Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tax yet again. Unfortunately, we are discussing more tax nonsense. There has been a lot of talk over the past roughly 14 months unfortunately, as a bunch of foreign interlopers have run in here and caused a bunch of consternation and panic amongst the foreign community regarding tax. Then meanwhile, the Government is now running around talking about "oh we need more taxes for this, that and the other thing." Hey, I get it. Your revenues are down. Do you know what that's from? You shut down our economy for two and a half years Government. You're the reason for the problem, give it a minute. By the way what happened to, "We're All in This together"? I remember somebody telling, well quite frankly one of my wife's businesses that, when they unilaterally shut her down and stopped letting her actually ply her particular trade under those circumstances, and the whole thing was "well we have just got to do it; we're all in this together." You still got your salaries, none of us did, so here is the "In this together", part. It was just a little time delayed for you government. That being said, let's dig into this.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: 15% VAT rate plan withdrawn over fierce backlash. Thailand needs time and patience for tax reform. Or maybe it just doesn't need tax reform at all. I think Thailand's system is actually pretty good, it has been working. I've watched it work the last 10 years. It's now starting to look problematic as this new Government has come in, gutted out the budget, told us we need to go on Digital magic bean money, and go into a trillion baht of debt for that, and then now doing all kinds of nonsensical things. Again, things were working the way that they work. On top of that, then they shut down the economy on us, so we are dealing with these problems. And yes, I'm presuming your Government revenue is a little bit down but you know, "we're all in this together" aren't we? That being said, quoting directly: "A 15% VAT tax plan for Thailand was scrapped after public outcry." Yeah, yes that would be double what we're currently dealing with at 7% VAT; I'll get into VAT here in a moment. Quoting further: "While the idea aimed to boost investment and tackle inequality.." - how are you going to boost investment by doubling a tax rate. Only a Government bureaucrat would think that was viable. Quoting further: "..critics warned it could harm the poor.." yeah, duh!  - "..increase living costs.." - yeah duh - "..and damage tourism." - yeah duh! Quoting further: "Experts suggest gradual tax reform is critical to grow." No. You know what's critical to growth? Growth! The Government not getting in the way and shutting down our businesses, not get in the way and trying to extract wealth from all of us for no good reason that I can see. What have you done with this money? You've shut us down, you've tried to put us on a digital totalitarian total surveillance, transactional scheme that we had to go into a trillion baht of debt to do, which we ultimately didn't do. I've watched you gut out the budget saying we need stimulus notwithstanding the fact that the economy actually is rather all right at the moment, and you said that amidst one of the highest bumps in consumer spending which was quarter one of 2024 this year. All of this is nonsense; it's all just a smoke screen because quite frankly, a bunch of bureaucrats who don't want to get a real job want to extract more wealth from people who do actually work, so they don't have to get a real job, that's what it looks like to me. That's all it looks like to me. Meanwhile again we have got these foreign interlopers coming in here from foreign tax authorities, literal agents of foreign tax authorities - as I've discussed in other videos - trying to stir up all kinds of things because quite frankly the West is going broke and they are looking over at Thailand like a fatted goose and they are saying "oh well, we can go over there and we can take their money." Quoting further: "The brief flirtation.." - stop with the hyperbole. "Flirtation with tax!"  Stop it. There is no flirtation, okay? What this is at the end of the day was this was a cash grab. You were trying to suck a bunch of money off of the working people and it didn't work because we're sick of it. Quoting further: "The brief flirtation last week by Deputy PM and Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira with a 15% Vat Tax instead of 7%.." - I love how they frame this. Instead of saying it's double, they say it's "instead of"! Quoting further: ".. would certainly have severely impacted Thailand's struggling families..." Again, duh! Doubling up the value added tax rate would have a tremendously negative impact. Quoting further: "Furthermore, it would have immediately made the country more expensive for foreign tourists." Again, yeah, you have doubled the tax rate. I like how this is reported as if it is some grand conclusion formed after time and thoughtful study. Yeah, you double the tax rate, you double the cost of stuff, or you add marginal cost, demand goes down. We know this, this is how it works. It's basic economics. Quoting further: "In short order, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra scrapped the plan, not before making known her displeasure." Well, she didn't have any displeasure about trying to put us into a trillion Baht worth of debt. Then she waffled around and said, "oh we need stimulus and then the economy was great. I'm not really interested in listening to a bunch of government people telling me about their displeasure of things. Stop it. Stop the posturing. Thai people need to get on with it; they need the Government to get off their back. They need them to help, they don't need them to be like some giant blood-sucking parasite constantly trying to get in their way of doing their own business, as we saw with trying to low-jack all of the street vendors here in Thailand, and then trying to extract wealth, constantly. By the way, by the way, again say what you will about the last Government - there's a lot to be said - but for 10 years, none of this. And then we come in with this, "oh I have got a mandate", except you don't really have a mandate but whatever, and we are going to now do all this nonsense. It's based on nothing okay? What Thailand needs right now is to get on with it, okay? It just needs to do business and move along. In the past 5 years, there has been more Government intervention into the Thai economy than I watched in the prior 12 years prior to that. Quoting further: "However experts argue that Thailand must adjust its taxation system if it aims to attract more foreign inward investment." Okay, first of all who are these experts? I would love to know who they are. Are they from the World Economic Forum, that a bunch of the people in the current government seem so enamoured with? Meanwhile, the other thing is "adjust its taxation system if it aims to attract foreign inward investment..." Yeah, I am sure raising taxes is really going to encourage a lot of foreign inward investment. Again, this is just bureaucrat nonsense thinking. Quoting further: "..and as a tool to fight chronic inequality.." - "fight chronic inequality"! What is that a buzz word for? Socialism, that's what it is, redistribution of wealth. And as Stalin said, Communism is Socialism in a hurry, okay? That's all this is about.

It seems to me that these people seem to have their orders it would seem, from the World Economic Forum, and their only desire now seems to be extracting wealth from the rank and file Thais, okay. And they can throw all of this buzz words and window dressing on it - foreign inward investment and all of this - it's nonsensical. Nobody wants to see higher taxes in a place they are going to go invest in. What are you talking about? Quoting further: "In conclusion a higher VAT tax rate may be required.." - no it isn't, I'll go into that. Quoting further: "..introduced incrementally as part of a plan to regularize and modernize the economy.." - you want to regularize and modernize the economy, abolish the VAT. You watch how quick the economy is right on track; you watch how quick it's strong; you watch how quick it operates with alacrity. Get out of the economy's way, and all of you bureaucratic parasites that are out there trying to suck wealth off the rank and file Thais, I find your behaviour abhorrent.