Paetongtarn tax allegations echo father Thaksin’s scandal

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra faces a mounting political storm over allegations of tax avoidance via complex share transactions involving family members.

During Monday’s censure debate, opposition MP Wirote Lakkanaadisorn accused Paetongtarn of avoiding over 218 million baht in inheritance tax by accepting promissory notes for over 4.4 billion baht in shares from family members.  

Paetontarn responded by arguing the transactions occurred in 2016, well before her entry into politics. 

"These are standard business practices," she asserted, while challenging her critics to examine similar transactions within their own political ranks.
 

The allegations mirror past legal battles faced by her father, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In 2010, the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders seized 46 billion baht in Shinawatra assets, ruling that shares in the family’s Shin Corp had not been transferred to then PM Thaksin’s children before the company’s sale.  
 

In Paetongtarn’s case, the National Anti-Corruption Commission is expected to conduct a thorough investigation into the promissory notes and associated share transactions.