Be careful with your money transfers to TH

Be careful with your money transfers to Thailand...
the new Bank of Thailand regulations require the banks to withhold from use (for 12 months)
30% of money transfers...on amounts over US$20,000.

Check with your bank first before you make large transfers to Thailand bank accounts.

I just did a transfer to my Bangkok Bank account ..
and wanted to make sure 30% the funds transferred would not be held back...for 12 months.

I e-mailed the Bangkok Bank and their reply follows:

TJ

Dear Customer

Transferring fund via SWIFT

Regarding your request to make fund transfer from abroad to Bangkok Bank in Thailand, We would recommend
you can transfer funds from abroad to any Bangkok Bank Branches in Thailand via SWIFT channel at any Remitting Bank.
The significant information for transferring funds to Bangkok Bank, you should provide to
any Remitting Bank, in addition to the remitted amount is :-

тАв Beneficiary Account : correct account name and domestic account number (10digits)
as it appears on passbook account maintained with any Bangkok Bank Branch
тАв Beneficiary 's Bank Details:
- Bank name: Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited
- Branch name: Beneficiary's branch name
- Address: 333 Silom Road Bangkok 10500
- SWIFT Code: BKKBTHBK
тАв Details of Payment : the purpose of sending funds transfer
(Please specify the purpose of transfer : living expenses and to purchase a Chonburi townhouse for the payment instruction and 30% may not be withheld for this purpose).


To enable us to receive funds transfer from abroad quickly and directly into your / beneficiary's account
maintained with our bank, you should also send the funds via our correspondent bank. It will take approximately
5 business days for transferring funds from the abroad to the account with us. Our charge to the beneficiary' account
is only 0.25 percent from the remittance amount (min THB200 and max THB500).

To access your account

we would like to inform you that in order to apply for our Internet Banking service, a certificate for long-term resident in Thailand, such as Work Permit or Non-Immigrant Visa is required. If you hold any kind of such documents, you can apply for Bualuang iBanking at any Bangkok Bank branch.

If you would like to make inquiries about your account balances, you have an option of accessing them via our Phone Banking service (Bualuang Phone) by calling +662-645-5555 and follow the voice instructions given on the phone. For your convenience, please have your ATM cards' number and your ATM PIN ready when calling our phone banking service.


Should you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can also contact our phone banking center at +66-2645-5555 (from the overseas) or 1333 (from within Thailand), a 24/7 service to acquire more information. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Web operations

Here is the Pattaya Today letter - news article:

http://www.pattayatoday.net/index.php?a ... ws&id=2118 .

Transfers in trouble

[Letters-Today-4]
I just want to alert your readers that it can be problematical at the moment transferring from overseas more than US$20,000 equivalent to your Thai bank. Just before the announcement last month about withholding taxes, I sent for 30,000 UK pounds to be transferred to my Pattaya bank. I need this money not to buy a condo but for general living and to buy a new car. At first, my bank rang up from UK to say that the Thai banks were not currently accepting transfers at all at the moment. Then I was told it was OK and that the money had been sent electronically. But, after five working days, nothing had appeared in my Thai bank. Approaching my bank, I was told that the money was still in the head office as they were deciding what to do with it. I then received a phone call from the aforesaid head office pointing out that 30% of the cash would need to be frozen for a 12 monthsтАЩ period because of the government announcement about withholding taxes. Eventually, I was allowed to keep all my money after obtaining a letter from the car dealer stating my intention to buy a new Isuzu truck. But my advice to everyone at the moment is to keep your international transactions to Thailand less than US$20,0000 equivalent unless you are buying a condo. In the latter case you are exempt from the withholding tax, provided your European bank confirms that the money is indeed for property purchase. Harold Gill

Ed: ItтАЩs best at the moment to ask your bank about procedures if you intend to transfer large sums, over US$20,000 equivalent, and wish to avoid the withholding tax. The Thai authorities donтАЩt mean to inconvenience people in the situation described above, but тАЬblanketтАЭ policies always create some confusion. There was an article about the general situation in the Legal Corner page of our issue January 1.
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I'm not sure that I would be TOO worried about this one in your particular case (to savings for living expenses). I see in their email "then might not be subject" to 30%. I suppose here that the bank doesn't do the determination of whether 30% would be held, they are "covering their ...", but I don't know for sure. I'd call and ask if they WOULD straighten this out should it happen.