Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Tax Policy and the annually-renewable if you will; so these are Non-immigrant Visas or one year visas, one year extensions of stay you'll sometimes hear them called. There used to be kind of an ongoing semantic argument about whether extensions were visas; I did a video at the time. All extensions are visas. Visa is actually the same type of word as passport. You put a Visa into a passport; it is a travel document in its own right, but you can have that Visa extended by Immigration here in Thailand. So everything is a Visa but sometimes for example if you're renewing your Visa in the country here, that is an extension. If you are just getting a Visa at an Embassy or Consulate abroad, that is a Visa, so that is sort of the way to understand that. 

That said, we are talking about this in the context of Thai Tax. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Does Thailand really want humble expats anymore? Quoting directly: "The annually-renewables," and that's basically, I think they are referring to people who are maintaining their lawful status in Thailand through one year Visa extensions on a regular basis, "Are worried about the Thai Revenue's", and this is another one. I did this in a few other videos. I didn't understand calling in the Revenue, Thai Revenue. Apparently in the British vernacular, it is referred to as the Inland Revenue Service and many British people call it The Revenue so that's kind of their vernacular for that. Quoting further: "About the Thai Revenue's recent reinterpretation. Section 41 of the tax code, long ignored but now required, means that Thai tax residents (anyone spending more than 180 days in a year here) must obtain a Tax Identification Number and fill in a tax form not later than March 2025 to cover their overseas income transmitted to Thailand in the calendar year 2024. If that income was pre-taxed in the first country which had a double taxation treaty with Thailand, and can be proved by documentation, it is unlikely that the cash will be taxed again in Thailand." 

Well hold the phone, that's not the policy yet. I reiterate that for viewers, "that's not the policy yet." It may be depending on your circumstances but there has not been, and we have discussed in another video, they're talking about maybe making tax law changes here in Thailand, maybe making tax law changes here in Thailand, that's not a foregone conclusion yet. It remains to be seen whether or not that's going to happen, but to quote further because even this article itself does clarify this, quote: "But the Revenue has not categorically confirmed that commonly repeated assumption." That's a good point to make. Again, depending on your circumstances, under the current state of Thai Tax law, you may or may not be subject to taxation depending on your circumstances of bringing in money etc. Meanwhile, it's not a foregone conclusion that they are going to change the Tax Law, so for now people need to stop talking about this as if it were a foregone conclusion. 

Now that said and the purpose of this video, is to talk about Thai Tax Policy as it pertains possibly to those who are going to renew their visas on a regular basis. I've discussed in the past the possibility that tax filings may become a requirement associated with Thai Immigration; that is not a requirement yet. I've talked about it in the context of analogically if you will or reasoning by analogy looking at the US Immigration system and saying look they do require tax returns if you for example want to sponsor an immigrant to the United States, or even a Non-immigrant in certain cases to the United States. It stands to reason that there may possibly be a tax filing component in the Thai Immigration System at some point in the future.

Is that tomorrow? No.

Is that this year? I don't think so. In fact I strongly think that that's not the case this year.

Could that be the case by the end of the decade? Maybe.

Where, and which would it change between now and then, it remains to be seen, but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.