Postponement of Financial Transaction Tax for Sale of Listed Shares.

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In early 2022, the Ministry of Finance revealed that personal income tax on gains derived from the sale of listed shares through the Thai stock exchange may no longer be exempt. Due to certain concerns and negative impacts in the Thai capital market, an implementation of capital gains tax on individual investors is not ready and, therefore, it is lifted. Yet, according to the Ministry of Finance, the financial transaction tax on the sale of shares in the stock market is brought into consideration instead.

Conceptually, the financial transaction tax is part of specific business tax which is intended to impose additional tax on certain businesses e.g. commercial banking business, any business similar to commercial banking business or sale of immovable property business, including sale of securities listed in the stock exchange of Thailand. So, under the Revenue Code, gross revenue derived from the sale of shares in the Stock Exchange of Thailand is supposed to be subject to specific business tax at the rate of 0.1% regardless of whether or not there is any gain derived from the sale. However, the law provides an exemption of specific business tax imposed on the sale of securities (including shares) in the Thai Stock Exchange for more than 30 years.

According to the Ministry of Finance, it was proposed that the financial transaction tax or so-called specific business tax should be imposed at the rate of 0.1% if the sale revenue transaction reaches THB 1 million or more.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance finally concluded that the financial transaction tax or so-called specific business tax on the gross revenue derived from sale of securities listed in the Thai Stock Exchange is now postponed. Hence, the gains derived from the sale of securities in the Thai Stock Exchange is still exempt from personal income tax and specific business tax.

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