Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the notion that Thai Revenue Department is going to issue a future set of forms and commentary regarding taxation in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Foreigners and Thai Law: the changing Pattaya scenario. Quoting directly: "Another growth area will almost certainly be the income tax consequences for tax residents, Thai or foreign, who spend 180 days or more in Thailand over a calendar year and remit cash from abroad. Our understanding is that the Thai Revenue Department will be publishing forms and a commentary later in the year. Hopefully this cover" (I think they mean - 'this will cover') "contentious issues such as double taxation treaties and pensioners living here on pre-taxed income. It is worth noting that the submission of a tax form does not automatically mean any taxes due. Moreover, no supporting documentation is required unless the individual is chosen for audit." Well again, that is sort of one-size-fits all. It is going to depend on your scenario; let me quote further: "My personal view is that some Pattaya expats are overreacting to this issue." Yeah I agree. 

Long story short, and what I want to get into here. Is Revenue Department going to be publishing any sort of guidance on any of this? I have seen some implications that they might. Now they were talking about this in conjunction with harmonization and tax harmonization under the last Government but the last Government fell so it's not a foregone conclusion that's going to continue. Meanwhile, whether or not Thailand even ultimately joins OECD and therefore this “harmonization” at the end of the day is even necessary, again remains to be seen. In fact we have seen more movement by Thailand on the part of the possibility of joining BRICS, than the notion that although they are seemingly going through the motions for OECD, that is going to take like 5 years. So it remains to be seen, whether or not any of this comes to fruition. 

And again I think people have a really unrealistic notion or presumption about what Revenue Department is likely to do. Look the tax authorities are not in the business of making it easy for you to figure out how you don't pay tax; that's not their job. Also as noted in that article, there are double tax treaties that are implied or involved in this; there are all kinds of things associated with the underlying facts in your given case. I mean to write a sort of one-size-fits-all sort of tax primer for all people in Thailand, I don't even think that can be done. Again and the reason is and I know for whatever reason people get very angry at me in the comments on YouTube over this, but there is no one size fits all tax advice. It pertains to different sets of law; it pertains to different sections of the law depending on the facts in your case. Then meanwhile, your nationality may come into play and the origin of funds depending on the jurisdiction where the funds originate may come into play. There's tons of analysis that goes into analysis, even as to tax assessability here in Thailand let alone tax liability that I just think people think can be done in this sort of one-size-fits-all manner and the fact of the matter is it is simply not going to work that way. Different people are going to have different types of income. They're going to have different types of assets; they're going to have different types of revenue; they're going to have different types of things like pensions and those are going to be governed by different sets of Law and double tax treaties.

For this reason again I think it's virtually impossible and I don't think it's a reasonable presumption to presume Revenue Department is going to be able to issue some kind of one-size-fits-all "commentary" for people to be able to just know instantaneously whether or not they're liable for taxes and if so for how much. It's a more complicated process than that, whether people want to or like to believe that or not.