Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing retirees in Thailand and the issue of tax. This is something that I know causes a great deal of consternation on the minds of a lot of retirees here; it has frankly been largely overblown. I think in the vast majority of cases, retirees really don't have to really worry about this stuff, and I have talked about that at length. I think a lot of folks came into this market effectively trying to drum up business by frankly scaring people into thinking they needed to file for things or do things that they might not have needed to do. Again, as I have discussed in many other videos, each individual case, the facts in the underlying case will dictate the analysis regarding whether or not something is taxable or income. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel quoting directly: "All the retirees want to know is do we need to file taxes if we were here 180 days, but we have no taxable income?? What is your recommendation there?" Well how do you know you have no taxable income? That's the big question. It all comes down to the question of is it taxable income?

The first thing is, is it income? There are a lot of folks out there in YouTube land or the ether of the internet that go on and on, "any inbound remittance to Thailand is going to be taxable on a foreigner." Well that may not be true. If it's just your money being transferred from overseas to yourself, again it depends on the facts in the case and the point of origination and the nature of the account, the nature of the funds, the nature of the jurisdiction where it's originating from. All those facts will then dictate the analysis and the conclusions regarding whether or not it is going to be taxable in the first place, or if it's even income as well. It may not necessarily be income; it may just be your money you are transferring to yourself. But again, the conclusion on all of that will come down to the facts surrounding the nature of it and how it came into Thailand. And again for retirees, we also have issues - it's especially acute I think in retiree context - with regard to Double Tax Agreements between Thailand and other jurisdictions where things like state pensions, what we would call Social Security in the United States, there are Double Tax Agreements which dictate the terms by which those things can or cannot be taxed or whether or not they are even considered “taxable” in the first place, or even income, depending on the Double Tax Agreement. 

So again there is a wide variety of details that come into play with respect to analyzing this stuff. So no one-size-fits-all answer can be given, as I have discussed in many other videos, and unfortunately there are tons of, frankly in my opinion, folks who I do not think have good intentions who are out there making one-size-fits-all statements regarding advising people in a tax context, especially online, when in reality what should be happening is detailed factual analysis, narrowly tailored to the individual in question in order to provide answers regarding whether or not their "income" is even income; whether or not it's "taxable" as we discussed in another video whether or not it's assessable by Thai Authorities and after it is assessed, whether or not one will be determined to be liable for taxes. And under all of those circumstances or none of them, whether or not someone needs to even file a tax return or any kind of tax documentation here in the Kingdom of Thailand.