Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing expat accounting and tax issues and the Work Permit connection. I was talking to a friend of mine recently, I just sort of asked off hand, I said, "hey what is an issue that a lot of expats that you hear talk about?" I mean most people that I talk to, by the time they get to me they know exactly what they want to do. They are not overly vague about things; they are sort of looking to execute a specific type of protocol or get something specific done. But what is something that's just out there in the ether the expats are talking about? And one of the big ones is accounting and tax, especially from those expats coming from Europe or the UK or the Anglosphere - even the US, although the US kind of has a different analysis which I have gone into in many other videos regarding the US-Thai Treaty of Amity. This is a general video but yeah Amity Treaty oftentimes deals with a lot of this stuff for Americans in a pretty streamlined way. But for just expats generally, the issue of tax and accounting. 

Basically, a lot of people and unfortunately a lot of visas were created with a lot of vagueness and just sort of a bunch of the ethereal promises and supposed parameters that then didn't really come to pass. For example, the DTV, not being able to get banking facilities. Nobody saw that one coming when it was first put out there. And then as it was brought online, people found out, "I can't get banking here". Well that can make things pretty limited for somebody in Thailand. I know it sounds like it would be pretty easy to live in Thailand without having a local bank. Yeah, it's theoretically possible. It's also theoretically possible to drive a car with your feet; it doesn't make it easy or a particularly good idea, depending on the circumstances. That said, the DTV is very useful for certain people, again, depending upon their specific circumstances. They might not need a lot of facilities like that. They just want to kind of hang around on a beach or something somewhere, fine. 

The point of this video though is for people that are running certain businesses that are engaged in generating revenue - either offshore or onshore - and how to go about sort of consolidating that and dealing with their taxes in such a way that things are streamlined, they're in compliance, they don't have to worry and they know that what they are doing is not going to get them into any sort of issues in Thailand. This is where the Work Permit comes in. And again, depending on your setup or your situation, again setting up a small business in Thailand can be done. It can be done in such a way that offshore revenue streams can be brought into Thailand but in such a way that it mitigates tax liability or at least optimizes tax liability, again depending on circumstances, but there are multiple ways of doing that.

Also accounting services, which I don't talk about as much as I maybe should at times on this channel, but yes we do offer accounting services here and we do provide a lot of value in my opinion to many of our expat foreign clients in Thailand regarding their tax liability as well as their situation regarding work authorization and whether or not they are in compliance with relevant Thai Law.

All of this basically falls under a scenario where, again, you probably want to set up a small company, although that may not necessarily be the way to go. Again, there is also a delineation between working remotely and working onshore; I've gotten into that in other videos. But long story short, if there's any kind of kind of employment or business activity that is occurring in Thailand, then a Work Permit is going to be required. But I think people view a Work Permit as much more of a hassle than it necessarily has to be and especially when you consider the differentiation between the tax rates in Thailand and especially the tax rates in Europe, there are many different benefits associated with coming to Thailand, setting up a small business, using a Work Permit and then basically consolidating one's revenue stream into that and then being in tax compliance in a jurisdiction that does provide certain serious benefits i.e. the ability to live and work here as well as possibly be on track for Permanent Residence as well as citizenship. These are all benefits that can accrue to a foreign national looking to do business here in the Kingdom of Thailand.