Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. I had to read that title again because yeah this is pretty new, I'm going to get into this. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Data exchange to fight tax evasion. Quoting directly: "In 2017, Thailand joined the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes as the 139^th member state to the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAAC)," (Maac, I will call it Mac) a multilateral Treaty developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). As of March 2023, 168 countries were signatories." Let me quote further. Quoting further: "Mr. Lavaron," (that's the Director-General of the Thai Revenue Department) quoting: "Mr. Lavaron said that the Department is in the process of bringing the signed MAAC agreement to Parliament for ratification. Once ratified, Thailand will need to implement the required international standards." 

So this pertains primarily to what's called FATCA, the Foreign Account Transparency Compliance Act in the United States, that was the major initiative. OECD has been trying to also I think impose sort of and I don't know if it has anything to do with this directly but they have been also talking about this sort of Global Minimum Tax. Notably, notwithstanding the way the article is written and I urge those who are watching this video go check out that article in detail, but notably it is sort of written as if this is already done. It's not. Parliament has not ratified this as noted in the article itself and I for one would like Parliament to really think hard on this before they decide to do it because I really question whether Thailand really needs to be part of this global framework of sharing all this tax information. Why? To what end, at the end of the day? I have real problems with this kind of stuff. On top of that, when you couple it with again where OECD and these various western so-called industrialized nations G7, G20, whatever, have made it clear that their primary sort of goal seems to be just tax, tax, tax and it doesn't seem to be taxing themselves, it seems to be "oh, we want to go after basically the little guy!" And look, I get it. They will throw around out there the "well you know, there is tax evasion, and this type of thing!"- okay at the end of the day I still have real problems with all this talk on how we need to be raising taxes and paying your fair share and all this stuff especially just coming off of literally about 3 years where the global economy was shut down as a result of the government saying it needed to be shut down. I have a real problem; it's kind of like breaking all of a cow’s legs and then kicking it and making fun of it, or being angry at it that it can't walk. I mean I get it, yeah taxes are necessary to run governments and run a society but I kind of feel that the overall argument feels a little bit disingenuous especially in light of the fact that again we were hobbled for two and a half years and unable to really do any sort of business. 

So that said, it's interesting that this is being brought online and again it seems to connect with FATCA. FATCA, is the acronym which was an Act passed some of years back and had a lot to do with reporting of accounting information or bank account, Financial transfer, Financial instrument information on Americans primarily residing or living or working overseas but now it seems to have broader implications. And again I am truly hopeful that Parliament will seriously think about this and hopefully maybe think about not ratifying it because I wonder if it is truly all that necessary for the betterment of Thailand and I also wonder if it might not be better to not have a global framework that just seems to chase around people for every nickel they could possibly have in their pocket.