Development of online platform services.

Nowadays, as the online platform business is popular and tends to expand more around  the world, including Thailand, many companies both in Thailand and abroad accelerate the development of online platform services to meet the needs of customers in the digital age.

The online platforms have a variety of industries such as food, beverages, advertisements, music, movies, games, online product sales, accommodation booking platforms, tickets, and many more, but the millions of baht generated by these service users are returned to the country.

The Revenue Department, Ministry of Finance, by virtue of Revenue Code Amendment Act (No. 53) B.E. 2564, requires electronic service operators from abroad and foreign electronic platforms with revenues exceeding 1,800,000 baht per year from providing platform services to users in Thailand to be obligated to register for VAT and submit a VAT return at the rate of 7% to the Revenue Department.

This tax, known as the e-Service tax, has been in force since September 1, 2021, similar to the fact that more than 60 countries have enforced this law, such as America, England, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and Australia, etc.
However, only 5 months (September 2021 tax month - January 2022 tax month) after the e-Service tax law was enforced, there were 127 foreign service providers registered for VAT, with a total value of electronic services of 44,569.83 million baht, representing the accumulated VAT in the total amount of 3,120.03 million baht.

It is expected within a year that VAT will be collected from foreign service providers approximately8,000 – 10,000 million baht, higher than previously expected to be collected at approximately5,000 million baht.

While in the sector of foreign platform operators, it was found that the income after tax was deducted and brought back to the country totaling 44,595 million baht, and the highest from online advertising services amounted 28,013 million, followed by online product sales amounted to 11,982 million baht, and music, movie and game platforms earned 4,023 million baht.

For investors in the platform business from abroad who are interested in doing business in Thailand, if the amount of income has been calculated in excess of 1,800,000 baht per year, the e-Service tax must be submitted correctly and can be registered and processed through the VAT system for providing electronic services from abroad (VAT for Electronic Service : VES) on the website https://eservice.rd.go.th of the Revenue Department.

Source: The Revenue Department

Tel: 1161