One of the fiscal measures aimed at assisting those affected by the outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) is the tax-related measures <\/span><\/h2>

The main objective is to ensure that citizens and businesses have “more money in their pockets”<\/span> for spending and to help circulate the economy in another way.

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The Director-General of the Revenue Department, Ekniti Nitithanprapas<\/span>, stated that the first and second sets of measures from the Revenue Department are designed to assist those impacted by COVID-19, aiming to reduce the burden and enhance liquidity for these groups. It is estimated that both sets of measures will help citizens and businesses maintain liquidity of no less than 287 billion baht.<\/span> This money will circulate within the economic system. Notably, the measure that provides the most liquidity for businesses is the extension of the deadline for corporate income tax filing for two rounds: the previous year's income deadline is extended to the end of August, and the current half-year income deadline is extended to the end of September. This will help corporate entities achieve liquidity of up to 150 billion baht.

Another measure that will significantly assist businesses and the general public is the reduction of withholding tax from 3% to 1.5% from April to September, and from September to December, it will be at a rate of 2%. This is expected to provide liquidity of approximately 86 billion baht, starting from April 1.

For businesses utilizing soft loans from financial institutions, they can deduct interest payments for tax purposes up to 1.5 times. For those who do not lay off employees, they can deduct expenses up to 3 times. However, this situation cannot yet be quantified as it is unclear which businesses will maintain employment levels.<\/span> Currently, many businesses are beginning to shut down, such as hotels, among others.

For individual taxpayers, the deadline for income tax payments has been extended. The first set of measures has extended the deadline from the end of March to the end of June, while the second set of measures has been extended due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, now until the end of August. This measure will help individual taxpayers retain approximately 21 billion baht during this period.

At the same time, for individuals expected to receive tax refunds, the department has a policy to expedite tax refunds to within 3 days once all documentation is complete. So far, the department has refunded over 25 billion baht, or 87% of the total refund requests exceeding 30 billion baht.

Another measure to assist debtors and creditors in restructuring debt is that for debtors, the reduced debt burden will not be counted as income for tax purposes. For creditors, bad debts adjusted for debtors can be immediately recognized as tax-deductible expenses. Additionally, the valuation of assets for sale will be exempt from value-added tax and specific business tax. All these measures are expected to result in a loss of revenue for the department or allow citizens and businesses to retain approximately 2.4 billion baht in their pockets.

SOURCE : www.bangkokbiznews.com<\/a><\/p>