Transcript of the above video: 

For long time viewers of this channel, the description of this video, the description below, is going to be filled, it's going to be chock full of links that you may be interested in. This video has kind of been a long time coming, the last couple of weeks sitting here at the end of 2024 going into 2025 because I have been thinking of my internet friends if you want to call them - Aaron and Melissa Dykes - who are over on Truth Stream Media here on YouTube. I've also been talking to them over on Twitter, X, whatever you want to call it, and this video just sort of has been percolating up from our conversations pertaining to what I can only describe as "Stamp-Pimps", and I'm going to talk about the whole ‘Stamp-Pimp” issue here in Thailand specifically, but I want to go ahead and give some background. First of all, the thumbnail might be a little less descriptive than one might think. it's Mr. DeNiro from a movie called Casino where he's saying, "Be a man, don't be a Stamp-Pimp." I'm going to go ahead and put a clip in the description below to that actual scene where he's talking to Mr. James Woods; great actor by the way - another fun guy to watch on Twitter as well - and in that scene basically DeNiro is telling off James Woods, but I sort of co-opted the thing to make a meme about so-called Stamp-Pimps. 

Well, what are we talking about, about Stamp-Pimps? Well Stamp-Pimps, I didn't even know this was a thing until Melissa and Aaron brought it to my attention via their Twitter account. I'm going to go ahead and throw this up on screen. This is from their Truth Stream News on x.com. I'm going to throw this up: Maryland Gazette (dated Nov 25, 1765). So, these two, I really enjoy their content both on YouTube and over on X. They are both quirky like me with like movies and movie lines, but they also talk about really deep stuff including thoughts on tax policy prior to the American Revolution, and shortly thereafter. And let's be clear, the public's thoughts on tax policy were not a lot. It was basically like, leave us alone. We are out here on the frontier which would be kind of like dropping somebody off on Mars today and just be like, "okay, figure it out", and then coming back some years later and say, "well we'd like to take a percentage of everything you have built up since we've been gone!" That was kind of how the Colonialists if you will in the beginnings of the American experiment felt every time the sort of authority from the UK, then England, would show up over in the New World and say, "hey, we want some of your money!. It's like, "well have you been out here making it? Well if not go away and leave us alone". And that eventually led to a conflagration of telling them to go away. 

That said, we're talking about Maryland Gazette, dated November 25th, 1765. They're talking about citizens reacting to the announcement of the Stamp Act, that's the context here. But quoting directly, and this is where we got the term "Stamp Pimp" from; I didn't just pull this out of the air. This comes all the way back from 1765. Quoting directly: "That they will Detest, Abhor and Hold in the utmost Contempt any and every Person or Persons who shall meanly accept of any Employment or Office relating to the Stamp Act, or shall take any Shelter or Advantage from the same; and all and every Stamp-Pimp, Informer or Favourer of the said Act, and that they will have no Communication with any such Person or speak to them on any Occasion except it be to Upbraid them for their Baseness."  And by the way, Based now is a good thing; Baseness back then was not a good thing. Again it's 'Stamp dash Pimp' you have got to be clear, they are Stamp-Pimps. Okay and what were they talking about? Well these were the people that were trying to sell the notion, "oh it's okay, just pay, just get this stamp and pay your tax, it's all good." They were Stamp-Pimps. 

Well you know, there's a few correlations to the present day expat community over here in Thailand where unfortunately we have all of these rogue, for lack of a better term, because I don't think it's American policy to intervene in Thailand's Tax Affairs but we have got these folks that are operating illegally as we have discussed in other videos in violation of the restricted occupations of foreigners here in Thailand providing tax consultations and all of this stuff, telling people - in my opinion in most cases very unnecessarily - that they need to get a Tax Identification Number here in Thailand. I can't think of a more on-point example of modern Stamp-Pimping than this. Again, giving people one-size-fits-all advice regarding taxes is awful to begin with. Secondly, as I've discussed in many other videos, there has been no change to Thai Tax Law. There was a change in terms of an intra-departmental memorandum from the Revenue Department some roughly a year and a half ago at this point, that talked about the way in which foreign remittances would be assessed beginning January 1 of 2024. But as I have discussed in other videos, due to our double tax agreements, due to various other circumstances, the vast majority of foreign individuals in Thailand are never going to have to deal with this. It's just something they don't have to deal with. Meanwhile you have no affirmative duty to go running into the arms of the tax authorities, you just don't. I've discussed this in other videos when they were talking about and they continue to talk about, possibly changing tax policy here in Thailand. Again, as we have discussed, the Deputy Finance Minister said it's going to take years to possibly change this stuff notwithstanding the bloviations of the tax Stamp-Pimp for lack of a better term Community, Foreign here in Thailand again operating illegally who are saying "oh no, everyone has to get this; go running into the arms of the taxman." It's nonsense and quite honestly, I'm sick of the stamp-pimps because that's the only word for them. They are Stamp-Pimps; they're trying to pimp you into tax surveillance or into tax oversight, that may or may not be warranted. Again it may be warranted, depending on your circumstances, depending on the facts of the given case, yeah you may have to deal with the Thai Tax Authority, but running around and telling everybody in a one-size-fits-all manner that they all have to go out and get a Tax ID Number, I can't think of anything more akin to a modern Stamp-Pimp in the world.