New Revenue Department Interpretation on the Taxation of Foreign Income (Reader Submission)
I have previously written to the blog regarding the declaration to the Thai tax authorities of any taxable income transferred by Belgians to Thailand in 2024. To date, there has been a lack of clarity in this regard due to the lack of precise guidelines from the Thai Revenue Department.
Today, March 19, 2024, I received a newsletter from the Embassy of Belgium in Bangkok. Because there are probably many Belgian compatriots who do not receive the newsletter, I will reproduce it in full below.
Dear compatriots,
Since our October 31, 2023 newsletter on the Revenue Department's new interpretation of local foreign income tax law, we have reached out to several contacts and gathered available information. Our findings are as follows:
- A person is considered a tax resident of a country if he or she resides there for at least 180 days per year.
- Taxable income is divided into 8 categories, the most important of which are: employment income (salary, bonus, pension), rental income, fees, interest and dividends.
- Any taxable income remitted to Thailand by a tax resident of Thailand from January 1, 2024 must be declared.
- The tax rate in Thailand is progressive from 0% (up to 150.000 THB/year) to 35% (over 5 million THB/year).
- There are numerous deductions and exemptions.
- Belgium has signed a double taxation agreement with Thailand, whereby the tax paid in Belgium is used as a 'tax credit' for Thailand, which nevertheless reserves the right to possibly levy more tax in the exceptional case that the tax in Belgium is lower would have been than what you would theoretically have paid in Thailand.
- The fact that you do not have to pay tax in Thailand under the Double Taxation Agreement does not mean that you do not have to declare your income in Thailand.
- For the year 2024, income must be declared no later than March 31, 2025 via an online portal (only in Thai for now). The deadline can be extended by 8 days until April 8, 2025. In case of late payment, late payment interest may be charged.
- You must attach the necessary documents proving your income and any tax already paid elsewhere. These documents must be translated and legalized into Thai.
- We are well aware of the differences in tax calendars between Belgium and Thailand and the difficulty in obtaining the necessary documents from the FPS Finance within the deadlines required by Thailand. We have made proposals to this effect to the Revenue Department and will inform you once this matter has been resolved.
- The Revenue Department has published Frequently Asked Questions on its website (in Thai only). You will find an informal translation into English here.
- Finally, the Revenue Department is happy to assist you via the telephone helpdesk on 1161 (also in English) and at the various offices in the country.
We hope you find this information useful.
If you have specific questions about your personal situation, do not hesitate to consult a lawyer specialized in tax matters.
Sincerely,
Embassy of Belgium in Bangkok
If I understand correctly, we as Belgians must declare our income to the Thai RD on our own initiative no later than March 31, 2025, even if the tax paid in Belgium is higher than that which would be levied in Thailand? The question is of course whether the RD will finally agree to granting a TIN. To date, I have already been denied twice?
I am Belgian, permanently resident in Thailand, enjoy a civil servant pension that is fully taxed in Belgium and is my only source of income. Every month, part of this is transferred to my Thai bank account via a standing order, more than enough to meet the income requirements for my 'retirement' extension. An additional question is what amount will have to be declared if - as in my case - my full pension is not transferred. It is difficult for me to calculate for myself how much Belgian tax would be on that incomplete amount. But it might be better to just declare the full amount.
I would like to hear from specialists Lammert De Haan and Eric Kuijpers whether these data from the Belgian Embassy provide them with sufficient information to form a definitive idea regarding this matter.
Thanks also to the Belgian Embassy for letting us know this information.
Submitted by JosNT
The Embassy is clear in its text: “Every taxable income transferred to Thailand from January 1, 2024 by a tax resident of Thailand must be declared.” 1) Check for yourself whether your civil servant pension under the BE-TH tax treaty also belongs to TH for tax purposes. 2) What you give to the TH-RD is what you deposit to TH 12 times a month, even if that is less than the pension you receive into your BE bank account.
If point 1 is the case, the TH-RD will make this clear. If that is not the case, it is fine to calculate yourself what you owe TH. For BE people, Lung Addie is the one that offers a solution.
Sorry: as a civil servant he is NOT taxable in Thailand. Art. 18 is clear for civil servants' pensions: (…) “shall be taxable ONLY in that state”, and in English (working language of the treaty) (…) “shall be taxable ONLY in that state”. And the state in question is Belgium. This is not the case for other pensions (non-civil servants), because according to Article 17 they are (…) “taxable in the first-mentioned State”, (may be taxed…). This does not say, as in art 18, only in Belgium. It is therefore not explicitly excluded that Thailand also taxes them, but it is based on the net amount (after deduction of Belgian tax).
So it is enough to read carefully. How Thailand will act in practice remains an open question, but the basics are clear.
You don't have to start a text with sorry. Just make your point. Btw: see my point 1. For the time being, the messages issued by the Embassy are only confusing. Also read Lung Addie who says that he also notices contradictions.
Moreover, in my humble opinion, the messages from the Belgian Embassy in Bangkok provide incomplete answers to the many questions because the competent Thai authorities have changed “the rules of the game” framework by means of a circular as of January 1, 2024, without specifically announcing the rules of the game.
Blaming the resulting “confusion” (I prefer to call it ambiguity and uncertainty) on the Belgian Embassy in Bangkok is therefore unjustified. On the contrary, fortunately the Belgian Embassy in Bangkok is still making an effort to inform us and to encourage the competent Thai authorities to develop a workable practical arrangement.
JosNT, no, I will not respond substantively except on this point: the Thai government has indicated in a further statement that all income up to and including 2023 that is transferred to Thailand in 2024 or later will not be taxed. This was introduced because taxpayers and the advisory world felt overwhelmed by the measure. That's what I'm missing in the above statement.
I'm shocked by 'translation and legalization'; that will cost travel time and money!
Thank you for the trust you have in me, but I would rather stay away from Belgian tax matters. I don't know enough about Belgian tax law to give an opinion. I would like to give advice to people in Thailand with Belgian income: consult Lung Addie and/or a Belgian expert on tax and treaty law.
Dear Erik,
Lung addie is NOT a tax specialist or treaty expert.
To the readers:
To date, I still advise: do NOTHING for the time being until an official report or question comes from Thailand itself. By the way, there is talk here, in the embassy letter, about March 2025. That is still 1 year and in a year's time a lot can change or become clearer because that is still not the case. By the way, the embassy talks about “the FINDINGS reached” but 'findings' are NOT OFFICIAL statutes.
There are even contradictions: according to the treaty, which was indicated as being permanently followed, only Belgium is the one that levies taxes on Belgian income.
If this is not followed, this treaty no longer makes any sense.
Thank you to Madam Ambassador and her staff who followed up on this, informed us about this and raised the practical problems for Belgian "long-term residents" with the competent Thai authorities.
It partly provides answers to the many questions, although I must admit that it still remains a guess as to how we as non-Thai will have to file a tax return in practice, invoking the Belgo-Thai anti-double tax treaty.
As we often read here, Thai tax officials in regional offices refuse to receive and process the tax return of a non-Thai. Simply by saying that they cannot give you a TIN number.
Or will the declaration be centralized and digitized via a website?
The Belgian Embassy has so far concluded messages on this subject with the advice to contact a specialized lawyer. But where can you find good lawyers with the necessary tax legal expertise and the necessary administrative capacity to manage the mass of state-of-the-art tax returns?
I understand that from 2025, Thai immigration wants to see tax returns in Thailand as part of the approval of an extension of a retirement or marriage visa.
Please provide official reporting
All those wild stories and individual interpretations only sow confusion and anxiety. Assumptions of “I understand…” do not take us any further.
What made you understand that Thai Immigration wants to see the tax return when applying for a year extension???? Finally, you cannot extend a visa, but you can extend the period of stay.
No, Antoine, I did not understand it that way, a visa has little or nothing to do with paying taxes, taxes you are entitled to deductions, and to be clear, that income should not come to Thailand!
Justifying your income does not mean that you have to transfer that income to Thailand, you just have to prove for the visa that you have sufficient income.
When you transfer all your income to Thailand, this will be settled and the taxes already paid in Belgium will be deducted from the tax due in Thailand.
What I did notice is that, for example, having dependent children in Belgium has more influence on the taxes to be paid in Thailand, so in Belgium you pay almost no taxes if you have three dependent children, in Thailand that deduction is much smaller and you will have to pay a lot extra.
I am Dutch and I believe that the settlement of tax already paid, in my case, also applies to Thailand in the Netherlands.
Let me just say that in Ubon not a single tax employee had any idea how to apply that treaty.
Doesn't seem so strange to me with all those treaties that Thailand has with other countries.
As a result, the settlement was not applied and the NL tax already paid was simply ignored, which would result in an excessively high TH tax.
I solved it differently by reducing the income contributed in my tax return in such a way that TH would have had exactly the same tax to be paid if TH had DID apply the offset.
Let the TH Tax Authorities come for an audit and they will see that, if they DO apply that settlement, it is exactly correct.
And all because local officials cannot apply the treaty, which I don't find strange.
Wim de Visser, then go to the regional tax office; that knowledge is there.
I could do that, but the head office in Ubon Ratchathani told me that I would have to be in Nakhon Ratchathima for the calculation using the treaty between TH and NL..
I just looked it up: it's only 389 Km. (one way)
By the way, RO 21 / 22 also comes from.
Where did you read or hear that? Since your pension has already been taxed in Belgium, you will never have to pay taxes in Thailand, you can never pay taxes on the same thing twice... you either pay in Belgium or in Thailand.
Maybe the consular can solve that by means of an 'affidavit'??
The embassy? They cannot yet provide a proper affidavit for your income proof retirement visa. You even provide all official documents from the “BELGIAN” pension service with bank statements that this will actually be transferred to your Belgian bank account….
Other countries can! Peculiar.
What if you stay in Thailand less than 180 days a year, but still have an annual visa. No tax liability. Will you no longer receive an extension of your period of stay? Or should you promise not to stay in Thailand too long?
Raymond, what you take for granted here is dangerous. Someone wrote that here before; 'Just leave Thailand for 190 days and you will no longer live there for tax purposes...' So no!
Take a look at Article 4 of the TH-BE and TH-NL treaty. The residence regulations. A one-off, long holiday elsewhere does not change your tax residence.
Dear Erik, my response concerned Antoine's comment. He reported that, from 2025, proof of tax returns would also be required if the period of residence is extended annually by the immigration authorities. I just want to indicate that anyone who is not liable to pay taxes in Thailand because, for example, they live in Thailand for 4 months and the rest of the year in the Netherlands/Belgium, therefore CANNOT submit a tax return form. I only cited the 180 days as a possible example. So not exactly the letter of the law. There are plenty of people who do not live in Thailand but only stay here for a few months with an annual visa. They would then not be able to get an extension based on what Antoine claims. So indicate that Antoine's comment is "hearsay" uncontrolled bar talk. I understand your response, but that is not what I wanted to make clear regarding tax liability. I only wanted to refer to the combination of extension of residence period/mandatory tax return as “counter talk”.
Depends.
A person can divide their time between the two countries
Art 4 also says about this
” if he is ordinarily resident in both Contracting States or in neither of them, he shall be deemed to be a resident of the Contracting State of which he is a national;
Your annual extension has no influence on the tax treaty.
A one-year extension does not oblige you to spend a certain amount of time in Thailand.
I read: “what you deposit to TH 12 times a month”
Well, my civil servant pension is not paid into my Thai account, but into my Belgian bank account.
I regularly send an amount to my Wise account via the Belgian bank and occasionally transfer an amount to my Thai account when the Baht is good.
Never the full pension, but in pieces.
I responded to what JosNT stated in his article, namely that he transfers part of his income to Thailand every month through a standing order. Such an order always concerns the same amount. Also in Thailand a year is 12 months. So 12 times that amount is added up to the 'taxable income' brought into Thailand that year. Your method is that during those 12 months you occasionally transfer money to Thailand via Wise at your own discretion based on the Euro-Baht exchange rate. So what? After 12 months have been added together, you will also arrive at a total amount that you brought into Thailand that year. Do we have each other?
Antoine,
Where did you read that?
I am of the opinion that amendments to such an (OECD STANDARD) treaty concluded between two countries should not be discussed between OUR embassy and representatives of a Thai department. If Thailand wishes to make changes to the modalities and/or their implementation of the agreement in question, a reasoned request must be addressed to the Belgian government and parliament. Consultation can then take place. That should have been the position of our embassy in Bangkok, not expressing its own interpretation based on banquet diplomacy, in which Thailand is clearly supported in its aim. The last sentence of the consular newsletter, among other gibberish, is very meaningful in this context
If Thailand really wants to raise taxes, they can't just raise the VAT from 7% to 21%, like in Belgium.
He who can consume a lot will pay a lot, simple, and the system already exists.
Furthermore, Thailand currently only has a treaty with about 60 countries to prevent double taxation. So there are many other countries that do not have it, with many residents living here.
And don't pay taxes anywhere.
MI they are not looking to tax our pension again, but a few e.g
digital nomads, who do not declare their taxes here. Bringing in the money will leave a trace.
The many who rent houses and condos through AIRBNB and others. The renter pays to the platform, and then the platform pays to the owner. This income will now also be traceable.
All income that enters Thailand tax-free.
The OECD's main concern is that everyone, somewhere, pays taxes on income and profits.
This will mean that we will have a lot of paperwork, although most of it will probably be done digitally.
What if I buy a condo tomorrow for 10.000.000 Baht? It is difficult to pay 30% tax on that first.
Or a new car for THB 2.000.000??
How can you demonstrate, according to the above, that accumulated savings from the past have already been taxed?
What do you mean VAT increase from 7 to 21%? Are we the only ones who make purchases? What do you think of those masses of day and minimum wage workers in Thailand who are already unable to make ends meet? And then again: if companies have to purchase at an increased rate, their end products are even more expensive. Not just with the 14% VAT increase. And finally: if you have kept track of the progress on this theme, you know that there is still no or no question of taxing savings earlier.
Yubi, you wish something for the lowest paid in Thailand! Twenty-one percent VAT! That will mean that people want more wages.
Taxes are also part of income policy and certainly a tax on necessary consumption such as food. It is not without reason that the Netherlands has a reduced VAT rate for essential necessities in addition to the general rate and the zero percent rate (export and technical provisions).
Finally, the absence of a tax treaty does not mean that such a person does not pay taxes. On the contrary, the chance that he will dock in two countries is very high.
All our Belgian statutory pensions are paid out by the Federal Pension Service (civil servant or not) and are taxed immediately at source in Belgium.
The fact that you actually don't have to pay anything is only because you fall under the tax-free allowance, not because you shouldn't have to pay taxes. You will then receive a small pension, or your tax-free amount has been increased due to the number of dependents.
“The basic amount of the tax-free amount is set at EUR 9.270 per taxpayer (tax year 2023). The tax-free amount for tax year 2024 is EUR 10.160.”
Amounts for tax year 2024:
For one dependent child: EUR 1.850;
For two dependent children: EUR 4.760;
For three dependent children: EUR 10.660;
For four dependent children: EUR 17.250;
Supplement per child above the fourth: EUR 6.580.
https://lauwers-law.be/kb/hoeveel-bedraagt-de-belastingvrije-som/
In Thailand you cannot increase the tax-free amount of 150 Baht as in Belgium (not that I know of), but there are various deductions. I don't know what they are, but you can certainly find out at your tax office.
But in general, if you compare the tax scales between Thailand and Belgium, it is unlikely that you will have to pay extra because the tax in Belgium would be lower than what you would theoretically have paid in Thailand.
Well, there will always be exceptions, as always.
Tax rates in Thailand
Those who earn less than 150.000 Thai Baht are exempt from income tax.
From 150.000 to 500.000 Thai Baht the tax rate is 10%
From 500.000 to 1 million Thai Baht, the tax rate is 20%
From 1-4000000 Thai Baht is taxed at 30%
Over 4 million Thai Baht is taxed at 37%
Progressive tax brackets apply in Belgium. The rates are set as follows1:
25% for the income bracket from 0,01 euros to 15 euros (200 – 0)
40% for the income bracket from 15 euros to 200 euros (26 – 830)
45% for the income bracket from 26 euros to 830 euros (46 – 440)
50% for the income bracket above 46 euros (440)
Conversion to Thai Baht (38 Baht) for information only and rounded for convenience.
It is not without reason that we are known as a country with a very high tax burden 😉
So I'm not worried. I pay enough taxes in Belgium.
As for immigration.
Immigration and taxes are 2 different services that have nothing to do with each other.
What is possible and has been for years is to use your Thai tax return with proof of payment to prove income for your extension.
However, there is no indication that anyone who requests an annual extension will also have to prove their tax return. By the way, just because you have an annual extension does not mean that you will also be in Thailand for 180 days and become a tax resident.
If such a decision were ever made, at the request of the tax authorities for example, an immigration order would certainly be issued. And then I'll be the first to post this on TB immediately
Until then, it is better not to float balloons that are not supported by evidence.
The fact that the Thai tax authorities seek to curb tax avoidance and tax evasion is its mission, role and task. This is no different in other countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium.
The instruction (circular) of the Thai tax authorities No. Por 161/2566 (“DI No. 161/2566”) (guideline to assist tax officers in determining the personal income tax implications of foreign-sourced income brought into Thailand by Thai tax residents ) is self-evident in that context.
I agree with Erik's repeated statement that Thailand has an interest in showing itself as a loyal treaty partner. The Belgian Embassy (fortunately) makes an effort to ensure this, which is in the interest of all long-stayers (+180 days).
BUT, the devil is in the detail. Some practical examples (there are undoubtedly many more):
– The newsletter of the Belgian Embassy, annex Q&A, mentions legalized documents to invoke application of the treaty. This would mean that invoking the treaty in itself would be insufficient for the Thai tax inspector, even if the declaration is supported by statements from a Thai bank to which the Belgian pension service transfers the payments. This is how Belgian long-term residents end up in an unpleasant administrative merry-go-round.
– An impossible situation threatens when proving past income: a Belgian long-term resident (+180 days) sells real estate after January 1, 2024 that he purchased years before in Belgium and brings in the funds from the sale in Thailand. How can he prove that tax has already been paid in Belgium? In Belgium, the buyer pays registration fees (tax) and not the seller.
– The timing of tax returns and assessment procedures differs in Thailand and Belgium to such an extent that it is impossible in Thailand, in the month of March following the income year, to demonstrate in documentation that tax on income has already actually been paid in Belgium. That makes invoking the Treaty impossible. It makes the Treaty a dead letter.
I hope that the Belgian Embassy will succeed in convincing the Thai competent authorities that the existence of the Treaty and having Belgian nationality is sufficient to grant exemption from income tax. If that doesn't work, a long stay (+180 days) in TH will become a lot less attractive and attractive for Belgians (soon also for Dutch people?)
Due to the known bureaucratic culture of the Thai (tax) administration(s), Thailand could in practice prove to be a much less loyal treaty partner ... and a much less attractive country of residence.
Hopefully the competent Thai authorities are sufficiently aware of this and will develop a practical arrangement that does not make the invocation of anti-double tax treaties a dead letter in practice.
Mark, regarding 'impossible situation' when selling immovable property that you mention: does that not fall under Article 6 of the BE-TH treaty?
As far as the filing date of the tax return is concerned, TH is not aware of the postponement? Something to ask about. Just like in our countries, tax advisors in TH never manage to submit all returns in March.
Thanks Erik, Article 6 of the BE-TH treaty indeed seems unambiguously clear about taxing income from real estate. We can remove the risk of being double taxed from the list with almost certainty 🙂
The simplest would be for you to complete a tax return with income that you brought into Thailand.
That you can indicate somewhere that you are a treaty country and declare that you have already paid taxes.
Only if the tax inspector finds that you should pay (additional) taxes on that income, do you have to provide the necessary evidence.
This is actually not much different from a regular tax return. There you also enter what you think is subject to taxes, whether there are any deductions, etc.
Only if the taxes are not approved do you have to provide proof of this.
If they agree, your declaration will be accepted and ready.
This does not include the sale of a home.
It only concerns taxable income
“Taxable income is divided into 8 categories, the most important of which are: employment income (salary, bonus, pension), rental income, fees, interest and dividends.”
Subject: taxes in Thailand as a tax resident as a Belgian from 2025, tax year 2024.
I have not been transferring money from Belgium to Thailand for several years. So basically I have no income here.
Statement: I and my elderly mother have been using Affidavit for more than 10 years to obtain our retirement visas. I've never had any problems with it. Everything is legal. We both have fully taxed government pensions in Belgium.
The fact that I have no income in Thailand is very easy to explain: years ago I bought a house here for us, in the name of my girlfriend, in a safe community. This house has been thoroughly adapted to our future age. 2 cars were also purchased in the past. This is a large sum of money all together.
The deal was very simple and also a matter of mutual trust - in exchange I stay here and my mother without having to pay anything. My girlfriend has a good job in education here. She also manages the payment of our lives here with her salary and can and also saves.
I will certainly register at the tax office here, because I have been staying here often lately to care for my 103-year-old mother. My mother has been deregistered in Belgium because she can no longer travel to Belgium. I myself have not been deregistered, because I often stayed in Belgium.
However, I learned that we cannot obtain a Tax Income Number because we have no income here in Thailand. An income is not necessary for us here given the circumstances.
It has been many years since I sent money from Belgium to Thailand.
I assume that there are still Belgians who live off their savings here and whose girlfriend or wife also contributes to the costs of living. And live a simple yet happy life.
What will happen to this group or will we have to leave the country because we cannot obtain a TIN?
I would like to receive your response to this so that I can form an idea of this small group of people, or are we really unique?
Let us conclude positively, soup is never eaten as hot as it is served. Rightly so!!!!!!
With sincere thanks for the responses.
Greetings, Henri
Hello JosNT,
The information you received from the embassy is, as expected, completely correct and commendably complete.
The Treaty for the Avoidance of Double Taxation concluded by Belgium with Thailand includes a source state tax. This means that only Belgium is authorized to levy tax on your (civil servant) pension. This is usually effectuated from a treaty-technical point of view by means of an object exemption, but Belgium and Thailand have opted for a special and very exceptional form of the reduction method within their Treaty.
To this end, the Belgian tax payable on income from sources in Belgium is offset against the Thai tax payable on that income, up to a maximum of the calculated Thai tax.
This is a special form of double taxation that differs significantly from the OECD model tax treaty. Normally the exemption method, in which the income in question is completely disregarded, or the (proportional) settlement method (with or without a progression restriction) is used.
The problem that arises for you is the fact that you do not bring in your entire Belgian income in Thailand, which means that you cannot offset your entire Belgian tax against the Thai tax. You will therefore have to calculate the Belgian tax owed in relation to the amount you contributed. And that's really not too difficult.
Only in this way can a correct calculation be made of the remaining scope for Thailand to levy taxes. By the way, I expect that to be zero.
Lammert de Haan, tax specialist (specialized in international tax law and social insurance).
Dear Lammert de Haan,
Thank you very much for the clear additional information.
JosNT
Does that tax apply to your pension or, if you transfer any amount, for example from a savings account in Belgium?
For example, if you transfer an amount to buy a house or a car and the amount is 4.000.000 baths or more, you would have to pay 37% tax on it, while it has yielded virtually nothing here in Belgium with the low interest rates on .your savings account.
I have a pension as a civil servant and little withholding tax is deducted, approximately 13%.
If you compare this with the tax you would have to pay in Thailand, this suit is more expensive.
I find it difficult to assume that if you are already taxed on your pension in Belgium, you would have to do this again in Thailand.
If you have saved money for years in a savings account in Belgium at the very latest interest rates here, it will be a very expensive affair if you want to transfer it to Thailand.
It concerns taxable income.
Taxable income is divided into 8 categories, the most important of which are: employment income (salary, bonus, pension), rental income, fees, interest and dividends.
Withholding tax is what it says, a withholding tax on your taxes. If it is too high, you will withdraw your money, if it is too low, you will have to pay extra.
You will only know the correct amount when you receive the tax assessment from the tax authorities.
You will also find your average tax rate there. This indicates how much tax you pay on average in relation to your total income.
In principle, most will not have to pay extra in Thailand, especially given the higher tax scales in Belgium.
That is why this agreement on collecting double taxes also exists
But not having to pay does not absolve you from the obligation to declare the money from income that you bring into Thailand.
Dear JPG,
better read the embassy's text CAREFULLY.
It is not just about the taxes you paid in Belgium. He is mainly concerned with the money you BRING INTO Thailand,
This is called REMITTANCE TAX or in Dutch; TRANSFER TAX,
There is:
“Any taxable income remitted to Thailand by a tax resident of Thailand from January 1, 2024 must be declared.”
But that has actually always existed.
Ultimately, it comes down to bringing something back to attention and apparently tackling it more thoroughly, but which already existed in itself. Some adjustments may have been made, but the obligation to declare that income has always existed.
Why else would there be a tax agreement to avoid double taxation between TH-BEL and this since 1978?
However, Thailand has never really enforced this for the average “long-term stayer”… .
And I expect that there will again be few consequences for Belgians, among others. With people from such treaty countries, it will mainly result in a lot of administrative work without profit for Thailand and, in my opinion, will therefore remain with an annual tax return.
I think that Thailand will mainly focus its attention on non-treaty countries. Especially those who cannot prove that they pay taxes in their own country or pay less taxes on their income.
After all, people from such countries have something to offer for Thailand.
For your information. It's just my personal opinion and what I think about it.
What if I send money to my girlfriend's account a few times a year? As a gift. Are these deductible?
Khun Tak, via the link below you can read the main points about gift tax in Thailand.
https://thailand.acclime.com/guides/gift-tax/
thank you Mark,
I will also contact a tax expert.
Khun Tak, where do you live? In the Netherlands? Deductible, why do you think that?
But be aware that gift tax is due on donations exceeding 2.658 euros (Netherlands, 2024).
In the Netherlands, you may freely donate up to an amount of 2.658 euros (2024) to a third party. Then you will pay gift tax. If your girlfriend in Thailand cannot meet that tax, the tax authorities will knock on your door.
In Thailand too, a friend does not fall under the category of “charities”. Payments to her, even if you interpret them as a donation, are not deductible. Especially since the term “girlfriend” has no legal status. She must include donations in her tax return.
On the other hand, wife (spouse) does. In addition to the usual deductions (RD 42bis), an additional deductible "allowance" (RD 47) is granted due to costs for the spouse.
In contrast, a Thai spouse may receive up to 20 million baht tax-free (RD 42par27).
Ronny: no. For many years there was a regulation for income earned outside Thailand; that was only taxed in Thailand if you brought it to Thailand IN the year you earned it. If you transferred it later, it was considered savings. Readers of this blog have also done the same.
About ten years ago, the provision 'in the year of' suddenly disappeared. But the practice did not change and the advisors made good use of it. And that is now coming to an end. Thailand does not focus on retirees but on the big earners of offshore income. But the retirees are a welcome by-catch.
Thailand may also tax income allocated to another country under the treaty BUT only for what is called a progression reservation. What is that?
Tax tables increase from bracket to bracket; in Thailand it is five percent. That's called table progression. But then Thailand must grant a reduction because that income has already been taxed elsewhere. Lammert de Haan has given an example of this in this blog; you can see how that works in this link: https://www.thailandblog.nl/wp-content/uploads/Heffing-soczekerheidsuitkeringenvervolg.pdf even if that concerns the treaty with the Netherlands. You can see that part of the table progression gets stuck in the Thai attack.
I only expect a problem if savings are also transferred and the origin cannot be made clear. In the letter from the Belgian embassy I miss the exception for income from before 2024 that is transferred in 2024 or later. I have already written about the different concept of income in a response to Mark.
Some writers recommend waiting this year first. This is Thailand and a lot can still change. Other writers, including me, scour the major consultants' sites for news in this area. Believe me, this is far from finished….
Erik,
Bringing in income the following year as savings is also not possible for everyone.
Let me give you an example of what I mean
Someone who uses actual deposits of income to meet immigration requirements cannot put it into savings the following year.
The applicant must prove that he transfers a monthly amount from abroad over the last 12 months.
The result is that he should normally have declared the income he transfers monthly as taxable income...not that anyone was concerned about that.
In the current tax brackets I only find tax brackets that increase progressively by 10 percent. Could this have changed or is it old information?
But Belgium also uses progressive tax scales, so nothing strange to me.
All statutory pensions are also only taxed in Belgium. You cannot get an exemption and then have it taxed in Thailand.
“Some writers recommend waiting this year first. ”
There's no other way. You can only declare your 2024 income in 2025 and not in the year (2024) itself...
It is not because something was not applied and no one was concerned about it, or because it was circumvented by bringing in the income as savings the following year, that the obligation to declare taxable income would not have existed yet. . That is why the tax agreement between Thailand and Belgium has existed since 1978, precisely because it existed.
And I think that will continue to exist.
And then people will not really apply it, or leave the door open by circumventing it by, among other things, bringing it in as savings the following year, just like in the past, I actually expect.
And personally I think it will be discussed again, like many things, and next year no one will talk about it anymore and everything will remain as it was.
My opinion…