Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tax in Thailand, specifically taxable income. I actually thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on this channel and I ended up deciding to make two videos stemming from this comment. That said, I'm going to read it. "All the retirees want to know is do we need to file taxes? If we are here 180 days but we have no taxable income, what is your recommendation there?" Well first of all, I am going to make one specific to retirees, so stay tuned for that, or you may have already seen it depending on when this goes up. But I am making that contemporaneously with this one. 

Long story short, it depends on your definition of taxable income, and what that is. So again, in a retiree context, I get into that in a little bit more detail especially as it pertains to foreign retirees, but the purpose of this video is to understand the difference between assessability and liability. So assessability is basically can they assess you, okay? And that is the thing to understand about the 180 days. Is at that point they effectively can begin scrutinizing and saying oh we are looking at you now, it's been - and it's not 180 days, it's actually 183, but presume it's 180, that will keep you safe. Just if you are trying to count your days and stay out of the country to avoid being assessed for taxes, presume it's 180 days, you'll be safer that way, let's look at it that way. But assessability, the ability to scrutinize, is very different from liability. Again and it's going to depend on the nature of the funds, revenue whatever the monies are, accrued or otherwise in question, when determining whether there is any liability. So for example, if you are moving your own money from your own bank account even abroad to Thailand, the mere act of moving that may not be a taxable event in and of itself, it's just like moving like a wallet from one pocket to the other and you may not be subject to tax. Again it's going to depend on the nature of the money, and I know folks can get kind of cranky at me in the comments when they are "well you are not telling us anything." Well it depends on the facts of the case; it depends on the nature of the funds; it depends on a whole variety of factors. It's why folks in my position, folks that deal with analysis, they have to look at the facts before they can start providing interpretations on where those facts place you, or what posture those facts put someone in with regard to possible liability. But understand, there is a difference between being assessed for taxes, so being looked at and then being found to be liable for taxes. So there are two different things going on here that are going to determine if something is taxable income. 

The other thing that has to be determined is, is it income. There is a lot of nonsense out there on YouTube talking about how "anything that comes into Thailand is income". Well that they or may not, again it depends on the facts. But if it's your money and it's not accrued income at all, it's just something that's yours, just because you move it into Thailand may not necessarily trigger any kind of tax assessability or liability. So again, it is going to depend on the underlying facts in the given case.