department also failed to locate 50000 people when asked to find information about them.

A major technical issue forced the partial closure of London’s airspace, causing delays to scores of flights and travel misery for hundreds of passengers around Europe. The UK’s air traffic control centre, Nats, suffered a serious computer glitch at its state-of-the-art headquarters in Swanwick, Hampshire.

Healthcare.gov was unavailable again, thanks to an unspecified software glitch that prevented users from creating new accounts. The US Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the site, said a flood of users compounded the problem.

No, I mean like the skilled engineers that built 99% of the applications and services that are in common use and that for the most part work perfectly fine. Like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, pretty much any other service that we use on a day to day basis and this forum software.

Of course there are problems and failures, that is inevitable - especially in these types of systems where design is by committee, scope is huge, timeline spans years, corruption is rife and projects are badly mismanaged.

My point is that there is a huge lack of qualified software engineers in Thailand - can you point to any internationally known and used Thai developed software?

Comparatively, how do Thai bank websites stand up against those developed in other countries? How well made is the immigration online 90 day report system? When was the last time Facebook threw a default browser popup on a Mac telling you to use Microsoft Internet Explorer?

The map at the top of this website illustrates my point perfectly - http://python.meetup.com

Only decent websites that are well used I know of based in Thailand are Agoda and Kaidee - loads of western developers at both of these companies, and both are actively hiring foreigners with 100k+ salaries right now.

Edited July 17, 2015 by rwdrwdrwd

[MAMMartin]

Comeon man. Stealing good jobs from Thai people. Shame on you! And I'm sure a Thai would work for less money than that.

If they could find someone qualified then I'm sure they would be hiring Thai first. Thailand is well behind other areas of the world in terms of skilled software engineers.

and you'd be surprised what fairly mediocre Thai software engineers want as a salary these days! 65k for a good engineer is a steal

to the OP - yes you'll be fine on 65k. Plenty of meat eating, beer drinking foreigners living in Bangkok on less

[TheKnave]

If they could find someone qualified then I'm sure they would be hiring Thai first. Thailand is well behind other areas of the world in terms of skilled software engineers.

"Thailand is well behind other areas of the world ..."

Maybe you could be more specific about the location of those "areas" where one can find these super-skilled "engineers."

You mean like the skilled software engineers that caused the New York Stock Exchange to crash for 3 1/2 hours or that left all United Airlines aircraft grounded a week ago or maybe the UK Border & Immigration system fiasco or the several debacles at the British airports or the colllapse of enrollment in the "ObamaCare" program?

UK border and immigration system: One of the costliest software failures which is estimated to cost up to £1 billion and resulted in a 29000 applications backlog. The department also failed to locate 50000 people when asked to find information about them.

A major technical issue forced the partial closure of Londons airspace, causing delays to scores of flights and travel misery for hundreds of passengers around Europe. The UKs air traffic control centre, Nats, suffered a serious computer glitch at its state-of-the-art headquarters in Swanwick, Hampshire.

Healthcare.gov was unavailable again, thanks to an unspecified software glitch that prevented users from creating new accounts. The US Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the site, said a flood of users compounded the problem.

Characteristically naive post, knee jerk variety.

India is world-renowned for good, inexpensive software engineers, to name one place. The US, of course, is a leader, but no one there is going to work for 65000 Thai baht per month...

To the OP, you will be fine on 65000 per month, with money to spare, IF you keep to your plan, i.e., no alcohol, simple food, and avoiding the ever-present temptations of the flesh.

Some good suggestions already posted for accommodations, 7K for a small apartment will be plenty, depending on where your company is located. Less is also possible...

Good luck.

[SGX]

doable, The company should have an assistant to help you find apartment if you ask.

Rail travel is quick and easy so dont feel you need to live so close.

[little mary sunshine]

To live well it's enough for a single person

To send money home to family , 80-90K

Might be more realistic .

[matseng]

And I'm sure a Thai would work for less money than that.

Yea, they do. I recently hired a decent Thai PHP programmer and his asking salary was 35 000 which I happily accepted after interviewing him for an hour. Unfortunately his English isn't too good so I had to use an interpreter :-(

[matseng]

My point is that there is a huge lack of qualified software engineers in Thailand - can you point to any internationally known and used Thai developed software?

There might be a lack of qualified Thai sw engineers, but "point to any internationally known and used XYZ-country developed software" can be said about most countries.

Point to to some French, Hungarian, South African, Norwegian, Indonesian, Russian softwares that are well known internationally as in use worldwide. Without digging really deep you'll probably have a hard time coming up with any decent finds....

[rlopes]

What you were offered is a LOT of money for any place in Thailand. 99% of the thais don't make a fraction of that.

The people saying that this isn't much are either jealous or they spend all their money with booze and girls.

[micmichd]

Comeon man. Stealing good jobs from Thai people. Shame on you! And I'm sure a Thai would work for less money than that.

If they could find someone qualified then I'm sure they would be hiring Thai first. Thailand is well behind other areas of the world in terms of skilled software engineers.

Software engineering is a wide field.

Is there anything Thais can not do, like eg IBM Mainframe applications?

[NoshowJones]

Can't see any reason a single person who doesn't drink and only eats veggies can be comfortable in BKK

Can find a decent studio off of sky train or subway for 7-10k / mo with a/c...

Utilities apex 5 k using air at nights...

Internet / true visions / mobile ... 2k if bundle at true

Maybe 10 k for groceries / necessities to be comfortable

Let's say 100 thb a day for travel.. 3000 thb

Let's say 150 thb a day for breakfast and lunch ... Assuming not going to pack... 4,500 thb

So about 35,000/ before any entertainment

This can be a couple thousand a month to tens of thousands a month... But since you don't drink...

Seems not likely to be too much...

Do see any reason why shouldn't be able to easily put aside 10-15k a month if you want to without being too hard up ...

Although life can get a lot more expensive if you end up in a relationship or have kids...

Or move out to the suburbs and so need to buy a car..

A bit of advice to the OP. When you rent a place, ask what the price per unit is for electricity is, it should be about 4Bt, (the government rate), if you are being charged 7 or 8Bt per unit

which does regularly happen, you are being robbed.

[overherebc]

What you were offered is a LOT of money for any place in Thailand. 99% of the thais don't make a fraction of that.

The people saying that this isn't much are either jealous or they spend all their money with booze and girls.

Are you going to tell me next that they will work 60 hours a week for a bowl of rice, 3000 a month and sleep in a corner of the factory to save money.

????

[NoshowJones]

There's so many variables with this one.

On paper then yes, imo 65k is enough to live on, and maybe even save a little bit each month too, if you're sensible.

However, if you're a young bloke who likes to go out and spend his evenings living it up in lower Sukhumvit then you'll probably get through 65k pretty quickly.

Have you been to Thailand before?

If not, then it's pretty normal for a single guy just arrived in Bangkok to go out and 'explore' all the things the city has to offer - this will quickly eat away at funds.

Other stuff that can add up is what food you eat. It's pretty easy to go through a good bit of cash spending at Villa Market (supermarket selling mainly imported foods).

Do not use Villa if you can help it, it is by far the most expensive of western food supermarkets. Foodland is the best bet.