Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tax residence, reporting standards and banking in Thailand. If you see me sort of rolling my head and my eyes and everything, it's because I'm not real thrilled about all of this. 

A viewer first sent me this, I'm going to put it up on screen. This person was banking with UOB and they were sent this letter.

Quote: "Dear valued customer, The Declaration of Account Holder's Tax Residence. Quote: Ref: The Royal Decree on the Exchange of Information for the implementations under the International Agreement on Taxation B.E. 2566 (2023), which came into effect March 31, 2023 and the Ministerial Regulation Determination of Information Exchange for the Implementations under the International Agreement on Tax Matters B.E. 2567 (2023) which came into effect on August 16, 2023 in order to the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Information (Common Reporting Standard) collectively called "CRS." Yeah, this is sort of the enabling stuff here. Quoting further: "As United Overseas Bank (Thai) Public Company Limited (the "Bank") is obliged to comply with the CRS regulation, it must verify and report the customer's information of tax residence that are subject to reporting requirement under said regulation. Therefore, the bank would like to ask your cooperation kindly fill out the CRS cell certification form attached hereto to confirm that your information of tax residence is correct enough to date and send the following documents back to the bank. 

-       CRS Self-Certification form (Please complete and sign); and

-       Copy of ID Card or copy of your passport or identification documents issued by Government Agencies which correspond with your information is still valid." 

Don't you have all of this? I mean we are unable to open up bank accounts apropos of nothing. People don't just walk in with a wad of cash and just say “hey I'm Ben, give me an account”. “Oh, okay Ben, there's your name on there, there's your number." All of this is sort of couched as if heretofore you could just walk in and open any account you want. All this information is already on hand. Quoting further: "Please submit the documents above to any UOB Branches or via email at [email protected] within 30 days from the date of this letter. The Bank will update your information in the system accordingly. In the event the Bank does not receive your documents within the timeline provided above, the Bank will be required by law to report your account information currently maintained with the Bank to the competent authority responsible for the CRS." So what's that? I mean that is like the most redundant thing I have ever heard of.

So they have already got your information which what keeps them from reporting that anyway? If you don't update your information, they're going to report the information they already have. Quoting further: "The bank would like to thank you for your cooperation and valuable time." Yeah well yeah, cooperation or what? I don't get my money back. You freeze my account? What? And then, there's “any questions”. It is important to note that the above statement does not constitute and an advice on the CRS. Please refer to your legal consultant for advice on the subject." Well thanks for throwing us a bone, I guess us legal people out here, for that. As I have said in other videos, I find this stuff to be wrong. I think Thailand is going down a wrong path by getting on board with this stuff. We already had information reporting. It's not as if Thai Banks were unaware of documentation. Anybody that has ever dealt with a Thai Bank knows the levels of documentation you need to do fairly routine things in other jurisdictions as far as opening accounts were pretty onerous and now they are adding new stuff on top of it. 

Exactly what this means long-term, I mean it's fairly self-evident, it just means you have got to continue reporting this stuff and dealing with documentation or statements regarding your tax residence. Exactly how this is going to play out moving forward, especially hopefully as we see possible different prerogatives coming from a new government, remains to be seen. I think it's worth noting, all of this came about in 2023, and we saw this new government coming in around that same time. Now credit where credit is due, the new Government came in around about August and this stuff was coming online in March, August, so it's not entirely on these folks. But at the same time, with all of this OECD talk which I can't think is going to make anything better if we are already dealing with this, as well as all this stuff from the World Economic Forum, it makes me kind of nervous as to what we could see in the future. 

For those who are interested, I get into deep dive analysis of this stuff in our paid news service. If you want information on that, please feel free to email us, [email protected], we'll get you on the mailing list for that. Also, while I am talking my book, I do have a restaurant I have opened with my better half here in downtown Bangkok. It's called Pancake Palace, as the name implies breakfast anytime, as well as American Diner style food. Links in the description below and you can come find us there and we’d love to see you. That said, I will be keeping folks updated on all of this banking stuff as it evolves, but as you can see, at least for now it is not moving in a great direction.