Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well we are discussing what are called Tax Clearance Certificates. For those who don't know what that is, I did a video on this some time ago. I go back and look at that video and I'm like wow that's really old; that was back when we were doing these videos in front of a different backdrop even, although still here in the same place. 

That said, I'm going to go back over to our website under the resources section of legal.co.th, under the title: What is the Thai Tax Clearance Certificate? You'll see my prior video in there but under there let me quote directly. Quoting directly from the website of the Revenue Department that's rd.go.th, quoting directly: "What is a Thai Tax Clearance Certificate? A Tax Clearance Certificate is a certificate issued by the Director-general of the Revenue Department or the Provincial Governor or the delegated authority, to a foreigner who is departing Thailand to indicate that he has already paid taxes or that he has provided a guarantor or securities as guarantee for tax liabilities and tax payables." 

Why am I bringing this up? Well a lot of these foreign interloping, illegally operating, what I can only describe as tax stamp-pimps here in Thailand, who have been saying all sorts of things with regard to their own interpretations of Thai Tax Law but what they really don't understand because they are idiots, and they haven't been here and they don't really understand the fundamental bodies of law because they're not qualified to do so and they are restricted from actually consulting people regarding such bodies of law if they are not a national of Kingdom of Thailand has per the restricted occupations. What these people don't understand and what they don't know is that that body of law, a lot of that body of law was written to create what were once described and are still called Tax Clearance Certificates; it is my understanding there is still a Tax Clearance Certificate Department at certain airports. There is still an office there. They don't do much because tax clearances were phased out effectively with the creation of VAT (Value Added Tax). Now unfortunately, or fortunately for them or however they think about it, these bureaucrats and whatnot in the aftermath of the COVID boondoggle, disaster, scam, whatever you want to call it, in the aftermath of that, look we did 2 ½ years here in Thailand where our economy was effectively shut down because the Government said so because some, led by Communist World Health Organization, said that Thailand had to shut down so Thailand did - and I'm hoping that will never happen or they won't just reflexively do so the way that happened last time - but okay, setting that aside, going back to what we're talking about, yeah okay COVID, there was a shutdown. Well, I thought we were all in this together; the Government told us that when they shut us down. Well, some years later now they want all kinds of Tax Revenue because there are shortfalls in the revenue collection from the last few years because you shut us down. We were all in this together when you were shutting us down. Now that you don't have your revenue because we weren't able to make our revenue, oh now we need to go and raise more taxes when everyone forgets that we got rid of Tax Clearances in order to bring in VAT. Now we have VAT and effectively they are trying to bring back Tax Clearances. That's what all of this tax talk looks like to me except for the fact that they won't actually impose the old school Tax Clearance system which is actually what used to work. You had to get this certificate before you could leave. Why would they not want to do that?

Well, they don't want to mess with tourism, and they don't want to mess with travellers, so what have they done? They have come up with this “interpretation” of their own that's based on again it's based on a spurious set of legal thinking. Again, when you just have a bunch of tax stamp-pimps running around making decisions regarding what will be Tax policy, they don't look at the law, they’re not looking at the legal framework and they're not understanding the legal concepts that operate in Thailand for example the Doctrine of Codification. You cannot via interpretive dance, create an affirmative duty on the part of Thais or anyone else in Thailand to file a tax return or for a Tax ID merely by dint of being physically present in Thailand. You can't do that, minus an affirmative law, a Codified Law, a Tax Law codified, promulgated through Parliament as we have discussed in other videos. Now we have got old laws sitting on the books regarding these Tax Clearances but they have tried to twist and bend and through use of this OECD chicanery, extraterritorial sovereignty infringing to the point that Mr. Trump rejected OECD outright because of that sovereign infringement, they are trying to twist this all around and they are utilizing the media to proclaim this as a foregone conclusion when the reality is it is not a foregone conclusion. If Thailand wants to pose Tax Clearance Certificates again, do it. Don't create this nonsense interpretive dance pushed by the media that people now have an affirmative duty - that does not exist by any codified law that I can see - to file tax returns here based on some nonsense that oftentimes is even conflicting from the bureaucracy and then from a bunch of illegally operating foreign interloping stamp-pimps, tax stamp-pimps here in Thailand, who are giving erroneous interpretations and interpretations and consultations and advisory that they shouldn't even be doing in the first place because it is explicitly criminal pursuant to the restricted occupations.

To sort of circle back to the main point of this is we used to have Tax Clearance Certificates in Thailand. We got rid of them when we brought in VAT - some decades ago before I even got here. Now they're trying to effectively bring it back without overtly saying so by utilizing the interpretation of interloping, illegally operating foreigners here in Thailand and spurious legal reasoning that contravenes the basic notions of the Civil Law. So the point I am trying to make is again, if they are going to impose Tax Clearance Certificates, fine whatever, there is a legal framework for that, but this whole creation of this totalitarian tracking every day you have been in Thailand, and creating this impetus to push everybody into voluntarily signing up for Tax IDs or filing returns that they may not need to do, I find this very, very disingenuous and I also find it galling because at the end of the day, it contravenes the actual legal framework which actually exists here in the Kingdom of Thailand.