Insights

On 7 March 2024, the Cabinet agreed and approved the principle of OECD Pillar Two, also known as Global Minimum Tax, and tasked the Thai Revenue Department (“TRD”) with formulating the corresponding legislation.

The Thai government has been developing a new long-term resident visa programme as part of an effort to improve the country’s position as a hub for skilled professionals, and a residence destination for high net-worth individuals. The programme is expected to comprise four new classes of long-term resident visas: (1) professionals living in Thailand but working for an overseas employer, (2) highly skilled professionals employed in Thailand, (3) high net-worth persons, and (4) high net-worth retirees.

Thailand’s visa rules create major inconveniences for certain categories of foreigners. As a provider of Thai business advisory services, we explore these issues and suggest ways to fix the situation.

The Ministry of Commerce recently withdrew its endorsement of Thailand joining the CPTPP over concerns that the trade deal may harm farmers.

As businesses adjust to new realities during the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in transfer pricing and other areas will have significant tax planning implications, which we outline here.

With Thai businesses and citizens tightening their belts amid the COVID-19 economics crisis, we examine whether the Thai government's current tax reduction will provide sufficient help.

To alleviate the economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Thai government will implement several fiscal and tax policies.

Organisations must be aware of the circumstances in which they are allowed to collect data to comply with Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act.

This article examines the RCEP trade agreement as it stands in late 2019, while also comparing it to the CPTPP agreement.

With the economic outlook in Thailand less bright than in years past, we look at how the country can find a new way forward for future business success.

As we have seen, Thailand plans to spend money attracting new businesses and tourists, all while lowering personal income taxes. Given such an array of new expenses, the treasury arm of the Thai government would ordinarily come under pressure to balance the budget. Indeed, we have already seen the Ministry of Finance struggling to locate new sources of revenue. Thailand’s Revenue Department has considered plans for imposing taxes on capital gains, casting the tax net wide enough to include on-line operators. Banks will be required to report account holders with high-volume cash transactions in an effort to seal off tax evasion. Plans are in place to increase the tax base – with a target of adding 200,000 new taxpayers per annum.

As the world’s economic engine slows, countries are moving to stimulate their economies by increasing government spending and cutting taxes to inject cash into the domestic economy. Such actions are intended to boost the economy, and prevent it from stalling.

Now that the political climate in Thailand has stabilised, the government is looking to speed up its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with key trading partners. Plans include resuming negotiations with the EU and UK post Brexit, as well as talks to join major multilateral FTAs. To be successful in these negotiations, Thailand needs to keep in mind the consequences that non-tariff barriers will have on improving trade as a whole.

This is the first article for Experience and Insights, a series of interviews and articles where I discuss best business practices and insights – particularly in matters of finance – with successful thought leaders based in Bangkok. Watewiboon Pumipue is the Founder and CEO of Talad Invoice, Thailand’s first on-line invoice factoring platform. Watewiboon is also a member of the Thai Fintech Association and has worked closely with various government and public agencies such as the Bank of Thailand, the Securities Exchange Commission, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society on the latest developments in rules and regulations on the emerging fintech industry in Thailand. I recently met with Watewiboon to discuss his business as well as some of the challenges new Fintech companies face in Thailand.

In April, the Bangkok Post reported a curious case of Thailand forcibly removing a US national’s “seastead” residence on the grounds that it compromises Thai sovereignty. “Seasteading” is described as the making of a home in a new, previously uninhabited place at sea, and is associated with the concept of autonomy, self-sufficiency and a frontier lifestyle. This is usually achieved by building residential structures just beyond the fringes of a country’s territorial waters in an attempt to remove the structures from any governmental control.

1Q 2019 has gone by and we are fast approaching the mid-year mark. Thus far, the Thai economy has demonstrated mixed results, with modest expectations for the months ahead. The World Bank has cut down Thailand’s growth projection from 3.9% to 3.8% amid an anticipated global slowdown. The Bank of Thailand appears to agree and trimmed its growth outlook from 4.1% to 3.8%. At the same time, the Bank cut down export growth estimates from 7% to 3%. The performance of the country’s largest banks has also left some room for improvement, as they posted declining net earnings in the first quarter of this year.