Reader question: Obtaining a Certificate of Residence (RO22) before filing a declaration

Jan, the days requirement is per calendar year. You won't reach it until July next year. See Lammert's comment below.

hello Jan

Without a falang on board, everything gets messy in Thailand. Within 3 months I had the yellow house reg. booklet and the ID card. My Thai driver's license was also issued without any problems, just testing the eyes and reaction time and that's it.

Hi Jan,

Question 1.

This question has been answered excellently by Erik. And how could it be otherwise: he made the neighborhood “unsafe” there for many years.

My clients living in that area also have good experiences with that office, in contrast to many (often smaller) tax offices.

I would first let go of your idea to go straight to Bangkok. If you do, take enough bread and clean underwear with you because you will be on the road for quite a while!

Question 2.

The M form is purely a Dutch affair. The Thai tax authorities do nothing with that.
The Tax and Customs Administration usually starts sending this tax return form in February. This almost always happens automatically during emigration or immigration.
You can also contact the Tax and Customs Administration/Office Abroad in February and ask for an M form to be sent to you. You "most likely" have your name, address and date of birth at hand. But make sure you also have your BSN at hand. The sooner the completed form is returned to the Tax and Customs Administration, the sooner you can count on a refund of too much payroll tax/wage tax withheld.

As I indicated earlier, this paper M-declaration contains 58 pages with questions, accompanied by some 90 pages of (additional) explanations, which nobody knows anything about. Every year I prepare between 30 and 40 of these types of declarations. However, I have not yet experienced an M-declaration being handled correctly in one go by the Tax and Customs Administration/foreign office. But, fair is fair: the mistakes that are made just as often result in an advantage as in a disadvantage for the taxpayer.

If you want to take care of the declaration yourself, make sure that you make a good calculation of the expected outcome.

The largest discrepancy I received this year concerned a Dutchman who had emigrated to Thailand, for whom I had calculated a refund of € 6.000 rounded, but for which the provisional assessment indicated an amount of € 41.000 rounded as payable. A difference of € 47.000 rounded!
This is of course immediately noticeable. But if the difference is between € 1.000 and € 2.000, which happens quite often, while you have not made a good calculation yourself, then you will soon go into the boat.
And to continue to sponsor the Dutch State from Thailand seems superfluous to me!

Ask 3

For foreigners, the Thai Revenue Office uses a statement RO 22 in English. The same also applies to form RO 21, containing a summary of the Thai income tax return and the outcome thereof. But that's not up to you yet.

Question 4.

That is also what I indicated earlier in my response to you with the sentence:
“In my experience, Thai tax officials constantly issue their own RO 22 form instead of signing and stamping the “State of tax liability statement of residence” in English from the Tax and Customs Administration.”

Why the Thai tax official uses its own form RO 22 is due to the fact that, from a tax legal point of view, it is of a better quality than the English translation of the “tax liability statement of residence country” of the Dutch tax authorities.

To obtain an exemption, the Tax and Customs Administration makes it a condition of submitting a recent Personal Income Tax return with the associated assessment (form RO 21 is sufficient for this purpose) OR a signed and stamped translation into English by the competent tax authority of the country of residence. “Statement of tax liability in the country of residence”. However, a self-declaration from the competent tax authority of the country of residence, which is in line with the content of the statement drawn up by the Tax and Customs Administration, is also accepted. The form RO 22 meets this condition and even more!

Understand your story which is clearly explained. But um, I'm looking at the Thai government website, see my link in the previous comment, and it's pretty clear there. I don't come across your version of the RO22; maybe you have a link where i can find it? Thank you.

Dear Ger Korat,

To start with an earlier question of yours: I do not have a link which contains the text I provided of the form RO 22 and as I gave it earlier. To request an exemption from withholding payroll tax/wage tax at the Tax and Customs Administration/Office Abroad, my customers send the form they received in PDF format. Incidentally, I would not be surprised if the Thai Revenue Office uses two types of statements, namely one without and one with a double taxation treaty concluded by Thailand.

Everything stands or falls with the expertise of the relevant Thai tax official and I can open a book about that.

For example, when a customer reported to the local Revenue Office, he was told that he did not owe Personal Income Tax on his income from the Netherlands.
Another was told that he could choose between paying tax in Thailand or in the Netherlands.

Recently, the Thailand Blog raised the question of whether the 400.000 THB that the person concerned had deposited into his Thai bank account for obtaining a visa was subject to the PIT (as a Thai tax official claimed) or not.

And so I can continue for a while with, for example, the text I already quoted from the website of the Thai Revenue Department: “TAXPAYERS are classified into “resident” and “non-resident”. When I read such a text my hair stands on end. All basic tax knowledge seems to be missing here.

It is therefore purely about the knowledge of the relevant civil servant of both national and international tax law (in the latter case mainly the bilateral treaty concluded between the Netherlands and Thailand to avoid double taxation). If this knowledge is lacking, which is very often the case at the smaller tax offices, then you have to look higher.

In that respect, I can only report positive reports about the Thai Revenue Office in Udon Thani, also cited by Erik.

What does the national legislation say about being a tax resident of Thailand and in particular about being a “resident”, which is what this case is all about?

“Taxpayers are classified into “resident” and “non-resident”. “Resident” means any person residing in Thailand for a period or periods aggregating more than 180 days in any tax (calendar) year. A resident of Thailand is liable to pay tax on income from sources in Thailand as well as on the portion of income from foreign sources that is brought into Thailand.”

Subsequently, the taxability is limited by the Treaty concluded between the Netherlands and Thailand.

With regard to being a resident for tax purposes of either country, the Agreement states in Article 4 and, where relevant, the following:

“Article 4. Fiscal residence
1. For the purposes of this Agreement, the term “resident of one of the States” means any person who, under the laws of that State, is liable to tax therein by reason of his domicile, residence, place of management or any other similar circumstance.”

Article 15 of the Convention – Non-self-employed work then gives more hands and feet to this by stating that the requirement of 183 days within a period of a tax year (i.e. calendar year) must be met. This period does not have to be consecutive!

You can demonstrate that you meet this day requirement by means of your passport. You then qualify on the basis of both Dutch and Thai legislation and on the basis of the Treaty as tax resident or resident of Thailand.

In Thai legislation, but also in the Convention, there is no mention of first filing a report. In addition, the Convention, being a regulation of a higher order, also takes precedence over national legislation should there be a difference between them, which is not even the case.

Under the Convention, if the days requirement is met, you automatically qualify as a tax resident or resident of Thailand. No regulation from the Thai Revenue Department can change this.
This means that nothing stands in the way of issuing the Certificate of Residence (RO 22).

The only problem, as already mentioned, is the lack of expertise of many Thai tax officials.