Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing yet again the issue of retirees here Thailand and tax. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Just another week in Paradise: taxes and cats. Kind of an interesting entry from the Pattaya Mail; I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail. 

That said, quoting directly: "The war of words about retiree foreigners needing to pay more tax on previously taxed pensions, or at least report them to Thai Revenue, continues unabated. It's an odd business. Whilst foreign-based Tax consultants invariably take the negative view, Thai lawyers often say there isn't much for pensioners to worry about, especially those from the 61 countries with double taxation treaties with Bangkok. I tend to think that the main issues are in the future, not least a debate about negative income tax and its ramifications." Well I have huge problems with negative income tax because that whole thing is being used as a carrot on an otherwise terrible stick for bringing in, making all Thais have to file tax returns, as I've discussed at length in other videos.

Now that said, this continuing back and forth on the issue of retirees needing to pay taxes on their pensions they are bringing into Thailand, again I have said it many times, yes everybody’s situation is different; it is going to be dependent on the underlying facts of the case. But as I said in other videos, and I have been confirmed in writings in the Pattaya Mail, the same publication I am quoting now, where I believe Mr. Kenyon was quoting a Thai tax professional who was saying basically the same thing I am which is, "look, if you're retiree, a foreign retiree in Thailand, the vast majority of you are not going to have to worry”. Sometimes because of the double Tax Treaty, sometimes because of the nature of your savings or pension, whatever. Again, in the vast majority of cases, I think most retirees here in Thailand are not going to have to worry about tax. 

Now that said, a bunch of fly by night operators, with frankly nefarious intentions, came in here to Thailand and whipped up a big fury that got a bunch of people thinking they needed to file for taxes, largely because these people wanted to get those people to pay them to do that. Was it the best idea? No I don't think so. Under the circumstances, again it depends on the underlying facts in the given case, and each individual case is different. There might have been some instances where it was necessary, but from the looks of it, especially looking backwards from where we stand now, it looks to me like a large number of the folks that ended up filing, did not need to file under most circumstances, again depends on their situation. But standing here right now, the last two years really have not been overly pleasant since we dealt with the promulgation of the memo regarding changes to accessibility for tax scrutiny here in Thailand back in 2023. That said, it hasn't really been helped by all of these foreign interlopers and there has been a lot of talk about the possibility of a new memo coming down; that now seems to be unlikely. 

That said, and I've stated it once, I'll state it again, for those who are worried about this, it's probably a good idea to contact a competent, qualified tax professional here in Thailand, give them the specific facts of your specific case, and then have them provide opinions and insight as to your specific situation narrowly tailored to you. One of the biggest problems out there seems to be these folks who are trying to find some broad-based one-size-fits-all set of advice and that's just frankly not how tax advice works. It's based on the underlying facts in a given case. So that's the thing to understand about this and we will certainly be keeping people updated on this topic as the situation evolves.