Thailand to block e-commerce sites that don't pay tax

**harrybarracuda** · 06-03-2018, 06:50 PM

This should be fun.

Do you shop online? Plenty do, and increasingly retail is heading offshore and the main winners are Thai Post. A legal loophole, allowing foreign e-commerce companies to avoid paying Thai VAT, may soon be plugged with new legislation.

But the Thai Revenue Department is threatening to block giant foreign e-commerce websites if they don’t pay VAT taxes in the future, according to The Nation.

Director general Prasong Poonthanet says the department would this month submit a tax bill covering e-commerce to Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong for endorsement before it goes to Cabinet for approval.

If the draft law is approved, it will be forwarded to the National Legislative Assembly for debate. Prasong said the department wanted to impose a 7% VAT (value added tax) on goods sold to consumers in Thailand.

The department would seek collaboration from the Digital Economy and Society Ministry in encouraging foreign e-commerce operators to participate in the tax collection system, he said.

His comment signalled that Thailand is prepared to block foreign e-commerce websites if they refuse to pay local taxes. Asking whether such operators might attempt to shift the tax burden to Thai consumers, Prasong said if they charged higher prices, consumers would instead buy from local businesses.

Currently, he says, foreign e-commerce operators take advantage of a legal loophole by issuing multiple bills for each transaction, none for more than 1,500 baht and thus not subject to taxation.

https://www.phuketgazette.net/news/e...-pay-local-vat

**Pragmatic** · 06-03-2018, 06:58 PM

Didn't they come out with a suggestion about 2 years ago that VAT was to be paid on goods posted into thailand from abroad?

Posted November 20, 2013

Just received 2 parcels from the UK containing Christmas gifts (lucky me). They were both sent using International Recorded delivery from the UK - so they had to be signed for at this end. Both of the parcels had completed Customs Declarations attached to them listing the contents.

As you might know already, the Customs Declaration also has a space for entering the value of the goods. On parcel 1 the value was left blank. On parcel 2 the value was stated as £80. (Which is approx THB4,000 at current exchange rates – and someone from Thai Customs had written 4,000 on the envelope).

Got a nasty surprise because parcel 2 attracted Customs Duty in Thailand of almost THB1,600. (For the 1st parcel there was no duty.) So a parcel worth 4,000 Baht attracted 1,600 Baht of duty.

The Thai post office showed me the official form from Thai Customs which explained to me why duty was charged. It said that the value of the goods in the parcel was over THB1,000 and they had discretion to charge duty on imported items valued at over THB1,000. The Thai post office refused to release the parcel to me until I paid the duty. I didn’t really think I was importing anything – just receiving some Christmas gifts in the post from my family back in the UK.

My friendly neighbourhood post office is in a small provincial town in rural Issan – a place called Kaset Sombun. The staff were just doing their jobs. Someone in Bangkok Customs had told them to collect the duty so they had no choice in the matter. But I’m a bit miffed that someone who works in Thai customs in Bangkok exercised his/her discretion to decide that a small parcel containing Christmas gifts constituted me importing goods to the country and should attract duty. Surely that can’t be right? Where's the Christmas spirit in the land of smiles.

I am posting this to warn others about this risk – particularly at this time of year. If you have friends/family who are sending you Christmas gifts from overseas, then if you want to minimise the risk of being hit with Customs Duty when the gift arrives in Thailand, you might want to consider suggesting to your friends/family that they leave the value blank on the Customs Declaration, or enter a value that is less than THB1,000.

**JournalistsAreLiars** · 06-03-2018, 10:20 PM

We can be sure that idiots are still in charge of the country !

**Bogon** · 06-03-2018, 10:33 PM

Would love them to try and block Lazada.

My missus would take down the government single-handed!

She bloody loves that place.

**david44** · 07-03-2018, 01:37 AM

They've blocke e commerce on SRT for years, last time i tried to book needed to send cash by carrier pigeon !

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**Farang Ky Ay** · 12-03-2018, 09:45 PM

It would be a "nice" use of the single gateway, now that it's not about controling inappropriate contents, but getting money to fill the coffers, thai may disagree but it would be way too late...

**HuangLao** · 12-03-2018, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by Farang Ky Ay

It would be a "nice" use of the single gateway, now that it's not about controling inappropriate contents, but getting money to fill the coffers, thai may disagree but it would be way too late...

I doubt very much their ability to scour or locate any such offending parties.
Mostly talk from the usual Thai authoritarian rhetoric.
They've proven to be quite witless within these circles.

Not much to be concerned with.

**david44** · 13-03-2018, 12:18 AM

Ali Buy Bye?

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