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Personal EMI with Card for Thailand

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Elad

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Dec 10, 2020
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#1
Hi,
I'm an Israeli living in Thailand. I'm looking for an EMI that I can open a personal account with that offers debit/credit cards.
Some more info: I do digital marketing work for an Israeli company. I'm a tax resident in Thailand and I get payed directly to my Thai bank account on which I pay taxes here. I only work with one company, which my friend owns and I get payed ~6K$ a month. I don't see much of a reason (correct me if I'm wrong) to incorporate but having a physical/virtual bank account outside of Thailand where I can receive my income will save me some $$$ taxes wise here.
My plan is to open an account with an EMI/bank outside of Thailand, have my income transferred there and use the card for most of my expenses. I will transfer the minimum amount required to my Thai account to save on taxes and then, once a year has passes I will transfer the rest of the money.
So I need a personal account (Don't care if it is an EMI or a real bank) that is reliable, that I can keep most of my money there and that issues a debit/credit card. I do have a TIN in Thailand since I pay taxes here.

Please also let me know if I'm missing something, I'm a bit of a noob.

Thanks in advance!
 
#3
Elad said:
Hi,
I'm an Israeli living in Thailand. I'm looking for an EMI that I can open a personal account with that offers debit/credit cards.
Some more info: I do digital marketing work for an Israeli company. I'm a tax resident in Thailand and I get payed directly to my Thai bank account on which I pay taxes here. I only work with one company, which my friend owns and I get payed ~6K$ a month. I don't see much of a reason (correct me if I'm wrong) to incorporate but having a physical/virtual bank account outside of Thailand where I can receive my income will save me some $$$ taxes wise here.
My plan is to open an account with an EMI/bank outside of Thailand, have my income transferred there and use the card for most of my expenses. I will transfer the minimum amount required to my Thai account to save on taxes and then, once a year has passes I will transfer the rest of the money.
So I need a personal account (Don't care if it is an EMI or a real bank) that is reliable, that I can keep most of my money there and that issues a debit/credit card. I do have a TIN in Thailand since I pay taxes here.

Please also let me know if I'm missing something, I'm a bit of a noob.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I know the rule about remittance of last year's foreign passive income (tax free in thailand), but what about the other part - if you work in thailand for a foreign company, your income automatically becomes domestic active source of income? How this works in practice?
 
#5
avalanche said:
If you want to live a life full of harmony and peace: don't keep all your money in EMI.
Click to expand...

It won't be all of it. It will be about 50% of my income and only for 12 months at a time. But I agree, I'm a bit reluctant to try this but I think it will be easier than opening an account at a brick and mortar bank at the moment. If I had 250K I would probably go the Citibank route but I'm not there yet.

zzzzzz said:
I know the rule about remittance of last year's foreign passive income (tax free in thailand), but what about the other part - if you work in thailand for a foreign company, your income automatically becomes domestic active source of income? How this works in practice?
Click to expand...

Hi,
In Thailand there's a huge difference between the letter of the law to what is actually being enforced. The basic gist is that if your business doesn't buy or sell anything in Thailand and doesn't deal with Thai people then the authorities don't consider this a business conducted in Thailand. So working online for a company that doesn't have any dealings with Thailand is not considered as work being performed in Thailand. This is according to two different Thai lawyers.

bibing said:
@Elad how much you pay for taxes in Thailand?


And congrats on your career. If your company his hiring, DM me .
Click to expand...

Currently it's about 18%. And to be clear, most people here, Thai and expats both, don't pay any tax at all. I chose to pay taxes because I'm a bit OCD and wanted to be as legit as possible here so I could sleep better at night.
 
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#7
Elad said:
Currently it's about 18%. And to be clear, most people here, Thai and expats both, don't pay any tax at all. I chose to pay taxes because I'm a bit OCD and wanted to be as legit as possible here so I could sleep better at night.
Click to expand...
OK so the situation is similar to Philippines. Lots of foreigners paying no tax on foreign sourced income (although supposed to pay)

18% is not that bad
 
#8
Yeah 18% is not bad but I kind of feel like an idiot when everyone else pays essentially 0%. Keeping the money in an offshore account and transferring it a year later or just using a card for most transactions will be a legal way of getting the tax rate way down though.
 
#11
bibing said:
Just a suggestion, maybe use a US LLC?
Click to expand...

Thanks. So a Delaware LLC with a Mercury account for example? I read that Mercury requires that your clients will be US based which mine are not (at the moment, they might open a US entity soon).

I will need a bank account where I can keep most of a my money long term and just transfer the minimum into Thailand but can I open one remotely other than Mercury?

Thank you
 
#14
startfleetio said:
Try considering a US LLC. It is one of the best structures for digital nomads. You can read more about it in my signature
Click to expand...
How about working from Thailand? US LLC is LLC in the USA, it's clear, but it's still me who is working inside Thailand, so that is accordingly to law Thai income. As I understand US LLC is a pass-through entity, so if you're staying and working from Thailand under US LLC, it's still thai income, isn't it?
 
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#15
Elad said:
It won't be all of it. It will be about 50% of my income and only for 12 months at a time. But I agree, I'm a bit reluctant to try this but I think it will be easier than opening an account at a brick and mortar bank at the moment. If I had 250K I would probably go the Citibank route but I'm not there yet.



Hi,
In Thailand there's a huge difference between the letter of the law to what is actually being enforced. The basic gist is that if your business doesn't buy or sell anything in Thailand and doesn't deal with Thai people then the authorities don't consider this a business conducted in Thailand. So working online for a company that doesn't have any dealings with Thailand is not considered as work being performed in Thailand. This is according to two different Thai lawyers.



Currently it's about 18%. And to be clear, most people here, Thai and expats both, don't pay any tax at all. I chose to pay taxes because I'm a bit OCD and wanted to be as legit as possible here so I could sleep better at night.
Click to expand...
agree, this is what I heard too, and same for me personally because i was in Thailand during 2012-2014 freelancing, they don't mind it at the moment.. Recently there was a raid in a co-working space in Chiang Mai, because Thai police thought these are actual local workers hired by a local Thai company who work without permit, but after owners of co-working space explained to police that these people are all working for foreign entities, there was no more questions to any of these people and tourists/nomads, and everyone was let go (they were arrested at first, the tourists) without getting a fine or any tax audit or issues, which contributes to the fact that Thai regulation stance is clear, as long as foreigner (no matter which visa status) does not take local Thai jobs, he's not an interest for authorities and is free to continue whatever he's doing abroad, they are not concerned to regulate, enforce strict rules to tax or investigate/audit digital nomads and other remote workers (i believe they understand that the costs of enforcing anything and proving, is higher than the possible benefit, since it's very difficult to prove foreign employment or whatever a person is doing abroad, really, the moment they'll try to, freelancers simply will find ways around it and authorities will simply lose resources on attempts to enforce/investigate, with zero benefits, I think they're doing the right thing with being easy on foreigners who bring the cash into Thai economy anyway and benefit the local market by consuming goods with foreign earned cash).
 
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#16
Puzel12 said:
How about working from Thailand? US LLC is LLC in the USA, it's clear, but it's still me who is working inside Thailand, so that is accordingly to law Thai income. As I understand US LLC is a pass-through entity, so if you're staying and working from Thailand under US LLC, it's still thai income, isn't it?
Click to expand...
It doesn't matter if it's transparent or not transparent if you are talking about Place of Effective Management.

However like @tyrexoid has mentioned, it seems like Thai authorities are not enforcing this rule. So it is good news
 
#17
Puzel12 said:
How about working from Thailand? US LLC is LLC in the USA, it's clear, but it's still me who is working inside Thailand, so that is accordingly to law Thai income. As I understand US LLC is a pass-through entity, so if you're staying and working from Thailand under US LLC, it's still thai income, isn't it?
Click to expand...
I think people are too paranoid about work done abroad. Theoretically and in practice, every plane pilot, flight attendant, international truck driver...etc. at some point work abroad and everybody can see that. And nobody says they have to pay taxes in that country! Now imagine some digital nomad doing something on his laptop. Is he working? Or maybe just checking emails? Impossible to know and prove anything, unless YOU say you have done something at exact time on exact place.
 
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