Paetongtarn retorts against opposition's tax evasion allegations

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra dismissed the opposition’s tax evasion accusation, saying she just used normal business techniques and has undergone thorough scrutiny constantly.

Speaking during the first day of censure debate on Monday, Paetongtarn said she has not done anything in breach of laws over the use of promissory notes (PNs) as claimed by the opposition People’s Party.

No legal tactics are being used to conceal the prime minister’s assets, she said.

People’s Party MP Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn alleged the prime minister had engaged in dodgy legal tactics by claiming share purchases from five family members, namely her two siblings, her mother, her uncle and an aunt, to avoid paying gift tax on shares received as part of her family's business-wealth distribution.

Wiroj argued that the share transactions seemed fraudulent, as Paetongtarn used the PNs without due dates or interest rates.

“If she had genuinely purchased these shares with promissory notes, the notes should have included payment due dates and interest rates,” he said, claiming that by disguising the share transactions as purchases rather than gifts, at least 218.7 million baht in gift tax were exempted.

Collected at a flat 5% rate, the gift tax applies to transferred assets exceeding 10 million baht.

Paetongtarn in response said the PN transaction was part of her company’s organisational restructuring, and that she issued the PNs since “she was not ready to pay in cash, so she made them instead”.

“The transaction mentioned occurred [after] 2016, several years before I entered politics. I intended to use PNs to give a certain amount of money to a person as per the promise that was made.

“The PNs also featured revenue stamps legally. They were not taxed because no payment was yet to be made, so the tax was not shown,” she explained.

The prime minister insisted that her assets had been correctly declared to the National Anti-Corruption Commission and that she would be ready to submit more information if the entity needed anything more.

“The issue of PNs is not new. Using PNs is a normal thing for businesspeople. You [Wiroj] can also ask fellow members of your party who are business people if they did this,” she said.

She also dismissed the progressive side's claim that this tactic could be used for corruption and drug trade, saying those ideas are “beyond imagination.”