A draft bill to supervise e-commerce transaction reports is undergoing a second public hearing after the Council of State concluded the vetting process, says a source at the Revenue Department.
The law will improve the Revenue Department's tax collection efficiency as e-commerce businesses boom, providing a tool for the department to determine if online vendors are understating or evading tax payments.
The public hearing will run through Sept 15 on the department's website, the source said.
Under the bill, financial institutions and digital financial service providers will be required to report transactions of customer accounts that have more than 3,000 deposits and more than 200 money transfer transactions a year with a total value of at least 2 million baht to the Revenue Department.
The first report is scheduled for March 31, 2020 and financial institutions and e-payment service providers must submit reports every March thereafter.
Financial institutions and e-payment operators that fail to report the required information to the tax-collecting agency within the specified period will be subject to fines of up to 100,000 baht, plus 10,000 baht for each day they do not comply with the requirement.
If revenue officials disclose sensitive information, they are subject to up to one year in prison or a maximum 100,000 baht in fines, or both.
The draft also empowers the Revenue Department director-general to hold on to the information in the reports for up to 10 years.
Upon completion of the second public hearing, the bill will be brought to the cabinet again if substantial changes are made, or forwarded directly to the National Legislative Assembly in case there are no significant changes.
The Revenue Department is pushing several taxes and laws to tax digital platforms and online vendors.
The cabinet recently approved an amended Revenue Code related to VAT collection from e-business operators with a physical presence outside of Thailand, while the Revenue Department is drafting a bill on the revocation of the value-added tax (VAT) exemption for online purchases of goods worth less than 1,500 baht from vendors outside of Thailand that are shipped by mail.
According to the Revenue Department, there are around 500,000 online vendors, of which 350,000 are based in Thailand and the rest are foreign-based operators.