Transcript of the above video:

The thumbnail for this particular video may be a little bit more flippant than I usually make my thumbnails. Well, that's because I have a pretty hostile attitude at this point to these fake so-called professionals over here in Thailand dispensing tax advice, flouting Thai Law regarding the restricted occupations and quite honestly placing the general public here, especially the expat community, into an overall detrimental position. What am I talking about? 

Well as I have said many, many times over the past real year and a half since I first made the video about the memorandum within the Revenue Department regarding timing and assessability which began January 1 of 2024, prior to that time I didn't really like talking about this stuff all that often. Since back then, I've said and I continue to say, the vast majority of retirees out here are not impacted in any way by that intra Revenue Department memorandum. And notwithstanding the nonsense from the media and from these quite honestly criminal charlatans running around Thailand, again illegally dispensing Thai Tax advice, they don't necessarily, nothing has fundamentally changed here, again notwithstanding the fact OECD is running around and apparently inducing the media to say that all this colour of law stuff is a foregone conclusion, Thai Tax law has not changed, okay? The vast majority of folks out there, especially in the retiree expat Community, are not really ever going to be impacted by this.

Now why won't I give an unequivocal one-size-fits-all sort of description of the situation? Because that's impossible. There are always going to be different cases; there are always going to be different fact patterns, okay? That's where the nonsense of this one-size-fits-all kind of thinking shows itself, okay? Again, if you're truly, truly worried about whether or not you may have some tax liability here in Thailand or may need to file, you need to contact a legal professional. You need to contact somebody who actually knows what they're talking about. Meanwhile, these people that are running around telling people to go run and get a Tax ID number, oftentimes they don't need it and anybody that gets up in a whole room and says "hey, all of you people need to go get a tax ID number" - that's awful. That's terrible advice. That's completely unprofessional in my opinion, and then on top of that, it looks to me like it's designed to put people into a detrimental position for one's own financial benefit. If they're telling people to go get a tax ID number unnecessarily, and pay them for the service of doing so, I mean are you kidding me? That's like a perfect example of a con is basically what it is. And that's what's going on here. Again, the vast majority of retirees, you do not need to worry about a Tax ID number. Meanwhile please stop freaking out and stop spinning your wheels all around; I have got another video forthcoming. Quite frankly, some of these clubs around Thailand are not really helping all that much either. You're creating a feedback loop of hysteria over something that isn't that big a deal. Again, if you truly feel worried about it I would think paying a consult fee to get specific, narrowly tailored, dispensed advice is probably the best way to go. Otherwise, if you just want to be hysterical and run around the internet and say a bunch of half-truths and nonsense, well that's your business but you're hurting the greater sort of expat community by doing that. And frankly you charlatans, in my opinion you should all be rounded up by the police and put in jail and deported because you're just acting in total contravention of Thai Law. Not only that, you're hurting the expat community here. Again, it could place you into a detrimental position by getting an unnecessary Thai Tax Identification Number in a variety of different ways.

Now having a Tax ID number does not necessarily mean you have to file a tax return, but oftentimes the two new start to go hand in hand, and there are scenarios where I could see events unfolding where it could lead to it being a requirement if you have the ID Number. Now who benefits? Cui Bono? Who benefits by putting you into an unnecessary Tax ID number and then creates a situation then where you have to then do something, you have now some affirmative duty with regard to some tax authority somewhere. Who makes money off of that? The charlatan makes money off of that, that's who makes money off of that. And by the way, I've seen a lot of stuff where they're talking about, people are out there talking about, "oh I went to this tax office, that tax office, and they won't give me an ID number and things." Because they don't want to process a bunch of paperwork on something they're not going to take in any money on. Then meanwhile, you may not necessarily even need the ID number.

Again, you foreigners out there who are flouting Thai Law regarding professions here are doing a massive disservice to the retiree community and the greater expat Community here in the Kingdom of Thailand.