Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question does everybody who stays 6 months or more in Thailand have to file a tax return, have to get a tax ID number? As you can probably guess from the title, the answer is No, but it's a very qualified No, but it's important to note that it is No. Let me get into why I brought this up. I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on a prior video we made about Business Visas and tax identification numbers, as well as tax returns. Quoting directly: "I was reading that every single person living here more than 6 months a year is supposed to register for tax i.e. get a Tax ID number. Even if there is a DTA (that's a Double Tax Agreement) with your home country, and you pay tax there. The fact that they don't have the manpower to check doesn't alter that fact." 

Well first of all, the DTA, the Double Tax Agreement part of the analysis is not what we are getting at in this video. At the end of the day, mere presence in Thailand for 180 days is only one prong of the analysis regarding whether or not one needs to file any sort of tax documentation in a given year. What are we talking about here? Well, somebody could just not have had any income whatsoever. They could be living in Thailand purely on their savings. I have a pretty good idea where this commenter was reading whatever they were reading. Unfortunately, there is just a lot of nonsense, both emanating from all quarters of the internet associated with Thai taxation. Most of it from foreign charlatans, but there seems to be some confusion amongst other folks as well, who either don't seem to understand how this stuff works, or maybe they are trying to drum up business for themselves, whatever. But long story short, mere physical presence in Thailand for 180 days does not in and of itself dictate that one needs to file a return or get a tax ID number for that matter. That's again just one prong. 

Now I'm presupposing that this person is talking about Double Tax Agreements etc. If one is remitting money into Thailand, again the nature of the funds will factor into the analysis, but if one is remitting funds into Thailand and has been here for 6 months, then it starts going up on the scale of more likelihood that one needs to file a return and obtain a tax ID number. But again, that may or may not be the case. It may be one's own money that one is spending and simply moving it into the country is an exercise not dissimilar to moving one's wallet from one pocket to another. All of this will be driven by the underlying facts in a given case. That's the thing that seems to be missing from all of the analysis, from all of these talking heads and charlatans and nonsensical, for lack of a better term, drifters that I see across the internet talking about this topic is they are talking about things in absolutes, in broad concepts; they are not looking at it case by case. Again, the underlying facts in a given case will dictate the conclusions as to one's legal posture and whether or not there is a situation in which one has to file or even have to pay taxes. Note, there is a difference between the need to file and the need to pay. I get that as well. But there are circumstances where somebody may not need to file. They are fairly discreet but that said, they do exist. So again, seeing this sort of one size fits all analysis, as I have discussed in many other videos, albeit not recently, but here again I'm talking about it again, I find it really sort of galling and it's not particularly doing the public any good. 

But that being said yeah, at the end of the day the underlying facts of the giving case are going to dictate whether or not one needs to file taxes here in the Kingdom of Thailand.