Tax breaks for disaster recovery
The Cabinet has approved tax deductions for flood victims who have to repair their houses and cars, Deputy Finance Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom said yesterday.
Tax breaks are also being given to businesses to buy new machinery to replace that damaged in the floods.
Flood victims are to get a tax break on the actual expense but not exceeding Bt100,000 for home repairs. The property should have been damaged in floods between July 25 and December 31, he said.
Home repairs should have taken place in that period, he said.
Owners of the houses and those who rented the houses will be eligible for tax deduction.
People whose houses are insured will get tax deductions on the amount not covered by insurance compensation.
Those whose cars were damaged by the floods are eligible for tax deductions for repairs, not exceeding Bt30,000 per person.
Owners and renters of flood-damaged cars are eligible for tax breaks, but they must have been residing in the flood-affected areas.
If the car is insured, the tax deduction will cover only the amount not covered by insurance.
Satit Rangkarisi, director-general of the Revenue Department, estimated that the tax breaks would result in revenue loss of Bt4 billion to the government from home repairs and Bt120 million from car repairs.
The Cabinet also approved a tax allowance for businesses affected by floods that have to buy new machinery. They will get an allowance of 25 per cent of the value of replacement machines. They will also get an allowance on machinery depreciation for a period of five years equal to 100 per cent of machinery value. The tax allowance for the first year is 40 per cent.
Satit said those tax breaks would result in Bt7.7 billion in lost government revenue.
