Video · From Thailand
Money Left Abroad: When Does Thailand Tax It? The 2024 Rule
If your US company pays you abroad and you leave the money there, does Thailand tax it? Foreign income earned from 1 January 2024, in a year you spend 180 days or more in Thailand, is taxed in the year you bring it into Thailand, whether that's the same year or a later one. 5:04 long, published .
Transcript
What the video says
0:00If I leave the money abroad, does Thailand tax it?
It's late in Chiang Mai, and Ploy is typing a question into search. If my US company pays me abroad, and I leave the money there, does Thailand tax it? The honest answer has two parts. When the money comes home, and where the work was done. The American side is simpler. She can own a US company with no social security number, and no trip to the US. Cheyenne, in Wyoming, is thirteen hours behind Thailand in July and fourteen in January, and it all happens in writing.
We're BaseAcross. We set up US companies for founders outside America, so we'll be straight with you.
0:42Do I need a US company for Stripe in Thailand?
Most guides skip a step here. The big card processor already takes Thai businesses, so you may not need a US company to get paid. A US company adds US filings, and pay for work done in Thailand is taxed there anyway. So the reason is usually American customers or investors. Some US buyers want a US company to sign with, and US investors usually want a Delaware C-Corp. Ploy has the first reason.
Her biggest client is in America, and they want a US vendor.
1:16What changed in 2024?
Now the rule behind her question. Thailand changed how it taxes foreign income. Foreign income earned since the change, in a year you spend enough days in Thailand to count, is taxed in the year you bring it into Thailand. That can be the same year, or a later one. Before, only money brought in during the year it was earned was taxed. This comes from the Revenue Department's own questions and answers.
Your adviser confirms which of your income is foreign.
1:48When does 2025's income become taxable?
Here's how the timing plays out, in the guide's own illustration. Say Ploy spends most of the year in Thailand. Her US company pays her forty thousand US dollars, abroad, for its foreign profits. She leaves it abroad that year. Nothing about it goes on that year's Thai return. The next year, she moves it to her Thai bank account. Now it goes on the next year's return. For foreign income, the year it lands in Thailand is the year that counts.
That's an illustration, not a quote.
2:21Work done in Thailand, and the company itself
But there's a catch. Pay for work done in Thailand was never foreign income. It's taxed there, wherever it's paid. So the work Ploy does at her desk in Chiang Mai is taxed for the year she earns it, wherever the money sits. Leaving it abroad doesn't change that part. Thailand can also tax the company itself. A company formed abroad pays Thai corporate tax if it's carrying on business in Thailand, and that can include having a representative there.
A US company you run from Thailand should have an adviser look at this.
2:56Can a Thai resident own a US LLC? Forming it and the bank
Setting the company up is the short part. A Wyoming LLC usually suits an owner-run business selling to US customers. A Delaware C-Corp suits raising from US investors. The company needs a registered agent, an address in that state for legal papers, not where you work. Without a social security number, the EIN is a paper form to the IRS. One of the US fintech banks takes applications from founders here.
The multi-currency account most guides name has paused account details for people living in Thailand. Each provider decides for itself,
3:36Do I have to bring the money home? And the treaty
and can say no. The Bank of Thailand adds two lines. You may invest without limit in an overseas business you hold a set share of. Ask your adviser what your bank needs then. And do you have to bring the company's money home? Only above a line, and then within a set time. There's a tax treaty with the United States, and it's in force. It caps US withholding on interest, dividends and royalties.
But pay for work you do in Thailand generally isn't US income, so for a services business it matters less. The company still files a report with the IRS every year, even without sales, and missing it is expensive. It's usually due in the spring, and there's a form to ask for more time, filed before the deadline.
4:24What order do I do it in?
Here's the order we'd take it in. Take the Thai questions to your tax adviser first: which payments are foreign income, when you'll bring them in, and whether the company carries on business in Thailand. Then form, then bank. Record when income is earned and when it comes into Thailand. Put the IRS report and your Thai return on one calendar. The full guide, with every source and a checklist for your adviser in English and Thai, is linked below.
And Ploy? She stopped asking whether. She took her adviser the real question: when, and from where.
The founder in the video is an example, not a customer. The rules in it were checked when it was made; the guide carries the current sources.
The guide
Costs, documents, timelines and the rules in Thailand, with sources.
Read the guide for ThailandWatch on YouTube