Panicky expats in Thailand have been advised that none of the 100,000 tax residents in receipt of advisory letters from the Thai Revenue Department (TRD) are foreigners. Nor does the letter have anything to do specifically with transmitting overseas income to Thailand. According to mainstream media, TRD Director General Kulaya Tantitemit stated that the letters had been posted to Thai nationals with financial assets, urging them to register. About half that number had done so and staff were following up on the rest.
Director General Kulaya stated that her department was widening the tax base and looking to increase revenue which had been negatively affected by the reduction in the number of condominium units sold over the past year. She anticipated that the main growth areas in taxation would be in energy businesses, financial services and tourism. She made no specific reference to overseas income although, of course, that is potentially taxable.
Expats are currently concerned about the closing of a tax loophole which means that their “assessable” overseas income to Thailand becomes taxable from the start of 2024 provided they are tax residents remaining in Thailand for at least 180 days during the calendar year. The actual parameters and liabilities remain unclear to say the least with some tax lawyers saying they expect TRD to make further announcements before the year’s end.
The TRD does not have access to foreigners’ Thai addresses unless, of course, they choose to register with the government department. It has been rumored that such registration could become part of the process of renewing annual extensions of stay based on retirement or marriage, but the immigration bureau knows nothing of such a plan. In any case, there is no automatic connection between the type of visa granted and eligibility for tax residency. For example, some tourists could clock up 180 days in a year by exploiting the recently revised exempt visa regulations. There’s a huge amount of water still to pass under this particular bridge.
