Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tax liability in the context of Business Visas here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, there has been a lot of talk in the expat community especially about a recent announcement from the Thai Revenue Department that certain so-called loopholes, most notably deferral in terms of timing, will no longer mitigate tax liability here in Thailand so there is a lot of talk on that score. I have done a lot of videos on that; I am going to leave those videos as what they are and I am going to also say we are still waiting for further clarification regulatorily as to exactly what type of tax liability we are going to be looking at moving forward. Yes, I have done videos on Double Tax Treaties; they have an impact on tax liability in the analysis associated therewith as well. That said, I am hoping there is going to be further clarification from the Thai Revenue Department prior to January 1, when this comes into effect. 

That said, the purpose of this video is unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation; I hate these words: misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, unfortunately those have been weaponized a lot especially in the West, but the fact of the matter is there is a lot of misnomers out there about how Thai Immigration works, how Thai Law works, how Thai liability works and one of the reasons we created this video or this channel some seven years ago now, was because we wanted to dispel a lot of inaccurate information and we have strived to do that in this channel and I hope we have been successful. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel, quoting directly: "Unless you hold a Business Visa as a foreigner, you cannot work." That is not strictly speaking true, we made another video on that already; "If you have a Business Visa then you are registered as a taxpayer." Okay, that is pertinent to this video, I'll get to that moment. "Minimum income set by the Thai government at $50,000 Thai baht." Not strictly speaking true. Minimum wage is actually dictated by nationality. Quoting further: "Therefore a taxpayer, a contribution to the Social fund too, however, you will not qualify for the state pension, therefore all non-working retirees are currently outside of the tax system in Thailand." Not strictly speaking correct. I made another video on that. "Not your own country. To add the retiree in the Thai system can and will emanate, (I think they meant) via your Visa documents." So long story short, a lot of inaccurate information in this comment. I made a number of videos as noted, to clear up these misnomers because again that has been the purpose of the channel so when I see it even in the comments, oftentimes I will do a video just to clarify. But going back here, "If you have a Business Visa, then you are registered as a taxpayer." No not true, that is not strictly speaking the case. In fact, we have had a number over the years of folks in either single entry, excuse me, either single entry or multiple entry Business Visa status who were not in the Thai tax system because they were not tax liable depending on why they came to Thailand, for example they simply came here for a business meeting, there was no taxable event that occurred while they were here and meantime, they did not meet the requirements for tax residency in Thailand. It is possible to have a Business Visa and not have Thai tax liability. Again, this is a misnomer and to conflate the two is not a particularly prudent idea. Now that said, if you are working in Thailand, you have a Work Permit in Thailand that in and of itself is likely a taxable event that may require a tax ID number and the payment of taxes or at least the assessment of taxes. 

So again, the thing to take away from this video and to understand is Business Visa status in and of itself does not necessarily imply or confer any type of tax liability here in the Kingdom of Thailand.