Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the series, Thailand Tales. Just tales from the old days, from expats here in Thailand; just phenomenon that occurred living in Thailand. One, I was talking to a really old hand out here, he has been here for over 15 years, kind of a mentor of mine, he was talking about the era of Thai Tax Clearances. 

I have always been aware of this. There is a Thai Tax Clearance Office at the airport but for those who are unaware, prior to the creation of the VAT, the Value Added Tax here in Thailand, there was this regime if you will of Thailand Tax Clearances. Basically, there were circumstances where folks essentially couldn't leave the country until they obtained, especially folks that were here long-term, this tended to happen for folks that have PR; there were a lot more Permanent Residents back in those days or folks that were here in non-immigrant visas that it was clear they had been here for a prolonged period of time and were possibly working. This even goes back my understanding to before the days of Work Permits, back when folks could just come in and they didn't need to have a Work Permit to be overtly working in Thailand. These folks could get into some real issues with respect to the Tax Clearance because if it was clear they had spent a lot of time in Thailand and then they needed to get this Clearance Certificate in order to leave. It is my understanding that in its heyday, this was a heck of a Byzantine system.

I mean I remember in law school there was this I think Dickens may have written it, it was like a poem talking about the Court of Chancery. I remember reading this poem in a law school class. It was like the first day of law school, they were talking about the Equity Courts and the Court of Chancery in the UK and they talked about that it was just this mass of this throng of people showed up every day and it was just very plodding and not a lot got done but people really needed to get things done by this operation. Apparently the Tax Clearance system was somewhat similar and there was all kinds, not unlike Immigration now where sometimes you needed legal professionals, you needed somebody to basically assist in navigating through the system. It is kind of funny looking back on it because they came up with an elegant way to just deal with it which was they came up with the VAT but you can still actually see at the airport there is an office for Tax Clearances and it is just not routinely sought anymore. It is not something that is required but there was a time where yeah these Tax Clearances could be a real issue for those wanting to come in and out of Thailand.