Why the cabinet couldn’t afford to ignore Shin sales tax deal 

I can only applaud the cabinet’s decision to ask the Revenue Department to collect tax of up to Bt16 billion from Thaksin Shinawatra on proceeds from his sale of Shin Corp shares. While sales of shares transacted through the Stock Exchange of Thailand are exempt from capital gains tax, this transaction did not go through the market. It was a private transfer from Thaksin’s offshore shell company, Ample Rich, to his children, and is thus, beyond any reasonable doubt, subject to tax.  
It was a disgrace that the Revenue Department at the time determined that there was no tax liability, while at the same time charging full tax on other similar off-market transactions. It is also inexplicable that the Revenue Department failed to appeal the Central Tax Court’s ruling that the transfer created no tax liability for Thaksin’s children, who ostensibly benefited from the transfer of the shares at a token price well below the market price, on the grounds that Thaksin was the real owner of the shares. While one respects the court’s ruling – and there may have been more to it than met the eye – to the layman it appeared that an appeal might have been well worth the effort, particularly with the huge amount of tax revenue at stake. The implication appears to be that no legal owner of assets can be taxed, if they can show they are holding the assets on behalf of another party. Based on this logic, companies could argue that they should not pay corporate income tax or VAT, since they are only nominees for their shareholders.    
George Morgan