Thailand Tax Refund Calculator

Most salaried people in Thailand have more tax withheld during the year than they actually owe, because employers withhold against an estimate made before your year-end deductions exist — and freelance work is withheld at a flat 3% whether or not your annual income reaches the tax threshold at all. That difference is yours to claim back, but only by filing a return. It does not come automatically.

This page compares what was withheld against what you actually owe given your deductions, and tells you plainly whether filing gets you a refund or a bill.

One clarification first, since this phrase means two things: if you are a tourist looking to claim VAT back on shopping when leaving Thailand, that is a different system — see the tourist refund section of our VAT calculator. This page is for people with Thai income tax withheld from salary or freelance work.

The principle is one line. Refund = tax withheld across the year − tax actually due. Positive means money back; negative means a top-up payment when you file.

Where to find the tax withheld. The authoritative source is the withholding certificate known as the 50 Tawi, which every employer must issue by mid-February of the following year. If you had several income sources, add up every certificate, including freelance work withheld at 3%. Do not add deposit interest withheld at 15% to this field. This page has no input for interest income, so adding the tax without the matching income inflates the refund by the whole of that tax. Interest withholding under section 48(3) is also a final tax you may choose to leave out of the annual return, and if you leave it out none of it comes back. To reclaim it you must file with the interest income included, which is worth raising with the Revenue Department directly.

The tax actually due is calculated exactly as on our income tax page: total the year’s income, deduct the 50% expense allowance (capped at 100,000 baht), deduct your allowances, and apply the progressive brackets. Both pages share the same code, so the figures always agree.

Why most people get a refund. Employers withhold against an estimate made at the start of the year, usually before knowing about the RMF or ThaiESG funds or insurance you bought later. When you file with the real deductions, the true tax comes out lower than what was taken.

The other group that is owed money almost by default is freelancers on modest incomes: the flat 3% comes off every invoice from the first baht, even when annual income never reaches the tax threshold. Not filing means leaving that money with the Revenue Department.

Deadlines. File form PND 90/91 by 31 March of the following year, with roughly 8 extra days for filing online. Earlier filing generally means an earlier refund, and online filings with complete documents are typically paid out much faster than paper ones.

For foreigners: you file under the same rules using your Thai tax ID. Refund payment methods differ from those for Thai citizens in some cases — confirm the payout method for your situation with the Revenue Department when you file. And if you worked in Thailand, had tax withheld, and left — you can still be owed a refund; the claim window runs three years from the filing deadline for that year.