More than 100 property developers and contractors are set to undergo investigations following their alleged use of suspected forged tax invoices to decrease the amount of tax they were set to pay.
This follows the arrest of two unrelated gangs by the The Royal Thai Police and the Revenue Development for allegedly selling the fax documents, Prasong Poontaneat, the Director General of the Revenue Department told reporters.
He added that some developers had allegedly purchased false tax invoices with the aim of overstating their expenses in order to pay less tax than those abiding by the law and using only real invoices.
During the last 10 years legal action has been taken against users of more than 1,000 fake invoices, with some users sentenced to time in jail.
According to Thailand’s Tax Revenue Code, anyone found guilty of understating the amount of tax to be paid could be liable to a fine equal to twice the value of fake invoices. Prison sentences of three months to seven years and fines of between THB2,000 and THB200,000 can also be issued along with a maximum of a 20-year prison term.
Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri, Assistant National Police Chief, added that developers using fake tax invoices were taking advantage of their industry peers and damaging the economy. He also said that developers submitting false tax invoices could offer higher discounts to homebuyers than their rivals in the same area.
The value of the alleged fake tax invoices has been reported to be worth as much as THB3 billion, however unused invoices also found could have escalated the potential loss to as much as THB10 billion.
