What counts as remitted income in Thailand, and how to add it up

Since 1 January 2024, a Thai tax resident who brings foreign income into Thailand owes tax on it in the year it arrives, provided the income was earned in 2024 or later. The rule itself is one paragraph in Revenue Department Order Por. 161/2566 (Thai). The hard part is deciding which of the money movements in your life count as bringing it in, and then totalling them by March.

This is general arithmetic, not tax advice for your situation. Confirm the figure with the Revenue Department at rd.go.th, or with an accountant, before you file.

This guide walks through each channel, shows how each one appears on a Thai bank statement, and ends with a method for building the annual figure. If you aren't sure whether the rule applies to you at all, start with whether you need to file a Thai tax return.

The rule, stated plainly

You're a Thai tax resident if you spend 180 days or more in Thailand in a calendar year. As a resident, income you earn abroad becomes assessable in Thailand in the year you remit it, if the income was earned from 1 January 2024 onward (Por. 161/2566). Income and savings from before that date are exempt whenever they come in (Por. 162/2566). The Revenue Department's Q&A on both orders (Thai) covers the edge cases, and the resident test is in Section 41 of the Revenue Code.

Nothing is taxed while it sits abroad. The tax point is the remittance, and the amount is what you brought in, not what you earned.

Channel by channel: SWIFT and bank-to-bank transfers

The clear case. You send money from your foreign bank to your Thai account; the amount credited is a remittance on the date it lands. On a KBank statement it appears as an inbound foreign transfer, usually with a code like FTT or a description containing the sender's bank. Bangkok Bank shows the sender name and originating currency on the credit advice.

Wise, Remitly, and other transfer services

Same treatment, different appearance. Wise doesn't wire your dollars to Thailand; it pays you out from a Thai partner bank in baht. That means your Bangkok Bank statement can show the credit as a domestic transfer with a Thai bank code, not as a foreign remittance. For tax purposes it's still a remittance of foreign funds. For proving that to anyone — immigration especially — it's a nuisance, because the statement doesn't say "from abroad".

Wise offers a "funds for long-term stay in Thailand" option for Bangkok Bank transfers meant to route as international transfers carrying the foreign-transfer code. Users reported in late 2025 that the credit still arrived with a domestic description at times, so don't rely on it. Save the Wise transfer receipts as you go; they show source, date, and currency, and they're your evidence whatever the statement says.

ATM withdrawals on a foreign card

The Revenue Department's guidance, and most practitioners, treat cash withdrawn in Thailand from a foreign account funded by post-2023 income as a remittance of that income. The amount is the baht dispensed, on the withdrawal date. This never appears on a Thai bank statement, which is why people forget it — your foreign bank statement is the only record. Fees of ฿220 or more per withdrawal add up too; a Thai account is cheaper for anything regular.

Spending on a foreign credit or debit card in Thailand

Same logic as ATM withdrawals: you consumed foreign income inside Thailand. Card spend paid off from a post-2023 salary is a remittance in the month you spend it, according to the Revenue Department's reading. Card spend paid off from pre-2024 savings isn't.

Nobody is auditing your Grab receipts. The point is that the full total for the year includes card spend, and if you're close to a threshold, ฿300,000 of foreign-card spending at a shopping mall isn't invisible income.

Cash carried across the border

Physical cash you bring in is a remittance. Amounts over USD 15,000, or the equivalent, must be declared to customs anyway.

Crypto and other off-ramps

Selling crypto on a Thai exchange for baht that lands in your Thai bank account is a remittance of whatever funded the crypto, if that was foreign income earned from 2024 on. Gains on digital assets sold through SEC-licensed Thai exchanges are separately exempt from income tax for 2025–2029 (Ministerial Regulation 399), but that exemption covers the gain, not the original capital's status as foreign income. This corner is under-documented; get advice if the amounts matter.

Paying for things directly from abroad

Paying your Thai landlord from your foreign account, or a Thai school fee by international transfer, is a remittance even though the money never touched an account in your name. The beneficiary is in Thailand; the income was consumed here.

What isn't a remittance

• Money earned before 2024, in any form, brought in at any time
• A gift from abroad within the exemptions: ฿20 million a year from a parent, child, or spouse, ฿10 million from anyone else on a ceremonial or moral occasion (Revenue Code Section 42)
• Loan proceeds

Ordering: which money did you bring in?

The Revenue Department hasn't said which money you remit first when one foreign account holds both 2019 savings and 2026 salary. Practitioners generally advise keeping pre-2024 capital in a separate account, with a statement from December 2023 showing the balance, and remitting from that account only, so the question never arises. If your accounts are mixed, an accountant will typically argue that you remitted capital first, but that's an argument, not a rule, and you should expect to document it.

The evidence that works: the 31 December 2023 balance on the account, every credit into that account since (so it's clear no new income was added), and the transfer confirmations for each remittance.

Double tax treaties and foreign tax credits

Thailand has treaties with about 60 countries. If the income was taxed at home first, most treaties let you credit that tax against Thai tax on the same income, up to the Thai tax due. The Revenue Department's English foreign tax credit guide shows the calculation. Some pensions — government-service pensions under most treaties, and US Social Security under the US treaty — are taxable only in the home country and never assessable in Thailand.

The friction is procedural. The e-filing form has no clean field for a foreign tax credit, and several people report being told to file on paper at the area office with the foreign assessment attached. Budget time for it.

How to total the year from your statements

This is the method. It takes an afternoon in January, or a few minutes if you keep up during the year.

• Get 12 months of statements for every Thai account you hold — KBank needs two six-month requests, most other banks give a year in one
• Go through the credits and mark every inbound transfer from abroad, including Wise payouts that look domestic. Add up the baht amounts on the credit date, not the send date
• Open your foreign card and bank statements and list every Thai ATM withdrawal and every Thai merchant charge for the year, using the baht amount the bank converted from
• Add any transfers you made directly to Thai beneficiaries from abroad
• Split the total into money sourced from pre-2024 capital (exempt, with evidence) and money sourced from post-2023 income (assessable)

The second number goes on your return as foreign-sourced income, in the appropriate income category: employment for salary and pensions, other income for dividends and rent.

ThaiWealth AI reads the statement PDFs and sorts every line into a category, which makes it much faster to scan a year of KBank statements for the credits that came from abroad, including a Wise payout that reads as domestic, instead of combing through the raw PDF by hand. It doesn't total the remittance figure for you automatically today. Card and ATM spend still comes from your foreign statements either way; add it as a manual line.

A worked example

Marco is resident (240 days), employed by a company in Milan, and paid into an Italian account. In 2026 he sent ฿900,000 to his KBank account via Wise, withdrew ฿60,000 at Thai ATMs on his Italian card, and spent ฿140,000 on that card in Thai shops. He also moved ฿500,000 from a savings account he's held since 2020.

Remitted total: ฿1,600,000. Exempt portion: ฿500,000 (pre-2024 capital, documented by the account's December 2023 statement). Assessable foreign-sourced employment income: ฿1,100,000.

Expenses ฿100,000, personal allowance ฿60,000. Net ฿940,000. Thai tax before credits ฿103,000. Italy taxed the same salary, and the Italy-Thailand treaty allows a credit, so much or all of that ฿103,000 gets offset once he sorts the paperwork.

Had Marco kept his card spending on a Thai debit card funded from the same Wise transfers, the total would have been identical. He'd only have moved ฿200,000 from "hard to see" to "on the statement", and the record-keeping would have been easier.

Frequently asked questions

Is using my foreign credit card in Thailand a taxable remittance?

If the card is paid off from income earned since 2024 and you're a Thai tax resident, the Revenue Department's reading is yes. If it's paid from pre-2024 savings, no. Keep the foreign card statement either way.

Do Wise transfers count as foreign income?

Yes. Wise pays out from a Thai partner bank, so the credit may look like a domestic transfer on your Thai statement, but the money came from abroad and the Revenue Department treats it as a remittance. Keep the Wise receipts to show source and date.

How does the Revenue Department know what I remitted?

Thai banks report large and foreign transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Office, and the Revenue Department can request bank data. Thailand also joined the Common Reporting Standard, so your foreign bank reports Thai-resident account holders back to Thailand. Assume the inbound transfers are visible; the card spend usually isn't, but the obligation is the same.

Is money I earned before 2024 taxed if I bring it in now?

No. Por. 162/2566 exempts income earned before 1 January 2024 whenever it's remitted. You need to be able to show it was earned before then, which usually means a statement dated on or before 31 December 2023.

Did the same-year remittance exemption become law?

Not as of this writing. It was announced in May 2025 and hasn't been gazetted. The 2024 rule is still the one in force.

If I remit money and send it back out, is it still taxed?

Yes. There's no netting. The remittance is taxable when it arrives regardless of what you do with it afterward.