Personal income tax- deduction of foreign pension payments

[bbz404]

Hi,

I am a permanent employee in a Thai company and would like to know the following:

After moving to Thailand, I remained in my home country's government pension scheme as a voluntary member (meaning I pay both the employee and employer part of the pension). Currently, this amounts to around 300 Euros a month. As I am a tax resident in Thailand this year, I am wondering if those contributions will be deductible from my assessable income for Thai personal income tax purposes?

Anybody have some experience with that?

Thank you

[skatewash]

I imagine it would be worthwhile to know if there were any double taxation treaties between Thailand and your home country.

[bbz404]

Yes there is a DTT in place with Luxembourg but since I don't pay any taxes there since I don't have any income in that country anymore I don't see why it should be relevant.

[bbz404]

However if I understand article 18 (3) correctly then the contributions to a social security pension scheme are only taxable in the country of the respective scheme and hence, not deductible in Thailand. Too bad.

[Tywais]

Yes there is a DTT in place with Luxembourg but since I don't pay any taxes there since I don't have any income in that country anymore I don't see why it should be relevant.

His question was reasonable and I was thinking the same but read the op a couple of times after your comment before realizing that you are using funds you earn in Thailand to continue your pension plan in your home country. I see no allowances for deductions for this as it is not relevant to the Thai government. You can look at the revenue department site for the information. http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html

//edit - see you already have the rd information.

[SantiSuk]

The principle behind allowing tax relief for pension contributions is that the ultimate pension will be taxable. If Thailand 'pays' for your tax relief but will not benefit form any tax revenues on your pension income in retirement then there is no parity for Thailand. I'm guessing that your Luxembourg government pension is only payable in Luxembourg post-retirement, but even if it were payable in Thailand, this country could not be sure you would be here then.

I am sure there will be no tax relief for you in Thailand for such foreign pension contributions

[Soutpeel]

There is no tax deduction availible in the Thai tax code for foreign pensions if your working here and paying income tax

[Soutpeel]

Yes there is a DTT in place with Luxembourg but since I don't pay any taxes there since I don't have any income in that country anymore I don't see why it should be relevant.

Coreect DTT's are irrelavant to this discussion

[fletchsmile]

No. Not deductible.

Cheers

Fletch

[bbz404]

Thank you all for your answers.