Living and Working in Thailand

Thailand offers a low cost of living, which is one reason retirees and remote workers settle there. International residents are found in Bangkok, in Chiang Mai in the north, and in the seaside areas of Phuket, Koh Samui and Hua Hin, and budgets differ widely between them.

Two items shape the budget above all: housing, which varies widely by city and by standard, and healthcare, delivered by a large private hospital sector whose treatment is charged to the patient or to an insurer.

Rather than reasoning in averages, comparing your current net situation with your projected situation on the ground gives a more concrete picture:

Because Thailand has no free-movement arrangement, a visa is required for any long-term stay (work, retirement, settling in). Several routes coexist depending on the profile:

The visa and the work permit are separate instruments. Section 37(1) of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 provides that an alien granted temporary stay may not take up an occupation or employment unless permitted under the law on the management of the work of aliens or the law on foreign business, so a visa on its own carries no right to work. The DTV carries no work permit. On the LTR, the Board of Investment lists a digital work permit among the programme's privileges and requires holders who work for an entity in Thailand to apply for permission to work immediately after the visa is issued, and states that a work permit is not granted to holders in the Work-from-Thailand Professionals category, because that category is for working remotely for an employer abroad. Thresholds and conditions change, and the version in force at the date of application is the one that governs.

An important point not to confuse: holding one of these visas does not by itself make you a tax resident in Thailand. Tax residency depends solely on presence of 180 days or more in the calendar year, as detailed in the Taxes decision.

Working locally requires a work permit, a separate instrument from the visa, generally arranged by the employer and most often alongside a Non-Immigrant B visa. The Ministry of Labour notification prescribing works prohibited to aliens lists 40 works, 27 of them closed to foreign nationals outright, among them wood carving, driving a motor vehicle other than a forklift, hairdressing and beauty work, Thai massage, tour guiding, secretarial work and legal services. The Board of Investment lists exemption from a four-Thais-to-one-foreigner employment requirement ratio among the privileges of the LTR visa.

Many foreign residents live on foreign-source income (a pension, remote work, investment income) rather than on a local job. The ranges by sector are set out below, in the Sectors and salaries section.

The working language depends on the sector:

For remote workers operating for foreign clients or employers, the DTV provides a stay with no Thai work permit, and the Board of Investment states that a work permit is not granted to holders of the LTR in the Work-from-Thailand Professionals category, because that category is for working remotely for an employer abroad. LTR holders who work for an entity in Thailand apply for permission to work once the visa is issued (see the Visas decision).

Tax residency in Thailand rests on a single criterion. The Revenue Department states that a person present in Thailand for an aggregate of 180 days or more between 1 January and 31 December of the same year is a resident for that tax year, irrespective of nationality; its own worked examples treat 179 days as non-resident and 184 days as resident. Holding a long-stay visa (DTV, LTR, retirement or other) does not by itself make you a tax resident; only the 180-day threshold counts.

The Revenue Department's Departmental Instructions Por. 161/2566 and Por. 162/2566 set two conditions that must both be met before foreign-source income enters the personal income tax computation. First, the assessable income must arise abroad on or after 1 January 2024, in a tax year in which the person was in Thailand for 180 days or more. Second, the person must bring that income into Thailand, in that tax year or in a later one. The year therefore matters twice: income that arose before 1 January 2024 stays outside the rule when it is remitted, and so does income that arose in a year in which the person was in Thailand for fewer than 180 days. The Revenue Department's worked example is a person present for 65 days in 2024 who earns foreign rental income that year and remits it the same year, and who is not taxable on it because they were not resident in the year the income arose. One instrument sits outside that rule: section 5 of Royal Decree (No. 743) B.E. 2565 exempts from personal income tax the assessable income under section 40 of the Revenue Code of holders of the Long-Term Resident visa in the Wealthy Global Citizen, Wealthy Pensioners and Work-from-Thailand Professionals categories, where that income arose in a previous tax year from work or business carried on abroad or from property situated abroad and is brought into Thailand; section 6 of the same decree makes the exemption conditional on the qualifications and conditions announced by the Director-General.

An easing announced in 2025 would exempt foreign income remitted in the year it is earned or in the following year. The Revenue Department's register of newly issued tax law, read to 3 August 2026, carries no instrument to that effect, and Por. 161/2566 and Por. 162/2566 remain in force, so the rule above is the one that applies. Thailand also has double tax agreements in force with 61 countries and jurisdictions, on the list the Revenue Department published on 6 July 2026, among them Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore and the United States; each allocates taxing rights between the two states. Other destinations in Southeast Asia are covered in the guides for Vietnam and Indonesia.

The defining point of Thai real estate is clear: a foreign national cannot own land outright. The Land Code sets out one narrow exception, at section 96 bis: a foreign national who brings in investment of not less than 40 million baht may acquire land for residential use of not more than one rai, with the permission of the Minister. The Code leaves the qualifying business categories and the investment holding period to a ministerial regulation, requires that period to be not less than three years, and confines the land to Bangkok, Pattaya City, a municipal area or an area zoned residential under the town planning law; the Cabinet Secretariat records the Ministerial Regulation of B.E. 2545 in force as fixing the holding period at five years. To the common question of whether a foreigner can buy a house in Thailand, the answer lies in the distinction between the land and the building.

A foreign national can own a condominium unit outright. Section 19 bis of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 caps foreign ownership in each condominium at 49% of the aggregate floor area of all the units in that condominium, measured at the time registration of the condominium is applied for; the base is the units themselves, not the whole building including its common property. Section 19 sets out the categories of foreign buyer; under section 19(5) the buyer brings foreign currency into the Kingdom, or draws the funds from a Thai baht account held by a person resident outside Thailand, or from a foreign-currency deposit account, with the corresponding bank documentation. For a house with land, the legal routes are the long-term lease, usufruct or the right of superficies.

Using a nominee, or a Thai company set up solely to circumvent the restriction, is unlawful.

Thailand grants visa exemption on arrival to nationals of 93 countries and territories, for a stay not exceeding 60 days for tourism and short-term business, extendable at an immigration office by not more than 30 days; that rule has applied since 15 July 2024, and the published list includes Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. On 16 July 2026 the Tourism Authority of Thailand stated that the Cabinet had approved updated details for a replacement framework, following its earlier approval in May to replace the 60-day measure: 65 countries and territories would be sorted into a 30-day exemption, a 15-day exemption or a visa on arrival, with 59 at 30 days including India, Croatia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta and the Maldives, 15 days for Mauritius and Seychelles, and a visa on arrival for Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia. The same statement said that the five Ministry of Interior announcements were then pending publication in the Royal Gazette and would take effect 15 days after publication, and that until the new measures take effect the current entry conditions remain in place. Beyond the exemption, an appropriate visa is required (see the Visas decision). For long stays, the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 attaches reporting obligations: section 37(5) requires an alien staying more than 90 days to notify the immigration officer of their place of residence and to repeat that notification every 90 days, sections 37(2) and 37(3) require residence at the notified address and notification of any change within 24 hours, and section 39 provides that leaving the Kingdom ends the temporary permission to stay unless a re-entry permit was obtained beforehand.

A few practical reference points, provided for information: section 112 of the Criminal Code punishes defamation, insult or expression of malice towards the King, the Queen, the heir apparent or the Regent with imprisonment of three to fifteen years. Drug legislation is strict: the Ministry of Public Health Notification on Controlled Herb (Cannabis) B.E. 2568, published in the Royal Gazette on 25 June 2025 and in force the following day, designates the flower of the cannabis plant as a controlled herb, requires a licence to study, export, sell or process it for trade, and allows dispensing only against a prescription from a listed category of registered practitioner. Respect for Buddhist places of worship is part of local custom.

Permanent residence exists. Section 40 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 provides that the Minister, with Cabinet approval, publishes in the Royal Gazette the annual number of aliens who may take up residence in the Kingdom, capped at one hundred persons per country per year and fifty per year for stateless persons.

These reference points are practical information: it is useful to research the regulations in force before departure and to follow them once on site.