The Finance Ministry is under pressure to boost tax revenue as Thailand has run fiscal deficits for several years, resulting in high public debt.

 

The COVID-19 crisis has worsened the situation, with public debt now approaching the “safety limit” set at 60 percent of GDP. The pandemic has forced the government to hike borrowing significantly compared to pre-COVID days, when the country was already facing slower growth and rising welfare costs.

 

The widening gap between state revenue and spending also suggests that previous tax reforms were not adequate to meet the country’s needs.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/new-stock-trading-tax-a-big-gamble-for-covid-depleted-thailand/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-07-13

 

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Compared to where, Thailand has very Conservative debt compared to Belgium over 100% is not unusual in Japan EU etc. USA is exceptionally able to print seemingly limitless money, for now, as a reseve currency.Czechia had 36% last year before the big Covid spread, Thailand is below most EU states

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268177/countries-with-the-highest-public-debt/#:~:text=In 2020%2C Libya ranked first,around 102.98 percent of GDP.&text=Public debt%2C also known as,by a nation's central government.

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/269684/national-debt-in-eu-countries-in-relation-to-gross-domestic-product-gdp/

Apparently, 'According to Reuters, the government is set to impose a tax of 0.11 percent tax on individual share traders whose stock transactions account for more than Bt1 million a month.'

 

Just helping those who read the headline and wondered where the story was....

Roughly 35k USD transaction, not profit, in a month.  Easily hit if you are doing a very basic portfolio rebalance.

 

0.11% is about 40$.  But this can grow a lot depending on size and frequency of rebalancing.

 

If you rebalance a 1mn dollar portfolio once a quarter, that's about 4k usd in fees.

 

On top of the payment, will be the extra work of filling.

 

Overall, not very kind towards small investors and retirees who do basic management of their portfolio

 

 

Can't help but wondering whether they'd be better off making the wealthiest families pay their fair share of tax.

 

Up until a few years ago the Revenue Department published a list of the top 10 taxpayers every year.  It was too embarrassing for certain families, so they stopped.  If I recall correctly, the top tax payer in the final year was a civil servant - definitely not a business moghul.

59 minutes ago, Oxx said:

Can't help but wondering whether they'd be better off making the wealthiest families pay their fair share of tax.

 

Up until a few years ago the Revenue Department published a list of the top 10 taxpayers every year.  It was too embarrassing for certain families, so they stopped.  If I recall correctly, the top tax payer in the final year was a civil servant - definitely not a business moghul.

They pay their taxes to the Government but they don't necessarily find their way into the into the inland revenue account! Allegedly!