It was published on 9 July 2012 that the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister have immediately rejected a call from Thailand’s business sector for a tax exemption on dividends received from overseas investments.
The Thai Chamber of Commerce had urged the government to pass a law providing a tax break for Thai businessmen investing overseas that had been proposed by the previous government.
Currently companies whose investment is in holding companies in Singapore, Hong Kong or other lower tax countries, still have to pay corporate income tax of 23% (reducing to 20% next year), when those companies bring their profits back to Thailand in the form of dividends.
The Ministry of Finance will not provide the requested tax break because most of the large companies which have subsidiaries in foreign countries are already entitled to a corporate income tax exemption, while Thailand already grants a dividend tax exemption for registered subsidiaries in Thailand and allows a 50% dividend tax reduction for those subsidiaries whose headquarters are based in Thailand.
