The Revenue Department and the Royal Thai Police are set to investigate more than 100 property developers and contractors suspected of using forged tax invoices to lower their tax burden.
The investigation follows the arrest of two gangs for selling fake tax invoices, said Prasong Poontaneat, director-general of the Revenue Department.
He said some developers had bought false tax invoices with the aim of overstating their expenses in order to pay less tax than those abiding by the law and using only real invoices.
Apart from developers and construction firms, the department is keeping an eye on some steel traders on suspicion they may also use forged invoices to evade tax.
The department has taken legal action against about 1,000 fake invoice users over the past 10 years, and some have been sentenced to jail by courts.
Tax dodgers must pay the understated tax amount and are fined twice the value of fake invoices. Moreover, prison sentences of three months to seven years and fines of 2,000 to 200,000 baht are handed to wrongdoers for each forged tax invoice with a maximum 20-year prison term, in accordance with the Revenue Code.
Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri, assistant national police chief, said developers using fake tax invoices were taking advantage of their industry peers and damaging the economy.
Developers submitting false tax invoices can offer higher discounts to homebuyers than their rivals in the same area, he said.
Pol Lt Gen Prawut said the two gangs selling forged invoices were unrelated.
Police have arrested Piyaporn Vetchpanich and are investigating several other people after allegations of faking tax invoices worth 3 billion baht, resulting in a loss to the government of more than 1 billion in value-added tax and corporate tax.
Chana Tangsiwirai has been arrested on allegations of falsifying tax invoices worth 400 million baht, resulting in a tax revenue loss of 100 million.
Police have also found tens of thousands of blank tax invoices that would have caused a loss of about 10 billion baht in tax revenue if they had been used.