During the past 10 months, the Revenue Department of Thailand (RD) successfully caught tax evaders/fraudsters who committed illegal activities. The 3 main success stories are:

1.

False-invoice fraud: RD investigated three false tax invoice issuers which accounted for 1,396.88 million Bath in Thai trade, and resulted in 11.95 million Baht in tax.

2.

False individual income tax return: 1,877 individuals claiming false withholding tax amount and personal allowance are caught resulting in11.95 million Baht in tax.

3.

Drug dealer: As a result of the counter-narcotics project ‘The Thai Synergy, Counter-narcotics, A Tribute to the King’, during December 2006-July 2007, RD caught 12 drug dealers resulting in 78.85 million Baht in tax.

Moreover, RD also found the growing number of tax evasion/fraud cases as follows.

Deliberately claiming for false withholding tax on salary and bank deposit interest by making false withholding tax certificate to claim for withholding tax refund.

-   This activity is considered criminal offence. Penalties of defrauding government’s money include jail terms of up to 3 years, fines up to 6,000 Baht or both. Penalty of making a false statement include jail terms of up to 6 months, fines up to 1,000 Baht or both.

Claiming false expenses such as commission fees, services fees paid to individuals or group of persons without actual expense. Such false expense is reported as company expense in calculating company’s profit. Moreover, the company issued withholding tax certificate to the individuals or group of persons to claim for withholding tax refund.

-   This activity is subject to both civil and criminal penalties. The civil penalties include fines and interest. The criminal penalties include jail terms of 3 months – 7 years and fines 2,000-200,000 Baht.

Mr. Sanit Rangnoi, Director-General of the Revenue Department, said “Every unit has to intensively investigate those suspicious activities and put heavy penalties on evaders and fraudsters, as well as track new schemes of tax evasion/fraud in order to be fair to the honest taxpayers.