Thailand weighs gold trade reporting to curb money laundering
The proposal would cover traders with revenue of THB10 billion or more for the 2025 tax year to curb money laundering and improve tax collection.
- Thailand's Revenue Department is considering new rules requiring gold traders to maintain special accounting records and submit transaction data to combat money laundering and improve tax collection.
- The proposed reporting requirement would only apply to large operators with annual revenues of THB 10 billion or more, starting from the 2025 tax year, to avoid burdening small businesses.
- The new rules could increase costs for gold traders and have raised concerns among the public that income from selling gold could become subject to personal income tax, potentially impacting the market.
The Revenue Department is considering rules requiring gold traders to keep special accounting records and submit gold trading transaction data, according to a Ministry of Finance source.
The proposed legislation would enable the government to trace financial transactions more effectively, collect taxes in full and take firm action against grey capital groups or fraudsters.
The department described gold as an important vehicle currently used by grey capital groups or fraudsters to launder money.
It also identified loopholes in online gold trading that made transactions difficult to scrutinise, saying no government agency was responsible for regulation or supervision, or held complete data on gold transactions.
It therefore wants gold traders to keep special accounting records and submit their gold trading transaction data to the department.
To avoid imposing excessive tax burdens and trading system development costs on small gold traders, however, the department has drawn up conditions and a minimum threshold so that only large operators would be required to submit data.
Gold traders required to submit the data would be defined by the following criteria:
Gold trading businesses registered in Thailand that buy, sell or exchange gold, or accept gold deposits.
Total revenue of THB10 billion or more for the 2025 tax year.
The requirement for special accounting records is expected to make it harder for grey capital groups or fraudsters to use gold to launder money and support firm action against them.
It would also help distinguish people who want to buy gold as a form of saving from those trading it commercially or for profit, while making tax collection more efficient, comprehensive and fair.
The department also outlined the rules’ actual or potential effects on different groups, covering daily life, livelihoods, economic, social and environmental impacts, and other significant consequences.
Gold traders could face higher costs to develop trading systems or upgrade applications to store data for submission to the department.
Their workload could also increase because they would need to prepare reports on gold trading transactions.
For the public, people buying gold as a form of saving could become concerned about personal income tax.
They might worry that, if they later needed to sell their gold, income from the sale would have to be included when calculating their personal income tax.
Such concerns could prompt them to turn to other ways of saving, affecting Thailand’s gold market.
Source: Thansettakij
