Stock transactions in Thailand will soon be taxed
Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Monday that he will soon propose that the Cabinet approves his ministry’s plan to start collecting tax on revenue earned from the sale of shares.
The minister did not provide a specific timeframe for the implementation but said he would propose it to the Cabinet soon so a Royal Decree can be issued allowing the ministry to start collecting the tax.
However, Arkhom said he will wait for the right time.
“We won’t start collecting the tax while the stock index is falling daily,” he said. “But we can’t announce it in advance either, so all sides should be aware of the plan and make preparations accordingly.”
He said it is still uncertain when the planned Royal Decree will be issued, but it will give brokers a 90-day grace period to adjust.
“The new system will not be difficult to implement, but we must give them to make adjustments,” he said.
Arkhom had said earlier that the tax rate would be 0.1 per cent of the earnings from stock sales. This tax has been waived since 1991.
He had also announced that this tax would be applied to every single baht earned from the sale of stocks and that brokers would have to deliver the collected tax to the Revenue Department every month. He said the government would earn more than 10 billion baht a year from the tax and collection should start within the 2022 fiscal year which ends on September 30.
