Revenue Department Going Predatory

[Indo-Siam]

Strange goings-on this week - three of my smaller clients - all with bare bones registered business addresses - have been visited by Revenue Inspectors this week, specifically nosing around about the "substantialness" of their legal offices.

One of them - based out of a Rama IX office building, colocated wirth another firm - had no company name sign posted - and the Revenue inspector gave them a "fix it by Monday or we revoke your VAT registration" letter - on the spot.

I have never seen this pattern before. Immigration was always tough on business address, but Revenue Department never seemed to care - as long as your tax payments came in each month.

I have no idea whether this is a reflection of a new personality taking over at Revenue, or some other crackdown, but it does seem interesting how the "good cop, bad cop" routine seems to play out - each functional aspect of government seems to be assigned one month in which to "harrass" companies - and then they go back to sleep.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

[paulfr]

Well you are probably right.

As they say ..... "The chair sets the tone"

A new leader often wants to make his mark.

It also could have come from above, someone

with a lot of power and influence.

Sorta like a temporary police crackdown

on streetwalkers after the mayor's phone call

to the chief.

Fear is an often used tool for enforcement.

Govt bureaucrats know this.

Just do as they say, and like you said, they

will likely go to sleep again soon.

...... if there is a God, this is how he keeps your attention .......

[samran]

I have never seen this pattern before. Immigration was always tough on business address, but Revenue Department never seemed to care - as long as your tax payments came in each month.

I have no idea whether this is a reflection of a new personality taking over at Revenue, or some other crackdown, but it does seem interesting how the "good cop, bad cop" routine seems to play out - each functional aspect of government seems to be assigned one month in which to "harrass" companies - and then they go back to sleep.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

just my 2 cents, but there has been talk for sometime with ingoverment, the MOF and RD (ie not the type of talk that gets publicised by dear leader for publicity) that they wanted to run a tighter ship in terms of collecting revenue from businesses. Former minister Suchart was know to be big on making Thai businesses pay there fair share and this may be a result of one of his initiatives. He has been quoted many times in stating that he wants to raise more revenue from tax as the country grows.

But, this is just educated speculation, nothing more.

[PvtDick]

I've run a business here in Thailand for 15 years. This year was the first that the Revenue Department ever paid me a visit, or questioned anything. They found 300,000 baht worth of mistakes that I had to make good on.

[falong]

I've run a business here in Thailand for 15 years. This year was the first that the Revenue Department ever paid me a visit, or questioned anything. They found 300,000 baht worth of mistakes that I had to make good on.

Dick

Were those real "mistakes" or were they grey areas that the rev dept decided to call you on?

[Martin_F]

They also visit small operations like shophouse rice shops and question their tax returns.

Generally a sum is demanded based on the number of tables unless you can show them otherwise.

So it is not just farang businesses that are being investigated.

Many of my Thai friends inform me that they have visits too.

You are quite correct in the analyis that they are being more vigilant on tax collection.

If you go to the RD Area Offices you actually see budgeted and actual tax collection.

It is also required to fund goverment activities....but that is another thread altogether.

[PvtDick]

I've run a business here in Thailand for 15 years.  This year was the first that the Revenue Department ever paid me a visit, or questioned anything.  They found 300,000 baht worth of mistakes that I had to make good on.

Dick

Were those real "mistakes" or were they grey areas that the rev dept decided to call you on?

They were real mistakes -- actually, disallowed expenses. We could have owed much more, but our tax lawyer negotiated a settlement.

[Richard Hall]

They (three ladies) visited me last year in summer already and made quite an appearance. Right from the beginning they started with accusations that nothing was in line with our accounting and even counted the number of items in our showroom. We just referred them to discuss this subject with our accounting department and once they even appeared giving it a shot whether we would offer them any bribery.

All in vain since we knew that our business was absolutely legitimate and so they eventually left.

Later it even turned out that they had a hidden tape recorder with them and every single word of the conversation was recorded.

Therefore the only advice can be once again to follow the rules strictly and do not believe to be smarter than everyone else. Sooner or later you will be proven the opposite - the very moment of regrets. Having all your papers right is indeed a heap of hassles but eventually it is worth the effort and afterall gives you sweeter dreams anyway.

[damien666]

think that this aggresive approach by the RD is nothing new. they have been trying to play catch up with the rest of the world not just in terms of revenue collection but also on the application of certain tax measures.

TP is a hot issues since the issuance of DI/113. but the sad fact is that most of the officials bearing high ranking ones do not know wht they are doing. one of the main stumbling block lies on the language problem in which translation of certain words end up really mess up in thai.

anyway, do not be shocked if the RD officials visiting you do not even know wht they are doing. some of them just pack whole boxful of documents back to the RD HQ and only to be told off by their seniors that such method is just plain stupid.

so next time when the RD pays u a visit, i suggest you ask them wht really are they looking for. be prepared to put up a strong stance. ps. only do so if you have diligiently paid all ur taxes. if not, they will look in every hook and crevices to nail u.

regards

damien666