Influencers cautioned against using tax loopholes

Social media influencers, online vendors warned they may face hefty fines, penalties if their annual income tax documents are not filed before deadline The department estimates that roughly 9 million influencers earn collectively, billions of baht.

RD director-general Pinsai Suraswadi recently noted that he was worried about individual income earner who have never submitted annual income filings especially youths in the labour market, e-commerce vendors, influencers and product reviewers.

He said reports in recent years indicate that this group of earners, predominantly the younger generation, almost never files her income, let alone pays the annual tax.

Mr Pinsai urged all earners to declare their income, saying that any mistakes made in the course of this filing can be corrected, but failure to submit income papers altogether will eventually be discovered and punished.

Electronic transactions have digital footprints that make it easy for the department to track unreported income, he added.

The department is asking people in digital business to comply, as backdating tax collection can lead to severe penalties.

As per him, the Revenue Department has the power to audit records dating back to a maximum of five years.

Those who are found to have avoided taxes will have to pay the amount owed — as well as penalties and interest that can increase the liability five times, according to the director general.

Failure to comply with tax laws comes with civil and criminal penalties.

Although the department mostly assesses civil penalties, fines can vary from zero to two times the amount owed in tax, plus 1.5% interest a month. Penalties can amount to four times as much as the initial tax, if applied and enforced in full. And criminal charges are reserved for the most egregious violations.

In other news, a recent Tellscore study, developed in partnership with FutureTales LAB and the Thailand Institute for Mental Health Sustainability (Tims), found that Thailand’s content creator industry generates at least 45 billion baht every year, with more than 9 million content creators currently in-situ, of which represent a significant portion of the Thai workforce.