3 Things that will make your relationship successful in Thailand

[wolfmanjack]

The revenue department is making the rounds trying to collect more money. They made a visit to my factory saying we are not paying enough even though it had been explained to them that business is off by 50% so we can not pay as much as in the past. I referred them to my accountant and i was told that they are pushing for more money because there is a new head guy. I was thinking what a way to kill off businesses that are already hurting due to the poor economy. Especially those of us in the export business that have seen a decline in the last two years. Any one else out there getting squeezed by these guys ?

[JoshCM]

These guys do not care if your business is down by 50% or 90% because they are also squeezed by bigger guys in the department to make a certain amount of income from a particular area (just like a sale target!!). Even your account shows loss they will find some way to suck the money out of your business.

The best way is trying to negotiate with them nicely like my parents are doing right now in BKK. The situation is more tense there.

Good Luck

[cmsally]

These guys do not care if your business is down by 50% or 90% because they are also squeezed by bigger guys in the department to make a certain amount of income from a particular area (just like a sale target!!). Even your account shows loss they will find some way to suck the money out of your business.

The best way is trying to negotiate with them nicely like my parents are doing right now in BKK. The situation is more tense there.

Good Luck

From what I have seen this seems to pretty much correct. They are not interested in what you are earning, they are hel_l bent on getting their targets.

I have seen people whose accts. add up perfectly, being told at the end of the year there is a discrepancy and they have to top up xxxx amount.

[mcgriffith]

There was an article in the Post biz section a week ago discussing how revenue was projected to be down 3-5% due to business conditions.

With all the new mega infrastructure projects to start next year, it is obvious there will be a serious current account deficit.

Not hard to see why they're pushing hard for every baht of revenue they can extract....

[Seneque]

The very reason why i closed shop 6 years ago and went manufacturing in a friendly neighboring country ... It is called a racket ... targets for the revenue department have no relation whatsoever with the business environment ...

[mcgriffith]

After I posted the above, I saw a guy with a dark blue polo, with yellow stitching over the breast that said "e revenue" today in my local Tesco Lotus Express.

He was not buying anything; looked to be doing a field audit of some sort.

They're definitely working this end of year thing...

[Mapguy]

There was an article in the Post biz section a week ago discussing how revenue was projected to be down 3-5% due to business conditions.

With all the new mega infrastructure projects to start next year, it is obvious there will be a serious current account deficit.

Not hard to see why they're pushing hard for every baht of revenue they can extract....

Agree, except for the emoticon. It hasn't to do just with new "mega" projects. Thailand is fortunate in that the country's current account has been reasonably healthy, but an export-driven economy has more than a "3 - 5%" problem, in my view. I think that that is very, very optimistic over the next couple of years Other export economies, such as China, are in the same boat.

[wolfmanjack]

These guys do not care if your business is down by 50% or 90% because they are also squeezed by bigger guys in the department to make a certain amount of income from a particular area (just like a sale target!!). Even your account shows loss they will find some way to suck the money out of your business.

The best way is trying to negotiate with them nicely like my parents are doing right now in BKK. The situation is more tense there.

Good Luck

The last time they did this a couple of years ago they went over my books and said that i had to be doing more business than i claimed because of the size of my building. I said what in the hel_l does the size of my building have to do with it? The building has been the same size for 10 years and all of the money to build it came from the sale of my business in the USA.

i ended up negotiating for a lower increase than they originally asked for but i think they play the same game as the tourist shops. Ask for a high price and negotiate down. They are pretty unreasonable people and could just look at my bank accounts to see that income is down by over 50% while wages are up along with all the other costs of doing business.

[wolfmanjack]

After I posted the above, I saw a guy with a dark blue polo, with yellow stitching over the breast that said "e revenue" today in my local Tesco Lotus Express.

He was not buying anything; looked to be doing a field audit of some sort.

They're definitely working this end of year thing...

In the USA they do this to mom and pop stores also. They sit across the street and count how many shopping bags leave the store then multiply by what THEY think the average sale should be. It almost always comes out to more than what your sales actually are. Especially in hard times like now.

[wolfmanjack]

Advice for any one starting a new business. if i had to so it all over again i would have my office in my house and all the manufacturing would be going on under tin roofs. Do not build anything that makes it look like you have or had money.