NorthernRyland

They would need to and the fact they haven't says volumes and that nothing has changed, loophole or no loophole. Most people aren't even aware of this tax debate and would be shocked if they were audited and told they owe back taxes. Obviously they government knows if they want taxes they need a formal procedure and notify expats, which would happen via immigration as that's their point of contact for us.

I've watch a lot of his videos and despite being a lawyer with Thai citizenship he doesn't seem to understand how the law is generally regarded in Thailand, until now. For anyone that doesn't know the saga, over the last many months he's made a serious of videos where he gets increasingly more livid over media run by foreigners essentially giving tax advice and telling people to get a TIN before a certain deadline etc... and to contact their agency for support. He regards this as infringing on protected occupations reserved for Thais and despite all the uncertainty and fear it's causing the government doesn't seem to be stepping in.

This can't be overstated. If they want revenue well here you go but that haven't even figured that out. They still have me making hand drawn maps for immigration because they can't figure out GPS coordinates apparently.

I think Benjamin said this entire debate arose because of an interagency memo about closing that loophole. The government to my knowledge has been silent on this matter, probably because 1) if they say no expats are implicated then they lose their power to target people if the need to and 2) if they say some expats are implicated they cause mass chaos (much worse than now) All this noise and debate seems to be because "experts" and various people on social media have drawn their own conclusions and stirred everyone up.

Yeah sorry no pity for Thai people. They allow a burning culture for the entire year and only now when it starts to get a little annoying some of them complain madly. IMG_1075.MOV

Trump seems very confused about immigration (which is incredible). He's said he wants the most people ever coming in to America and recently he's getting pulled around on H1-B by Elon and Vivek (a hugely losing issue). Once he sees the pushback he tends to change his mind though and Elon and his Indian friend got destroyed on social media and I bet Trump paid attention.

that's all political squabbling. If you turned off the news you wouldn't know if it was Trump or another other Democrat. things you do notice: millions of illegal immigrants , monetary inflation. If Trump did win the tax cuts he did in 2025 would expire and we'd get a higher taxers too, another thing you notice. Point being besides the government insiders and media freaking out it was smooth sailing in those 4 years).

"I went to my local district office requesting a TIN and they turned me away because they didn't understand why I needed one"

Yes but this is Thailand. They struggle immensely when enforcing laws and implementing systems. Look, anything is possible I'm just saying now is not the time to panic. Just wait until they make actual moves towards implementing a system to collect taxes and they will notify us in advance.

they said that in 2016. What happened over the next 4 years? Not much really.

indeed if they were to enforce any law this would be the one, yet in all these years they haven't. Add this to the long list of laws they don't enforce.

One of the unexpected risks you run when giving foreigners passports is that now you're implicated with them in foreign countries. Media is going to say "non-white Dutch" and so he smears the whole of the Dutch population even though he may live in a ghetto with his other co-ethnics and reflecting very little of Dutch society.

America is filled with nutters. We didn't have that where I grew up but lots of crystal therapy, Reiki energy healing and other such nonsense.

After a fiery battle Benjamin of "Integrity Legal" seems to have finally been beaten down by the tax debate and came the final conclusion. If Thailand won't enforce laws regarding foreigners operating in restricted occupations why are they going to enforce these tax laws? Exactly. He's rightly pointed out many times that no new laws have been passed and they've merely closed a loop hole on an existing law that wasn't being enforced anyways but now he goes one step further and accepts they don't enforce other equally important laws either. This is 100% correct in my opinion. Thailand doesn't enforce laws. They simply don't. It seems beyond them quite honestly so I have zero faith they will embark on enforcing an extremely difficult and costly tax enforcement scheme which targets expats, most of which aren't liable for any significant amount of tax anyways. Not to mention how harmful this would be for foreign investment. Conclusion is, now is not the time to go home and go crazy. Best advice in my opinion is to sit tight, ignore the fear mongering and wait to see what happens in the coming years.

It's a very interesting region. I think they are Scots-Irish people are mostly got left behind. Kind of like the Amish. Sad to hear they're struggling with drugs though like the native peoples. Where I live in Thailand it is very poor but people live good lives, not stressed at all and thriving. Being poor in and of itself is not really not as bad as Americans make it out to be.

There's an Irish guy on YouTube who lives in Bangkok and is constantly offended that Thai people don't know that Ireland is even a country. Not knowing who Hitler is kind of bad for a Thai because the war did extend within Thailands general sphere of influence and had downstream effects for decades. Still Thais are vey inward looking people and that's perfectly fine to not want to be bothered by the rest of the world's problems.

This is the absolute state of politics in America. How is this different from a witch hunt? Great job to the OP he found the witch and burned her but what was gained? More than 50% of Americans voted for Trump so are these people your enemy too I suppose. My experience with liberal whites (my upbringing and family) is that they look down on the conservatives from "fly over country" for having unacceptable views. Basically What Hillary Clinton said with her "deplorables" comment. My experience with right wing whites is that they think liberals are merely confused, self loathing and misguided. I don't think they know how much the liberals fear and hate them though. Sad sad state for America if you ask me.

so what is the problem with Trump exactly? Maybe your white date wants to build the wall and deport illegals in order to preserve the white race in America. This should be a good policy for you right? Maybe you should try to find common ground instead next time.

I was worried about the tax issue briefly until l realized we were always required to pay taxes on money imported within the same year (which we all do) yet it was never enforced. Never once did they ask me or anyone else when the money I was spending was earned. When that changes we'll know.

There's lots of illegal Burmese immigrants where I live and they're actually quite dodgy. Not friendly, appear to not be able to speak Thai. The kids drive like maniacs and appear kind of thuggish. Not sure how the rest of the country is but I wouldn't be too excited about visiting their country after what I experienced here.

Is this a joke? People coming to Thailand are doing so because it's cheaper and saves them money. These are startups and self employed people. None of those companies are making $16 million per year, not even 1 million. Companies with those kinds of revenues don't let their people live overseas and work remote full time. These clowns must have just made up some random number that looked nice to them. They clearly did no research and know literally nothing about the market.

Don't they make rice whiskey all over the rural regions of Thailand? I don't see there is a ban on that. Maybe it's an exception for that one product but if they made beer it would be illegal as they can legally acquire a license? Either way it would be amazing for rural regions and give them another industry to get involved in. Personally I'd love to buy some local whiskeys that weren't rice whiskey. Shame on those monopolies and government for hurting the people that need the most help.

So this guy sold the business and kept 100% of the profit even though we want' the full owner? That's a good question, if you setup one of these nominee businesses don't you lose 50% of the money when it comes time to sell? That's a deal breaker right there for me.

I think they threaten but what can they really do? If they put you in jail then you're really not going to pay your debts. My wife has credit card debit and she's always worried about the summons and got me to pay a couple times (I was pissed). I wasn't prepared to split over debts but all things being equal you should always avoid the women with debt.