“Know us, know them” is the famous strategy of Zoon Woo. As the taxpayer we know who we are and where we are but we don’t know much about tax department policies, therefore, it is a good idea to get to know the strategic plan of our old friend the Revenue Department so that we know what they are planning and what they want to do to us.

Don’t worry this is not some kind of stolen top secret information but rather information shown on their website (in Thai). Below is some of the information that I think is useful since it directly concerns the taxpayer.

NB: The period of 2006 means Oct’05-Sept’06

Vision: To have an internationally standard system for servicing taxpayers and collecting tax efficiently and fairly

Mission:

1) Collect tax according to targets.
2) Provide services and create more voluntary taxpayers.
3) Introduce efficient and fair taxation systems that drive economic and social development as well as the competitiveness of the country.

During the tax year 2004-2005, strategies of the Revenue Department are to:

1) Use IT as a tool to drive the organisation.
2) Take care of the taxpayers closely in order to increase voluntary tax payments.
3) Monitor and follow up on businesses that are outside of the tax system.

For the period of 2006 the strategy has been revised to:
- Building a permanent tax base. (The objective is to collect tax efficiently while building transparency and voluntary tax payments)
- Manage and monitor the taxpayer closely. (Don’t be surprised if you hear that every business is being audited)
- Follow up on businesses that are outside of the tax system. (Be careful if you have not entered the tax system)
- Revise the laws and procedures in order to build taxpayer satisfaction.
- Aggressively promote voluntary tax payments.
- Inform the taxpayers of their duties better. (They will be providing free tax seminars but most of them will be in Bangkok)

1) Become a knowledge based organisation:
- Changing the organisational attitude, cultures and norm.
- Create better human resource management and a motivational system.

2) Develop an aggressive ICT system:
- Integrating information both in inter- and intra-ministries (This strategy means they will be able to cross check taxpayer information with other organisations so they can check things like amounts of personal income declared to the Social Security fund)
- Develop efficiency in the ICT system in order to serve future expansion.
- Develop IT systems for internal management.

What you should know more about is their targets for tax collection at regional tax offices. Their target is to audit 1.15 million current taxpayers and find 30,000 new taxpayers. They also have a projected target to reduce accounts payable to the taxpayer by each tax region and district. I understand that this means they want to reduce the liability of the tax department such as losses carried forward and over paid taxes (from withholding tax)

You should use this information to be prepared for their strategies…
good luck!

For more information, please contact NAT Phuket branch: 076 212 989 info@thaiaccounting.com www.thaiaccounting.com