Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tax yet again. This has kind of become a topic of wide discussion, I have noticed. In the past I made a lot of videos on Immigration, people kind of mention them off hand to me; sometimes I will people and things. Tax really everybody gets interested in this topic. I am always kind of surprised by it. If I seem a little cavalier about tax, I have been assisting people with tax for years, it's not something, people that deal with it all the time I guess maybe we are a little bit more comfortable with it. I do know it really for lack of a better term sort of upsets people, sets people on edge thinking about major changes to tax policy. Let me just say "this too shall pass". For the vast majority of people, I don't think this is going to be any kind of major change. However, it probably is going to affect some. I don't think a change of this type is not going to have impacts on certain types of people.

That said, I have noticed a lot of people out in the ether of the internet just completely, and especially folks who are knowledgeable in tax systems of other countries, then sitting around talking about how Thailand Tax is going to work. Well let's be honest here, they don't know; I will tell you when I don't know and I hope people understand that. Again, as we have discussed, without further clarification I am hesitant to really say and predict with any certainty exactly how this is going to work out. But again, bear in mind, look we here at our firm, we have been dealing with, we have a tax department, we have an accounting division that deals primarily with corporate and personal tax specifically for foreigners; we've been dealing with this for years. I am here to tell you it's going to come down to Thai interpretation. It's not going to come down to what some foreigner says, so bear that in mind when you are researching this stuff because that's how it's going to play, and everybody that says "well the Double Tax Treaty says X". According to you it does but again the Thai apparatus is going to be tasked with interpreting that when the rubber hits the road. It's not going to again be some foreigner. So I'm a little, I don't know what the right word is, I don't mind people talking about it in a news sense but I've seen a lot of people coming to conclusions and saying "well it's just going to work this way." Yeah, you know what? I'm tired of that actually; I'm really tired of that attitude from all foreigners here. Foreigners seem to come to Thailand and I don't know why, but they run around intuiting what they believe is the case to be fact in Thailand and that is not the way it works. Again, Thailand has Courts; we have a Revenue Department. They are going to be the ones that are ultimately going to be adjudicating this and setting these rules and that is who is going to make the final decisions. It is not going to be, again some foreigner who just comes down from the mountain and says this is how it is going to be. That's not the way it is going to work. 

So I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's proposal to tax foreign income next year could end up in Court. First off, the title is not really indicative of what is going on. Thailand is not taxing foreign income Thailand; is only going to possibly be assessing tax liability on those who are tax resident and bring money into the country moving forward from January 1, 2024. It's not tax on everything, it is tax on certain things, maybe, and again subject to Thai interpretation. Quoting further: "Law firm commentators in Bangkok divide into two groups. Some believe that typical expats have nothing to fear of living here on cash already taxed in the home country." Let's start there. I don't know who's who in this divide; I'm not on the divide, I'm standing on the line. It is not going to work in a dialectical process. These things never do. It's going to play out on a case-by-case basis, based on the underlying circumstances in a given case. I have seen a lot of people that are just making these off-hand sort of broad remarks that are supposed to just sort of be monolithically dipositive of what is going on. They just say "well it's going to work this way!" No, that's not how Law works. I don't know how to get that through to people sometimes. Quoting further: "They often quote double-taxation treaties which Thailand has made with around 60 countries. Others however point out that Double Taxation Treaties are all different and don't necessarily reassure on points of concern currently spotlighted in Thailand." Okay yeah, in a sense they don't but in a sense they do. At the end of the day again, this is going to work case-by-case and again the vast majority of people probably aren't going to be impacted by this one way or the other. Although as I have said in another video, I could see a scenario play out where we do see pretty much every Non-Immigrant visa extension seeker, including retirees, see a situation where a tax return is an additional document which is going to be associated with Immigration processing. I could see that becoming a thing based on how this is all playing out. That said, does it mean you have liability? Probably not, depending on your circumstances but again it depends on circumstances. This is not an either-or, this is not a yes-no, this is not a dialectic, this is a change to Law. Law gets applied on a case-by-case basis and it is going to as they say, "findings of fact and conclusions of law", that's how it will work. 

Quoting further: "Not to mention the potential paperwork which expats might have to fill in annually to convince the revenue" (I think they meant the Revenue Department) "of their exempted status." No it's not a matter of convincing them. You might just be exempt but you have still got to file. Quoting further: "Some are suggesting that large sums should be transmitted to Thailand before the end of 2023." Quoting further: "Meanwhile, the waiting game for clear information drags on and on." Well it might go forever. At the end of the day, you want to talk about a Byzantine mess of raw Law when it comes to tax, look at the American system; I have looked at it extensively. As I have said, I am licensed in the US Tax Court; I have had dealings with US taxes, especially when Trump Tax came down, man reading through and trudging through the raw Law of that thing was pretty darn hard. And they are not real predisposed to give him a lot of clarification; we may not get a lot of clarification here. Quoting further: "The real answer of course is for Thailand to follow the example of Singapore and Hong Kong where the only income tax levied is on cash specifically earned in their own specific territories." Well that is exactly what is happening here. It's on money brought physically into Thailand by those who are physically present in Thailand. Meanwhile, look I have said this many, many times. Thailand is not an offshore jurisdiction, it just isn't. Singapore and Hong Kong are. It is like comparing apples and bowling balls, they are not the same thing. Hong Kong, their history which I find fascinating - Hong Kong history I just find fascinating, I love reading fiction about Hong Kong and things - but they have a history of being sort of a tax haven, that's what they were set up to be. In a very real sense Singapore discovered the same thing when they effectively became a city-state after being expelled from Malaysia and had to go ahead and find their own little niche, primarily financial services, and acting as something of a tax haven in Southeast Asia under certain circumstances. That's not really qualitatively the same thing as Thailand’s posture in this world; it's just not the same. Again and look, reasonable people can disagree here but folks that are actually living here physically full time, I am not saying that they should be taxed to the hilt or anything, not by any stretch, but at the end of the day, if they are taxing, and I mean this in a different sense, if they are taxing the infrastructure of Thailand through usage and living here and availing themselves of the privileges and benefits of being in Thailand, I  think there is a decent argument to be made that some kind of tax liability may be assessable. Now do I think it should be fundamentally large or anything? No not really and look I am the last guy that wants to argue in favour of taxation; I am not a fan of taxes but I am also not naïve. We can't build heavy infrastructure here in Thailand, we can't build these high-speed rail projects, we can't build these massive projects for airports and they are doing a great job by the way. I'm really happy. The last five years just watching things building up in Thailand, it has been a great thing to watch but they don't get built with magic beans or something. People have to pay in to do that and I don't think it's wholly unreasonable for folks that are primarily living here to possibly have some tax liability here. Now again this isn't tax on everything; it is not tax on your worldwide income; it is not like being an American where just because you are in Thailand if you have offshore assets the Thais are going to tax you. No, it's on funds brought in for those who are tax resident and it may or may not apply. Again, it may or may not apply to you. And again those who are out there doing this "yes-no" kind of thing, dialectical thinking, that is again not how it is going to work. It's going to work on a case-by-case basis based on the specific circumstances in the underlying case. Again for those who feel confused or a little bit sort of overwhelmed by all this, it's not a bad idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.