Thai Immigration to Monitor Foreigner’s Bank Accounts

[Gaybutton]

I might add that Switzerland offers outstanding banking services if you want a safe haven for your money.

How does a foreigner go about getting a Swiss bank account?

[gera]

Is any country "self sufficient" in a globalized world?

Thailand is self-sufficient in a sense that it produces enough food to feed its population. It also produces more than 90 percent of required energy and has a chance to move almost completely to renewables by 2050.

[Jun]

Looking at the history of the planet over the last few hundred years, I don't think we could consider anywhere as totally safe.

However, the odds of losing all your assets due to revolution, war or other forms of government expropriation drop considerably if the assets are distributed amongst 2 or more countries and you are free to emigrate.

I agree that Switzerland is a very fine candidate country for placing assets. However, as a European, going further afield seemed desirable. Due to favourable tax rules, Hong Kong and Singapore were obvious candidates, but Singapore has the advantage of not being under the control of Beijing.

Incidentally, none of this is for dodging UK taxes, since it doesn't do that anyway whilst I am living here. More for "insurance" and possible tax efficiencies if I decided to emigrate.

If I were, say 10x wealthier than at present, I would be trying to get at least 3 passports and trying to distribute some assets to friendly jurisdictions on at least 3 continents.
However, as it stands "buying" passports via investor schemes is a tad expensive for me.

[gera]

I am buying local gold in Thailand and keep it locally (in storage not in condo). The gold should be local , since nonlocal gold is not easily sold in Thailand. It became possible again to open bank accounts in Switzerland for Americans (and for a full disclosure I keep some of my funds in Swiss francs). However, deep negative rates in Switzerland make it somewhat iffy to rely on Swiss financial system.

[Dodger]

I really don’t think it matters which bank, or banks, you use anymore, because personal and business accounts can be monitored by a number of government agencies, if warranted. In the U.S., the Department of Treasury and IRS can access any account they want, and sometimes do when investigating tax fraud or other criminal acts. This includes Swiss bank accounts, which some people seem to believe are somehow exempt from this scrutiny. Just ask Paul Manifort.

Americans are required to file an FBAR Report (Foreign Bank Account Report) annually If the aggregate value of all their foreign accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. This includes bank accounts, investment accounts, pension accounts, certain life insurance schemes, and most other accounts held at financial institutions. The FBAR is a requirement of the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Failure to come forward and report voluntarily can result in severe penalties if the accounts are discovered by the Treasury or the IRS.

I produce an FBAR every year, as the aggregate of the two bank accounts I have in Thailand exceeds the $10.000 threshold. As far as reporting to immigration goes, I only need to submit a Bank Statement (and Bank Book) from the bank where my monthly foreign deposits are being made. As far as my other bank account, which is used solely for personal savings, I seriously doubt that they would ever monitor this, because there simply isn’t any reason to. But, if they wanted to, they certainly have the means of doing this.

For those using the 800,000 THB method to renew your visa’s, it doesn’t matter to immigration how many Thai bank accounts you have. They just want to validate the fact that you maintain the 800k minimum balance in one of the accounts for the time period specified, although, they can access and/or monitor any account they chose if criminal activities are suspected. .

I think what they may be training these immigration officers to look for, are abnormalities in foreigner deposit information where money is bouncing in-and-out of proxy accounts within Thailand, which may be an indication that the 800,000THB used by a foreigner for visa approval purposes, may be coming from a rogue agent working within Thailand, versus being a valid source of foreign income.

As far as the PattayaOne news article, I think the author lacked valid information regarding the real motivations behind the training that’s going on, and ended up making loose remarks while shooting from his hip. At least that’s my read on this.

[gera]

This includes Swiss bank accounts, which some people seem to believe are somehow exempt from this scrutiny. Just ask Paul Manifort.

And you seem to believe that the only purpose of having Swiss bank accounts is to avoid IRS. In reality many people try to protect their assets from possible collapse of US Dollar. If you think that such an option is unrealistic , on the scale of couple of dozens of years such a situation is quite possible.
Just recently there were reports that US banks did not have enough liquidity to buy all issued T-bills (very short term US government bonds). In other words, they could not absorb all the debt issued by US Federal government. As a result, Federal Reserve bank needed to step in to buy all this stuff.
But Federal reserve does not have all the required funds. It has the ability to produce electronic money out of thin air. That is how at least part of new US debt is funded. If you think it can last forever (and this is AOC theory), think again.

[Dodger]

This includes Swiss bank accounts, which some people seem to believe are somehow exempt from this scrutiny. Just ask Paul Manifort.

And you seem to believe that the only purpose of having Swiss bank accounts is to avoid IRS...

No, actually, I don't believe that at all.

[Dodger]

I just saw an article in today's Bangkok Post saying that the government has given the nod for Thai banking institutions to start scrutinizing foreign transactions in the hunt for money launderers.

[Gaybutton]

I just saw an article in today's Bangkok Post saying that the government has given the nod for Thai banking institutions to start scrutinizing foreign transactions in the hunt for money launderers.

Did you see that article in the Bangkok Post online? If yes, please post a link to it. I can't find anything about it.

Even so, according to your post it's the banks themselves that are supposed to start this scrutiny, not immigration officials. That would make sense to me and I would have no problem at all about it. I'm surprised this wasn't put in place long ago.

[Dodger]

I just saw an article in today's Bangkok Post saying that the government has given the nod for Thai banking institutions to start scrutinizing foreign transactions in the hunt for money launderers.

Did you see that article in the Bangkok Post online? If yes, please post a link to it. I can't find anything about it.

Even so, according to your post it's the banks themselves that are supposed to start this scrutiny, not immigration officials. That would make sense to me and I would have no problem at all about it. I'm surprised this wasn't put in place long ago.

Sorry, I read this while having breakfast at a restaurant this morning and thought I was reading today's Bangkok Post. Apparently it was yesterdays paper.

Here is the link to the article I was able to find on-line.:

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/17 ... regulation

The article also states that the draft regulation was proposed after Thailand failed to meet International Standard for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), with seventeen areas listed as needing further improvements.

It seems logical that the training all these officers are now receiving stems from this concern. If the author of the PattayaOne article understood that this was going on (Like he should have before writing his article), he would have mentioned this, versus making an unprofessional alarmist statement which, so far, doesn't appear to be supported by fact.