Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Property Tax here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Chadchart urges review of land tax. Quoting directly: "Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt is calling on the incoming government to review the new land and building tax rules as Bangkok's revenues have dropped significantly since the new rates were put in place earlier this year. Prior to the implementation of the new rates, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration set the land and building tax rate at 12.5% of the income generated by a plot of land. Under the new rules however, the tax is calculated based on the value of the plot of land."

Yeah we have had changes with regard to the tax code. Quite honestly it got pretty complex some years back. I have got some real issues with all these changes especially in light of the fact that Thailand already has a transfer tax which in my mind that was always the way land taxes were dealt with in Thailand. I always kind of preferred it that way because I honestly think property taxes are a real problem, this is just my own personal philosophy but I think that property taxes, it is not the best way to tax for a lot of different reasons and that's because I really am a major proponent of private property. Private property is the cornerstone if you will of a free society quite honestly and 'the power to tax as they say is the power to destroy' and for that reason I am always very, very leery of property tax.

Meanwhile, and I'm going to do another video contemporary with this one where I get into sort of my opinion on this a little deeper but I find it kind of difficult to really get all that upset with all of these Government Agencies and spokespeople coming out and lamenting that they don't have enough revenue when they shut us down for two and a half years and made it impossible for anybody to make any money, or near impossible to make any money and thereby decrease their own revenue stream. 

So long story short, I don't know where this tax thing is going to go. There are property taxes in Thailand depending on the type of property one has; residential versus commercial. There may not even be any tax liability for example on a residential piece of land depending on the circumstances there. But long story short, yeah there are property taxes in Thailand and I am a little bit nonplussed or less than enthusiastic about hearing arguments as to why we need to be changing the tax structure at this point especially in light of the fact that revenues are down as a result of government intervention in an otherwise free economic environment.