Thailand Capital Gains Tax On Equity Trades– Same As Income!

How Much Tax Will I Pay?

August 28, 2004
By Niles Brohey

Capital gains taxes are applied to profits from the sale or exchange of capital assets including equity. In the majority of nations capital gains are taxed at a different rate to income, in other words a distinction is made between regular income (such as your wages) and capital gains income (which is not regular). This is true of almost all EU nations and of the USA also. This distinction between incomes is not made in Thailand however.

Thai capital gains taxes on equity trades and indeed on all capital gains are treated economically in exactly the same way regular income, in fact Thai law has no provision for a special capital gains tax on equity trades or any other capital gains. In western nations capital gains taxes are applied using standard income tax rates for short term assets. In essence Thai law does this for all assets, be they long or short term.

All capital gains made in Thailand are taxed using the Thai income tax system and so are taxed at the same rate as regular income. Personal income tax rates in Thailand vary from 5% to 37%. However businesses and non-residents of Thailand have income (and consequently capital gains) taxed at a flat rate of 30%.

So a private individual who is non-resident in Thailand or a business (it does not matter where in the world the business is registered) will be charged a flat rate of 30% on any capital gains they make on equity trades in Thailand. An individual who is resident in Thailand (according to the definition of residency in Thai law) will pay capital gains tax on equity trades at a rate varying between 5% and 37%, the exact rate they pay will be the same as their rate of income tax.