Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the "closing of a tax loophole". What are we talking about here? I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Don't panic because Thai Revenue has written to 100,000 tax residents urging registration. Quoting directly: "Expats are currently concerned about the closing of a tax loophole which means that their assessable overseas income to Thailand becomes taxable from the start of 2024." 

That's not what's happening; that's not what's happening. Again assessability is not necessarily liability. So in the past, under the prior reiteration of the policy on how they calculate tax liability, they did not assess anything that was not accrued in the same calendar year as it came into Thailand. They changed that rule and said: “no, we can assess it regardless of the calendar year it comes in”. That's all that occurred. There hasn't been any closing of any loophole. Quoting further: "...provided they are tax residents remaining in Thailand for at least 180 days during the calendar year." Again, that analysis is not fully correct. There are people that could be under 180 days that could find themselves liable for tax here in Thailand. Again, it depends on the underlying facts in the given case, but there are scenarios where that could be.

I don't point this stuff out to be some kind of busy body. I point it out because making these absolutist statements cause people to think in absolutist terms and that is not the way that the law often works, especially in matters pertaining to tax. Again and I know I'm like a broken record and I guess people want to be angry about this and I don't know why, but these things are going to be both assessed, and any liability is going to be attached as a result of the specific facts in the underlying case. Yes there are certain rules to give us guidelines and guideposts in who may or may not have tax liability, but to view this stuff as black and white is a very bad way to look at it quite honestly. Quoting further: "The actual parameters and liabilities remain unclear," yeah no, let me just finish the quote. "The actual parameters and liabilities remain unclear to say the least, with some tax lawyer saying they expect Thai Revenue Department to make further announcements before the year’s end." Maybe, maybe not. Even if they don't, it's not unclear. As I've just said, they have just changed the way assessability works moving forward; it hasn't changed the Law. We know how liability attaches; we know under what circumstances liability can attach. What the next step is, is figuring out whether one's personal circumstances result in an application of Thai Law that could attach liability.

That is at the end of the day what this is all coming down to and again talking in these absolutes and having these people that quite frankly, especially foreigners that are out there that have no business, no qualification giving any; and let me be clear, I'm doing this for informational purposes. I'm not drawing conclusion. I'm telling you, conclusions can only be drawn by professionals looking at each case on a case-by-case basis, okay? But again, like these foreigners who are out there who one, are operating completely illegally. The restricted occupations are what they are; they've been there since ever. Talking about this stuff in terms of absolutists, I'm not talking about the Press, I mean folks that are holding themselves out, fraudulently, as professionals in this area, those folks, they have got problems of their own. But again the press itself, the thing I would just caution them against is looking at this stuff in terms of black and white and trying to come up with a one size fits-all answer. I hate to tell everybody this, it doesn't exist. Assessability is going to occur, and the assessability of one's tax liability is going to occur by applying relevant Thai Tax Law to the specific facts in one's given case.