Banks to automatically submit savings accounts interest data to RD; interest less than 20,000 baht exempted from tax

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Banks to automatically submit savings accounts interest data to RD; interest less than 20,000 baht exempted from tax

 

   

BANGKOK, (NNT) - On discussions regarding savings account interest tax deductions, the Revenue Department (RD) has reached a conclusion requiring all banks to submit savings account interest payment data to the RD, with all interest payments less than 20,000 baht exempted from tax. Account owners wishing that their information not be sent automatically to the RD must inform their bank, whereupon they will be subjected to taxation.

 

The Revenue Department Director General Ekniti Nitithanprapas has revealed the department’s discussions with the Thai Bankers’ Association, the Association of International Banks, and Bank of Thailand on 25th April regarding savings account interest tax deductions, saying that banks will submit interest payment data to the RD, and the RD will screen it for individuals who have received interest payments exceeding 20,000 baht, and inform the bank to make a tax collection.

 

Persons who have received less than 20,000 baht interest payment will be exempted from taxation. Account owners can also request the banks not to send their account information to the RD by informing their banks, who will however apply a 15% tax deduction from interest payments to these accounts.

 

The Thai Bankers’ Association President, Predee Daochai said yesterday that persons who wish not to have their account information submitted to the Revenue Department must fill out a request form at the bank where they have their accounts between 7-14 May 2019, and the tax deduction will be made from all interest payment from June onwards.

 

 

-- © Copyright nnt 2019-05-06

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[smedly]

sensible, if it means that people paying tax on interest at the bank will no longer have to if less than 20k then it will save a lot of hassle of reclaiming tax back from the RD

[topt]

1 hour ago, smedly said:

sensible, if it means that people paying tax on interest at the bank will no longer have to if less than 20k then it will save a lot of hassle of reclaiming tax back from the RD

I wonder how soon however the banks will actually, or be able to, change their systems for fixed accounts where the tax is currently automatically deducted?

[rwill]

Sounds like a fair deal.  I don't know who would want to not accept the reporting and have 15% automatically removed from their interest.

[Boss]

Banks has always deducted 15 % of interest on my fixed accounts from the very first Baht.

I have always got every Bath refunded the following year after applying to Revenue dept. Any changes in that ?????

[Vacuum]

11 minutes ago, Boss said:

Banks has always deducted 15 % of interest on my fixed accounts from the very first Baht.

I have always got every Bath refunded the following year after applying to Revenue dept. Any changes in that ?????

Depends on what bank you're using. I have Krungsri and Bangkok Bank, no tax deduction at the yellow bank, but the blue one does deduct 15%.

[KhunBENQ]

1 hour ago, Vacuum said:

Depends on what bank you're using. I have Krungsri and Bangkok Bank, no tax deduction at the yellow bank, but the blue one does deduct 15%.

No, that must be a difference based on account type.

No bank could exempt from tax deduction on a typical fixed deposit account.

 

[KhunBENQ]

1 hour ago, Boss said:

Banks has always deducted 15 % of interest on my fixed accounts from the very first Baht.

I have always got every Bath refunded the following year after applying to Revenue dept. Any changes in that ?????

Yes. If interest payment is less than 20000, no tax deduction and you would not have to apply at Revenue dpt. Saves the effort.

[Boss]

So do you think we can still get full compensation of paid interest rent when exceeding 20 k as usual.???

[brain150]

So, what else will they deduct from your accounts without asking you in the future ?

... once they start doing it they will find more and more of it !

 

This is a bad idea !!!

[ThaiBunny]

3 minutes ago, brain150 said:

So, what else will they deduct from your accounts without asking you in the future ?  ... once they start doing it they will find more and more of it !

Withholding taxes are a common practice the world over

[khunPer]

Little unclear if it includes fixed term deposits – another article, a few days ago, gave the impression that it was for normal savings accounts – where we are withheld 15% tax.

 

Some years back we were also withheld 1% tax on normal saving accounts, but that was omitted for foreigners.

 

I know you can claim the withheld interest tax back, if no other taxable Thai income, or the taxable Thai income is less than the lax limit, but I never used it, as it might be too much paperwork for having the few baht gained in interest for a extension-of-stay deposit returned. So if the news mean that we "poor people" are not withheld taxed of interest, if the total interest is leas than 20,000 baht, it might add an extra dinner-for-two in the budget; in a modest establishment, of course...????

[Pib]

I expect this policy applies to "regular" savings accounts and "fixed" savings accounts will continue to have 15% tax withholding on any amount of interest earned. Different tax revenue rules for regular and fixed savings accounts.

[Felt 35]

5 hours ago, rwill said:

Sounds like a fair deal.  I don't know who would want to not accept the reporting and have 15% automatically removed from their interest.

I think that could depend a bit on their home country's tax treaty with Thailand and where their eventually assets are taxable. Besides IMO this is nothing else than and more of "Big brother watching you" in a political cooperation worldwide where you now soon cant go to a toilet without disclose your underwear brand. ????

[how241]

Is that 20K  limit, with no tax,  on EACH account  or do they add up All of your accounts and then apply the 20K  rule ?

[Essex Reject]

20k interest on a saving account?? I had on average 1.5mil in my savings account last year and got around 3k interest at the year end..so how much would you need in there to receive 20k??

[CharlieH]

2 minutes ago, Essex Reject said:

20k interest on a saving account?? I had on average 1.5mil in my savings account last year and got around 3k interest at the year end..so how much would you need in there to receive 20k??

Based on those figures around 10 mil baht.

Pathetic when you consider 20k in the uk would get 1.5% per month !

[Pib]

28 minutes ago, how241 said:

Is that 20K  limit, with no tax,  on EACH account  or do they add up All of your accounts and then apply the 20K  rule ?

It's aggregate of all accounts in your name at a bank.   So, say you have two accounts at a bank...each earning Bt11K interest per year which totals Bt21K then withholding tax is supposed to be applied.  

[how241]

6 minutes ago, Pib said:

It's aggregate of all accounts in your name at a bank.   So, say you have two accounts at a bank...each earning Bt11K interest per year which totals Bt21K then withholding tax is supposed to be applied.  

Thanks for the explanation.   So I guess a person could avoid the 20K tax rule by only having one account at each bank and ensuring that this one acct.  does earn over 20K yearly.   I few years back, I had a bank employee tell me that soon they will start combining ALL accts. at all banks to see if you are over the 20K but I guess they still haven't done this. So far, so good. 

[Pib]

18 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Based on those figures around 10 mil baht.

Pathetic when you consider 20k in the uk would get 1.5% per month !

Keep in mind there are hybrid accounts out there which pay more than a regular savings accounts but less than a fixed account.  The Krungsri Mei Tai Dai (MTD) savings acccount is an example which pays around 1.3% interest...and you can basically access the funds just like a regular savings account with no penalty for early withdrawal like with a fixed account.  With such an account paying 1.3% interest you would need around Bt1.55M to trigger the 15% tax withholding.

 

In fact some folks with Krungsri MTD account have reported over the last few months they were being hit with the 15% tax withholding on the monthly interest payments and they had balance far, far below Bt1.55M....I think one guy said he only has around a Bt10K balance and was getting taxed.  People who asked Krungsri bank about it the bank told them it was a recent policy change...initially being applied to recent/new accounts but to be phased-in to also apply to old MTD accounts.  

 

But maybe this tax report issue was the cause....maybe  Krungsri will stop the applying the withholding tax with the new agreement.  Then again, maybe the MTD account got reclassified as a fixed account by the revenue dept and Krungsri had to start treating it like a fixed account for tax withholding purposes.   I have a old MTD account....had it around 4 years....so far no tax withholding....I earn around Bt17K interest per year based on the average balance I keep.

 

 

 

 

[how241]

Thai banks are offering very low interest rates.  Ally bank, in the USA,  has a totally liquid saving acct. paying 2.2%.  The last 2-3 times that the USA raised interest rates Thailand did not follow as most of the world does. Maybe something to do with the retirement visas needing to keep 800K  in the bank for a longer period now.

[Pib]

9 minutes ago, how241 said:

Thanks for the explanation.   So I guess a person could avoid the 20K tax rule by only having one account at each bank and ensuring that this one acct.  does earn over 20K yearly.   I few years back, I had a bank employee tell me that soon they will start combining ALL accts. at all banks to see if you are over the 20K but I guess they still haven't done this. So far, so good. 

yes....about a year ago the revenue dept came down on some banks who were recommending and allowing people just to open multiple accounts and split their savings between them to avoid Bt20K interest being earned on anyone account.  That's one of the key drivers behind the recent policy change of reporting interest earned. Now there is nothing wrong with having multiple accounts as long as withholding tax with being applied when the aggregate balances exceed Bt20K interest earned per year....that's where the banks were failing.  Plus the Thai govt wanting to catch people not doing tax returns when required or un-reporting income on their tax returns.

[Pib]

7 minutes ago, how241 said:

Thai banks are offering very low interest rates.  Ally bank, in the USA,  has a totally liquid saving acct. paying 2.2%.  The last 2-3 times that the USA raised interest rates Thailand did not follow as most of the world does. Maybe something to do with the retirement visas needing to keep 800K  in the bank for a longer period now.

More to do with the Bank of Thailand not wanting to raise interest rates which would make the baht stronger.  The baht is strong now which is a key driver in reduced Thai exports as a strong baht makes Thai exports more expensive....the more something cost the less people will buy it.

[OJAS]

2 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Based on those figures around 10 mil baht.

Pathetic when you consider 20k in the uk would get 1.5% per month !

But at least there shouldn't be any repercussions for those holding 800k/400k in the bank for extended periods under the new retirement extension seasoning rules!

[david555]

9 hours ago, rwill said:

Sounds like a fair deal.  I don't know who would want to not accept the reporting and have 15% automatically removed from their interest.

Maybe a little snake in the grass...., that tax office go look closer if they can not tax more than just the interest taxation ,or where the money came from etc...(just a "maybe" ) or a beginning to start with worldwide money reporting as for the moment they are just in a "pre crs status "

[stan18]

On 5/6/2019 at 4:42 PM, Pib said:

It's aggregate of all accounts in your name at a bank.   So, say you have two accounts at a bank...each earning Bt11K interest per year which totals Bt21K then withholding tax is supposed to be applied.  

Actually the text in BK Post of 20/4/19  could be interpreted as meaning that totals from different banks are going to be combined. it's unclear (to me).

Theoretically, it presumably also relates to the existing taxation rules on interest from saving (and/or hybrid saving ) accounts.

 

 

[Pib]

36 minutes ago, stan18 said:

Actually the text in BK Post of 20/4/19  could be interpreted as meaning that totals from different banks are going to be combined. it's unclear (to me).

Theoretically, it presumably also relates to the existing taxation rules on interest from saving (and/or hybrid saving ) accounts.

 

 

Hard telling how the Revenue Dept boys will try to look at the aggregate interest reported.  Personally, I doubt they will combine/aggregate  accounts between different banks....like aggregating accounts a person has at Bangkok Bank and Krungsri Bank....as this would require some kind of common data element on all accounts to allow computer database to easily link accounts to a person.   I don't think the name is good enough as a common element...nor passport numbers as passport numbers change every 5 or 10 years approx when renewed....etc. 

 

 Like in the U.S. (just for example) the only common data element is a person's social security number which never changes during a person's lifetime, required on every bank account opened, etc.   For Thailand I expect the only common data element would be a Thai's ID Card Number....but farangs don't get such a number.

 

 

[stan18]

6 hours ago, Pib said:

Hard telling how the Revenue Dept boys will try to look at the aggregate interest reported.  Personally, I doubt they will combine/aggregate  accounts between different banks....like aggregating accounts a person has at Bangkok Bank and Krungsri Bank....as this would require some kind of common data element on all accounts to allow computer database to easily link accounts to a person.   I don't think the name is good enough as a common element...nor passport numbers as passport numbers change every 5 or 10 years approx when renewed....etc. 

 

 Like in the U.S. (just for example) the only common data element is a person's social security number which never changes during a person's lifetime, required on every bank account opened, etc.   For Thailand I expect the only common data element would be a Thai's ID Card Number....but farangs don't get such a number.

 

 

Yes, the methodologies you refer may have been utilised  in tracking aspects of yr previous Post 20. Afaik such accounts are still classified as "Saving."

I guess time will soon tell.

 

[MikeN]

On 5/6/2019 at 4:38 PM, CharlieH said:

Based on those figures around 10 mil baht.

Pathetic when you consider 20k in the uk would get 1.5% per month !

1.5% per month = 18% per annum. Are you sure you can get 18% interest on a savings account anywhere nowadays ?

[CharlieH]

21 minutes ago, MikeN said:

1.5% per month = 18% per annum. Are you sure you can get 18% interest on a savings account anywhere nowadays ?

 

From Santander.....

"Earn more interest by keeping a higher balance in your account.Monthly interest of 1.50% AER/1.49% gross (variable) paid gross on your entire balance up to £20,000."