Thailand’s Constitutional Bulletin recently issued a new regulation on the collection of value-added tax on foreign electronic service operators.
Starting from September 1 this year, Thailand will charge 7% value-added tax on electronic services to all “foreign enterprises” that provide online services with an annual income of more than 1.8 million tbd (about $50k).
Enterprises affected by this new tax regulation include: film and television game production companies, online service platforms, etc., especially the international Internet giants that have landed in Thailand – Apple, Gu Ge, Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, etc. have to pay value-added tax.
The head of Thailand’s tax agency said that the policy was introduced to protect Thailand’s local Internet companies and create a more level playing field.
The Thai government expects this tax to increase revenue by 5 billion td in the 2021 tax year.
According to Thailand’s Internet usage data, the Internet usage rate of 69 million people in the country is more than 75%, more than 50% of which use online services, including watching movies, listening to music, playing games and using social media, and the data is on an increasing trend year by year.
