Transcript of the above video:

I don't really want to be making this video but I feel it is almost necessary because I see all this stuff swirling through the ether of the internet talking about Thai Tax and there is all sorts of misconceptions that are being bandied about as well as inaccurate conclusions, and conclusions of law by the way which foreigners shouldn't even be engaging in. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thai Revenue may not answer every question about personal income tax. Let's start with something here. I don't know where everybody got the perception that Tax Authorities are in the business of advising you on your tax situation, that's not how it works, it has never been how it works. So do I like this? Not really, I am not a real pro tax guy; I have been a member of the Tax Court for years now in the United States; I do provide tax advisory in an American and an international context and in how it interacts with the Thai System. That said, I leave Thai Tax Matters in deciphering and interpreting relevant Thai tax law and Thai tax code to Thai Tax people, people in our office. We have an accounting division with accountants, we also have tax lawyers here that assist those accountants in interpreting the relevant tax codes. So again, I don't engage in that directly but I do from time to time end up tangentially dealing with Thai Tax Matters. I am here to tell you there is a whole body of things where I don't know what I don't know, so when I see these lay people across the internet making these sweeping broad pronouncements about how Thai Tax Law works or how it is going to be applied or how it will be applied in the future, it just makes me uneasy because people are just, I mean that is like the blind leading the blind. It's not somebody who has any expertise and then they are talking about it as if they do and I think that can result in a lot of really detrimental impact on folks down the road. 

Quoting directly: “Are there specific exemptions? Amongst those who do not need to file are foreigners with less than 6 months Thai Residency in a year." Not true. That's not necessarily true. It's going to be based on the underlying facts. If a foreigner was in Thailand and just one fact pattern where that is not true and there are others, if a foreigner is in Thailand and accrues income in Thailand or accrues something that could be interpreted as income earned in Thailand, it doesn't matter what their tax, excuse me what their residency is, the amount of time they have been in Thailand, if it was accrued in Thailand you are taxable on it, that is just one example. I've seen fact patterns involving people that don't primarily live here but derive certain revenues and things under certain circumstances where notwithstanding their residency they are still on the hook for taxes. 

Quoting further: "Those who do not bring any overseas cash into Thailand in the entire year 2024 and those with a 10-year Long-Term residency Visa," Okay, hold on. Let me go back here. “Those who do not bring any overseas cash into Thailand in the entire year 2024”; again, may not be the case. It depends on how the revenue is accrued; it depends on how it's derived. Is it considered earned income in Thailand for example? There are multiple ways in which yeah there could be tax liability attached to something notwithstanding the fact you may not transfer cash into Thailand. Again people are thinking of this quite honestly in a very non-lawyerly way because they are not lawyers and I know that that's very frustrating to people when I say something like that but look that is how the law works. It is fluid in certain ways and underlying facts are going to change the analysis. You cannot make these one size fits-all proclamations, that is not how it works. “and those with a 10 year Long-Term Residency Visa whose benefits include specific exemption from the particular issue we were discussing here.” It is not an exemption, it is a stipulation. We've discussed this in other videos. Under that LTR scheme you can stipulate to a certain amount of tax liability. Now I haven't really discussed this at length on video but what can be given, can be taken away. One of my biggest problems with the LTR Visa is it was made up out of whole cloth. Certain aspects of it completely contradict the Immigration Act of 1979 which leads me to believe that they could be legally challenged down the road. This whole tax thing as well and I have read up on it. I did a video where I was like “where is the authority for that?” People did send it to me, I read it. The way I view this is yeah it is a stipulation; the 17% rate is a stipulation, okay? And again, we saw how Thai Tax policy changed from one quarter to the next just by the rescission of one memo or I should say one rule which was rescinded by memo, okay? What can be granted, can be taken away. So when people talk about this like "oh this is just a fact, this is a given", that's not a good way to look at tax; it's not a good way to analyze tax because tax is going to change from one year to the next and again what can be granted, can be rescinded. What doesn't exist today, could exist tomorrow. There's a lot going on there but the big one that needs to be sort of gotten into people's mind and I didn't exemption it's a stipulation. You're stipulating that you're going to pay X which down the line to the best of my knowledge and from what I have read, will involve an audit at some point during the period in which you're in LTR status to ascertain whether or not you are in line with your stipulation. “Thai Revenue of course could add to this list at any time.” Yeah and they can take away stuff too. Again the LTR makes me very uneasy because again they made it up and as we have seen with Elite, Elite has changed fundamentally within the last year; the pricing structure has completely upended. Again they made up LTR; the LTR seems to operate in contravention, certain very hard and fast rules as set forth in the Immigration Act and as we have discussed, it is not Residence, it's not Lawful Permanent Residence in Thailand, so therefore it doesn't put you into the other part of the Immigration Act, it is just a really long non-immigrant Visa and again they operate as if “oh, well you don't need to do 90-day reporting!” Well who aggregated the Immigration Act of '79? The reason I bring this up is not to undermine those who are in an LTR Visa, it is to provide a warning that that is a legal challenge that could be brought against the LTR Visa internally within the bureaucracy down the line. You're telling me it's not possible that down the line if tax revenues are down that they might not start having a real scrutiny of whether or not the rules pertaining to the stipulation on tax is not in line with what their present policies are? You are telling me that can't change? I don't think that's prudent long-term tax planning is the way I would say that. Quoting further: “What about pre-taxed income and double taxation? Ah yes the million dollar question! Double taxation Agreements are not holiday reading and are not primarily concerned with the welfare of pensioners, so don't expect too much.” Well first of all, none of that matters. I don't know how to put this any other way. Law is weird insofar as it's created politically but then once it's put down on paper, it just is. So whether or not pensioners are cared about or whatever in the promulgation of this policy doesn't matter, the law can still apply anyway. So just coming at it even from that angle is the wrong way to look at it to begin with. Quoting further: “The best advice endorsed by major tax accountants in Thailand,” You know, to just say that out of the blue that's unwise, again because no tax person worth their salt is going to make broad sweeping one size fits-all statements because they themselves know that's not how tax works; that's not how tax law is applied; that's not how tax liability is assessed and that is not how tax money is accrued. Again that's why there's no citation. It's just this “well many tax accountants!” whatever that is. There are accountants and they happen to deal with tax liability, so I don't even understand that. Quoting further: “The best advice endorsed by major tax accountants in Thailand, is to assume that pre-tax pensions and income are exempt from the current Revenue enforcement unless and until a government source tells you otherwise.” That's terrible advice; that's not how the world works. That's the equivalent of saying be an ostrich and put your head in the sand until the tax man comes around. If you're in a situation where you're truly worried about your tax liability, accessibility of your situation by living here in Thailand, you need to talk to a tax professional, somebody who knows what they are talking about with regard to Thai Tax Law, how it has evolved, people that have had experience in actually filing returns, dealing with audits. We have a whole division here at the front that deals with that full-time, all the time, okay? Making these sweeping statements of “oh don't worry about it until the government comes out”. Really? I have dealt with the IRS in the past in an American context, that's the last thing you want to do. You want to be proactive; you want to be planning and you need to understand how the current rules and regulations operate so that you can set yourself up accordingly so that if and when they do come, you're ready to instantly in many cases answer their questions and tell them “hey, I'm in compliance, you need to find somebody else to bother!” Putting your head in the sand, not a good idea. Quoting further: “That applies whether your home country has a double tax agreement or not.” That's even worse. If your home country doesn't have a double tax agreement, you really need to be talking to somebody and even if they have on you really need to be talking because how those are going to be interpreted and how those operate. I love it I've had multiple people say well the plain language of this says XYZ! Again, law is subject to interpretation of the tribunals and courts of the local jurisdiction. So to just presume that something is X because you say so is in my opinion not a prudent presumption.

So the thing to take away from this video is at the end of the day, if you are concerned about your tax liability, it's definitely a good idea to contact a legal professional rather than just listening to a bunch of people - I'm not meaning to pick on the Pattaya Mail specifically, I have seen this across the internet elsewhere, it’s not just them – people are just saying “ah don't worry about it”, just put your head in the sand mentality though, that is not a good way of moving forward when it comes to tax planning.