@Will *****

emotional nonsense. what youtube video have you been watching?

@Poul *********

Withholding tax can, under circumstances, be reclaimed when filing annual income tax, provided you are tax resident.

Obviously that depends on the tax rate threshold that would apply to you.

@Brandon ***********

Ah! I misread…

I read “home country embassy” as “the embassy in my home country”. That would, in the given case, obviously be the Thai embassy in the USA.

@Brandon ***********

Actually, legalization of documents does occur in the home country.

I can’t speak for USA, but in Netherlands you first go to a legalization office of the government (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) who validate the document and the stamps/signatures on it and then go to the Thai embassy in USA to validate the signature of Foreign Affairs.

It works exactly the same the other way, when you want to validate an official Thai document for use in your home country.

So, in short, yes you need to visit the Thai embassy in your home country.

I would distribute. Never keep such amounts in a single bank. This because of the limited guarantees when the bank collapses.

Don’t let people scare you about Thai banks. The big economic collapse in 2008 started in USA, not Thailand.

I moved my funds in equal shares to Bangkok Bank, Kasikorn Bank and SCB, but I also kept large funds in Netherlands. These three bank allow international transfers above 50,000 baht. Bangkok Bank can provide you with a foreign currency account in case you don’t want to convert right now.

Netherlands has a tax charge on bank balances which Thailand doesn’t have - That was one of my motivators to move part of it to Thailand. The other motivator is that the baht is expected to rise to only 33.5 baht per euro (currently around 35, coming from 39 in July 2024).

If you decide to keep anything in a foreign bank then make sure that you can demonstrate having the amount in that bank at year end before becoming tax resident in Thailand.

Thai Banks don’t give any realistic interest. I believe expats get max 2% or something alike in the first few years. There are a number of profitable investments with tax benefits, but I haven’t yet done much research into them yet so I can’t suggest which to choose.

@Randy *****

… which would be my primary reason not ever to retire there… 🤣

I’m pretty sure almost half of the comments here is posted by people who didn’t care whether their unbelievable wisdom has any relevance to the question from the OP.

So let me add something extremely important (equally not) related to the question:

Songkran is in April.

Have a great day, all, and remember you shouldn’t be drinking when posting or commenting on Facebook.

To the OP: Sorry that you have to wade through all the rubbish in your thread. My suggestion is to repeat your post, but not on a Friday when the bar visitors crawl out of their holes of boredom and meaningless lives. 🤣

The answer to your question:

In Thailand they refer to a current account as “Savings account”. It’s the same thing.

@Joseph ******

The OP cares, which is why he asked a question. I care, which is why I answered and explained.

If you don’t care: Scroll!

@Joseph ******

Problem in this case, and the reason why I raised the issue, is that there are *two* phases of the process which are often referred to as “retirement visa” but the OP doesn’t even understand that. And, like yourself, he can not read the explanation either.

So,,,,,, It’s very cool to throw a language thing at a non native English speaker (I’m sure you felt really important while doing that), but it would even be much more cool if you had activated that other brain cell as well and had tried to read and understand my comment. Then you would have understood why I explained about the two different phases.

Now,,,, which part is a “marriage visa”? Is it the non-O,,,,, or is it the extension?

Because the OP is clueless,,,…!!!

@Lester ********

Then you didn’t read too well either because “he” perfectly answered your question. But reading and drinking….

Hmmm… not a good combination. 🤣