Types Of Electronic Instrument Subject To Paying E-Stamp Duty In Cash

A law on electronic transactions has been enacted and effective in Thailand since 2002¹, for supporting civil and commercial transactions under the Electronic Transactions Act B.E. 2544 (2001) (“Act”). In terms of taxation, although the requirement for duty stamped by electronic payment² was amended to be included in the Act in 2008, the Revenue Department are still  unable to collect stamp duty on electronic instruments. This is because there is no tax law that clearly stipulates the rules and procedures to enforce a taxpayer to pay stamp duty on an electronic instrument. Section 3 sedecim of the Revenue Code was amended in 2019 to support electronic documents related to the Revenue Department. Subsequently, in 2020, the Notification of the Director-General of the Revenue Department on Stamp Duty (No. 58)³ was enacted to support the collection of stamp duty from the execution of an electronic instrument, namely: 1) hire of work; 2) loan of money or agreement for bank overdraft; 3) authorisation letter 4); proxy letter for voting at a meeting of the company; and 5) guarantee. In this regard, the person liable to duty must pay stamp duty from execution of the instrument in cash via electronic means, effective as of 1 July 2019.

Recently, the Notification of the Director-General of the Revenue Department on Stamp Duty (No. 58) was amended by the Notification of the Director-General of the Revenue Department on Stamp Duty (No. 63), by adding 18 more types of instruments that are subjected to payment of stamp duty in cash via electronic means. Consequently, there are a total of 23 types of electronic instruments, as follows:

• Rental of land, building, other construction or floating house;
• Transfer of share(s), debenture, bond and certificate of debt issued by any company, association, body of persons or organisation;
• Hire-purchase of property;
• Hire of work (already prescribed in the Notification No.58);
• Loan of money or agreement of bank overdraft (already prescribed in the Notification No.58);
• Insurance policy;
• Authorisation Letter (already prescribed in the Notification No.58);
• Proxy letter for voting at a meeting of a company (already prescribed in the Notification No.58);
• Bill of exchange or similar instrument used like a bill of exchange for each bill or instrument and promissory note, or a similar instrument used like a promissory note for each note or instrument;
• Bill of lading;
• Share or debenture certificate, certificate of debt issued by any company association, body of persons or organisation, and bond of any government sold in Thailand;
• Cheque or any written order used in lieu of a cheque for each instrument;
• Fixed deposit receipt of bank with interests;
• Letter of credit;
• Traveller’s cheque;
• Goods receipt;
• Guarantee (already prescribed in the Notification No.58);
• Pawnbroking;
• Warehouse receipt;
• Delivery order;
• Agency;
• Partnership contract; and
• Receipt only as specified in (c); receipt issued in connection with a sale, sale with right of redemption, hire-purchase or transfer of ownership in a vehicle, but only if the vehicle is registered under the law governing such vehicle.

The person liable to duty from the execution of an electronic instrument, according to the form for paying stamp duty in cash for electronic instruments (Or.Sor.9), can pay duty through the internet in the two following ways:

• 1) Via the website of the Revenue Department www.rd.go.th, by using a username and password obtained from registration for tax return filling on the website of the Revenue Department.
• 2) Via Application Programming Interface of the Revenue Department:
  • a) In the case where a person liable to pay stamp duty submits a duty payment by himself/herself, he/she can download the Application Programming Interface, and submit Phor.Or.01.2 at the Electronic Tax Administration Division. Thereafter, the stamp duty can be paid through the said application immediately after receiving the username and password.
  • b) In the case where a person liable to pay stamp duty authorises a service provider as an agent to submit duty payment on his/her behalf, the person liable to pay stamp duty has to prove and verify the identity of the service provider in accordance with the method specified by the service provider.

However, in order to facilitate a person liable to duty in the early stage of law enforcement, the Revenue Department allows a person who has executed an electronic instrument from 1 July 2019 to 31 December 2021 to pay stamp duty in cash at the Regional Revenue Office, by submitting Or.Sor.4 Form.

In regard to the due date to pay stamp duty and the method of payment, a person liable to duty shall submit an application to pay stamp duty in cash through the internet, and pay stamp duty before executing the instrument or within 15 days from the date of execution of the instrument, excluding public holidays. In a case where the last day to submit the application to pay stamp duty in cash is a public holiday, it can be submitted on the next working day. In such regard, the system has recently been improved to support the case of late payment of stamp duty by enabling the payment of a surcharge and criminal fine (if any)⁴. When the transaction is complete, the taxpayer can transfer money to the Revenue Department’s bank account via electronic payment.

When the payment for stamp duty, surcharge and/or criminal fine (if any)⁵ are fully transferred into the Revenue Department’s account, the Revenue Department will issue the taxpayer with a stamp duty certification code together with an electronically signed receipt of the official. Accordingly, it is considered that the electronic instrument (Or.Sor.09) has been correctly stamped.

If a person liable to duty does not correctly pay stamp duty or does not fully pay stamp duty within the specified period, such person will be subject to a fine in the following two cases:

• 1) If the taxpayer requests to pay the stamp duty  by themselves, the official shall charge a surcharge at 5 times.⁶
• 2) If the official finds out and informs the taxpayers to pay the stamp duty, the official shall charge a surcharge at six times⁷ (it shall be seven times when combined with duty payable).

In addition, any person liable to duty who does not pay the duty within the period prescribed by the Revenue Code shall be punished with a fine not exceeding Baht 500.⁸

Initially, stamp duty was categorised as a tax the Revenue Department collected in such a small amount, it was not worth investigating. However, nowadays, the process of checking can be carried out easily. In addition, the penalty for avoiding or neglecting to pay the duty within the specified period includes a large amount of fine. Therefore, taxpayers should ensure they pay stamp duty in a timely manner in order to prevent the inevitable damage from the fines that may occur in the future. 

• ¹ Electronic Transactions Act B.E. 2544 (2001)
• ² Section 8, paragraph 2 of the Electronic Transactions Act B.E. 2544 (2001), amended by the Electronic Transactions Act (No.2) B.E. 2551 (2008)
• ³ Electronic instrument means instrument according to the stamp duty schedule at the end of Chapter 6, Title 2 of the Revenue Code; in which the text is made in electronic form in accordance with the Electronic Transactions Act B.E. 2544 (2001).
• ⁴ The Notification of the Director-General of the Revenue Department on Stamp Duty (No. 58) has been further amended by the Notification of the Director-General of the Revenue Department on Stamp Duty (No. 63)
• ⁵ ibid
• ⁶ Section 113 of the Revenue Code
• ⁷ Section 114 of the Revenue Code
• ⁸ Section 124 of the Revenue Code