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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Tax News, unfortunately. And wow the beat goes on in this increasingly OECD driven policies toward this like AI dominated algorithm as adjudicator sort of momentum, initiative, phenomenon, whatever you want to call it here in Thailand that we're seeing and now it's getting into the tax realm. Let's go ahead and just jump in here. I thought it makes this video after reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, that is the pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Foreign sourced income tax obligations and financial transparency measures in the era of digital transformation. First of all, I don't want to live in the digital, or in the era of digital transformation, and really, folks that talk about this with the air of sort of it is a foregone conclusion or it's somehow positive, why? Because it's new? New ideas are not necessarily better. Frankly, not for everything, but for most of the stuff that I can think of that pertains to my day-to-day life, Thailand the way it was when I got here in 2008 - before the smartphone quite frankly, that was the big change - was better; not every little thing but for the most part, yeah. Not having the taxman digitally breathing down all of our necks all the time was overall a better state of play, let's put it that way. That being said, let's jump into this. 

Really quickly, before I jump in, I have had folks ask me and say, how do we support even though we may not need to avail ourselves of a law firm at this time? As I have discussed in other videos, this channel is not monetized, although it does promote the firm, so to answer that question, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. The name is Pancake Palace. As the name implies, breakfast anytime including American Diner style food; it is not just breakfast. We also don't just have American breakfast; we have an English breakfast on the menu. That being said, we have hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, buffalo wings; we have got grilled cheese sandwiches, Coke in glass bottles. If you're interested, please feel free to come on by, links are in the description below, we'd love to see you. 

Let's jump in here under the heading: Strategic Tax Planning. Quoting directly: "In the current landscape, Tax Planning is no longer merely about identifying legal loopholes;" - that was never what tax planning was about to begin with. There was ascertaining the state of the law and then applying that law to a given person's situation - quoting further: "it's about strategic management of the documentation trail" - and this is where we get into it. It is this notion that now you have to affirmatively prove up that you don't need to be taxed. That's nonsense. And by the way, the Thai Tax Code has not changed substantially enough to warrant that. It's like when they were talking about that every Thai having to file a Thai Tax return was going to be some kind of forgotten conclusion; never came to pass. There are still thresholds for whether or not you have to file a return. That said, let's just keep going here.

• Asset Segregation - This involves clearly distinguishing between "Original Capital" (Principal) and "New Gains" (Income)." – No, income is not necessarily a gain. Capital gains can be a gain as well. Accrual of funds may not necessarily be income per se. Now there may be a taxable event that occurs with the accrual of funds - depending on the nature of those funds - but again, there's a lot of conflation of terms out there that it's important to not conflate in the context of Tax Advisory. That said, quoting further: 

• Declaration of Source of Wealth - While declaring the purpose of funds as a "Condo Purchase" on the Foreign Exchange Transaction (FET) form identifies the destination of the funds, the legal safeguard lies in the ability to provide supporting evidence that the funds are accumulated savings that have been legally acquired and taxed appropriately."

Are we trying to kill the condo market here in Thailand as it pertains to foreign nationals, because that is what this kind of stuff will do. It will drive down foreign demand for Thai Condos, and that's just a limited example; if folks have to affirmatively prove up that their own money is their own money, and that their own money has been “taxed appropriately”. We now have to prove up that we have been taxed enough, in order to move our own money around. Is this the kind of world anybody wants to live in? Because it isn't just Thailand that's doing this stuff. OECD is a supranational organization, primarily emanating from the economically crumbling West and why Thailand is even having anything to do with this is beyond me. From a policy standpoint it's doing nothing for the national interest of Thailand. And if anything, this kind of attitude toward taxation and "appropriateness" of funds and whether or not your own money is your own money, it's the kind of nonsense that caused people to leave wherever they were at and come here to begin with, and now we're bringing it on ourselves, and it's going to cause a situation where again, in microcosm, is this how we want to kill the condo market? Because this is a sure-fire way to definitely suppress demand for Thai Condos if people that are looking to transfer funds in to buy a condo, have to go through the process of proving they have been “taxed appropriately”. Again, I have to almost throw up my hands at this point. 

That being said, my function on this channel has been to try to provide accurate information to the expat community as best I can, and we will certainly be doing that as the situation evolves.