Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the fact that Thailand needs to seriously take a breath, stop and think about all of this. It seems to be coming from abroad. All of this talk first came up since we have seen this Government, this new Government come in and then all of this talk about the OECD, Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development or whatever it's called, and then this discussion of so-called harmonization of taxes. Again I've been over here a long time and I haven't heard any of this discussion regarding harmonization, regarding the global rule regarding taxes. I'm sorry, simply being born on planet Earth does not mean I owe taxes to anybody per se. Again I'm well versed in legal theory; I do get that taxes are necessary in order to run a well-run society. I get that, but this whole again and it comes from all this globalism and let's just call it what it is. This all stems from these globalistic institutions where a bunch of people that I don't ever know if they have held down a steady job, tell all of us how much we are supposed to be paying in taxes. Quite honestly, one of the things I've always loved about Thailand is it always kind of threw up a firewall to all of this kind of nonsense from abroad and I am hoping that they will continue to do so. In any event, let's dig in here. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: New overseas income rules. Quoting directly: "The Revenue Department is preparing," let's be clear because I do not want to freak out the expat community right now. "The Revenue Department is preparing to amend a law." Let's be clear on that. I'm really getting tired of the media and the way that they sort of try to increase the cadence if you will, sort of speed up the cadence of things, I don't know, their paymasters want, and then they sort of disregard or sort of slow down the cadence of things that they or whoever is paying for their advertising or whatever, doesn't seem to want, I don't know. But at the end of the day I would really love to just see some genuine, I don't even know how to put it, I don't want to say 'honesty' because I do think the media for the most part and I'm not picking on the Bangkok Post here because honestly the Bangkok Post is quite up front, it is a good paper of record but just the spin, let's stop the spin of this stuff. In any event, quoting directly: "The Revenue Department is preparing to amend a law," again preparing implies, it doesn't even imply, it means this is not a foregone conclusion. They're talking about doing it; we'll see if something comes down the pike. Quoting further: "to collect taxes from individuals who have income from abroad, even if that income is brought into the country. According to Kulaya Tantitemit, Director-general of the Department, the current tax law calls for individuals who reside in Thailand for more than 180 days per year to pay taxes to Thailand if they have income from abroad. If that income is brought into the country, it is subject to personal income tax payments to the Department. However, she said the Revenue Department is amending the law", again is amending or preparing to. And here's another big one that is really starting to bug me. These bureaucracies just say "oh we're just going to amend the law regarding taxes." Can you do that? I don't know what the procedure, again I'm a layman when it comes to this stuff. I don't know what the procedural posture is with that. You can just unilaterally change Tax Law that has been in place for decades without any kind of Parliamentary oversight? You're just going to do that on your own? I mean that seems odd. It may be procedurally correct, but it seems odd. Quoting again: "However, she said the Revenue Department is amending the law using the principal of worldwide income." Well who agreed to this principle of worldwide income? This is some OECD nonsense. Yellen came out a couple years ago, the Treasury Secretary of the United States, former head of the FED which in and of itself is a weird anomaly in American history. I don't understand how somebody can be both, let's leave that aside, and came up with this so-called "Global Tax" which again, who gives these people the right to say that any place, anywhere around the globe people have to pay a certain minimum and to who. Again I've got no problem paying my taxes here in Thailand - I've done it for years - but it's to Thailand and I don't like all this International Harmonization. You know where else we had “international harmonization”? It was from the WHO when they all locked us down for years on end with no good reason that we now know. You know frankly I'm cool with "national" harmonization but this “international” harmonization, this globalism, this stuff is for the birds as far as I'm concerned. Quoting further: "Whereby taxation is based on the residency of the individual in that country, regardless of whether the income is from domestic or foreign sources." Yeah okay, again I don't know where anybody ever agreed on this or voted on this or had any kind of hearing on this notion of, again what are they calling it, "principle of worldwide income". It's just silliness. I love how it's if you know the history of tax policy, especially from the United States, it started at zero and it just slowly worked up over time quite honestly with the handmaidens in the media etc. sort of 'a little exception here, becomes the norm there and becomes oh you have to do this or we are going to throw you in jail'. It's just silly. It's really, really silly. 

Meanwhile Thailand please, please, please take a moment and think about this. We derive a great deal of our internal funds if you will, internal foreign direct investment, internal GDP - although I hate using that metric - but our economy here greatly depends to one degree or another on foreigners coming here and spending money. Do we really want to create a situation where we scare them off with a tax system created by a bunch of Western oligarchs who probably haven't worked a day in their lives? Is that really what we want in Thailand? I don't know the answer to that question and I know, I know, I know! Taxes are to bureaucrats what honey is to bears; they love it, okay? And I get it and I also get that yes we have come off of 3 years of being shut down and there are revenue issues for the Government. Maybe that's something to think about next time internationalists show up and tell you to shut down our country. It's not the greatest of ideas. But that said, over taxing everyone over here is probably not the best idea either and I worry greatly. I've been trying to keep a lid on myself and not be hyperbolic and keep calm about this, but when they start talking this way, this is silliness and it could have some serious negative ramifications upon the economy of Thailand.