A newly proposed amendment to the tax code is seeking to qualify three tax crimes as offences linked to money-laundering, according to a government tax specialist.
Akarapol Thakaew, a legal expert at the Revenue Department, said the amendment will designate tax evasion, making false claims for tax refunds, and issuing fake tax invoices as a basis for money laundering investigations.
The proposed amendment, sponsored by the Finance Ministry and approved by the cabinet on Tuesday, also specifies the amounts of money involved for these categories to qualify as money laundering predicate offences, he said.
In case of a tax evasion, if the accumulated amount is 10 million baht or more, the offender will face a money laundering investigation. In the category of making false claims for tax refunds, the amount starts at one million baht. If issuing fake tax invoices is involved, the amount starts at 15 million baht.
He said the amount of money in the second category starts at one million baht, which is relatively low compared with the others because it is considered an attempt to steal from the state.
Mr Akarapol said the Revenue Department once handled false claims for tax rebates which caused more than 4 billion baht in damages to the state.
Under the amendment, the director-general of the Revenue Department is authorised to order an asset freeze to enable an investigation into alleged money laundering, he said, noting the asset freeze must not exceed 90 days.
Mr Akarapol said the proposed amendment is also in compliance with recommendations by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body that sets standards to fight money laundering and mitigate international financial threats.
Thailand this year faces a new round of evaluations by the FATF which will determine whether the country is sufficiently compliant with its standards.