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Thailand considers enforcing tax on Amazon, Facebook online sales

The government of Thailand is planning to enforce measures that could forcibly tax e-commerce transactions made over online platforms such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., the Bangkok Post reported Oct. 9, citing Thai revenue department principal adviser Pinsai Suraswadi.

The kingdom's laws mandate the application of taxes on cross-border purchases made through online marketplaces. Overseas sellers are often unaware of such rules while Thai sellers avoid them, the newspaper said.

"Our laws just can't catch up with market trends. Current rules put the responsibility on the customer to come to us to pay the value-added tax. But in reality, it's difficult to collect," Suraswadi said.

The proposal mirrors earlier actions by the governments of Indonesia and Mexico to intensify tax collection on online sales.

A law to ensure the collection of the 7% consumption tax could be filed at the Thai Parliament by year's end. Authorities are also considering to impose taxes on domestic e-commerce sales, the report said. Suraswadi said a new digital services levy could be imposed on domestic online sales although the rate is yet to be decided.

The government is also looking to apply customs duties on low-value cross-border purchases by Thais from Chinese sellers like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s AliExpress, Suraswadi said, Such imports typically cost below 1,500 Thai baht and are below the current threshold for customs duties, the news outlet said.

Amazon, Alibaba and Facebook did not immediately respond to S&P Global Market Intelligence's requests for comment.

As of Oct. 9, US$1 was equivalent to 30.32 Thai baht.