Transcript of the above video: 

I have been talking a lot here recently about Immigration and the intersection between Immigration and Tax and I think this video is well, it is in that same vein. Let me be clear, I want to preface this by saying this is sort of hypothetical; this is just me sort of speculating and throwing out, sort of riffing off some ideas here, and I keep coming back to this article from Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Online TM6 form for visitors to Thailand coming on May 1. I originally was going to make this video talking about the so-called Tourist Tax which we will get into when we are quoting this article, which it looks like that's being put on the back burner, but I am kind of concentrating on this article because there is more going on here under the surface, or I think there is. I could be wrong, but I think there's something more going on under the surface here. 

I thought of making this video, again Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Online TM6 form for visitors to Thailand coming on May 1. Quoting directly, and as we discussed in other videos, Immigration has said, "hey we are sticking with the old TM6 system which is based on the old raw law, and we are not going to be rolling out some of these new systems and I will get into that in a minute. But at first glance, I thought they were talking about the Thailand Immigration System and this interplay with the DTV. It does look like they are talking about that that is sort of being delayed, but more to the point, I think is maybe issues associated with this push, for lack of a better term, by a bunch of foreign interloping tax stamp-pimps who have come into Thailand and are operating in complete violation of Thai Law regarding restricted occupations, and seem to be pushing the notion, incorrectly I think in many cases, that foreigners have to file taxes and have to do all of this stuff here when in reality that may not necessarily be the case. Again, every case is different; it depends on the underlying facts of the given case. But setting all that aside - I have discussed that in other videos - I was thinking initially about this Tourism Tax in this article and then I started thinking more broadly. Let me go ahead and just quote directly: "The Ministry of Tourism and Sports is preparing to promote the online TM6 Immigration Form, which will be compulsory for all foreign arrivals entering Thailand as of May 1." So, as they discussed, we are not doing all this weird new digital system that they were talking about, the new things coming online. No it looks like that's delayed at least for the immediately foreseeable future, maybe forever, you never know. TM6 though has been digitized. The Arrival-Departure Card people were used to, that got suspended, it has been suspended now for about a year and now they have said okay we are rolling it back out, but it's going to be digitized and we are sidelining all of these pie in the sky plans for digitization and how that interacts with tax over off to the side while we roll out this TM6. Quoting further: "Which will be compulsory for all foreign arrivals entering Thailand as of May 1." So, this new digital TM6 system starts May 1." Quoting further: "Though the Government is reluctant to start collecting the 300 Baht tourism fee this year." So that's the Tourism Tax. This has come up and down; we have been talking about this almost 5 years now I expect, because we definitely I remember talking about it in 2020 because they were still talking about it even going back into 2019, they were talking about Tourism Tax as I recall. Frankly I think it is a terrible idea; they need to scrap this; the optics are terrible. There are other ways to tax the tourists without just directly applying it to people coming through at the beginning. It puts people off frankly. So does all this talk about this, "oh everybody that has been here longer than whatever and our interpretive dance session of Thai Tax Law, anybody that comes to Thailand may have to report everything to the Thais and we may be looking at your bank accounts, and you may owe, and they have to pay and they have to file, and they have to do this, that and the other thing because of our interpretation." As I have discussed in other videos made contemporaneously with this one, where is a Codified Law that says you have to file Taxes under X circumstances? Where is that Codified Law? Again, under the Doctrine of Codification here in Thailand, you need an explicitly Codified Law for major infringements on people. That's the way that Civil Law works. I would say requirement of taxation would require the codification of a promulgated law from Parliament to that effect. It doesn't come about by the interpretive dance of a bunch of interlopers who have no business talking about Thai Law to begin with and quite frankly, I have issues with bureaucrats who have come along and started saying, "oh we can just tax and do all this stuff." It sounds an awful lot like Covid. We can just come up with it, we say so therefore it is, or they say, "well it's by regulation". Again, the Doctrine of Codification applies. Where is the law? And look, if somebody points that out, I'm happy to read it, review it and if I need to stand corrected, I've done it in the past, I'm happy to do it again. I am not trying to dodge that, and I am also not dying on the hill on the notional hill that you don't have to pay taxes in Thailand. The only thing I am trying to say is everybody's situation is different and depending on the underlying facts of the given case, in your case, you may or may not have to file. As I have discussed in other videos, I find it very, very wrong on both an ethical and to some extent even on a moral level, but just on a professional level to tell anybody, to give anybody one-size-fits-all legal advice, that is just not the way things work in the real world. 

That being said, stepping back from that, I think Immigration, you have got to remember again this current Government is not some like unified monolithic thing. The Parliament is fractured. The Core Coalition Party for whatever reason seems to be obsessed with the World Economic Forum and all their neo-Marxist, neo-Fascist nonsense emanating from the Davos set. But that being said, they seem to be trying to push through some of these things and much like in many other countries where globalism rears its ugly head and they try to push through these things, again it looks like there is institutional push back against this stuff. And we have definitely seen it in the United States as Trump has pulled the United States out of OECD - my opinion is Thailand should take a page from that book and not go into this to begin with - it's to my mind for lack of a better term, it is something like a Black Hole. There is no reason to go into it; don't touch the event horizon; just stay away from it. 

But the point I'm trying to make is for all this globalist push, there are pushbacks. And I think if you read between the lines and what's going on internally here with Immigration, I think we are seeing a little internal, well I think we're seeing something at least of a paradigmatic pushback institutionally at least from Immigration here. Quoting further, again and it's one man's opinion: "TM6 forms were temporarily suspended by the Cabinet on April 15, 2024. When the suspension period ends on April 30 this year, a digital version of the TM6 will replace the paper-based one, said Natthriya Thaweevong, the Ministry's Permanent Secretary. Mongkon Wimonrat, the Ministry's Deputy Permanent Secretary, said the Government would prioritize the digital TM6 before adopting other types of entry screening planned earlier to prevent confusion among tourists." I think this is of key importance. It looks like Immigration is not rolling out all of this digital system to track and trace everyone and to monitor everyone's days for purposes of tax. Let me get into why I think that's important. Quoting further: "A source at the Ministry who requested anonymity said that with the online TM6 form coming soon, there is a greater likelihood the 300-baht tourism fee will be postponed." Now again, this is my speculation but that is one tax that it looks like Immigration has said, "look that's not our business, we are pushing that off." With regard to this notion that they are going to create this digital in and out Immigration System whereby they track and trace everyone and try to impose taxes on foreigners or what a bunch of hyperbolics frankly - people who are seemingly hyperventilating out there - they are saying that basically, oh you will be tracked and traced through Immigration so run out and do what the tax stamp-pimps say, sheep, because we say so and you are going to get corralled into this by the bottleneck being Immigration." That to my mind is the implication of all of this. And what we're seeing from Immigration is they're saying, "hey we are sticking to the standard Thai Immigration Law as set forth in the Thai Immigration Act of '79; we are reconstituting the TM6 digitally but we're pushing back all of these digital systems that other people have been trying to bring forth because we just want to use the TM6.

Which then poses the question, okay all folks that are not legally resident in Thailand, and when I say legally resident, there is only one type of legal residence in Thailand and that's Thai Permanent Residence. That's the only type of legal residence that Thailand recognized from an Immigration standpoint in terms of you're an actual what we would call bona fide resident in Thailand. You have a right to remain. Everybody else in Thailand is on a Non-Immigrant Visa, so they don't have an unfettered right of residence, so they are not, they may be legally resident insofar as they are physically present at a place, but it's not attached to them; it is not a Bonafide residence thing like Permanent Resident. The reason I bring this up is here's Immigration saying hey we're not doing any of this digital system you are trying to roll out. Between now and the end of April, it's just going to be status quo ante - it's going to be what it has been to this point - and then as of May 1, we are rolling out a digitized version of the TM6 system which is the old arrival-departure card system, that's what they're rolling out. Not again, any of these new systems that they keep talking about. So that then poses the question, 'what happens if all these folks just leave before the filing deadline for any kind of Tax matters in Thailand?' Did Immigration just leave open a loophole whereby look we now know you're not going to interact with anything having to do with any new system associated with Thai Immigration between now and April 30. Thereafter the only new thing that they have announced that will be in place is this new digitized TM6. Okay, there is a filing deadline coming up and off the top of my head I can't remember the exact date but okay let's say there's a filing deadline. I am not saying anybody necessarily has to file - again I think that depends on your circumstances - but again with Immigration here who have said hey we are not upgrading any of our systems so Immigration is just going to stay the same, poses the question to me, all these folks that are here in Thailand on Non-Immigrant Visas, if those folks just do a border run and leave, like if the deadline is X date and folks don't happen to be here that date, what does that mean? What are the ramifications of that? They say oh you have to file - I know a lot of people are hyperbolically running around saying you have to file - again I have talked about this at length, I think again it depends on the underlying circumstances. But okay presume that. What happens if you are not in Thailand? You are not legally resident in Thailand. What happens if you're not here on the filing deadline? What happens if you return later? What are the ramifications of that? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question. But I started thinking about it when I was thinking about, why are they saying and I don't know that Immigration meant for this to happen either, this could be an inadvertent thing. So-called loopholes which I don't even like that term, but so-called loopholes tend to evolve that way. It just sort of happens by happenstance; it is sort of the practicalities on the ground and then you end up with a circumstance. Well maybe that's where we are at here. I don't know if the Immigration intended this. I am not even espousing that one should, but again if people are really, really worried about anything that happened in 2024 and they are pulling their hair out over it, and they don't really have any intention to remain in Thailand, well you leave before the filing deadline and there's nothing Immigration has put into place with regard to taxes. I don't see what occurs then after that series of events transpires. Interesting. I don't I don't know the answer that question but again there was something that was bugging me about this article when I was reading it and I was like they are talking about a lot of things, but it seemed like they were talking around something and then finally I sort of banged myself on the head and I said well maybe it has to do with this tax thing. I don't know. Again, this remains speculation. We will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.