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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Tax Law here in Thailand and should it be in alignment with International standards. Let me get into this real quick. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Step by Step: Thailand's new tax law a double-edged sword for expats. Let's be real clear here folks. There is no new Thai Tax Law. As it says in the sort of by-line of this article, "However a new Thai Tax Law currently under consideration by the Thai Revenue Department is causing significant concern among the expat community." Again, I wish when folks are promulgating news articles and things, they think a little bit before they make these headlines because again, 'new Thai Tax Law currently under consideration,' I'm not even aware of a draft of Law. I haven't seen a draft law. They're talking about it for example, just to provide some context, yeah there has been a draft law on Cannabis. I mean we've seen it, we know it's out there, we sort of know its provision. I haven't seen any draft law on tax that has been brought about. So again, they're talking about it, and I will get to that in a moment. As we have discussed in prior videos, the OECD, which is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development I believe, which is basically sort of the cornerstone of the G7; there's some discussion as to whether or not Thailand may join that. There's also discussion as to whether or not Thailand may join BRICS; again both remain to be seen. I kind of liken this whole thing to back when we were talking about TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership versus RCEP, and Thailand kind of had to balance between those two things. Now they're talking about going into OECD and as we have discussed in the past, this again is not a foregone conclusion. This is a 5-year process. Thailand would have to do a number of different things, reform certain aspects of their tax and banking systems. I'm not convinced this is in the best interest of Thailand nor am I convinced that Thailand will actually go through with this. What I think what they are doing is they are exploring it, they're looking at it, but whether or not they will actually sort of implement these changes and whether or not they'll actually join OECD remains to be seen; we just don't know. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading this specific section within this article. Again, thephuketnews.com. "The Thai Government's motivation for this new tax law is understandable." Really? Is it understandable? I don't understand it that well. Personally I think the Thai government should take its lumps and deal with the fact it's going to have lower revenue for a couple years because 'oh I don't know, all of us in the private sector had lower revenue for three years because you shut down the economy on us. And I'm sorry that revenue isn't as high as you'd otherwise like it. You would like us to all run around like our hair is on fire because you don't have enough Revenue. Well maybe next time think about that when a Communist heading up the World Health Organization shows up and tells us we will all shut down the economy for three years.’ That said, quoting further: "They aim to align their tax policies with International standards and increase revenue. However it is crucial to consider the potential repercussions to the expat community and the broader economy." How about we consider the potential repercussions to Thailand? One of the reasons I like living in Thailand is because Thailand doesn't “align their tax policies” with International standards. One of the other reasons I like living in Thailand is they don't align any of their policies to anybody else's standards. Thailand is Thailand. That's what I love about it. It does things the Thai way whether you like it outsider or not, that's none of their concern. I have a real problem with this OECD. Why do we need this supernatural organization sitting over the top of our country telling us how to do things within our own country and how to set our own tax policies? To my mind, the Thai Parliament is perfectly capable and the Thai Government is perfectly capable of setting its own tax policies on its own, and if you don't want us in your supranational organization because our policies don't align with your policies, well pound sand, go away. Why does Thailand need to conform to you? Quoting further, and again I do get the potential way percussions to the expat community but I'm more worried about potential repercussions to the Thai community. "Striking a balance," - always be careful when they start talking about striking a balance "Striking a balance between generating revenue and maintaining an attractive environment for foreign residents is vital for Thailand's continued growth and prosperity." How about striking a balance between generating revenue and Thai liberty? How about that?

That said, yeah I get that they need to make money, but in the future think about that before you let a Communist come in here and shut down our whole economy under the guise of some kind of “Public Health” emergency that turned out to be nothing more than a massive exaggeration. And by the way, I am not being hyperbolic. Tedros was a Communist. There's a reason he's not living in his own country anymore, okay? This is not like outlandish stuff, this is just like known things. But that said, long story short, if you can't tell from my impassioned sort of rant at this point, I'm not really overly in favour of Thailand aligning her policies with much of anybody.