Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are posing the question "The Thai Revenue Department is not targeting retirees?" I am more and more coming to that conclusion. Let's preface this first, we discussed in prior videos last week, maybe the last 10 days, where the Revenue Department here in Thailand has made an announcement that they are changing protocols with respect to tax liability assessment based on timeline. So in the past, it was possible to defer bringing money into Thailand and thereby mitigating the application of tax liability if you waited to the following calendar year from the time funds were accrued to bring those funds into Thailand. It was possible to mitigate tax liability effectively, avoid that kind of tax, avoid any tax in Thailand. Thailand has made it clear through an announcement from the Revenue Department that they are going to be rescinding that present state of affairs starting January 1, 2024.

I have a lot of folks that are really worried about this, please as I said at the time, please don't get upset. It is not something to fly off the handle or get incredibly worried about. I also see folks in comments saying "I'm moving, I'm leaving Thailand." In fact, I have done another video on this; 80% of retirees I don't even think this is going to bother them. As we have discussed, there are Double Tax Treaties in place although that is not the end of the analysis. I have seen a lot of people who just sort of say "We have got a Double Tax Treaty." End of discussion. Not end of discussion. You have to analyze the specific facts based on the terms of the Treaty. 

Now that said, most what I would call standard retirees who are over here, they have a pension or they are just living on savings, you are not going to be bothered greatly by this. There is probably 10 - 20% of the retiree population that depending upon how their retirement finances are structured, may need to deal with this; worst case scenario they just have to deal with filing a tax return in Thailand and dealing with getting some sort of foreign tax credit associated with whatever taxes they paid in their home jurisdiction, again that is going to be case specific. The point I am trying to make with this video, I have done another one contemporaneously with it where I basically said, I think and I will reiterate this here although more shortly, I've looked at this now, I think what they are changing this for is the changing nature of business, the changing nature of international economics, the changing nature of international business; I made a video where I specifically cited YouTubers and I think YouTubers are a really good case in point because their efforts online are not only recorded on video but they are time stamped. So I can see a scenario where Revenue Department can very easily assess not only tax liability but a taxable event as well as if any money accrues off of that tax liability, that taxable event, they can say okay we can pretty easily assess that you owe X amount of money, depending on circumstances. Again, that doesn't really apply to the vast majority retirees. Now retiree YouTubers, especially those who are YouTubing and making money off of YouTube, whether or not they have a Work Permit, if they are here in Thailand and are susceptible to Thai Tax liability, they may have some issues. And as I have said in prior videos, you need to be really careful being a retiree in Thailand doing things without a Work Permit including YouTubing but again I have been excoriated in comments for that even though I think the analysis is absolutely sound. That being said, the thing to take away from this video is, retirees No, after further analysis on this, I think very much so, not so much the target of this current change in policy. Now that said, when we see further detailed regulations, we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as that situation evolves.