Finance Ministry Moves to Introduce 7% VAT on Inexpensive Imported Items

[Frankie baby]

Surly some of the imported food is already taxed going by the price. And what happened to the wine tax that was supposed to be reduced. It's still the same price as of yesterday.

[Sophon]

44 minutes ago, FlorC said:

How long till this government will raize the VAT to 10 % ?

 

Actually, the standard VAT rate in Thailand is already 10%, and has been for decades. The rate has been "temporarily" reduced to 7%, a reduction which will expire on 30th September 2024 unless again extended by the government. So the government wouldn't have to raise the rate, they can just let the current reduction in the rate expire in September.

[Peterphuket]

1 hour ago, FlorC said:

How long till this government will raize the VAT to 10 % ?

There have been such plans more than once but they have been abandoned each time because of the bad economy.

[lordgrinz]

I just hate having to pay custom fees and VAT on imports from home after already paying higher shipping costs, just because nobody in Thailand can provide quality products for sale. I find about 50 percent of quality items I am looking for are not available here, fixing that issue would be a better direction.

[newbee2022]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

 

The Finance Ministry is set to present a proposal this week to revise the Revenue Code, imposing a 7% value added tax (VAT) on all imported goods valued under 1,500 baht.

 

This move aims to level the playing field between local suppliers, who are already subject to VAT, and online overseas sellers who have been exempt from this tax.

 

Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat explained that once the cabinet approves the draft, it will undergo review by the Council of State before being officially announced in the Royal Gazette for implementation.

 

Many countries have already begun to tax online purchases of foreign goods, and this adjustment in Thailand will help local businesses compete more fairly.

 

Initially, the Customs Department will be responsible for collecting the 7% VAT and passing it on to the Revenue Department.

 

Future discussions will explore the possibility of involving online platform operators in the collection process.

 

File photo for reference only courtesy: Thai Rath

 

-- 2024-05-13

 

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Is this the way to finance the 10.000 Baht nonsense??🙏

[HappyExpat57]

2 hours ago, FlorC said:

So , tired of hearing  "mai mee & mai dai" here in Thai shops , you turn to lazada where they do have it,

now we have to pay tax on it. This after we bring in money from abroad to be taxed from this year on.

EXACTLY!!! I have struggled for WEEKS to find the red filters for the GoPro Hero 12 underwater case, both online and personally traveling to all the places in Pattaya where folks ASSURED me they would carry them. They're not available in Thailand, full stop. I ordered them from Amazon US, they got here in about 2 weeks. NOW they want to place an additional tax on things you can't get in LOS? I believe that's called extortion.

[dinsdale]

So a Bt1499 (or less) bottle of wine which was going to have taxes cut and which hasn't happened will now have an extra 7% added on.

[Parker2100]

Isn't their an ASEAN agreement not to tax each other's imports?  ASEAN+China, of course.

 

Level the playing field?  Thailand does not make most of the small things I buy online.  And if I do buy them in the store?  Where do you think the sellers get them?  Ummm... online.  

 

 

 

 

[Marco51]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

 

The Finance Ministry is set to present a proposal this week to revise the Revenue Code, imposing a 7% value added tax (VAT) on all imported goods valued under 1,500 baht.

 

This move aims to level the playing field between local suppliers, who are already subject to VAT, and online overseas sellers who have been exempt from this tax.

 

Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat explained that once the cabinet approves the draft, it will undergo review by the Council of State before being officially announced in the Royal Gazette for implementation.

 

Many countries have already begun to tax online purchases of foreign goods, and this adjustment in Thailand will help local businesses compete more fairly.

 

Initially, the Customs Department will be responsible for collecting the 7% VAT and passing it on to the Revenue Department.

 

Future discussions will explore the possibility of involving online platform operators in the collection process.

 

File photo for reference only courtesy: Thai Rath

 

-- 2024-05-13

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

 

What about books that are  internationally exempt? Do the customs bureaucrats know this? Or rather pretend they are waiting for the PM's orders, after all the poor man is everywhere and all the time and is expert on everything. The incredible admin costs may or may not be added too? Do they fill out a formsheet for every 100 Baht? Do we all have to plan in 1 hour daily  pick up of parcels at the post or maybe the airfreight department (farang please bring passports) ? Again the planning and implementation of new ideas is meticulous.

[Deerculler]

2 hours ago, Expat Tom said:

Clever, Since I order my vitamins from the states I will  be forced to pay 3 times as much here because the mechanism for paying the VAT will be a nightmare and delivery times protracted.  . This is just one more item to put in my RFL  (Reason For Leaving)  file. Soon the Bangkok Brain Trust will completely kill the goose that lays the golden egg. 

There are estimated to be over 80,000 farang living in Thailand.  How many will leave before the Clown Show in BBK feels the pain. Let's harass the farang, tax them, charge them more to enter public parks and go to the hospital and make the visa process stupid. There are 9 other countries on the International Living list of best places for Expats to live abroad and two of them are other ASEAN countries; the PI and Vietnam. No place is perfect but the shin is wearing off Thailand for me.

You forgot Cambodia.

[SportRider]

3 hours ago, CartagenaWarlock said:

Now I have to pay 7% tax on all transparent baby doll nighties for my concubines from Shein. Wow. What a financial burden on me! 

Wait, you can get concubines from Shein? 

[connda]

Thereby affecting those who make the least money by adding a 7% regressive tax on item that those in the lowest income brackets are most likely to buy.  The wealthy target the poor by convincing "lawmakers" (Cha-Ching) to target the poor.  Happiness to the people.

[ignore it]

Guess the chinese companies fronted by Thais who import in bulk and distribute through Lazyda and similar sites are the target.

 

Feel safe as my orders always under 1500Bhat.  

 

Just means a longer wait for my stuff as it'll be coming from china. 

[connda]

Tax The Poor.  It's the mantra of government throughout history.  Why.  Because the wealthy have the means ฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿ to convince "lawmakers" to tax the poor instead of taxing the rich.  That's called a oligarchy representative democracy.  Happiness To The People.
 

[connda]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The Finance Ministry is set to present a proposal this week to revise the Revenue Code, imposing a 7% value added tax (VAT) on all imported goods valued under 1,500 baht.

Thank goodness that won't affect the wealthy purchase of their Dior, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton brand products. 
Aim this tax right at the poorest and most vulnerable segment of society who manage to live my economizing.

 

"Well jolly good.  Let's give it to the poor."

 

[Galong]

3 hours ago, dpcjsr said:

This is another part of a consistent pattern by the new government to raise revenue. They seem to be desperate for more money which is not good for most of us. Anyone else having fond memories of Prayut? lol

Yeah, Prayuth was dependably inept and mostly harmless. This chap is making too many ill-conceived plans/programs back-to-back. I have not agreed with any of his plans as far as them making a positive impact on the economy or the lives of the average citizen and certainly not for the expat community. Oh well, I guess I'll simply remain bent over for whatever the future holds. 

[ikke1959]

53 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

So a Bt1499 (or less) bottle of wine which was going to have taxes cut and which hasn't happened will now have an extra 7% added on.

I think the whole plan is again nothing. It should started already on the 1st of May, and now it seems there is no plan yet..A lot of talking and unrest but in the end it will not work, as they can't open all packages and decide the prices of the articles...And than at delivery when someone wants to pay 8 THB VAT with a 500 THB  note?? or even an 100 note? There will be no change and the package is going taken back... It will not work believe me. And for the wines indeed.. promises but not in reality too.. same prices as months ago and no less....but the 10k wallet scheme must be financed

[Dan O]

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

What a lame excuse, just go out and say 'We were racking our brains and thinking how to get more money from the public

and we think we found it'...

Well you do need money to run a country on dont you? Im betting your home countries charges taxes of various tyoes to support infrastructure?? This area (lack of financial collection) is one of the bigger problems the country has outside of all the corruption. Departments don't talk to each other and departmemtal budgeting gets no post use scrutiny and are run as feifdoms. The dependence on tourism alone doesnt work as covid proved as will any future global crisis and inflation. As much as everyone likes to bash the current PM at least he has been out initiating business agreements and promoting the country for industries outside the country, unlike most of the past PM's and certainly the last govt. China provides so much of the low cost products and skates away without paying  tax on it. They get the preferentially treatment on mail going to the USA who subsidizes their transportation creating unfair advantage against local industry using postal delivery systems. Its a more complicated world we live in and to continue as a desired destination they need to improve infrastructure as other destination countries are and have.  Hopefully the money goes to where its suppose to go in the end. 

[sambum]

And talking about imported goods, what happened to the reduction in import taxes and duties on imported wines?

 

I haven't seen any difference at all in the prices on the shelves, or is it going to take "a couple of years" for the suppliers to sell the stocks that they have already paid the taxes/duties on? 😉

[sambum]

2 minutes ago, Dan O said:

Well you do need money to run a country on dont you? Im betting your home countries charges taxes of various tyoes to support infrastructure?? This area (lack of financial collection) is one of the bigger problems the country has outside of all the corruption. Departments don't talk to each other and departmemtal budgeting gets no post use scrutiny and are run as feifdoms. The dependence on tourism alone doesnt work as covid proved as will any future global crisis and inflation. As much as everyone likes to bash the current PM at least he has been out initiating business agreements and promoting the country for industries outside the country, unlike most of the past PM's and certainly the last govt. China provides so much of the low cost products and skates away without paying  tax on it. They get the preferentially treatment on mail going to the USA who subsidizes their transportation creating unfair advantage against local industry using postal delivery systems. Its a more complicated world we live in and to continue as a desired destination they need to improve infrastructure as other destination countries are and have.  Hopefully the money goes to where its suppose to go in the end. 

 

"Hopefully the money goes to where its suppose to go in the end."

 

"Nail ------ Head"! 

[sambum]

30 minutes ago, ignore it said:

Guess the chinese companies fronted by Thais who import in bulk and distribute through Lazyda and similar sites are the target.

 

Feel safe as my orders always under 1500Bhat.  

 

Just means a longer wait for my stuff as it'll be coming from china. 

 

"Feel safe as my orders always under 1500Bhat."?

 

Somehow think you are not reading the article correctly! Here is the headline for you to read again! :-

The Finance Ministry is set to present a proposal this week to revise the Revenue Code, imposing a 7% value added tax (VAT) on all imported goods valued under 1,500 baht.

 

Edited May 13 by sambum

[paul1804]

3 hours ago, Muhendis said:

 

What makes you think planning is involved?

It's knee jerk stuff as always,

Next will be import duty which is currently only collected on goods over 1,000 Baht

I think import duty is currently applied on items over 1500 Baht, so now it will be duty & VAT and if I dont miss my guess Vat will be applied on the total amount meaning VAT also charged on duty!

Edited May 13 by paul1804

[AhFarangJa]

5 hours ago, gargamon said:

So all the AliExpress stuff I used to get delivered with no VAT will now be taxed. Almost seems like the administration costs will be higher than the amounts collected.

Exactly. During the covididiocy we were sent a tax bill in the mail for our 3 rai of land. When we went to the tax office we were told that due to covididiocy they were only collecting 10%. We paid our 114 Baht, and left. 

[Sydebolle]

What good weed was smoked, when they hatched this idea - honestly?

I've ordered a plastic screw which came at 84 Baht incl postage from China. 
So now the platform will add 7% or 5.88 Baht on check-out, run statements with order details and VAT accruals - you must be joking. Imagine the mess when an article cannot be delivered/cancelled by seller or goes for refund compensation due to wrong delivery? That would apply to local platforms only. How about eBay, AliExpress et al? eBay will not collect 7% on behalf of anybody and can easily just do without the Thai customer base. 

The statement, that "this adjustment in Thailand will help local businesses compete more fairly" is total BS. If local business cannot compete with foreign supplies and respective logistic costs, then the locals have to go back to the drawing board and start homework all over again. This of course only under the assumption, that the local businesses have clean taxation procedures in place as well - yeah, I know - a silly joke my end! 

How many local sellers copy/paste a product from overseas and just double the price and only order it, once an innocent loser ordered the seriously overpriced article (equally imported). 

Free market economy - Thai-style - explained

[Dan O]

19 minutes ago, sambum said:

 

"Hopefully the money goes to where its suppose to go in the end."

 

"Nail ------ Head"! 

Yep but you have to start somewhere and all the corruption has been decades in tge making and will not be stopped a just a few years. Things started to change in some areas during covid and sign of change are all around, much to tge dismay of the older expat community that's wants the freedom of the past without the cost but constantly complain about infrastructure or changes to lifestyle.   Can't have both unfortunately.

[AhFarangJa]

44 minutes ago, connda said:

Tax The Poor.  It's the mantra of government throughout history.  Why.  Because the wealthy have the means ฿฿฿฿฿฿฿฿ to convince "lawmakers" to tax the poor instead of taxing the rich.  That's called a oligarchy representative democracy.  Happiness To The People.
 

I have always advocated that Tax is Theft, pure and simple.

[Dan O]

3 minutes ago, Sydebolle said:

What good weed was smoked, when they hatched this idea - honestly?

I've ordered a plastic screw which came at 84 Baht incl postage from China. 
So now the platform will add 7% or 5.88 Baht on check-out, run statements with order details and VAT accruals - you must be joking. Imagine the mess when an article cannot be delivered/cancelled by seller or goes for refund compensation due to wrong delivery? That would apply to local platforms only. How about eBay, AliExpress et al? eBay will not collect 7% on behalf of anybody and can easily just do without the Thai customer base. 

The statement, that "this adjustment in Thailand will help local businesses compete more fairly" is total BS. If local business cannot compete with foreign supplies and respective logistic costs, then the locals have to go back to the drawing board and start homework all over again. This of course only under the assumption, that the local businesses have clean taxation procedures in place as well - yeah, I know - a silly joke my end! 

How many local sellers copy/paste a product from overseas and just double the price and only order it, once an innocent loser ordered the seriously overpriced article (equally imported). 

Free market economy - Thai-style - explained

Your thinking is all off base because your throwing out what if scenarios rather than sticking with facts 

[john donson]

the regular disgusting billionaire monopolies always have ways to not pay taxes, so tax the poor...

[john donson]

3 hours ago, goatfarmer said:

If it's only on Ali Express and Lazada stuff, it wouldn't be such an issue, but going to the post office to pay and collect or enabling the ThaiPost delivery guy to collect 20 baht would be a huge inconvenience and burden. 

 

my post office is 20 km away... living on border of 2 provinces... no car, so 200 baht taxi x 2 to pay 20-50 baht is crazy to get my iherb supplements that are waaaaaaaay more expensive or unavailable in TH

[Muhendis]

28 minutes ago, paul1804 said:

and if I dont miss my guess Vat will be applied on the total amount meaning VAT also charged on duty!

You could get a job in Thai Tax dept any day thinking like that.  ☹️