Thailand - The new system meets requirements of the 2007 Computer Crime Act
Date: January 28, 2008Source: Computer Crime Research Center
Income tax filing season has arrived and many white-collar workers are now preparing documents to support their calculation of taxable income.
Filing online has become highly popular, but people who have done online filing earlier need to register again as the Revenue Department has adjusted its system to improve users' information security and prevent fraud.
Registration is similar to the previous system, in which users fill in personal information, including details of parents.
You will be asked at the end to fill in the taxpayer number of your employer, which you obtain from the report of withholding tax that the company issues to you each year. This report tells you how much tax has been deducted from your salary and sent to the department.
The department has tightened security in response to a fraud involving 50-60 million baht perpetrated by three gangs that lured 13,000 workers, mainly from factories, with promises of a share on refunds. The new system meets requirements of the 2007 Computer Crime Act.
This year, people paying for home loans will obtain a bigger benefit as the government now allows interest payments up to 100,000 baht - double the previous limit - to be deducted from personal taxable income. The interest amount is not limited only to a first home but also other residences.
The department issued the announcement on Jan 2 and allowed the deductions to be retroactive on income generated during the 2007 calendar year.
The Revenue Department has also amended its regulations regarding deductions of investments in Retirement Mutual Funds (RMF), to match the original objective of the establishment of the fund for long term investment.
Taxpayers who hold RMFs have to hold the units for at least five years and must redeem the units only when they are 55 years old, otherwise their refunded tax must be returned to the department.
However, due to some legislative problems, people who buy RMF investment units before March this year can still benefit from using the old regulation. This means that even if they are not 55 years old yet, they can redeem the units after a five-year investment period, rather than waiting until they turn 55, which will be the requirement in the near future.
A Revenue Department official said that another new regulation would allow housewives with irregular income to file their own tax payments, which could lead to a lower taxable amount, compared to the current regulation that requires a husband to include any irregular income of his wife in his tax filing.
It is also likely that you will pay less tax in the future as the department plans to raise the ceiling for deductible expenses, currently at 40% of income to a maximum of 60,000 baht. The new deductible expense may be 60% of income to a maximum of 100,000 baht.
Over the past few years, the department has helped reduce the burden of taxpayers by increasing the exemption to the first 100,000 baht of income, and the deduction for expenses incurred in caring for parents to 60,000 baht.
During the past three fiscal years, the department's tax collections rose due to the expansion of the base of taxable individuals and businesses.
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