Bt10 bn VAT eyed from car scheme

“We will still work harder to achieve the target for tax collections,” director-general Sathit Rangkasiri said yesterday.
The department is also looking forward to higher corporate income taxes from auto-makers, whose sales have benefited tremendously from the wildly popular first-car rebate scheme.
The government has reformed the rate structure of both corporate and personal income taxes to make them similar to those applied in foreign countries, particularly in the Asean Economic Community (AEC). The corporate income-tax rate will fall further to 20 per cent on January 1.
For personal income, the tax reductions will be effective for the next tax year. If they are approved by the Cabinet, the personal tax will be reduced at every level of income. The rates will change to 25-30 per cent for those individuals who had paid 30 per cent, and to 15-20 per cent for those who had paid 20 per cent, and down to 5-10 per cent for those who used to pay 10 per cent.
“There are only two economies charging a lower VAT than Thailand, which are Japan and Taiwan with 5 per cent each. Japan, however, is increasing its VAT to 7 per cent. For the corporate income tax, there are only Singapore and Hong Kong at 17 per cent that are lower than Thailand,” Sathit said.
“Although we have reduced the personal income tax, the maximum rate is still 35 per cent. So it is still high compared with other countries of the AEC. Only Myanmar is higher than Thailand at 40 per cent.”
The government is highly concerned about income distribution, focusing on bigger tax reductions for lower-income earners, he said.