Thailand
Thailand: E-stamp tax for beer brewers
The Excise Department is about to require that local beer brewers adopt electronic stamp duty in October, aiming to fix a tax leakage problem as beer tax revenue continues to fall short of target.
The department believes that e-stamp duty will help prevent tax avoidance and thwart local sales of beers produced for export, as tax examination will become more systematic and easy, said director-general Patchara Anuntasilpa.
Beer for export purposes is exempt from excise tax.
Under the e-stamp duty, which will replace paper stamp duties, a QR code label will be printed on the bottle or can on the assembly line.
A draft ministerial regulation on e-stamp duty, earlier approved by the cabinet, is under the deliberation of the Council of State. The ministerial regulation is expected to come into force in the next few months.
To ease along e-stamp duties, the Excise Department has held discussions with all local beer brewers, which said they had no problem applying the e-stamp duty system.
The Excise Department had estimated that tax revenue on beer would decline shortly after the excise tax structure was changed in September 2017, but the tax still fell short of the lower target.
The current excise tax uses a suggested retail price to replace the ex-factory price and cost, insurance and freight (CIF) value as a basis. The change was aimed at creating a fairer system after some businesses were found to have understated their tax bills.
Excise tax revenue from beer amounted to 6.7 billion baht for the six months through March, rising 1.06 billion baht or 18.9% from a year earlier but missing the target by 3 billion or 30.9%.
The Excise Department normally garners a beer tax of 60-70 billion baht a year.
During October to March, the tax-collecting agency amassed 289 billion baht in tax revenue, missing the target by 4.7%.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1705400/e-stamp-tax-for-beer-brewers