Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tax in Thailand and a phenomenon that, if it's not readily apparent from the sigh I just gave off there, something that has really just been, I don't even know the right word for it but it is just very disconcerting to have to sort of see this. But long story short, I have seen this a couple of different places so I'm going to talk about this in kind of an amalgamized format. I'm not going to name and shame or point out any one specifically mostly because I don't want people going and clicking on these people's websites or video whatever links, because quite honestly they are doing a massive disservice to the public. they're also sort of LARPing if you want to call it that, or just sort of acting as posers talking about something they don't know what they are talking about. 

Basically the phenomenon we are talking about here is somebody goes to a Tax Advisory and you have to wonder who that is. As we have discussed in other videos, at the end of the day, foreigners aren't allowed to give Tax Thai Tax advisory services as we have discussed; it's restricted. That said leaving that aside, who knows who these people are talking to but they are basically going to see somebody for their specific case, then they jump on the internet and say "okay I have the definitive information, the one size fits-all information", and that's simply not the case. I've heard what these people are saying and it is ridiculous; it is completely, I think I saw somebody say "oh all Bank transfers that you transfer in from Country A to Country B because there is a Double Tax Treaty, you don't have to worry about any of the money you'd ever transfer in.” Not true. Regardless if there is a Double Tax Treaty or not, again it's going to be circumstantially dependent. You can't say that kind of stuff. And I know that lay people get very, very sort of almost offended at people like me saying this, but it's true. At the end of the day, Thai Tax Law is going to be applied on an individual basis based on the given facts in the given circumstances, the various taxable events that have occurred, whether or not someone has Tax Residency, the type of Revenue it is, whether it's income, capital gains, some sort of other accrued benefit - perhaps like a royalty or something. Pensions are another good example. I have seen a lot of one-size-fits-all information about pensions that just isn't necessarily true. As I have said, the vast majority of people are not really going to have to worry about this that much. 

That said I guess that there's these quite honestly just faking YouTubers, people who are just, they are doing the public a huge disservice by this because they are giving out information as if it's hard and fast fact and they're giving it out in such a way that is sort of a one-size-fits all kind of analysis and that's just a terrible way to look at it. This is not me trying to somehow maintain my own competitive advantage or something, it really is not. It's just me trying to say to people, hey you can't, that it just not how it works. You can't take your tax advice from just some dude on YouTube who talk to supposedly a Tax Advisor about his particular case and therefore it now pertains to you. That's very, very flawed logic; it's not a good way to take your tax advice and it is a situation that can lead to real problems for you down the road. 

So the thing to take away from this video and to understand is, different cases are going to be handled differently. You're going to apply relevant Tax Law and maybe for example some other jurisdictions' Tax Law, coupled with Thai Tax Law. It may come through the prism of a Double Tax Agreement, it may not. And by the way, just because a Double Tax Agreement exists between two different nations, that doesn't mean you the individual necessarily are off the hook for all types of tax liability in the place where you may be physically at or where you may be earning an income or you deriving revenue. Again there's a lot that goes into tax advisory; this is not something that can be handled just from some guy on YouTube or TikTok or wherever talking about "this is exactly how it works in all cases". That is a terrible way to do things. If you can't tell, I don't know what to say. I just want to throw my hands up at this point because we've been really trying to provide, again as much information as one can over this type of medium in order to inform people as best we can.

But look at the end of the day, especially when it comes to tax, you need to get nearly tailored advice and if you are unwilling to do that, then it really must not be that big of a priority for you because again the ramifications of really bad tax advice can be really, really bad. Again it is not that expensive.  In one of them I saw, the person they supposedly talked to was like three times higher than our rate as far as assisting and advisory services associated with taxes here. So at the end of the day, I don't know what to say. If that's how you want to get your tax advice, then I guess you get what you pay for.