Sending Regular Money to Family in Thailand

Most of the questions I get about wiring money into Thailand involve a specific bureaucratic hoop — a visa, a condo, a Land Office deadline. This one is different. If you’re sending your mother a monthly allowance, or helping a partner’s family with school fees, there’s no form waiting for you at the other end and no office checking your paperwork. Which is exactly why people worry about it more, not less — when nobody’s asking you for proof, it’s not obvious what proof you should be keeping anyway.

Short version: for ordinary family support, you don’t need to do anything special. But “ordinary” has a size, and there are two different thresholds worth knowing before you assume you’re under it.

Why this isn’t the FET-form situation

Our condo-purchase guide covers the Foreign Exchange Transaction form in detail, but the short version is that it only shows up once a single transfer clears roughly USD 50,000. A monthly transfer of 20,000 or 50,000 baht to support a family member is nowhere near that line, so there’s no FET form to request and no Land Office waiting for one. The bank will convert the incoming foreign currency to baht and credit the account the same way it would for any other deposit.

The number that actually matters: gift tax

Thailand does tax large gifts, but the exemptions are generous and the definition of “gift” is narrower than people assume:

• Spouse and children (or grandchildren): exempt up to 20 million baht per year, combined across everything they receive from you.
• Parents, grandparents, and other relatives: exempt up to 10 million baht per year.
• Above those thresholds: a 5% tax applies to the excess, not the whole amount.

For nearly everyone sending a monthly allowance, this is academic — you’d need to be transferring well over 800,000 baht a year to a parent before gift tax even enters the conversation. And regular payments that cover someone’s ordinary living expenses (rent, food, school fees, medical bills) aren’t generally treated as taxable gifts in the first place, regardless of the running total, because they’re support rather than a transfer of wealth.

The other number: the bank’s own scrutiny threshold

Separately from tax, Thai banks apply enhanced know-your-customer checks once a single incoming transfer from abroad reaches around USD 200,000 — asking for invoices, contracts, or other documents establishing where the money came from. This exists to catch large, unusual inflows, and it sits so far above a typical family transfer that it’s not something to plan around. It’s worth knowing mainly so you don’t confuse it with the much lower FET threshold, or worry that your monthly transfer is anywhere near triggering it.

What actually helps: consistency, not paperwork

If there’s one lesson worth carrying over from our guide on why Thai banks are freezing foreigners’ accounts, it’s this: predictable, well-labelled transfers are the opposite of a red flag. A monthly transfer of a similar amount, from the same sender, to the same account, with a purpose field that says something like “family support” is exactly the pattern a bank’s monitoring system is designed to wave through. What draws attention is the reverse — a dormant account that suddenly receives a large, irregular deposit with no clear purpose.

A few habits that keep things simple on both ends:

1. Keep the amount and schedule consistent where you can, rather than sending irregular lump sums that are harder to explain if anyone ever asks.
2. Use a clear purpose description on the transfer — “family support” or &ldqu;living expenses” is enough; you don’t need to over-explain.
3. Keep basic records anyway — who sent what, when, and to whom — even though nothing is required of you. If a recipient’s total ever approaches the gift-tax thresholds, or a bank ever asks a question, having a simple log going back is far easier than reconstructing one after the fact.