Insights

The growth of the digital economy has broken down traditional commercial and geographical boundaries. Goods and services are being delivered and consumed across borders in ways that were unforeseen and at a pace that was unprecedented just decades ago.

Much has been made of the Thai government’s commitment to developing a modern industrial base. In large part, the praise from the business community has been deserved. Concerted efforts include a range of initiatives, from a detailed program of BOI incentives, to the fast-tracking of business permits across industries, to the ambitious upgrades in infrastructure and government support that are making the Eastern Economic Corridor a highly promising region for manufacturing.

International taxation is undergoing the biggest shake-up for a generation and the chief driver of this change is the global roll-out of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan.

China’s One Belt, One Road outbound investment strategy presents a wealth of opportunity along major global land and maritime trade routes. But how can business owners outside China take advantage?

The government’s recent high-profile solicitation of China’s leading e-commerce operator, Alibaba, to collaborate in developing the nation’s digital economy made front page news. Equally newsworthy were the government’s current attempts to revise existing tax laws to ensure that digital transactions are subject to VAT, and that capital gains from disposal of digital assets are subject to withholding tax.

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Nobody thought that complying with the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) transfer pricing analysis and documentation demands would be easy. Yet, the opening year has proved to make greater demands and has required more attention than many multinational enterprises (MNEs) had anticipated.

The global mobility environment is changing rapidly. Businesses and their employees working internationally are faced with a complex web of regulations and laws. While tax laws change almost daily, wider political agendas and large-scale reforms have the potential to create new complexities and to increase mobility costs.

In part 1, we discussed the origins of the CPTPP and Thailand’s existing trade relationships with other members. Of the 11 countries already signed on, Thailand already has free trade deals with 9 of them. The remaining countries – Canada and Mexico – are highly significant players on the world stage.

On 30 March 2018, the Bangkok Post reported Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak expressing his support for Thailand in joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Also known as the TPP-11, this amended version of the TPP has been the version under consideration since the United States announced its plans to stay out of the deal.

Blockchain is set to play a crucial role in the digitisation of taxation by providing the ‘wiring’ needed for real-time recordkeeping, verification and information exchange. Automatically fulfilled blockchain-enabled ‘smart contracts’ also offer faster and more efficient ways to evaluate and settle tax liabilities.

Asia Pacific is a vast and diverse region, and one of the strongest performing parts of the global economy. GDP growth across Asia Pacific is forecast to hit 5.6% in 2017, well above the 3.6% projected worldwide, and 5.5% in 2018.

Reduced tax liabilities and burden for individual taxpayers; Thailand as the 139th member of the Global Forum on Transparency & Exchange on Information for Tax Purposes.

This guide has been prepared for the assistance of those interested in doing business in Thailand. It does not cover the subject exhaustively but is intended to answer some of the important, broad questions that may arise.

This report provides an analysis of Grant Thornton in Thailand’s annual hotel industry survey. The survey looks specifically at 4 and 5 star hotels in Thailand and was conducted in April and May 2016.