Thailand Inheritance Tax for Foreigners and Heirs

The tax attaches to the recipient, not to an estate as one undivided pool. Thailand looks at what a particular heir receives from a particular deceased person. If assets from the same deceased person are transferred in separate stages, those receipts are aggregated when testing the threshold.

For individuals, the Act draws three relevant categories. Thai nationals are within scope. A non-Thai national who has a domicile in the Kingdom under immigration law is also within scope. A non-Thai person without that status can still be liable when the inheritance consists of assets situated in Thailand. The first two categories can be taxed on relevant assets in Thailand and abroad, while the third is limited to assets treated as situated in Thailand.

That distinction is easy to blur with the separate 180-day rule used for Thai personal income tax residency. They are not the same test. Inheritance tax uses an immigration-law domicile concept, so days spent in Thailand or the possession of a particular visa should not be treated as an automatic shortcut to the answer.

Consider an heir who lives overseas and receives a Bangkok condominium plus money held at a Thai bank. Living outside Thailand does not by itself remove those assets from the Thai inheritance-tax analysis. Thai immovable property and deposits in Thailand are among the asset categories that can be treated as situated in Thailand. By contrast, assets elsewhere may be outside the Thai tax scope if that heir is caught only because he or she inherits Thai-situs property.

The general rules stop where the facts of the individual succession begin. The heir’s immigration status, the legal situs of each asset and the date on which each asset is received can change the answer, so those points need to be matched to the current Revenue Department rules and the estate documents before a return is prepared.

The THB 100 million threshold is not a single allowance for the whole estate or for an entire family. It is tested by reference to what one heir receives from one deceased person. The relevant inherited assets are valued, liabilities assumed with that inheritance are deducted where the Act allows them, and tax applies only to the amount above THB 100 million.

Separate transfers do not create separate thresholds. Suppose an heir first receives THB 70 million and later another THB 65 million from the same deceased person. Those receipts are combined for the threshold test. If the net amount within the tax scope is THB 135 million, the taxable excess is THB 35 million.

For a child or another direct descendant, a simplified example would be THB 135 million less the THB 100 million threshold, leaving THB 35 million subject to tax. At 5%, that produces THB 1.75 million of inheritance tax. The 5% rate is not applied to the full THB 135 million.

Take the same THB 135 million inherited by another taxable heir to whom the 10% rate applies. The excess remains THB 35 million, but the tax would be THB 3.5 million. The relationship changes the rate; it does not change the basic threshold mechanics.

These are teaching examples, not asset valuations. They assume the inherited property is within Thailand’s tax scope, the values and inherited liabilities have been determined under the applicable rules, and no separate exclusion such as the spouse rule applies.

Thai inheritance tax does not simply sweep in everything a beneficiary receives after a death. The statutory asset categories include immovable property, securities under Thailand’s securities and exchange law, deposits and similar monetary claims, registered vehicles, and any additional financial assets brought in by further legislation. The first task is therefore to identify which inherited property falls into those categories, not to assume that the deceased’s entire balance sheet is taxable.

For a foreign heir who does not have a domicile in Thailand under immigration law, the situs rules become decisive. The ministerial regulation treats Thai immovable property as situated in Thailand. It also covers securities issued by an entity registered in Thailand or established under Thai law, deposits or similar monies in Thailand, and vehicles registered in Thailand. Those connecting factors can bring an asset into the Thai tax analysis even when the heir lives permanently overseas.

A common cross-border example is a Bangkok condominium, cash at a Thai bank and an investment account held abroad. For a non-domiciled foreign heir, the condo and Thai deposit are the kind of assets that cannot be dismissed merely because the beneficiary is offshore. The overseas account is a different question: whether it is relevant to Thai inheritance tax depends on the heir’s status and the wider statutory scope.

Thai nationals and non-Thai individuals with the relevant immigration-law domicile face a broader reach. The Act provides for relevant inherited assets both inside and outside Thailand to be taken into account. That is why the shorthand statement that foreigners are taxed only on Thai assets can be misleading.

Taxability and legal transfer are separate issues. An asset may fall within the inheritance-tax rules while its registration, ownership restrictions or estate-transfer formalities are governed by different laws. Land ownership by foreigners is an obvious example: the tax analysis does not itself establish that an heir can register the land in his or her own name.

A surviving spouse is not simply given a preferential 0% rate. Section 3 of the Inheritance Tax Act says the Act does not apply to inheritance received from the deceased by that person’s spouse. The distinction matters because the spouse rule is an exclusion from the Act, not a tax calculation that happens to produce zero.

Parents and other direct ascendants, as well as direct descendants, are taxed at 5% on the taxable portion. Other heirs who are within the Act are generally taxed at 10%. Those percentages come into play only after the asset scope, inherited liabilities and the THB 100 million threshold have been dealt with.

Relationship alone does not create liability. A child who receives THB 60 million of net inheritance from one parent does not pay 5% merely because descendants have a 5% rate. Equally, a more remote heir does not pay 10% on the entire inheritance if only the excess over the threshold is taxable.

Lifetime gifts sit in a different tax regime. Their exemptions, limits and timing rules are not the same as inheritance tax, so a gift made before death should not be compared with an inheritance by looking only at the headline percentage.

The number written into a will is not automatically the tax value, and neither is an old purchase price. The Act values different asset classes under different rules, generally by reference to the date on which the inheritance is received. Two assets that a family informally regards as being worth the same amount can therefore produce different values for Thai tax purposes.

Thai immovable property is tied to the appraised capital value used for fees on registration of rights and juristic acts under the Land Code, subject to the permitted treatment of encumbrances. Foreign real estate, where it falls within the particular heir’s Thai tax scope, follows a separate hierarchy: an official registration value may be used where available, with approved appraisal or market value rules applying in other cases.

Securities are treated differently again. Listed Thai securities are valued at the closing price on the date the inheritance is received. A 2025 ministerial amendment changed the valuation criteria for shares in companies or juristic partnerships that are not listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. For those holdings, an old secondary-source formula is a poor substitute for the current regulation, especially where the company itself owns interests in other entities.

Deposits are valued with interest or other benefits due as of the inheritance date. Foreign-currency amounts are converted into baht under the Revenue Department’s exchange-rate rules using the relevant Bank of Thailand published rate. Registered vehicles have their own prescribed valuation approach as well.

There is therefore no single sensible shortcut called “the market value of the estate.” The asset type determines the method. This becomes particularly important with large private-company holdings or cross-border portfolios, where a valuation rule can materially change whether the THB 100 million threshold is exceeded and by how much.

Once the heir’s status, asset scope and threshold have been worked through, a person who has an inheritance-tax liability must file Form P.M.60 and pay the tax within 150 days. The clock is linked to the receipt of the inheritance that gives rise to the liability, not simply to the date of death. That distinction matters where assets are transferred in stages and the threshold is crossed only later.

The Revenue Department’s form instructions specifically ask for the date on which inherited value exceeds THB 100 million. The timeline of receipts is therefore part of the tax analysis. A first transfer may leave the heir below the threshold, while a later transfer from the same deceased person can create the filing obligation.

The Revenue Department’s inheritance-tax forms page lists Form P.M.60, filing instructions and an instalment-request form, and the page was updated on 19 August 2026. The Act permits instalment payment subject to separate rules and conditions. Anyone relying on instalments needs the current procedural requirements rather than assuming the ordinary 150-day filing rule answers every payment question.

Filing the tax return does not replace probate or estate administration. Even where no inheritance tax is due, a bank, land authority, securities registrar, court or other institution may still require a will, proof of heirship, appointment of an estate administrator, a court order or its own transfer documents. The exact package depends on the asset and how succession is established.

It is useful to treat these as parallel tracks. The tax track deals with scope, threshold, rate, valuation and the P.M.60 deadline. The estate track establishes who has authority to receive or transfer the asset. Completing one does not automatically complete the other.