Total tax collected in the first half of the 2022 fiscal year has exceeded the Revenue Department’s collection target by 14%. This notable performance has been attributed to the use of digital technology and updated management practices.
Revenue Department Director-General Ekniti Nitithanprapas said the Revenue Department has been pushing the concept of “sustainable revenue.” This involves applying digital technology and modern management practices in tax collection to ensure financial sustainability.
Ekniti said the Revenue Department collected 101.695 billion baht in excess of the tax target for the first six months of fiscal 2022. During the same period, the department collected 4.2 billion baht in VAT from foreign electronic service platforms that offered services to users in Thailand. 10 billion baht is expected to be collected from this channel for the entirety of fiscal 2022.
The director-general said Thailand is currently negotiating with 139 countries for the issuance of measures to prevent tax avoidance. One of the measures involves mandating that multinational companies pay part of their taxes based on profits earned from countries that utilize their services. This would be the case regardless of whether the multinational has a permanent site of operation in each country.
Another key measure involves enforcing a global minimum income tax of 15% on companies that choose to transfer their profits to tax havens. Ekniti said that if negotiations bear fruit in 2023 as planned, Thailand will have a new source of income from multinationals that have so far evaded taxation.