Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, is this how good, is this how Tax Law is actually made? Is this a good methodology or is a good metric of actual tax law-making in Thailand as well as Visa Policy making, Immigration Policy making. One thing in the past two years - especially since the reopening of Thailand - it has really been on one level a bit perplexing just sort of academically and intellectually like figuring out what exactly is going to be the end result of the sausage machine that is the Immigration Policy apparatus. Then at the same time it's increasingly clear to me that that's being pulled together with certain Tax Policy matters, and then on top of it, we've had all sorts of Tax Policy issues that have been arising wherein we have these foreign interlopers who are putting in their own two cents about how Tax Policy and Law works in Thailand; as I have discussed in other videos, completely illegal, violates the restricted occupations. I refer to them as tax stamp-pimps especially those who are agents of foreign tax authorities who have no business discussing such matters here in Thailand in any way that looks like or could be construed as something akin to a tax consultation. But never mind that and setting that aside, the point I'm trying to come back to with respect to this, everybody has been talking about Immigration and Tax Policy for at least the last year or so, especially since the Destination Thailand Visa was first sort of announced - which they rolled out to much fanfare without any concurrent backing from the Immigration apparatus within Interior Ministry - they just sort of rolled it all out through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then simultaneously there seems to be a push to push this OECD, World Economic Forum, “you'll own nothing and be happy”, taxed everywhere, kind of mentality, kind of paradigm, kind of modus operandi if you will, which is all being rejected now and I think we are starting to see Thailand also, this is changing as well. 

But leaving all of that aside, the thing that has annoyed me most, much like Covid, they have done a lot of things where there's been colour of law sort of issues that arise and then the media reports it as if it's either a foregone conclusion or actually is the law when in fact it is not. As we discussed with Trump rejecting OECD, there was no underlying legislation, he just kicked it out. Thailand has never recognized it; there's no legislation on that. If you want Law, especially in a Civil Law country, to tax people, you need to promulgate specific legislation pertaining to that tax. And with regard to good Immigration Policy, you want to have sort of a streamlined overall Immigration Policy, not we're over here, we are the BOI, we're saying one thing - oftentimes without any legal justification for saying things - like we can issue work authorization - and then you have other places that are saying oh we're saying that this Tax Policy works this certain way associated with this sort of Visa; work authorization works this way with this other kind of Visa. Again, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to see Immigration Policy sort of streamlined as well. 

Which brings me to a recent article that made me think of making this video from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Draft financial hub heads to Cabinet. "Deputy Finance Minister Paopoom Rojanasakul said the legislation provides greater privileges and authority than the Eastern Economic Corridor laws." I think that's important to point out. They passed Laws for the EEC. Quoting further: Quote: "The Government intends to push forward this draft law," said Mr. Paopoom. Quote: "After receiving Cabinet approval, the draft will be forwarded for Parliamentary approval on the first reading by the end of March this year." This is how Laws are made in Thailand. I don't care what weird interpretive dance of a bunch of bureaucrats and foreign interloping tax stamp-pimps they come up with out there. If you want to create a new Tax System in Thailand, pass legislation to that effect. That's why the Civil Law works the way it does, and the Doctrine of Codification exists, is so that you cannot create things like this by "interpretation". That's the difference between the Common Law and the Civil Law, okay? I feel like that part, what is that in Beverly Hills Cop 2 where he's like, "you, you, put the bucket down." These are fundamental notions, fundamental legal foundational notions, that need to be understood and maintained. And when a bunch of people that just have basically a quite frankly half-educated understanding of these legal principles or don't care at all because it's in their financial interest to not do so, their financially, what is it Charlie Mungers said? "You show me the incentive, I'll show you the outcome." If you're incentivized to put a bunch of people into the Tax System, guess what's going to happen? They're going to put a bunch of people into the Tax System. That's the fundamental problem here but getting back to what I'm saying. This Doctrine of Codification, it is not something to just dismiss off to the side; this is a fundamental notion of how laws are made, and the best intersection of Sovereignty, Legality and Citizenship is always going to be at the nexus point of taxation. So to just overlook this foundational principle of the legal system of Thailand is terrible and to do it at the behest of foreign interlopers, I find it disgusting on a level I can barely put into words. 

That being stated, let me quote further: "The draft law, comprising 96 sections, establishes a One-Stop Authority (OSA) Committee with powers.." - yeah the people that would actually have authority to do this stuff - "with powers ranging from issuing and revoking licenses to granting both tax and non-tax incentives for businesses investing in setting up a financial hub in Thailand." So how exactly Financial hub is defined, that kind of remains to be seen and we are still, again I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article, read it in detail, we're still waiting around to see how this proceeds through Parliament but a lot of the things that have been sort of in the gray areas out there, I think are going to end up falling under this Act for a lot of foreigners for all practical purposes. 

Now again, it's important to point out that financial services and things of that nature - and there may be sort of even professional financial services that can fall under that rubric - you need to understand that that's very different than standard professional services. Again, such as Legal Services, accounting, tax advisory consulting etc., because again that stuff falls under restricted occupations here in Thailand. And you have got to remember that that is important because again, as I point out, we don't want a bunch of foreigners that a) don't know the laws here in Thailand, have no right coming to Thailand telling Thailand how anything works. Another important thing to point out here, that Mr. Trump pointed out with regard to the exit from OECD, is the issue of extraterritoriality. It is not right that people outside of this country tell this country how the Tax Policy should work or how much more or less Thailand can take with regard to taxes because of some offset occurring outside of the country. That isn't how it works here, nor should it be, okay. It's never been the paradigm out here. I don't like it from the get-go. That said, quoting further: "The law waives the application of seven existing laws related to finance and insurance, including financial institution business laws, payment system laws, securities laws, and futures trading laws." Quoting further: "He said tax incentives," - again tax - "..including corporate and personal income tax benefits” - personal income tax - quoting further: "along with non-tax benefits should be granted by the OSA, will be outlined in subordinate legislation," - actual passed laws - quoting further: "These incentives are designed to attract investors more effectively than other global financial hubs". Good idea. I actually agree with this. This is a good thing, and I like seeing Parliament do its job, that's also good to see. That said, quoting further: "Non-tax benefits will include special privileges related to visas, Immigration, and regulatory reforms to improve the ease of doing business."

All great ideas and I love the notion that it's going to be streamlined. So finally instead of these train wrecks we get, like we had at the beginning of this year in quarter one where this Tax Policy, this DTV, trying to roll out all this digital entry-exit collided with the rollout of the TM6 or you can argue maybe Ministry of Interior gave the foreigners kind of an out with the TM6, sort of digital rollout - I think maybe they were carving a little loophole. It isn't many days I get to do videos where I get to give Thai Immigration a little bit of maybe benefit of the doubt that they were throwing one to the foreigners, so I'm going to take the opportunity to maybe give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they were doing that as a little like, "hey it's all going to be all right out here in Thailand one way or the other.” It will be nice and I'm hoping we will see this streamlined legislation get through Parliament soon and we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.