Thailand Foreign Income Tax: Current Status Tracker (Updated Quarterly)

Thailand Foreign Income Tax: Current Status Tracker (Updated Quarterly)

As of 15 July 2026, the live rule is still the remittance-based tax under Por 161/2566 and Por 162/2566, effective 1 January 2024: a Thai tax resident who brings foreign-sourced income into Thailand pays Thai personal income tax on it in the year it lands, no matter which year it was earned. The widely discussed "two-year exemption" that would have softened this was never enacted. It was drafted in mid-2025, needed Cabinet and Council of State approval, and lapsed when the House dissolved in December 2025. The 8 February 2026 election came and went, a new cabinet was sworn in under PM Anutin Charnvirakul on 31 March 2026, and as of this writing no government source has confirmed whether the exemption is coming back, dead, or being redrafted. Treat it as open, not resolved. This page is a living tracker, not a one-time explainer — check the "current as of" date before you act on anything below.

Quick answer: what's actually true right now

• Live law: remittance-based taxation under Por 161/162, effective 1 Jan 2024 — unchanged.
• The remittance tax has NOT been repealed. No worldwide-taxation replacement has been adopted either.
• The 2025 "two-year exemption" was never enacted. It is a shelved draft, frozen by the election, not current law.
• Pre-2024 savings remain exempt when remitted, under Por 162's grandfathering clause — this part is solid and unaffected by the frozen reform.
• Tax residency trigger: 180+ days physically present in Thailand in a calendar year.
• No post-election confirmation exists (as of 15 July 2026) on the new government's stance — next check due 15 October 2026.

The status, tracked

The table below is the entire point of this page. It separates what is settled law from what is still a proposal, and dates each one so you can tell at a glance whether anything has moved.

Source: ExpatTaxThailand; PwC Thailand Worldwide Tax Summaries; AIM Bangkok; Bangkok Post; Bloomberg · verified July 2026 · ฿33/USD.

Nothing in that table should surprise a careful reader, but it contradicts a lot of what circulates in expat Facebook groups. The exemption draft got enough press in 2025 that many people now assume it already passed. It did not. If you remit foreign income earned in 2024 or later while you are a Thai tax resident, it is assessable income this year, full stop, regardless of what year you earned it.

How we got here: the timeline that matters

Understanding why this is unsettled, rather than just knowing that it is, helps you judge how much weight to put on any given news article.

September 2023 — Por 161/2566. The Revenue Department closed the old loophole. Before this order, foreign income was only taxable if remitted in the same calendar year it was earned; wait a year and it was clean. Por 161 killed that timing trick. Remittance in any later year now triggers Thai tax.

November 2023 — Por 162/2566. A grandfathering clarification followed: the tougher rule applies only to income earned on or after 1 January 2024. Money you earned and can document as pre-2024 remains non-assessable no matter when you bring it in. This is the one piece of good news in the whole saga, and it is still fully in force. See our pre-2024 savings guide for the paperwork you need to prove it.

1 January 2024 — the rule goes live. From this date, a Thai tax resident who remits foreign-sourced income earned 2024 or later pays Thai personal income tax on it in the year of remittance.

May–June 2025 — the relief draft appears. The Revenue Department floated a "two-year exemption": foreign income earned 2024+ would be tax-free if remitted in the year it was earned or the following year. This needed Cabinet approval and Council of State review, and reporting at the time suggested it was aimed at the 2026 filing period.

December 2025 — the House dissolves. PM Anutin dissolved Parliament (royal endorsement 12 December 2025), which paused pending legislation, including the exemption draft, and suspended Economic Cabinet work generally.

8 February 2026 — the election. Bhumjaithai, Anutin's party, won the largest seat share. A new cabinet, keeping the core economic team and naming Ekniti Nitithanprapas as finance minister, received royal approval on 31 March 2026.

Now (mid-2026) — silence on the reform. No source dated after the election confirms whether the new government intends to revive the exemption, let it die quietly, or rewrite it. That is a real gap, not an oversight on our part, and it is exactly why this page exists as a quarterly-checked tracker rather than a static explainer.

What the live rule actually requires

Since the draft relief isn't law, the operative rule is the one that has applied since 1 January 2024. Three conditions matter:

1. You are a Thai tax resident — physically present in Thailand 180 days or more in the calendar year (days need not be consecutive). See the 180-day residency rule for edge cases like split years and mid-year arrivals.
2. The income is foreign-sourced and earned 1 January 2024 or later. Pre-2024 income remains exempt under Por 162 if you can document it.
3. You remit it into Thailand — wire it, carry it, or otherwise bring it in. Money that never touches Thailand isn't taxed under the current remittance-based system; the floated worldwide-taxation alternative that would have taxed it regardless was never adopted either.

If all three are true, the remitted amount is assessable income for that tax year, taxed at Thailand's progressive personal income tax rates after allowances.

2026 progressive tax brackets (net income, THB)

Source: PwC Thailand Worldwide Tax Summaries, accessed 2026-07-10 · verified July 2026 · ฿33/USD.

Standard allowances reduce the taxable base before those rates apply: ฿60,000 personal allowance, ฿60,000 for a non-earning spouse, ฿30,000 per child, ฿30,000 per dependent parent, and an extra exemption up to ฿190,000 for taxpayers over 65. Stack the over-65 exemption with the personal allowance, a pension expense deduction of roughly ฿100,000, and the zero-rate band, and a retiree can often remit close to ฿500,000 (~$15,150) before owing anything — see do retirees pay Thai tax on pensions for how that stacks by pension type.

Filing, TINs, and deadlines

Filing is required if you're a resident who remits assessable foreign income, if you earn Thai-source income, or if your assessable income clears the filing threshold — even if the tax owed works out to zero. Thresholds are commonly cited as ฿120,000 (single) / ฿220,000 (couple) for non-employment income, with lower figures around ฿60,000/฿120,000 for employment-only income; the exact number depends on your income category, so check your specific case rather than assuming.

You generally need a Thai Tax ID (TIN) once you've passed 180 days in a year and remitted overseas earnings in that same year. If you don't remit, you may not need a TIN until a year when you do. For the 2025 tax year, paper returns were due 31 March 2026 and e-filing by 8 April 2026 — the next filing cycle (2026 tax year) follows the same pattern in early 2027. Our Thai tax ID and filing guide walks through what documents to bring to the Revenue Department office.

Pensions and double tax agreements

Where your money comes from changes the answer more than most guides admit. Thailand has double tax agreements (DTAs) with 61 countries, including the US, UK, and Australia, and each treats pensions differently:

• US Social Security and US government/civil-service pensions are taxable only in the US under the US-Thai DTA — exempt in Thailand even when remitted.
• US private pensions (401(k), IRA, company plans) are assessable in Thailand when remitted; a foreign tax credit relieves double taxation.
• UK private pensions and the UK State Pension are generally assessable in Thailand when remitted, with DTA relief via credit rather than full exemption. UK government/civil-service pensions are typically UK-only taxable, though the exact treaty article isn't fully pinned down in our research.
• Australian superannuation and the age pension are generally assessable in Thailand when remitted, since the DTA assigns taxing rights to the country of residence. Government and military pensions stay Australia-taxable. Because Australia often doesn't tax super for over-60s, some Australian retirees face real exposure to Thai tax with no offsetting credit — worth a proper accountant's look before you assume it nets to zero.

See double tax treaties for US, UK, and AU retirees for the fuller breakdown by pension type.

Where the visas fit in

The tax rules interact with visa choice in one place worth flagging: LTR visa holders in the Wealthy Global Citizen category get their remitted foreign income exempted from Thai personal income tax outright, regardless of what happens with the frozen general reform. That exemption is a feature of the LTR program itself, confirmed under the BOI's 2025 rule changes, not a substitute for the general two-year relief that never passed. If you're evaluating an LTR application partly on tax grounds, check the LTR visa financial requirements alongside this tracker, since the two questions get conflated constantly online.

Why the uncertainty matters practically

If you plan your remittances around a relief that doesn't exist, you risk an unnecessary tax bill for money you could have timed differently, or worse, an assessment you didn't budget for. The safest working assumption through at least the next review date is that the 2024 rule stands as written: track what you earn by date, keep a clean pre-2024 closing-balance statement if you have savings from before the cutoff, and don't remit large sums assuming a retroactive exemption will bail you out. If the new government does revive or rewrite the relief, it will be reported widely and this page will update — that's the entire reason it carries a "next review" date instead of pretending to be evergreen.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was the Thailand remittance tax repealed in 2026?

No. As of 15 July 2026, Por 161/2566 and Por 162/2566 remain fully in force. Neither the 2025 relief draft nor any worldwide-taxation alternative has been adopted. See was the remittance tax repealed for the full myth-check.

Is foreign income tax-free if I remit it within two years?

Not currently. That "two-year exemption" was only ever a draft proposal from mid-2025. It needed Cabinet and Council of State approval, never got it, and lapsed when Parliament dissolved in December 2025. It is not law and there is no confirmed timeline for it to become law.

Does the frozen reform affect income I earned before 2024?

No. Pre-2024 foreign income keeps its separate exemption under Por 162/2566 regardless of what happens to the 2025 relief draft. If you can document the income and a 31 December 2023 closing balance, it remains non-assessable when remitted later.

When will Thailand's tax rules actually be clarified?

There's no official date. The new cabinet took office in March 2026 with no public statement yet on the reform's fate as of this writing. We recheck primary sources quarterly; this page's next scheduled review is 15 October 2026.

Do I need to file a Thai tax return if I don't owe any tax?

Often yes. Filing is required once you're a resident who remits assessable foreign income or clears the relevant income threshold, even if allowances bring the tax owed to zero. Skipping the filing isn't the same as owing nothing.

The bottom line

Nothing changed in the law between January 2024 and this update: foreign income earned 2024 or later is taxed when you remit it if you're a Thai tax resident, and pre-2024 savings stay exempt if you can prove it. The relief that would have softened this never became law, and the 8 February 2026 election left its fate genuinely open rather than decided either way. Plan around the rule that exists, not the one that might arrive, and come back on or after 15 October 2026 for the next confirmed status.