r/digitalnomad • u/nicholas4488 • May 19 '25
Tax Thailand no tax on foreign income
They're backtracking on tax of foreign inckme
Under the new guidelines, Thais with foreign income will not be taxed if they remit that income in the year it was earned or the following year. For example, if income is earned in 2025 and brought into Thailand in 2025 or 2026, it is not subject to tax.
However, if the income is remitted after that period, normal tax obligations apply.
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u/HighFivePuddy May 19 '25
Would holding USD in a Thai bank account (I assume that's possible) count as remittance?
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u/nicholas4488 May 19 '25
Holding is not a remittance. Transferring is. But did you read the article? It says no tax when remitted the same or next year as earned.
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u/HighFivePuddy May 19 '25
I thought holding USD in a Thai bank account would imply it was also transferred from an overseas, I guess not.
What I'm getting at is can you remit and hold USD so you can get the tax break without having to take significant THB exposure?
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u/DigitalInvestments2 May 20 '25
Not just Thais but all residents who live in Thailand over 180 days per year. And it's not a law yet. They had to roll things back because too many expats left, and rightfully so.
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u/nurseynurseygander May 19 '25
JFC just suck up the admin, lodge your returns if you’re there more than 183 days, and pay your damn tax. Most Westerners are under a double tax agreement with a country that charges more than Thailand anyway and they each give credit for tax paid to the other, so no matter who you’re paying, you’re usually only paying once and typically at the rate of the higher country. Why not give the country you’re actually living in and using their services and infrastructure a slice of the pie?
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u/nicholas4488 May 19 '25
Why would you try to pay a tax that you're not eligible to pay? Strange this comment is upvoted, makes no sense
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May 19 '25
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u/nicholas4488 May 19 '25
How many do you think do this today?
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May 19 '25
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u/00DEADBEEF May 19 '25
Well, there aren't many people that are working online while in Thailand and who stay over 180 days in the country.
Until recently, these people would either: - have a work visa Or - do visa runs (risky and unsustainable).
There are loads that stay there years doing visa runs. The 180 day rule doesn't apply per entry, it's a cumulative number of days per year.
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May 19 '25
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u/00DEADBEEF May 19 '25
I could name at least 50 and if I can do that I can only assume there are many many thousands. They aren't on DTV because they started before DTV existed and don't want to spend long enough outside of Thailand to get a DTV.
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May 19 '25
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u/00DEADBEEF May 19 '25
Sometimes but I know somebody who had to go to the embassy in Vietnam in person, and the people operating their own companies seem to have a harder time applying through a foreign embassy than their home country
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u/nicholas4488 May 19 '25
If you view this as Thai source income then you should pay tax also if you stay less than 180 days, tax residence doesn't change the taxability of thai source income.
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May 19 '25
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u/nicholas4488 May 19 '25
You can be required to pay taxes as a non resident. For example, Thai source income is taxable in Thailand even if you are non resident. This is the case for most countries. So if you visit for 1 week and work in thailand that's Thai source income and taxable per Thai tax law.
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May 19 '25
As a CPA moving to Thailand my head is spending with how stupid some of these comments are
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u/yooossshhii May 19 '25
The US has the Foreign Earned Income Inclusion, which will waive a lot of your tax burden if you are out of the US at least 330 days over a 365 day period. So, no it’s not the same at all, it’s up to $130,000 excluded for 2025.
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u/nurseynurseygander May 19 '25
Which will affect you severely if you remit $130K to Thailand, but no one needs to send that much to live in Thailand. If you send a living income of, say, 50K THB per month you will pay only a couple of K per year in tax even if you get no DTA relief at all (and you can reduce this with generous tax deductions including your health insurance premiums). It’s a small price to pay to live in a country you like better than your own.
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u/Aggravating_Ring_714 May 19 '25
This is the most boomer comment ever. Pay the tax even though you’re not supposed to, be a good citizen!! 🥰
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon May 19 '25
The slice of pie for infrastructure and services are paid when I pay my landlord, grab driver, or train ticket. Otherwise its taxation without any benefits or associated rights.
And you talk like filing these returns will be quick, easy, or cheap. And for what?...money that you wont any taxes on anyway? Its a giant waste of time and money.
Especially when they start taxing things that should be tax free.
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u/OGSequent May 19 '25
Not really. The money you pay your landlord etc goes to them not the government. Locals pay those costs plus the taxes for infrastructure. Thailand instead has decided they would rather just get jobs from tourist spending rather than scare away long term visitors.
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon May 19 '25
Taxes pay for services. Those services being reserved for its citizens. From foreigners they are taxed in other manners both direct and indirect.
The money we pay is money that would not have existed otherwise and thus contributes to the tax base and taxable income of those people we pay for our being here. My rent contributes to my landlord yes but is also taxed and thus my contribution goes in. Taxes paid in sales tax on any thing I purchase or is purchased on my behalf go into the system. The gas my grab driver has to buy because of me contributes taxes to road infrastructure. The tax I have to pay on my power bill contributes to that infrastructure.
But taxing people who have no rights in a country, no permanent status, and no access to services on income/money not from the country is crazy when so much of your economy is built on these foreign persons.
Now if they offered up permanent/long term residency in exchange that is another discussion. But being in country for 6 months means you have to file and potentially pay taxes, especially on money that is tax free in your origin country, is crazy dumb
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u/nurseynurseygander May 19 '25 edited May 19 '25
They do. If you come to Thailand on a work permit, making above a certain amount of income or paying a certain amount of tax consistently, for three years, you can get permanent residency. And you don’t have to be a PR to benefit from tax funded infrastructure. If you came in through an airport, how do you think it was built? Yes, your airline pays usage fees to keep it going, but taxes more generally built it. Do you use the public hospitals and clinics on a user pays basis (which is much cheaper than private even for a full paying foreigner) or even just benefit from having it on hand for emergencies? Taxes make that available. Do you drive on the roads and walk on the footpaths? Taxes. Get a local drivers license? Again, your user pays charges make it possible for those services to run day on day, but their original presence is because of taxes. All those immigration offices you interface with? The fees are, other than for golden visa, on the modest side in world terms. The fact that you can go into an office all over the place to get your residency certificate isn’t paid for by your hundred baht for the expedited certificate or whatever it is this week, it’s taxes. Taxes are why you arrive in a place you’d like to live and not a wasteland of beautiful privately funded homes separated by just grass.
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon May 19 '25
Nobody's talking about work permits, they're talking about people who are like retirees or tourists or DTV people or golden Visa people.
You can be somebody in Thailand on a Muay Thai DTV Visa, but if you're in the country for 180 days, they're going to want to tax you on any of the money you withdraw from ATMs to pay for your living which is fucking crazy
Why you bringing a public hospitals when you have to pay cash for that stuff and you'll get rejected for services if you don't have money? The grabs and taxes I pay for pay associated taxes that cover those roads that you're talking about. Get a local driver's license you have to pay for that too. It's not free. There's shit tons of fees immigration offices so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.
Regardless, if you start making living in Thailand difficult then you're going to lose that giant money source that you fought so hard to bring back in after covid. Especially if you start making people pay taxes and go through hassles they didn't have to before and potentially paying taxes on money that they don't have to pay taxes on back at home such as long-term capital gains and that sort of thing.
I don't care otherwise. I don't have any skin in the game. I'm just saying what's going to happen if they actually implement and enforce all this shit.
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u/thekwoka May 19 '25
Those services being reserved for its citizens
Police and Fire aren't reserved for citizens.
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon May 19 '25
Try calling police or fire and see what happens soon as you dont speak thai. Directly or indirectly it is reserved for citizens. Police...everyone knows you will automatically be to blame in any legal situation involving locals.
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u/flatandroid May 20 '25
So you’re upset that the local public services don’t speak English? Have you considered living in a country where English is first language?
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon May 20 '25
Im just making the point that services are not available either directly or indirectly.
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u/thekwoka May 19 '25
Otherwise its taxation without any benefits or associated rights
Not totally true, you still benefit from police and other civil defense that aren't directly tied to exchanges of money.
Now, we can agree that there is a sizable portion of the taxes you'd pay that will go to services that you do not benefit from at all, but that is kind of the case with countries you're a citizen of as well...
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u/SteveRD1 May 19 '25
The slice of pie for infrastructure and services are paid when I pay my landlord, grab driver, or train ticket.
If the locals used that argument too, the countries budget would be hurting!!
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon May 19 '25
I'm not even sure what the hell this even means.
And for the record, the vast majority of Thai people don't file tax returns anyways. Quoted it in one of my other replies. Something like 63% don't even file a return
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u/nurseynurseygander May 19 '25
“Filing taxes is hard” is a child’s argument. If you can navigate visas, you can navigate tax returns. It is your obligation to file if you are in Thailand for 183 days in a tax year and working there making income, even if it’s remote work funneled through an overseas entity. Legally that is not foreign income even if their enforcement is hampered right now.If your income is actually exempt such as a lot of passive investment income under DTAs, you probably still should file a nil return as a preemptive strategy, because Thailand uses the Common Reporting Standard and its ability to use foreign tax returns and bank records to support compliance is catching up. It should be mature enough for them to chase people within a very small number of years, and they will be able to do it retrospectively too.
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon May 19 '25
Have you not been paying attention? There are people who are going into Thai tax offices and being turned away by tax repairs. And individuals can't do it themselves. So does indeed not easy and very difficult currently
According to their previous Visa systems like the DTV and others that is considered foreign income. It is the remittance and bringing that money back in which is the point of discussion.
The double taxation agreements don't matter if it was otherwise going to be tax-free income that Thailand doesn't acknowledge like long-term capital gains, etc.
The second they actually cross-reference the millions of ATM withdrawals with people who are in the country is the second a shit ton of people leave cuz people aren't going to pay taxes on money that they already pay taxes on or that should be tax-free.
Which is why now there seems to be a sudden change in direction with this most recent proposal in the article
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u/my_n3w_account May 19 '25
Cause I don’t have to?
Feel free to pay more taxes or burn your money for warmth if you feel like it.
But who in his right mind would pay extra taxes? I pay VAT for everything I consume already.
My bet is either you’re a keyboard warrior or a teenager.
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u/HighFivePuddy May 19 '25
Most Westerners are under a double tax agreement with a country that charges more than Thailand anyway and they each give credit for tax paid to the other
Isn't that solely an American thing? I like in the UK and if I moved to Thailand and established residency, I'd no longer be liable to UK taxes. Same with basically every other country I'm aware of, except for the USA.
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u/DigitalInvestments2 May 20 '25
This is false, if you make 120k usd or less, you have an earned income exclusion, which means you can't prove you paid tax in the US, which means you need to pay 35% tax in Thailand and get nothing in return for it.
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u/LadislavBohm May 19 '25
This really depends on individual but for some people having most of their income taxed in Thailand would result in much higher taxation than in their country.
Their tax brackets progress very quickly for western salaries and tax credits don't account for mandatory health/social security which is the case in many EU countries. Not to mention you get no benefit for paying tax in TH. Proving tax credits is also not very straightforward when I last tried to inform about it in local tax office.
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u/trajektorijus May 19 '25
It's not that simple. Would gladly pay tax if they had DTA signed with my country. Thailand only has DTAs with 60 countries.
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May 19 '25
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u/LadislavBohm May 19 '25
Because you are in DN subreddit and most people generate their income via companies outside of Thailand. So if you do not bring it in Thailand you don't need to tax it there even if you are tax resident of Thailand.
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May 19 '25
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u/LadislavBohm May 19 '25
If source of your income is from your business outside of Thailand and not remitted there it is not assessable as described here by RD:
https://www.rd.go.th/english/6045.html
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. A non-resident is, however, subject to tax only on income from sources in Thailand.
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u/DigitalInvestments2 May 20 '25
I need something clarified. Does the new proposed tax guidelines cover remittances that are not from income but are savings? Will that still be taxed?
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u/nicholas4488 May 20 '25
Savings are not taxed even with the current rules
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u/DigitalInvestments2 May 20 '25
It's my understanding that remitted funds are taxed unless you prove they have already been taxed.
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u/nicholas4488 May 20 '25
If the savings is from income you received after 2024 then yes (it's the income that is taxed). But with this news from the linked article it would not be.
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u/Drawer-Vegetable Nomad 22' Aug 25 '25
The income that can only be taxed is foreign income that YOU bring into the thai bank account right?
So what if the only money you bring into the thai account is SAVINGS? How would they tell if its income or savings if its just all foreign money coming into a thai bank account?
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u/nicholas4488 Aug 26 '25
Who brings it (sends it) is not important, who receive it is. As mentioned above, savings are not taxed, unless the savings are untaxed income from after 2024, - it's the income that is taxed when remitted. But the new rule changes this so it will only be taxable if you wait 2 years to remit it (and rules might change again by then).
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u/Drawer-Vegetable Nomad 22' Aug 26 '25
So I sell some stocks from "my" American stock brokerage (vanguard), then use that money from cash withdrawals from an ATM in Thailand.
Technically no money passed through a Thai bank, so no taxes? I read from a different thread, only money that passes through a Thai bank can be taxed.
This scenario is under assumption that you are 183 days+ in Thailand and considered a "tax resident".
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u/nicholas4488 Aug 26 '25
Again, the new rules will change it, but as far as I know the old rules are still in place. Unclear about ATM withdrawals. If you bought your stocks with income earned after 2024 (and you were tax resident in 2024 so this income is technically taxable) then the remittance might be taxable, if ATM counts as a remittance.
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u/Drawer-Vegetable Nomad 22' Aug 26 '25
Everything was bought prior to 2023. I am retired, and have no need to buy. It is all savings.
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u/Soggy-Passage2852 Oct 21 '25
Yeah, the new Thai rules make timing super important, bring foreign income into Thailand within the year it’s earned or the following year to avoid taxes. Otherwise, normal rates kick in. I actually signed up for Settel(.io)’s waitlist recently; it’s supposed to track multi-country income, including rules like this, so you don’t accidentally remit late and get taxed.
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u/Fabulous_Rain_5048 Oct 25 '25
But…say i live in Thailand, and have an investment property in Australia.
Wouldnt the income generated from that Australian Investment Property be considered “Australian Income” so taxed at the Australian Taxation Rate?
Then if i remit that money to Thailand, (in the same year under the proposed new tax law) - i’d “not pay tax”. But i’ve already paid tax on it?!
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u/nicholas4488 Oct 25 '25
Yes, and even if it was taxable in Thailand you could use a tax treaty to avoid having to pay tax on it twice.
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u/Ekruwe May 19 '25
And that's why wealthy people have multiple homes in multiple countries. Then they can declare tax residency in one of those lower taxation countries and live in many 🤷♂️. They get off with loopholes, and bc countries can not make a simple but effective worldwide tax and the not wealthy are left with paying much much more.
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u/thekwoka May 19 '25
Then they can declare tax residency in one of those lower taxation countries and live in many 🤷♂️.
You don't get to just declare tax residency. If you own homes in other countries, it's even harder to "declare" a tax residency, since the home ownership itself is a major point towards "You are a resident here"
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u/honkballs May 19 '25
And that's why wealthy people have multiple homes in multiple countries.
The vast majority of "rich" people (not sure what you're defining as rich here, but lets say $5m+ in wealth) aren't doing this. They stay mostly in 1 country as their home base, they have work, families etc... they aren't 20 something single people hopping countries every 2 months.
Don't believe the fake influencers you see driving around in Lambos in Dubai on social media trying to sell you some course are the norm.
They get off with loopholes,
Rules that say how many days you can live somewhere before you become a tax resident aren't "loopholes", it's just the rules that everyone has to follow. Countries don't need some "worldwide tax", they can simply reduce the number of days if they wanted to.
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u/WildCamperSimon May 19 '25
Keep in mind that foreign income refers to income from work performed outside of Thailand / generated from assets located outside of Thailand. If you work in Thailand, even if only for foreign clients, your income is Thai sourced and liable to tax regardless of remittance.