Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, unfortunately we are talking about tax yet again. We're asking the question will there be an expat "brain drain" from Thailand in the event that we see changes to Thai Tax Policy? Now I am pretty sure my producer is somewhat laughing because both of us here have been long-term expats and I think there are Thais that know both of us that would say "if you guys left, I don't know if we would say there was a "brain drain" but whatever. That being said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Step by Step: Thailand's New Tax Law a double-edged sword for Expats. First of all, there is no new Thai Tax Law. There is no promulgated tax law that I've seen; there's no draft Thai Tax Law that I've seen. I'm perfectly happy to stand corrected. If somebody knows of a draft Thai Tax Law that is out there, please put it in the comments below. That said, to my knowledge, there is only at this point talk from the Revenue Department about the possibility of changing the Thai Tax Law. This seems to be in line with, as we have discussed in other videos, in one video particularly impassionately on my part, maybe more passionately than I'm used to making videos on because this really gets to me, but it's in line with this possibility that Thailand may join the OECD and it has to bring it its tax and banking into compliance with that supra-national body. Reasonable people I guess could disagree on whether or not that's a good idea. My personal opinion is I think it's not the greatest idea. I just don't think Thailand needs to change herself because of what some outsiders have to say about how Thailand does things. If you don't like how Thailand does things, go somewhere else is my opinion.

That being said, quoting further: "There is a tremor of worry growing amongst expats in Thailand, with the growing fear of the new tax laws coming into practice. Thailand has long being a Haven for expatriates seeking a tropical Paradise with a low cost of living, laid back culture and welcoming atmosphere. However, a new tax law currently under consideration.." that's the operative word here - expats watching this, people who are freaking out; nothing has changed. They are only talking about the possibility of changing the laws, and it's going to have to go through even more due process if they want to do that. So this is not happening imminently. There may be a change in the relatively foreseeable future but as of yet I haven't seen anything. Quoting further: "..by the Thai Revenue Department is causing significant concern amongst the expat community." Well a lot of that concern is coming from watching people on YouTube that don't know what they're talking about. That's about 90% of the concern out there. I've tried to be as non-hyperbolic about this as I can throughout. I almost regret even doing the video I did about a year ago when we talked about the intra-Revenue Department memorandum which changed the way in which they were going to be assessing taxes moving into 2024; that wasn't a change in the law. Then a bunch of people who have no business really talking about this and quite honestly if they're foreigners talking about Thai Tax Laws - if they're an expat or an expert - they're engaging in criminal activity, it's a restricted occupation, I've cited that before and I'll throw in a link in the description below if people want to get into that. That being said, again there has been no change, and the concern I think is coming from people that are out there talking about things in a language that's hyperbolic and with expertise that is shall I call it suboptimal, to say the least. 

That being said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, thephuketnews.com, which I've already started quoting. Quoting further: "Furthermore, the departure of expats could lead to a brain drain. Many expats possess specialized skills and expertise that are valuable to the Thai economy. If they feel unwelcome or financially burdened, they may choose to relocate to other countries with more favourable tax policies. This loss of talent could hinder Thailand's development and competitiveness in the global market." Two sides to this. First off, yeah I don't agree with changing the tax policy much. I especially don't agree with that Thailand should change her own system in order to better comport with the OECD, a supranational body of WHO, and why do they get to tell Thailand what to do? I don't like that part. Now that said, it is a legitimate concern, the notion of a brain drain.

That said, even if the tax rules were to change, as I have discussed in other videos and as many of my clients already know, there are preventative measures which can be taken; there are planning measures which can be taken to mitigate even the possibility of the worst type of change in this regard. That said, one part of this that does kind of bug me is every now and then you'll see something like this come from the expat community, this note: "well we could all leave and then Thailand would just be up a creek without a paddle!" Thailand will be fine frankly; she always is. There's two sides to this brain drain thing. One is very legitimate which is don't just go around changing your tax laws willy nilly because it could drive away people that would otherwise be doing business in your country. I totally get that. However, and this is very Thailand specific, this is an attitude that is in a lot of expats’ heads, a lot of farang heads over here that "oh my God, if they didn't have us they would have sunk into the sea 100 years ago, if they didn't have the foreigners around." There's a great book called Chaiyo! Rama 6 and the History of Thai nationalism. That's a really fascinating book if you want to get into it which goes into, Thailand at a really interesting time – sort of the turn of the century - and in there is this similar notion to what we sort of see even in the modern era where "oh if don't have the foreigners, Thailand will just collapse in on its own weight or something like this". At the time, at the turn of the century, Thailand up to that point had been bringing in foreigners to provide foreign expertise, technological expertise, in order to get Thailand's technological prowess up, and then as she had it, they sort of started phasing them out. The foreigners at the time started saying "oh, without us what are you going to do?" And the Thais were just sort of like "yeah, we'll be all right. We're going to make it." and then I remember the same phenomenon some 17 odd years ago when I first came to Thailand when they started phasing out a lot of what were called “expat package jobs”. These were people that worked for major multinationals usually and they were in sort of a management capacity. It was usually a really great job; they would have a two or three year contract; their kids went to International schools; they lived in sort of really nice houses, it was really good deal but they were being brought in because they needed that expertise. Well the locals became trained up to do those jobs and they started phasing those people out. The reason I bring that up is because I remember hearing literally the exact same arguments that I read in that book from people that were saying that some almost 20 years ago about, "oh well what will the Thais do without us?" Oftentimes, the Thais will figure it out. In fact they usually learn the technology and they move on.

It is a serious question whether or not this would cause a "brain drain". But at the end of the day, the side of that argument that is "Oh, Thailand, it will be mass catastrophe if Thailand doesn't have the foreigners." No, that isn't exactly true but it's also true that Thailand probably isn't benefiting a lot by creating arbitrary and capricious tax laws that drive away foreign talent.