In Thailand, the provision of services rendered within the country is generally subject to 7% VAT as Thai VAT rules are concerned. However, zero-rated VAT treatment can be applied if the provision of services is considered as “exported” under Section 80/1(2) of the Revenue Code in line with the procedures and conditions as specified under the following Notifications:

1. Notification of the Director-General on VAT (No. 105) dated 12 July 2000

Prior to 29 March 2011, the export of services must meet the following criteria:

1. The provision of services is performed in Thailand to the recipient of services overseas, and
2. The result of such services is delivered for use entirely outsideThailand.

2. Notification of the Director-General on VAT (No.181) dated 29 March 2011

According to the new Notification that has been effective since 29 March 2011, the service is partially used in Thailand, the VAT operator (i.e. the service provider) is eligible for zero-rated VAT treatment only for the part of service that is used overseas.

This new Notification introduces the concept of apportionment and allows for zero-rated VAT treatment for the portion of the services that is used outside Thailand.

Contact MSNA for tax and accounting questions and services.

When your Thailand company buys a passenger car of not more than 7 seats (cash or installments), the cost of the car allowed to be depreciated over 5 years is not more than Baht 1,000,000. This cost includes VAT, interest paid (in case of installments), registration fee and the car itself. So basically, when you acquire the car, it is booked as a fixed asset with the amount of all the costs previously mentioned combined. If your accountant calculates the depreciation expense of the car for the year using the straight-line method, the depreciation expense allowed by the Thai tax law is not to exceed Baht 200,000 a year (to be prorated to the exact number of days in the first and the last years). Whatever amount exceeding Baht 200,000 becomes non-tax deductible and will be added back to your bottom line profit when filling out the end of year corporate income tax return.

The expenses like a driver, car maintenance, gasoline and yearly vehicle tax can be tax deductible only if they are proven to be related to the business operation.

In case your company leases a passenger car of not more than 7 seats (including leasing with a driver), where the company will not own it at the end of the lease term, the lease expense allowed by law is not more than Baht 36,000 per month (or Baht 1,200 per day). For the expenses like insurance premium, car maintenance, gasoline and yearly vehicle tax can be tax deductible only if they are proven to be related to the business operation and it is advised that there should be an agreement with the lessor that the lessee is responsible to those items otherwise the Revenue Department may view it as the lessor’s responsibility and thus your company should not pay for them so they should become non-tax deductible for your company.

Contact MSNA for your Thailand tax and accounting questions.

We have received an inquiry from an avid reader of our Blogs. Today, THAI ACCOUNTANT answers his question.

Question:

Hi, allow me to send you a question because I can’t find the answer
in any other place.

On the self declaration to the Thai Revenue Department, is it possible to deduct Baht 190,000 for a person with disability under and over 65 years of age?

I received a 100% disability pension from my home country and have a document in English confirming my situation and the document is verified by the Embassy of my home country. What documents does the Thai Revenue Department require to get the above deduction accepted?

Answer:

Thank you for your question. To be eligible to the disability deduction, you need:

1. to be a Thailand tax resident (residing in Thailand for 180 days or more)
2. to be not more than 65 years old
3. to have a disability card issued by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEP), Thailand Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

We are not sure if the National Office for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities will issue a disability card for you as you are not Thai. And if you don’t have the card you cannot use 190,000 tax deductions. You may want to contact the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEP) and see if they can issue you a disability card.

Contact MSNA for your tax questions in Thailand.

A question on withholding taxes: We hire a company to repair old molds and to produce new ones. Do we have to withhold taxes when we pay them? In another case, we have a manufacturing company (who normally produces and sells its own products) produce our plastic products using our own molds. Are we responsible for withholding taxes?

Answer:

When you hire a company carrying on repair service, to repair and produce molds and the required materials are provided by that company itself, such transaction is considered to be a hire of work for the production and repair service. The payment for this kind of service is therefore subject to a 3% withholding tax.

As for the manufacturing company by which you order your goods to be manufactured using your provided mold, and required materials are sourced by that company, in accordance with your orders, the transaction is considered to be a sale of goods and thus, withholding tax does not apply.

Contact MSNA for your accounting and tax questions.

As the deadline for submission of Personal Income Tax Returns is nearly approaching, we often receive questions from our individual clients concerning the deductions and computation of their personal income taxes. Here is one of the questions that were answered by the THAI ACCOUNTANT:

Question:

Is it considered a taxable income for the employment benefits in terms of childcare facilities provided by our employer?

Answer:

Employee benefits in the form of contributions made by employers in relation to providing childcare facilities are exempted from Thai tax from 1 January 2011 onwards. The exemption only applies to the employee’s natural children, as opposed to adoptive children, and the childcare facilities must be licensed to operate as part of employee benefit scheme under Child Protection Law.

Contact MSNA for your accounting and tax questions and for more information on Thailand personal income tax.

The Thai Revenue Department (RD) has recently released a Departmental Regulation which allows a VAT operator to issue and deliver tax invoices electronically.

It can be noted that in the past, the RD does not accept the issuance and use of electronic tax invoice whereas a VAT operator is therefore required to deliver original tax invoice in hard copy to its customer. Thus, the delivery of tax invoice electronically via the internet or email does not comply with the VAT requirements.

Although still subject to the approval of the Director-General of the RD, this recently announced regulation can allow a VAT operator to prepare, deliver and keep its tax invoices or receipts in an electronic form. In this respect, a VAT operator can decide to use the electronic tax invoices for all its activities or only for selected activities as the VAT operator sees fit. The selected activities must be clearly identified in the VAT operator’s application submitted to the RD for approval.

In the case of recipients of electronic tax invoices who have already notified and undergone inspection by the RD for the purpose of maintaining their documents in electronic form in accordance with the Department Instruction No. Paw. 121/2545, they are no longer required to maintain the hard copy of the electronic tax invoices.

Required qualifications:

– Government agency or a limited company or public company which has a paid-up capital of THB 10 million or more on the day that the application is submitted.

– The applicant has a secure and reliable status, such as a good track record of tax payment, no prior tax evasion record or with net assets greater than net liabilities etc.

– Accounting records connecting the issuance of electronic tax invoices must be in electronic form.

– The applicant has good internal control and reliable process to prove that the electronic tax invoices and electronic receipts will contain the same accurate details when they are created, delivered and received. When an amendment has been made, the system must show all amended information to indicate the information prior to and after amendment.

For the RD’s consideration, the applicant’s accounting software system would need to be appropriately configured with the RD’s electronic tax invoice software since the implementation of the electronic tax invoicing system requires the use of secure and reliable system. Prior to submitting an application, a VAT operator who is interested to apply for and implement this electronic tax invoicing process should approach the Bureau of Electronic Processing Administration team to discuss the general technical requirements in further details.

Contact MSNA for your accounting and tax questions.

THAI ACCOUNTANT answers a question regarding VAT tax point.

Question:

We are going to sign a contract with a Thai government agency and they asked us not to date the service quotation and the invoices that we will send to them until they tell us to. Can we do it that way? Will it affect our taxes?

Answer:

I think you can do it that way if it just only for services. However, you need to make sure your invoice is NOT a Tax Invoice. (When they are going to pay, then you will issue a tax invoice). This is because if you send your tax invoice to the client without a date, it is very risky and your company will be fined if the Revenue Department finds out. And you need to submit the VAT too far in advance even though you don’t need to yet. It affects the cash flow of the company.

The tax point of VAT for a service business is when we get paid not when we invoice the client. Normally, you need to issue a tax invoice when you get paid. However, if part of the business of the Thai company is to sell goods, the tax invoice of the sale transaction must be issued when delivering the goods or getting paid whichever comes first.

Contact MSNA for your accounting and tax questions.

Today, THAI ACCOUNTANT answers a question about VAT Refund for Exporters.

Question:

I would like to make sure that if we export goods and can work with a 0% VAT, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we cannot claim recoverable VAT right? I mean the VAT we pay when purchasing goods?

Answer:

When you export goods, whatever it is, you don’t have to pay VAT (because VAT on export is 0%) and you can claim back your purchase VAT. However, it may take months before the Thai Revenue Department refunds the purchase VAT to you (assuming that all the purchase VAT amounts that you have are refundable).

Contact MSNA for your Thailand tax and accounting questions.

As of January 2012, below is the summary of tax relief measures which the Thai government has implemented for flood-affected persons and companies:

I. Personal income tax allowance for expenditure on repair of damage to houses and cars due to flooding;

II. Additional expense deduction for expenditure on replacement of machines due to flooding and a special depreciation method, for corporate income tax purposes.

I. Here is the summary of personal income tax allowance for expenditure on repair of damage to houses and cars due to flooding-conditions:

1. For immovable properties, including buildings, condominiums, and assets attached to such properties damaged by flooding (‘The properties’)

1.1 Eligible expenses

• Expenditure on repairing buildings, condominiums and assets attached to such properties, including on equipment and materials used for repair
• The properties above must have been damaged by the flooding between 25 July 2011 and 31 December 2011 and located in flood-affected areas as announced by the government.

1.2 Tax allowance

• THB 100,000

1.3 Eligible persons

• Owner, lessee or person using such properties for residential or business purposes or other benefit, who made payment of such expenses between 25 July 2011 and 31 December 2012.

1.4 Conditions

• If payment was made for repair of property in more than one place, the tax allowance can be claimed for expenditure on all properties, but in total is capped at THB 100,000.
• In cases where damage is covered by property insurance, the tax allowance is granted for expenditure in excess of the compensation received from the insurance company, but in total is capped at THB 100,000.
• The right to the tax allowance must be exercised in the tax years 2011 or 2012, or both, but in total is capped at THB 100,000.

2. Cars under Motor Vehicle Act damaged by flooding

2.1 Eligible expenses

• Expenditure on car repair, including on equipment and materials used in the repair.
• The cars must have been damaged by the flooding between 25 July 2011 and 31 December 2011.

2.2 Tax allowance

• THB 30,000

2.3 Eligible persons

• Owner or lessee under the hire purchase agreement for the repaired car, who resides in a flood-affected area as announced by government agencies and makes payment of such expenses between 25 July 2011 and 31 December 2012.

2.4 Conditions

• If payment was made for repair of more than one car, the tax allowance can be claimed for expenditure on all cars but in total is capped at THB 30,000.
• In cases where damage is covered by property insurance, the tax allowance is granted for expenditure in excess of the compensation received from the insurance company, but in total is capped at THB 30,000.
• The right to the tax deduction must be exercised in the tax years 2011 or 2012, or both but in total is capped at THB 30,000.

II. Meanwhile, additional expenses deduction for expenditure on replacement of machines due to flooding and a special depreciation method for corporate income tax purposes-conditions are as follows:

a. Additional tax deduction for machine replacement costs

– Tax exemption at 25% of amount paid to acquire machines used for manufacturing or providing subcontract manufacturing services

– The newly acquired machines must have been available for use between 25 July 2011 and 31 December 2012

– The newly acquired machines are to be depreciated over as period of at least 5 years.

b. Special depreciation method for the replacement machines

– Companies or partnerships affected by flooding between 25 July 2011 and 31 December 2011 and located in flood-affected areas as announced by the government, that buy or receive transfer of ownership in machines for use in their business can deduct 40% of the value of the machines on the date of acquisition

– The residual value is to be deducted in accordance with the conditions of the tax code. Hence, 52% of the value will be deducted as depreciation in the first year and 12% in each of the second to fifth years.

– Such machines must have been available for use between 25 July 2011 and 31 December 2012.

Note that the tax measures under a. and b. above are not available to taxpayers who are already entitled to other tax privileges.

Further details of rules/regulation relevant to these measures should be sought.

Contact MSNA for your accounting and tax questions.

As a part of an initiative to promote competitiveness, below is the summary of the recently enacted Royal Decree No. 530 by the Thai government in relation to the Thailand’s Corporate Income Tax Reduction.

• Companies or juristic partnerships (including companies listed on Stock Exchange of Thailand):

– Accounting period commencing on/after 1 January 2012, tax rate = 23%

– Accounting period commencing on/after 1 January 2013, for the next 2 accounting periods, tax rate = 20%

• Companies or juristic partnerships, with fully paid up capital not exceeding Baht 5 million on the last day of the accounting period and revenue of no more than Baht 30 million from sales of goods or services during the accounting period:

– The portion of net profit of THB 1 – 150,000, tax rate = 0%

– The portion of net profit of THB 150,001-1,000,000, tax rate = 15%

– The portion of net profit over THB 1,000,000: tax rate = 23% for the accounting period commencing on or after 1 January 2012 and 20% for the accounting period commencing on or after 1 January 2013 onwards.

It should be noted that the income tax reduction to 20% for SMEs (companies or juristic partnerships, with fully paid up capital not exceeding Baht 5 million on the last day of the accounting period and revenue of no more than Baht 30 million from sales of goods or services during the accounting period) does not have any limited period as opposed to other companies or juristic partnerships.

In addition, the Royal Decree No. 531 has been enacted to reduce the corporate income tax for the companies listed on the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI), except those for which are still entitled to 20% corporate income tax rate. The applicable corporate income tax rate of 25% on the first Baht 50 million of net profit for the accounting period commencing on or after 1 January 2011 shall be applied to the following:-

(i) The company that has been listed prior to 1 January 2010 and entitled to the tax reduction under the Royal Decree No. 467 (20% corporate income tax rate), and then completed the utilization of the 20% rate for 3 consecutive accounting periods before 31 December 2011;

(ii) The company that has been listed prior to 1 January 2010 and never been entitled to the 20% corporate income tax rate under the Royal Decree No. 467;

(iii) The company that has been listed during 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2011.

Contact MSNA for your Thailand accounting and tax questions.