But it is Sunday today so let’s take a break.

I’m not an expert in Thai tax laws, but would there have been any tax payable if AmpleRich sold direct to Temasek?
Was there a scheme to avoid tax?

And I suppose you see nothing wrong with the use of a British Virgin Islands company by the Thaksin family?
Sets a good example doesn’t he.

The fact that he insisted on overpaying is quite puzzling. But the Revenue Department’s willingness to accept an overpayment is not.

I think it would be better for the military to focus on Thaksin’s alleged misdeeds during the Drug War or his alleged vandalism of the Erawan Shrine. If proven, those allegations could destroy his reputation forever. If the military focuses too much on the capital gains tax issue, other investors will start wondering whether their capital gains will be taxed along with the Shinawatras’. And if people start withdrawing their investments in the stock market, that will be very bad for the economy.

“Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?”

It seems Revenue Officials rewrote tax precedents conveniently to allow Thaksin to evade tax and we do remember the ‘Ruangkrai saga’ Patiwat, right?

(To refresh your memory, Ruangkrai Leekitwattana is suing the Revenue Department for NOT accepting the return of his tax refund. Having purchased some shares at below-par prices from his father, he was originally taxed. However, after threatening to make a big political issue out of it by citing similarities between his share transfer and those between Thaksin and his children, the department refunded his payment. Claiming the department was guided by political motives and wanted to justify its decision not to tax the Shinawatras, Ruangkrai returned the refund cheque. The department, in turn, claimed that he had a political motive and refused to take back the Bt20,000 cheque.)

The tax evasion is so blatant and obvious surely Patiwat you should be able to see why they want to retrace every Shin/AIS share transfer transaction during the past 10 years to see if the AmpleRich shenanigan above was repeatedly employed by the Shinawatras. It now also appears that income taxes were suspected of having been evaded too on the dividends earned by the Shinwatras or their nominee companies during the past many years.

Perhaps tax evasion charges would be the sin that will put the Shinawatras away. I was hoping Thaksin himself would be put away for MURDER charges for that senseless slaughter of 2,500 innocents during the Y2003 anti-drugs………..

Let me give you an example: If you buy 1,000 stock for 100 Baht, and sell them all for 150 Baht, that 500,000 Baht is profit. Technically, that profit is called a “capital gain.” Unlike in some countries, Thailand doesn’t charge a separate tax on the capital gain. This is a good thing – it incentivizes people to invest in the stock market.

But that capital gain is also part of your personal income (”phaasee ngern dai”). Personal income in Thailand is taxed with a maximum rate of 37%. Unlike salaries, stock market profit isn’t necessarily taxed immediately upon earning it (i.e., it isn’t withheld; “kep na thee jai”). You pay it at the end of the tax year, or in some cases at 6 month intervals.

That six month interval for the Shinawatra family ended about a week after the coup, at a time when the family was forced into exile abroad. Lets hope that they are allowed to return to Thailand to settle their income taxes.

There are a lot of valid reasons not to like the Shinawatras. But evasion of capital gains tax isn’t one of them.

The tax finagling of the 329 million shares transferred to the two Thaksin kids at Baht 1/share then resold 3 days later to Temasek at Baht 49/share, thru the stock exchange of Thailand, would not have passed ‘arms length’ measure of any sale transaction for purposes of tax determination. But surely by Thaksin’s Khmer voodoo black magic, billions of tax due on that particular 329 million share transfer transaction had been made to disappear.

Perhaps we too all should be worshipping Khmer voodoo talismans devotedly, like Thaksin, to help with our tax returns.

Take ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra who made a terrible mess of the Southern unrest situation (Thaksin provoked, by his ineptitude, a Muslim conflagration in this area and serial bombings that continue to this day) and directed the slaughter of thousands of village innocents in his much glamorized anti-ya ba Y2003 campaign.

If you ask me, on these two matters above, Thaksin may have been guided by Khmer talisman worship that so corrupted his soul he caused so much loss of Thai lives. But that is my personal theory only and you may disagree.

Patiwat maybe you should consult Thaksin or Newin on the subject matter . . if you are so bent on making your own personal worship of some talismans. Thaksin was not so lucky in his black magic or Khmer/Myanmar talisman worship . . but if you believe otherwise sure go ahead pal.