In my continuing quest to find a potential expat retirement spot, I came across a recent video on YouTube that has some good sources of data on changes to taxes this year in Thailand.
The World Wide Income Tax Bandwagon
More and more countries are starting to tax income worldwide even though that particular country did nothing to earn a slice of the tax rate. It’s understandable if a person is living in Thailand and earning income in Thailand that they should pay taxes. The taxes help support the entire business and income ecosystem but I have a really hard time when countries decide they are entitled to taxes on income from places far removed from their jurisdiction.
Fortunately for Thailand, there seem to be many loopholes for now to avoid the heavy arm of the tax man but that’s not to say it won’t change again in the near future.
The 180 Day Resident Tax Trap
Almost all countries require people living in their country for more than 180 days to pay income tax of some sort so the strategy we are developing now is to be multi-country expats and move from country to country to avoid the tax.
An alternative are some of the visas mentioned in the video above that avoid some of the heavy taxation but have some other caveats to look out for when considering a semi-permanent move.
Countries That Are Dead To Me
I have already scratched off Spain on my list of countries to move citing tax policy instability as the key issue. To be fair however, it’s not all Spain’s fault. The issue for U.S. citizens is that the U.S. government taxes Americans on income worldwide so moving to Spain would require us to pay both U.S. income tax AND Spain income tax. While there are some tax treaties that help avoid double taxation, the income limits are so low that they are fairly useless. Its ironic that the foreign income credits to offset taxes don’t rise as fast as inflation has and it won’t be long before the taxes are too onerous for everyone.
Argentina is another country that taxes world wide income and a relative recently came back from a trip there with glowing reports on how low the cost of living is there including housing but after a quick review of their tax policy, they are dead to me too.
Share The Wealth
Do you live in a country with tax friendly policies for expats? If so, share the wealth and let me know in the comments below.