Reviewed by ThaiLawOnline, a licensed Thai law firm practising in Thailand since 2006. Thai lawyer of record: Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., Thai Bar Licence 3149/2556.
Last updated on August 8, 2026
Status tracker · last checked 7 August 2026
The remittance tax exemption is NOT law. It remains a draft. It has not been published in the Royal Gazette, and until it is, it changes nothing.
What governs your remittance today: Departmental Instruction Por. 161/2566, in force since 1 January 2024. If you are a Thai tax resident, foreign-sourced income you bring into Thailand is assessable regardless of which year you earned it. Por. 162/2566 carves out income earned before 1 January 2024.
If you are deciding whether to transfer money this month, plan on the current rule. Acting on a draft that has not been gazetted is how people create an assessable remittance they did not intend.
This page is maintained as a live status tracker and is reviewed monthly. The date stamp above is the last time a lawyer at this firm checked the position, not the date the page was written.
Where the Exemption Actually Stands
| Question | Position as at 7 August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Has the exemption been announced? | Yes. The Revenue Department has proposed it and it has been widely reported. |
| Has it been approved? | Not completed. The draft still requires Cabinet approval and Council of State review. |
| Has it been published in the Royal Gazette? | No. This is the step that makes it law, and it has not happened. |
| Is it in force? | No. |
| So what applies to a transfer made today? | Por. 161/2566, unchanged since 1 January 2024. |
Announced, approved and in force are three different things, and most of the confusion circulating in expat groups comes from collapsing them. A proposal reported in the press is not a rule you can plan a transfer around.
What the Exemption Would Do, If It Becomes Law
On the draft as described publicly, foreign-sourced income would be exempt from Thai personal income tax where a Thai tax resident remits it into Thailand in the same calendar year it was earned, or in the immediately following year. Income earned in 2025 and brought in during 2025 or 2026 would fall outside tax; a remittance made later would remain assessable at the ordinary progressive rates of 5% to 35%.
Two cautions, and they are the reason this page exists.
- The final text can differ from the draft, in scope and in effective date. Until it is gazetted, nobody can tell you what the commencement provision will say.
- Timing risk falls on you. If you remit 2025 income during 2026 in reliance on an exemption that is later gazetted with a different effective date, that remittance is assessable under the rule that was actually in force when you made it.
Timeline
| When | What happened | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Until 31 Dec 2023 | Foreign-sourced income was assessable only if remitted in the same year it was earned. | The old “bring it in next year” planning worked. |
| 2023 | Departmental Instruction Por. 161/2566 issued. | Reversed that treatment. |
| 2023 | Departmental Instruction Por. 162/2566 issued. | Protected income earned before 1 January 2024. |
| 1 Jan 2024 | New treatment takes effect. | Foreign income remitted by a Thai tax resident is assessable whenever it was earned. |
| 2025 | Revenue Department proposes the same-year-or-next-year exemption. | Announcement only. No legal effect. |
| 7 Aug 2026 | Still a draft. Not gazetted. Not in force. | Por. 161/2566 continues to govern. |
Get Told When This Changes
The moment the exemption is published in the Royal Gazette, the planning position changes for every Thai tax resident with income abroad. We update this page when it does, and the update goes out to the Thai Law Updates list the same week.
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The rest of this page explains the rule that is actually in force, what it means for retirees, remote workers, property buyers and investors, and the steps worth taking before your next remittance.
What changed: Nothing yet, and that is the point. The rules that govern money you bring into Thailand in 2026 are the ones in force since 1 January 2024. The widely discussed relaxation, which would exempt foreign income remitted in the year it is earned or the year after, remains a draft. It has not been published in the Royal Gazette.
Effective: The current regime applies to remittances made from 1 January 2024 onward, including the 2026 tax year (filed January to March 2027). No expiry date. The draft exemption has no effective date because it is not law.
Who it affects: Anyone who spends 180 days or more in Thailand in a calendar year and brings foreign income into the country. Retirees drawing pensions, remote workers paid offshore, investors remitting gains, and property buyers funding a purchase from abroad, are all subject to thailand foreign income tax.
What to do now: Plan your 2026 remittances against the law as it stands, not the law as it is discussed. Separate pre-2024 capital from post-2024 income in your records before you transfer. Do not delay a remittance waiting for an exemption that has no enactment date.
Last verified: 1 August 2026, against Revenue Department Departmental Instructions Por. 161/2566 and Por. 162/2566, Section 41 of the Revenue Code, and a negative check of the Royal Gazette for any exempting royal decree or ministerial regulation.
Table of Contents
The rule that governs your 2026 transfers
Thailand taxes foreign-sourced income on a remittance basis. Two conditions must both be met before the Revenue Department can tax money you bring in. You must be a Thai tax resident in the year the income arises, and the money must enter Thailand. Miss either condition and the charge does not arise.
Section 41 of the Revenue Code sets the residence test at 180 days or more in a calendar year. The count is cumulative, not continuous. Twelve separate trips of sixteen days each will make you resident just as surely as one long stay. If you are working out where you stand across several countries, our guide to personal income tax in Thailand sets out how the threshold interacts with treaty tie-breakers.
What Por. 161/2566 changed
Before September 2023, a well-known planning technique existed. Foreign income brought into Thailand in a later calendar year than the year it was earned escaped Thai tax entirely. Earn in 2022, remit in 2023, pay nothing. Practitioners called it the deferral rule, and it was the backbone of most expat tax planning in Thailand.
Departmental Instruction Por. 161/2566 ended it. The Revenue Department reinterpreted Section 41 so that foreign income earned by a Thai tax resident becomes assessable whenever it is remitted, regardless of which year it arrives. The timing gap closed. The instruction applies to remittances from 1 January 2024.
One point is routinely misunderstood. A departmental instruction is not a new tax. It is the Revenue Department stating how it reads existing statute. The charging provision is still Section 41. That distinction matters if you ever need to argue your position, because the department’s reading binds its own officers but does not bind a court.
What Por. 162/2566 protects
A second instruction, Por. 162/2566, carved out a significant protection. Income earned before 1 January 2024 falls outside the new interpretation. Remit it whenever you like and the reinterpretation does not reach it.
This makes the boundary between pre-2024 and post-2024 wealth the single most valuable line in your financial records. It is also the line most people cannot evidence when asked, because they never expected to be asked.
Por. 162/2566 protects pre-2024 income, but only if you can prove which money is which.
If pre-2024 savings and post-2024 earnings sit in one commingled account, you are asking an officer to accept your characterisation without documents. Statements dated 31 December 2023 are the cheapest insurance available, and they cost nothing to download today.
The exemption everyone is waiting for is not law
Since mid-2025 the Revenue Department has signalled a relaxation. The concept is straightforward. Foreign income remitted in the same calendar year it is earned, or in the year immediately following, would be exempt. Earn in 2026, remit in 2026 or 2027, pay nothing.
It is a genuine proposal from a real source. It is also, as at 1 August 2026, not law.
Thai tax instruments follow a fixed path. A draft must clear Cabinet, pass Council of State review, and then appear in the Royal Gazette. Publication is what makes it binding, and publication has not happened. Until it does, nothing about your liability has changed.
Be careful with what you read elsewhere. A great deal of commentary describes this measure in the present tense, as though it already governs. It does not. Treat any article that fails to name the gazettal date with suspicion, because there is no gazettal date to name.
Announced, approved, in force: three different things
| Stage | What it means | Does it change your tax bill? |
|---|---|---|
| Announced or proposed | A department states an intention. Press reports follow. | No |
| Cabinet approved | Government agrees to proceed. Drafting and Council of State review follow. | No |
| Published in the Royal Gazette | The instrument becomes binding on its stated effective date. | Yes |
Before and after: what the 2024 shift actually did
Understanding thailand foreign income tax
| Situation | Until 31 Dec 2023 | From 1 Jan 2024 (current) |
|---|---|---|
| Income earned abroad in year 1, remitted in year 2, you are Thai tax resident in both | Not taxable | Taxable on remittance |
| Income earned abroad and remitted in the same year | Taxable | Taxable |
| Savings accumulated before 1 January 2024 | Not taxable | Not taxable (Por. 162/2566) |
| Income earned in a year you were in Thailand under 180 days | Not taxable | Not taxable |
| Money that never enters Thailand | Not taxable | Not taxable |
What this means in practice
Retirees
A pension remitted monthly is foreign income arriving in Thailand. Whether Thailand may actually tax it depends on the double tax agreement between Thailand and the country paying it. Several treaties assign taxing rights over government-service pensions exclusively to the paying state. Others do not. Read your specific treaty rather than a general summary, and factor the answer into the budget set out in our guide to the cost to retire in Thailand.
Remote workers
Income you earn while physically working in Thailand is Thai-sourced, and it is taxable whether or not it ever reaches a Thai bank. This catches people who assume an offshore employer and an offshore account keep them outside the system. It does not. If you are structuring a long stay around remote work, read this alongside our note on Destination Thailand Visa requirements, because immigration status and tax residence are decided separately and one does not determine the other.
Property buyers
Funds remitted to buy a condominium are frequently pre-2024 capital, which Por. 162/2566 protects. The difficulty is evidential, not legal. Thai banks issue a Foreign Exchange Transaction form on inbound transfers above the reporting threshold, and you need that form anyway to register foreign-quota ownership. Keep it filed with your dated pre-2024 statements. Our guide to moving money to Thailand from abroad covers the mechanics, and buying a condominium in Thailand explains why the same paperwork does double duty at the Land Office.
Investors holding digital assets
Gains on digital assets follow their own rules and interact with the remittance question in ways that catch people out. See cryptocurrency tax in Thailand before you move exchange balances onshore.
Five steps to take before your next remittance
- Count your days honestly. Use entry and exit stamps, not memory. The 180-day line decides everything else.
- Download statements dated 31 December 2023 for every foreign account. This is the evidence that makes Por. 162/2566 usable.
- Stop commingling. Keep pre-2024 capital in accounts you do not pay new income into.
- Read your double tax agreement, not a summary of it. Relief is usually a credit, not an exemption, and you generally have to claim it.
- Register for a Thai tax ID if you are resident and remitting. See registering a tax ID number in Thailand. Filing without one is not possible, and the absence of one is not a defence.
Thai personal income tax runs on progressive rates to a top marginal rate of 35 percent, and returns for a calendar year are filed in the following January to March window. Deliberate non-declaration is a separate and more serious matter, as our page on tax evasion and money laundering in Thailand explains.
Related regulatory shifts
Two other changes are moving at the same time and affect many of the same people. Thailand’s visa exemption framework is being cut back, which changes how long you can stay without a visa and therefore how easily you cross the 180-day tax line. See our companion article on the 2026 visa rule changes. Separately, proposals to raise the foreign condominium quota continue to circulate without becoming law, covered in our piece on the foreign ownership restrictions that still apply.