The Revenue Department is encouraging entrepreneurs to use the digital tax system, which will make value-added tax (VAT) refunds five times faster than they currently are, says the director-general Lavaron Sangsnit.
The department aims to have a 100% digital tax system by 2028.
He said in a seminar dubbed “Driving Thailand’s Digital Tax Ecosystem”, held by the department last week, that the benefits of the digital tax ecosystem include eliminating the need for paper-based document management and expediting tax refunds within three days, as opposed to 15 days via conventional means.
The department has allowed authorised service providers to act as agents for tax filing on behalf of taxpayers, Mr Lavaron said, helping to reduce errors, complexities and obstacles in tax administration and enabling businesses to efficiently manage their taxes from start to finish.
He said the current pain point for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who want to formally enter the tax system is the complexity of the tax and accounting system and the high cost of investments in the electronic system. As a result, the department has allowed authorised service providers to act as agents for tax filing.
At present, service providers only serve as intermediaries in submitting electronic tax documents to the department on behalf of taxpayers. But from this month the duty of the service providers will be more extensive, and will include storing tax documents in an electronic format.
The department’s digital roadmap aims to achieve the following: service providers must be able to prepare information and file tax returns on behalf of the taxpayer by 2024; large businesses must be able to create electronic tax invoices by 2025; large businesses must be able to file tax returns electronically by 2027; and all entrepreneurs must be able to file tax returns electronically by 2028.
Mr Lavaron said that currently there are around 20 service providers who provide electronic tax services. The department expects to have 100 service providers to serve taxpayers who wish to enter the formal tax system.
In addition, the department provides tax benefits such as a double deduction for investments in the electronic system and for payments made to service providers, said Mr Lavaron.
He added that large companies already use electronic tax filing, but a many of their suppliers still manually file their tax returns. As a result, the tax invoices that large companies receive from suppliers are still in a paper format. Therefore, the department would like large companies to help their suppliers in the process of digital transformation.
In fiscal 2023, which will end on Sept 30, it is expected that the department’s revenue collection will exceed its target by 150-200 billion baht, in line with the economic recovery.
For the first eight months of fiscal 2023, the department collected 1.30 trillion baht, exceeding the target by 134 billion baht, or 11.5%, and 4.4% higher than the same period of last year, driven by higher corporate tax revenue, VAT and personal income tax related to the expanding economy.