Do I have to pay income tax on my retirement funds from the USA while living in Thailand?

I realize do-it-yourself is not everyone's cup of tea, but you can use TurboTax (and other similar) to file US Federal Income tax return for free from this site if your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is less than $72,000. The simpler your tax situation the easier it is. ;-)

Yes, the OP was ambiguous and vague enough to cover several possible interpretations.

@Wayne *******

being on a retirement visa or extension of stay means you cannot work in Thailand but does not mean you cannot earn income in Thailand.

In fact, many people with an extension of stay for retirement in Thailand keep money in a Thai bank in excess of 800,000 baht which earns interest. That interest is reportable both to the IRS and Thai revenue department as income. If it's below the filling threshold you may not have to file a Thai income tax return, but by doing so you may be able to recover any tax withheld from the interest income you received. That interest income is reportable as a tax liability on your US Federal Income Tax Return (if you are required to file). You may be able to claim the Foreign Income Tax credit on that, but you will not be able to claim a Foreign Earned Income Exemption (FEIE) because interest income is specifically excluded from that.

You have to have a mailing address in US for IRS and social security mail and info....right?

The alternative is for me to use my Thai address and have the mail sent to me in Thailand. There are three problems with that alternative:

1) While mail delivery is generally OK in Thailand if you are unfortunate enough to have your letter misdelivered to the wrong address it may just languish there forever (the discipline required to return mail to the post office if it has been misdelivered in Thailand appears to be an underdeveloped skill 😉 ).

2) I don't want my US financial institution to find out that I live overseas and want to restrict or close my account. There have been reports of this happening. For example, it is generally not possible for a US company to sell mutual funds to someone who doesn't reside in the US for legal reasons. I don't want to be encumbered with such a restriction. I regularly buy US mutual funds and I live outside the US.

3) I want to be able to open new accounts in the US and this often requires that I have a US address. Note: businesses if they are interested can determine that what I have is a CMRA rather than a "real" residential address, but I have been able to open accounts (for example, Charles Schwab Checking Account) with only my CMRA.

Haha, the above may actually work. ;-)

I use TravelingMailbox.com, which is a commercial mail receiving agent (CMRA). They provide me with an address to use, receive my mail, scan the envelopes so I can read online, scan the contents of the mail if I request it, and forward the mail to me if I request it. I find that 99.9% of the time simply reading the scanned contents of the mail online is enough and I don't need to have the mail forwarded to me. The exception to this is when I get a new credit card. I have it sent to them and forwarded to me in Thailand as I do not wish my US financial institutions to know that I don't reside in the US.

There are other CMRAs that do the same thing. I pay about $12/month (on an annual basis) for this service from Travelling Mailbox which I have used for more than 8 years.

I'm signed up for electronic communication with every entity I do business with and even then I still receive snail mail. For example, if I change my phone number at my IRA custodian they will send snail mail notifying me of the change, which I guess may be a legal requirement or at least a security precaution that they follow.

@Het***

I've been out of the US 4 years, have a few bank accounts, have never needed to get mail from them.

I just have my old address on file with them. Every now and then I'll get a message or an email " we tried to send you mail," I just update my address with the same address and they don't bother me anymore.

@Chris *****

and Thailand. I usually file Thai income tax and since my only

Income is interest I am able to get all interest withheld returned. I just report the Thai interest income on us taxes.

@George ************

and can also be taxed by thai govt if you are ordinarily resident in thailand and there’s no double taxation agreement

Reading the links I posted above is free ;-)

Up to you.

%20taxpayers%20are%20justified%20in,regulations%20(7%2C655%2C000%20words%20long).

@Garrett **********

I had my tax agent (in The US) ask me if I had foreign accounts or investments. That was the first time ever. I didn’t Pursue further. Guessing I would have to pay tax on that too, humm. Good ole double dip.

David You're talking about 2 different things, of course having nothing to do with what the OP asked, or what this comment asked. You just had to start an argument about something else because you wanted something to argue about. It's getting annoying really quick.

@Jay ****

very true

@J**

Wrong, you pay tax on all money earn IN the US, regardless of where you live in the world. The FEIE is only applicable to the first $107k earned OUTSIDE of the US.

@Garrett **********

unless you don't want to.

@Benj****

He's a US citizen, I think he meant he obtained a Thai retirement visa in the US.

@Garrett **********

exactly.