Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing possible changes to Revenue Department Policy here in Thailand as it pertains to taxes. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Upbeat expat news on foreign income taxes coming soon. Quoting directly: "According to a news report in the Bangkok Post, the Thai Revenue Department (TRD) is finalizing legislation to appear in The Royal Gazette about foreign income transferred here."

So again, this has not been done. It is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. Things could change; anything could happen. That said, it appears to be in the works, it appears to be being firmed up. Quoting further: "Director-general Pinsai Suraswadi said the new law will exempt from personal taxation, resident individuals who bring foreign-sourced income into Thailand provided they transfer the cash in the calendar year or the following successor year in which it was earned." Quoting further, and this is more to the point of the title of this video: "Quote: "The prospective law which could be made retrospective to January 2025 or even to January 2024." I think that would kind of be a good thing to just kind of smooth this all out and put it behind us, but it remains to be seen if that happens. Quoting further: "Will be an amendment to current legislation and will require the approval only of the Cabinet and the Council of State. TRD reckons that the repatriation of an estimated 2 trillion-baht tax-free cash from abroad and mostly from Thais will stimulate the economy." 

Well that is a good question. I think it probably would. I think the minute that this changes and people don't have to be all freaked out about it, mostly from the nebulous nature of how it changed. As I have discussed in other videos, it is my personal opinion this whole thing was done to deal with corporate remittances from Branch offices of Thai Companies outside of Thailand and individuals just kind of got inadvertently roped in and then once they were roped in, a Revenue Department is never going to come back and say, "well you don't owe anything". They are always going to kind of, their paradigm is yeah, "we want your money basically". But long story short, that’s how it played out. 

I think it would be a good thing to see it applied retrospectively, and yeah, I think there is a very distinct possibility that folks would start remitting money into Thailand if these changes were to occur. As I have discussed in another video regarding the very low nature of this low season, I personally think one of the reasons we are not seeing as many foreigners here even in an otherwise low season, is because people are counting their 180 days for fear of being in-country too long and becoming subject to tax. And whether or not that is really warranted under the circumstances, that is the way people perceive things and that is having an impact in my opinion, on the numbers of folks that are currently in Thailand. 

How this all plays out remains to be seen, but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.