Expats in Thailand offered a further tax holiday with bitcoin
Crypto is feared and disliked by many, but could be the most important development since coins were invented.
In an ambitious move, the Thai finance ministry has announced that investors – Thai or foreign – will be exempt from paying tax on profits from their crypto gains provided they trade through exchanges or brokers licensed with the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission. The exemption runs from January 1 2025 through to the end of 2029. The measure is designed to strengthen Thailand’s position as a global financial hub and one of the early countries to adopt laws for digital assets and their taxation.
Thus Thailand is doubling down on waivers already promised to expats and Thai residents to transfer overseas income without personal tax. A detailed ministry circular is awaited, but the proviso in this particular case is that the cash arrives here in the calendar year, or the following year, in which it was earned. The finance ministry has separately promised that tourists will soon be able to pay for accommodation, meals and other items with cryptocurrency at registered businesses by linking their credit cards to digital assets for domestic spending.
If the tax-free crypto works out as planned, Thailand will be able to compete with Singapore and Hong Kong for the title of Asia’s crypto hub. In reality, the country is abandoning its former policy of trying to tax everything in sight and to bet that temporary breaks will bring more benefits in the future. But the new move is accompanied by a crackdown on unlicensed offshore crypto exchanges and the cyber crime associated with them. The hope is that the latest policy shift will attract investors rather than speculators.
But ExpatTax Thailand, in an email to subscribers about crypto, advises that specific details are awaited. The exemption applies to actual crypto gains solely from buying and selling and not (it appears) on income from business activities. It isn’t clear how gains will be reported or what happens tax-wise if you cash out on a non-licensed platform or an offshore wallet and transfer that money into Thailand.
ExpatTax concludes, “This five-year crypto tax break could be excellent news for expats – but it’s not automatic and not without limitations. Be prepared for further clarification from the Thai Revenue Department.” Separately, a government spokesperson said there were no plans to allow visa payments or immigration charges by cryptocurrency. Not for now anyway. As Whistleblower’s Edward Snowden reminded us, “It is very unpopular but also very true that bitcoin is the most significant advance since the creation of coinage.”
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