Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing 2025 as sort of the “DMZ” year with regard to Thai Tax. What are we talking about here? Well, there is a lot of nonsense going around across the internet; I have done videos about this. A lot of Interlopers here in Thailand who are operating illegally, - especially illegal foreign tax agents who are operating illegally here in Thailand; I've been referring to them as Stamp-Pimps. If you look at the literature of the United States, especially around the revolution time, even before the revolution times, having to deal with the stamp tax etc. You can look up my videos on the stamp-pimps, there is some interesting stuff about that; you see a lot of analogs to that these days.

That being said, the point of this video is issues surrounding basically the notion that okay, we've got this tax situation going here in Thailand. What exactly is it looking like moving forward? Now there are people that are going to say, “oh it's a hard and fast rule now; everybody has to file da, da, da.” Look again, one, I've seen a lot of emails on this. I'm not dying on the hill that you don't have to get a tax ID number and I'm not dying on the hill that you don't necessarily have to file a tax return. Here's the hill I'm dying on. It all depends on your circumstances and again take with a great big grain of salt, anybody out there who's giving one-size-fits-all tax advice. Meanwhile, I did another video contemporaneously with this one where I asked the question, “you wanted free tax advice, you get what you pay for.” If you want free tax advice, you're going to get somebody who's going to tell you, ‘Oh, you have got to pay and you have got to use us to sign up for the documentation or whatever,’ because that's primarily what's happening, and what I can only describe as this con right now, okay? And long story short you may not have to. Again, it may depend on your circumstances. You may be analyzed and ‘oh my gosh, you do have to file a return.’ I'm not dying on the hill of you don't have to file, I'm dying on the hill of the notion that again there is no one-size-fits-all analysis for taxes. It's just not how it works generally speaking. It has never been how I've ever thought how any kind of legal analysis works. It is what you're taught pretty much from the get-go in any kind of legal education frankly.

Now that being said, again at the end of the day I'm calling this the “DMZ” year because we see Trump coming in - yes thankfully Yellen is on her way out which notably she leaves the country completely bankrupt as of Trump's first day in office. The country is insolvent; it has hit its debt ceiling as of Trump’s first full day by the way, I just saw that on Twitter a few hours ago, so thanks a lot Miss Yellen. Really. Kudos to you mam. In any event, the point I'm trying to make is this is the DMZ year to my mind. This notion that we all have to pay a Global Minimum Tax for being born, I think that's being thrown aside because again the Trump mandate, Yellen and all of that is being thrown out, but now we're seeing Trump coming in talking about this “External Revenue Service”. Exactly what that looks like is probably going to require a massive overhaul but we're probably not going to see it until next year. So, the point I am trying to make is again, I think the analysis that one, you can do a one-size-fits-all analysis over everybody or a large swathe of people is bogus. Secondly, the other thing I see is there's no affirmative duty to file a Tax Return in Thailand unless you may or may not have an obligation to do so because you made some sort of money. Meanwhile, as we have discussed in other videos, I don't think the surveillance technology is there and again I don't think the legal mandate is there for what a lot of these people, again for lack of a better term Stamp-Pimps are out there saying when they say, ‘oh you need to get a Tax ID number’. You may not. Again, it may depend on your circumstances. You may not need to do that. But moving forward and again he may be thwarted in this. Trump may not get this done, this would require Congress I would presume and this may not happen so it remains to be seen.

But at least for now I think 2025 reasonable people can disagree on tax analysis with regard to folks in this year and arguably last year as well, but looking forward, I think from 2026 on, we're going to have a much clearer idea of what the tax regime, especially Americans in Thailand etc., is going to look like but we're not there yet. So, no point in making drastic measures right now until we have seen what's going and we will certainly be keeping people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.