Panel challenged over inheritance tax

It said the law requires that tax collection must not create “difficulty” for the taxpayers.
Suwannee Sirivejchapun, spokeswoman for the committee, dismissed a report that panel members had agreed to lift the bar for those due to pay inheritance tax - from Bt50 million to Bt80 million, while lowering the tax rate from 10 per cent to 8 per cent.
She said that panel members were yet to find common ground on the appropriate wealth level for the target “rich” group and their tax rate, because tax collection was required by law to not cause difficulties for taxpayers.
There had previously been speculation that the NLA’s panel on drafting the inheritance tax bill had made some significant amendments that included the raising of a “minimum amount of assets - in which owners did not have to pay inheritance tax -” from Bt50 million to Bt80 million and lowering the tax rate of originally 10 per cent down to 8 per cent.
Other sensitive issues that drew some debate were the types of asset that should be excluded from tax payment calculations, Suwannee said.
The inheritance tax bill was proposed to the NLA by the Cabinet on November 26. It was passed with overwhelming support from lawmakers. The NLA voted 160-16 in favour in the first reading of the inheritance-tax bill on December 18 last year. NLA then appointed a committee to deliberate and amend the bill before submitting it to the NLA for the second reading of the bill on March 17.
Critics had earlier complained that not only should registered assets, such as houses, property, stocks, cars and accounted money be included in tax calculation, but also unregistered items such as gold, accessories, watches or any valuable collections. However, estimating these unregistered assets could be very challenging for tax collectors.
Article 15 of the bill mentioned the tax calculation of registered assets such as property and stocks, but it didn’t specify how to include “other assets”, and it simply stated that the calculation “should be based on Ministry of Finance rules”.
Sommai Phasee explained to NLA members last December that the fundamental idea of the bill was to “tax the rich to feed the poor”, in order to promote economic equality which had been one key agenda under the junta’s administration. He also said the country’s tax collection attributed to 18 per cent of GDP. But in developed countries, the figure was at 30 to 40 per cent, meaning an inheritance tax bill would provide an additional source of government income.
Another observation of concern was for tax avoidance, which could be easily achieved – for example, parents could transfer most of their assets to their children before they died. Hence, proposed “asset transfer” tax was one way to effectively collect more revenue.