Transcript of the above video: 

I think this video is rather important, that's why I put it under the American Tax moniker. So in the last week, we have seen a lot of really interesting information regarding especially American specifically, tax liability issues if you will, or points, data points of discussion if you will regarding legal analysis associated with Americans in Thailand, especially those doing business, especially those doing business with or under or pertaining to the US-Thai Treaty of Amity. Why? 

As discussed in other videos, Mr. Trump, God Bless him, withdrew the United States from the OECD, which thank you Sir - he just said no we're not doing it - and interestingly pointed out, none of this had any legislative backing. This was just sort of pie in the sky thinking from the last Administration and they kind of pushed it as some inevitability and something we all have to adhere to and it wasn't. It was just their bureaucratic diktat that they all thought we should go along with; they called them “guidelines” by the way. Very different than laws. They also used the term mandates from time to time. Again, they need to stop using that terminology. There are laws and there are not laws. Regulations are created in furtherance to promulgated laws. They do not get to be interpreted to create legal requirements; they do not get to be interpreted making legal requirements come into existence, okay? That violates the Doctrine of Codification in a Civil Law context and that's how this stuff operates in both an American and a Thai context to say nothing of the Common Law nor the Declaration of Independence, as well as the later promulgated Articles of Confederation, United States Constitution, United States Bill of Rights. So to say nothing of those documents, then there's just Common Law notions of taxation and things which interestingly enough, oftentimes intersects with notions of attorney-client interests and things of this nature. Very interesting stuff. I have studied it frankly for years but the one really interesting aspect of this is how it all interacts with the provisions of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity, again this bilateral Treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Thailand that notes that Americans and American Business shall be granted "National Treatment" here in the Kingdom. Well let me ask you a question? If a Thai national, a "Loong" if you will, we call him a Loong, he's your uncle, he's the old guy, he hangs around at the house usually, he is your mom's brother maybe or he might be your dad's brother, or whatever but he hangs around the house, he kind of keeps to himself, he shuffles around, he's doing things, he's Loong, he doesn't really make any money, he just hangs around the house. That's how Thai families sometimes work. You have got a Loong hanging around, he's just sitting in his hammock or whatever, he's gotten old, he doesn't work like he used to, he's just hanging around. If that guy is in Thailand for 180 days, does he need to file anything with the Revenue Department? I'm a layman in Thailand. I went and looked that up, I'm a Thai layman. If I sit around 180 days in Thailand, I haven't done anything - to paraphrase the Bible, if I act as the lilies of the field if you will, just kind of hang around, don't do anything, don't generate income, do I need to go file a bunch of paperwork with the local Revenue Department? No, because I'm Loong. I'm just some Thai guy just hanging out for 180 days, in my own country. Doesn't mean I need to go fill out paperwork. 

Okay, say whatever you want to about analysis with regard to OECD, I can leave that for other videos and get into that and probably will have to do so moving forward. United States is out of all of that. We have a bilateral Treaty with the Thais. It goes back 190 years; we have relations with them that goes back a full 200 years and we've got a good dialogue. Mr. Blinken reaffirmed the Treaty when he was here in Thailand at one point, this has continued. Now Mr. Trump has completely rejected the OECD noting that it impugns and impinges upon American sovereignty, noting the extraterritoriality nature of OECD, and I hope Thailand takes note of that in their own analysis regarding the national interest and how that interacts with OECD membership etc., but again with regard to the Americans, they have opted out, so they're out, so anything regarding Thai-American relations is going to continue to operate under the analysis that you would operate utilizing the US-Thai Treaty of Amity as well as the double tax agreement already in place with Thailand. And Mr. Trump has noted that failure to do so in favour of OECD could have certain consequences, I have discussed that in other videos. 

Now that being stated, and back to the original point, again Americans are granted "National Treatment" in Thailand. So ask yourself, if old Loong, the Thai national gets some kind of Government benefit or something here, actually let me back it off. Let's create a dual national, let's steelman this argument, let's create a dual national, sort of an inversion of me okay, there's a guy, I know a guy, hey Pui, if you see me from Wichita, I'm just saying hi. I'll try to get this over to our mutual friend - I won't name any further names - but hey, how are you doing? I know him, he's a Thai guy. I see him every now and again; we run into each other when I'm back in Kansas because he knows I became Thai, whatever, we see each other. Look he decides to retire from America and he gets US Social Security, he's coming over here to Thailand, there are double tax agreements already in place regarding that, okay. Old Loong, if he's back and he's Loong around his house, he isn't going to be sitting around worrying about this stuff. So again, the national treatment arguments need to be looked at through the prism purely of our Treaty relationship with the Thais, our Double Tax Agreements and the way in which we have heretofore de facto operated and the affirmation of that de facto and the affirmation of that de facto operation by both Thailand and the United States as evidenced by the affirmation of the relationship itself by Mr. Blinken when he was last here and did that here in Thailand. Moving forward, I think that's the best way for Americans to look at it is basically mirror ourselves, if a Thai would need to do XYZ under XYZ circumstances, then probably an American would have to do the same when you're looking at it through the lens of taxation here in the Kingdom of Thailand.