Thailand income tax 2026: 5% to 35%, 180 days, and foreign income you bring in

Thailand does not tax residents on everything they earn worldwide the moment it is earned. Two questions decide it. First, did you stay in Thailand for periods adding up to 180 days or more in the calendar year, which is the test in section 41 of the Revenue Code? Second, was foreign income actually brought into the country? Thai-source income is taxed whether you are resident or not, and wherever it is paid. Foreign income earned from 1 January 2024 by someone resident in the year it was earned is taxed when remitted, even if the remittance happens in a later tax year. Income earned before that date, or in a year when you were below the threshold, stays out even if you bring it in later. Taxable income is then charged on a progressive scale: nothing up to 150,000 baht, then 5% rising in steps to 35% above 5,000,000 baht. That combination is what makes the day count here worth more than almost anywhere else.

Thai tax rates, and why two official pages disagree

Scale published in Thai for tax year 2560 (2017) onward, page updated in January 2021; we did not read a scale dated 2026.

Read that table against the Revenue Department's own website with care. Its English page on personal income tax still shows a top band starting at 4,000,000 baht, and it says those rates were for the 2013 and 2014 tax years. The Thai-language page sets the 30% band up to 5,000,000 baht and 35% above that, for tax year 2560 (2017) and later returns. We use the later text. It was last updated in January 2021, and we did not find a rate table published specifically for 2026, so treat the scale as the latest official one we could read rather than as a 2026 confirmation.

Cumulative tax from that Thai table: 7,500 baht at the top of the 5% band, 27,500 at 500,000, 65,000 at 750,000, 115,000 at 1,000,000, 365,000 at 2,000,000 and 1,265,000 at 5,000,000. So 6,000,000 baht of taxable income gives 1,615,000 baht by our arithmetic.

The figures apply to taxable income, the amount left after deductions and allowances. The general page lists a 40% deduction on employment income capped at 60,000 baht, and a personal allowance of 30,000 baht. That page's rates are out of date, so its other amounts deserve a check before you use them in a return. There is also a floor. Section 48 of the Code sets a minimum of 0.5% of assessable income for a taxpayer with 120,000 baht or more of assessable income, leaving employment income under section 40(1) out of that measure. The older English page gives 60,000 baht here, another sign it lags the Code.

Section 41 says 180 days or more

This one-day difference needs saying plainly, because official documents do not all use the same words. The Revenue Department's translation of section 41 reads "180 days or more". Its 2024 leaflet for foreigners says "180 days or more" too, and a table in that leaflet separates under 180 from 180 or above. Yet its general English page says "more than 180 days", and its November 2025 foreign tax credit manual uses both "exceeding 180 days" and "at least 180 days". The statute comes first, so this counter treats day 180 as reaching the threshold. If you are close enough for one day to matter, do not rely on the difference.

The count adds up separate periods. Section 41 speaks of a period or periods in any tax year, and that tax year is the calendar year, so each 1 January starts from zero. Six months spent from November to April splits between two years and may never trigger the test in either of them.

Foreign income since 2024: what is taxed and what is not

The official leaflet reduces this to two conditions, and both have to be met:

What matters is your status in the year the income was earned, not the year the money arrives. That cuts both ways. Bring in savings from a year you spent 200 days in Thailand, and they are taxable in the year you transfer them, however few days you spend there that year. If you remit only part, the taxable amount is apportioned. Income that is remitted is added to your Thai income on the return.

The leaflet is written for foreigners, while section 41 speaks of any resident of Thailand. The section describes the taxable base as assessable income from an employment or business carried on abroad, or from property situated abroad. Our sources do not settle every category of capital movement, such as a transfer of principal rather than income, so we leave that open.

Crediting tax already paid abroad

The credit depends on a double tax agreement. The leaflet says tax paid abroad can be credited against Thai tax if the agreement allows it. The November 2025 manual adds the limits: the credit cannot exceed the Thai tax on that slice of income, and any excess cannot be carried forward. Convert foreign amounts at a commercial bank's rate on the date of remittance, or at the Bank of Thailand's reference rate from the end of the previous business day. The evidence the Department names includes a tax payment certificate from the foreign authority and proof of the transfer, with documents in English or Thai.

Returns, deadlines and withholding

Foreigners report on P.N.D. 90 or P.N.D. 91, covering Thai income for the year and foreign income remitted during it. The Revenue Department's general page gives the last day of March following the tax year as the deadline. A half-yearly return is due by the last day of September for certain income categories received in the first six months, such as rental income, liberal professions and business income. Tax withheld at source and half-yearly payments are credited on the annual return. Withholding on employment income runs from 5% to 37% on that older page, which again predates the current scale, so check the figure with your payer.

Some income can sit outside the scale at your choice. Section 48 lets you elect 15% on certain interest, and residents can elect 10% on dividends from a Thai company or mutual fund, instead of adding them to the rest. The election can cost you the credit: the general page says that a taxpayer who excludes such dividends gives up the refund or credit.

Why the count starts from your trips here

A day total alone would not answer the Thai question, because you need the total for each calendar year separately, and later you may need to know which years were resident years when money comes in. Enter your stays below: the counter adds them for the year you choose and tells you how many days remain before day 180, arrival and departure days included as days of presence. The texts we read do not say how a part day counts, so counting both ends is the cautious reading rather than a quoted rule. The default example above reaches 168 days with a long stay in early 2026 and another at the year's end. Change the year in the form to review earlier years, and keep the result with your passport stamps. To have each year kept without having to reconstruct it, the Taxlag app does that as you travel.

Reaching 180 days also says nothing about your old country. It may still consider you resident, and only a treaty between the two states can settle a double claim: see dual tax residency. Long-stay travellers will find the wider picture in the guide for digital nomads, and the country table compares thresholds side by side. Note that Thailand counts 180 where much of Europe, such as Poland, counts 183.