Benjamin arrives at the logical conclusion regarding taxes

[NorthernRyland]

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.

 

 

 

[KhunHeineken]

As I posted in another thread touting the same youtube video, what he doesn't understand is, detecting and arresting foreigners for breaching Thai labor laws costs money.  Taxing foreigners makes money.  Big difference. 

[NorthernRyland]

14 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

As I posted in another thread touting the same youtube video, what he doesn't understand is, detecting and arresting foreigners for breaching Thai labor laws costs money.  Taxing foreigners makes money.  Big difference. 

 

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.

[KhunHeineken]

2 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

 

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.

Many countries are broke, including mine.  Thailand is no different. 

 

All of these countries are chasing every bit of of revenue they can get, from everywhere, and from everyone.  

 

This is an easy money earner for them, especially if the simple pathway of enforcement is attaching it to the annual extension, and no votes lost at election time.  

 

You are asking, "Why would they chase it?"  Perhaps you should be asking, "Why wouldn't they chase it?"    

[NorthernRyland]

4 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

You are asking, "Why would they chase it?"  Perhaps you should be asking, "Why wouldn't they chase it?"    

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. 

[Phulublub]

1 hour ago, NorthernRyland said:

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,

How many times will this falsehood be trotted out?  It is NOT targetted at expats.

 

PH

[KhunHeineken]

6 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

Yes but this is Thailand. They struggle immensely when enforcing laws and implementing systems.

They seem to enforce overstay quiet well.  Have YOU ever overstayed?  If not, why not, enforcement being a problem for them here and all? 

 

7 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

Look, anything is possible I'm just saying now is not the time to panic.

Yes, anything is possible. 

 

Who's panicking?  If you have to pay, you have to pay.  Or, leave for 6 months and give them nothing. 

 

9 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

ust wait until they make actual moves towards implementing a system to collect taxes and they will notify us in advance. 

Yes, I am waiting until the 11th Hour.  If it's all a non event, great.  If not, they will get me this year, but not again.

 

I have a Plan B, but strangely enough, for many here, their Plan A seems to be it will just ll go away. 

[KhunHeineken]

8 minutes ago, Phulublub said:

How many times will this falsehood be trotted out?  It is NOT targetted at expats.

 

PH

Correct.  It targets "tax residents" and foreigners staying over 180 days are tax residents.  That's most of us. 

[Phulublub]

2 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Correct.  It targets "tax residents" and foreigners staying over 180 days are tax residents.  That's most of us. 

And while we are caught up in this change, we are not the targets.  There is a huge difference and I truly wish tax resident expats would realise that they are actually not that high on the agenda of the Thai authorities.  We are incidental to the scheme of things.

 

PH

[rattlesnake]

Yep.

[KhunHeineken]

1 minute ago, Phulublub said:

We are incidental to the scheme of things.

Link please?

 

They'll take every baht from everyone from everywhere, and why, because they can, and in relation to foreigners, it's because it's easy for them to do so.

[rattlesnake]

Just now, KhunHeineken said:

Link please?

 

They'll take every baht from everyone from everywhere, and why, because they can, and in relation to foreigners, it's because it's easy for them to do so.

 

They will not do it if it is complicated to do. At the first difficulty, they will prefer to drop everything than spend one second struggling, it's a cultural thing.

[Celsius]

1 hour ago, NorthernRyland said:

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.

 

After this post 14 AseanNow members will go to revenue to beg to be taxed.

[NorthernRyland]

4 minutes ago, Celsius said:

After this post 14 AseanNow members will go to revenue to beg to be taxed.

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

[connda]

1 hour ago, KhunHeineken said:

As I posted in another thread touting the same youtube video, what he doesn't understand is, detecting and arresting foreigners for breaching Thai labor laws costs money.  Taxing foreigners makes money.  Big difference. 

"Taxing foreigners" who don't owe Thailand any money accomplishes two things:  The expense Thailand incurs when, 1) they have to fund a new bureaucracy to seek, find, and force the foreigners who don't owe them money to file tax returns, and 2) when the find them and force them to file tax returns, the foreigner will simple collect all the withholding taxes Thailand has collected over the years on their Thai bank deposits.

Trust me - if Thailand goes that route, it will be an "own goal."  And it will cost them more money than they make in return.

[KhunHeineken]

13 minutes ago, connda said:

"Taxing foreigners" who don't owe Thailand any money accomplishes two things:  The expense Thailand incurs when, 1) they have to fund a new bureaucracy to seek, find, and force the foreigners who don't owe them money to file tax returns, and 2) when the find them and force them to file tax returns, the foreigner will simple collect all the withholding taxes Thailand has collected over the years on their Thai bank deposits.

Trust me - if Thailand goes that route, it will be an "own goal."  And it will cost them more money than they make in return.

Some members have crunched the numbers for pensions, from different countries around the world.   Basically, most pensions, if all of that pension is remitted each month, goes over the tax free threshold.  

 

As for "seek and find" make having a Clearance Certificate part of the documents required at extension time.  No seeking, no finding.  Farang go to the TRD like sheep.  Yes, I know, rocket science for the Thai government.   I'm sure there's no way they would have thought about it.  

 

You are forgetting there are some foreign high wealth individuals in Thailand.  Not every expat retiree is a pensioner living on nothing. 

 

I don't trust you, because you are like the many that think this will all go away, and whilst I hope it does, I don't think it will. 

 

Time will tell.