Tax Penalty Relief in Thailand: Revenue Department Orders, July 2026

What Changed in Tax Penalty Relief in Thailand in July 2026?

The Director-General of the Revenue Department issued both orders on 2 July 2026 with the approval of the Minister of Finance. Order 369/2569 amends clauses 2, 3, 5, 14, 15 and 17 of Order 81/2542 and adds a new clause 5/1. Order 370/2569 replaces the delegation orders of 2002 and 2004.

The changes fall into three groups. First, the procedure for a relief request now ties any refund of a penalty or surcharge to the statutory refund period. Second, the VAT penalty rules now include a dedicated scale for late VAT registration. Third, the approval limits for regional and area offices have been raised, and new categories of good-faith VAT errors may be waived without a cap.

Which Penalties and Surcharges Do the Orders Cover?

The orders cover penalties (bia prab) on personal and corporate income tax, VAT and specific business tax, and the surcharge (ngern pherm) on mid-year corporate income tax. A penalty is a fixed multiple of the tax at stake. A surcharge is a percentage of the tax paid short or paid late.

The surcharge for late payment of VAT under Section 89/1, at 1.5% per month or part of a month, is a separate charge. The two orders do not set criteria for it.

When Can a Taxpayer Ask for Tax Penalty Relief in Thailand?

An assessment officer may waive or reduce a penalty only where the officer finds that the taxpayer had no intention to evade tax and cooperated in the audit. That condition appears in the amended clause 2 of Order 81/2542. It applies to every form of penalty relief under the order.

The written request

Under the amended clause 3, the taxpayer files a written request with the assessment officer and states the grounds. The request must be filed before the officer issues a notice of assessment. The Director-General may also grant relief without a request.

Refunds of penalties already paid

A taxpayer may also ask for a refund of a penalty already paid. However, the amended clause 3 limits such a claim to the period in which the taxpayer has the right to claim a tax refund. Once a notice of assessment has been received, the route is an appeal to the Board of Appeal instead.

A return that counts as a request

A VAT or specific business tax return filed and paid together, without a prior written warning or audit summons, is treated as the request itself. A “written warning or audit summons” means a case where the officer has found the offence and recorded it in a letter or memorandum.

VAT Penalty Rates Under Section 89

For a registered operator, the amended clause 5 sets the share of the VAT penalty that remains payable. The share depends on whether the operator corrected the position voluntarily and on how late the payment was. The scale applies to Section 89 (1) after revocation of registration, and to Section 89 (2), (3) and (4).

Filing after an offence has been recorded does not restore the voluntary scale. Under clause 5 (4), a return filed and paid before the notice of assessment is still treated as a detected offence.

Tax Penalty Relief in Thailand for Late VAT Registration

New clause 5/1 deals with a business that operated without VAT registration. Under Section 89 (1), the penalty for that offence is twice the tax for each tax month, or 1,000 baht per month if that is higher. Clause 5/1 gives an assessment officer two ways to relieve it.

1. Full waiver. The operator applies for VAT registration within 30 days from the day its taxable turnover exceeded the small-business threshold under Section 81/1. It then files the VAT return and pays the tax with the return.
2. Reduced penalty after a voluntary correction. The operator applied late, or never applied because it ceased business, but files and pays without a written warning. The penalty is reduced to 2%, 5%, 10% or 20%, on the same 15, 30 and 60-day steps as the table above.
3. Reduced penalty after detection. An officer found and recorded the offence before the correction. The operator pays 40% of the penalty, whatever the timing.

Surcharge on Mid-Year Corporate Income Tax

A company that understates its estimated net profit for the half-year return by more than 25% without reasonable cause pays a surcharge under Section 67 ter. The surcharge is 20% of the tax paid short. The amended clauses 14, 15 and 17 now govern relief from that surcharge.

The amended clauses speak only of reducing the surcharge. The company files a written request before the notice of assessment, and any refund claim falls within the tax refund period. A half-year return filed and paid without a written warning counts as the request. The officer may reduce the surcharge only where the company had no intent to evade tax and cooperated in the audit. Any reduction beyond the order needs the approval of the Director-General or his delegate.

Who Grants Tax Penalty Relief in Thailand?

Order 370/2569 lets the directors of the Central Tax Audit Division and the Large Business Tax Administration Division, the Regional Revenue Offices, the Area Revenue Offices and the branch offices grant relief within the Director-General’s criteria, with no limit on the penalty amount. Relief outside those criteria is capped by reference to the full statutory penalty.

Good-faith VAT errors

Clause 4 of Order 370/2569 lets an Area Revenue Office waive VAT penalties in full, with no cap, for listed errors. These include an individual who did not register because he believed the business was exempt or did not know about the threshold. They also include a business that filed Form Por.Por. 30 believing it was registered, and one that filed for specific business tax instead.

Clause 5 adds a waiver of up to THB 5 million, granted by the central divisions or a Regional Revenue Office. It covers input tax on a building later used for a non-VAT business within three years of completion, listed input tax and debit or credit note errors made within one year of VAT registration, and a duplicate return filed because the operator believed an online filing had failed. Requests filed before the order took effect continue under the order in force on the day of filing.

What the Orders Mean for Foreign-Owned Companies

The orders reward speed and disclosure over negotiation. Every reduced rate in the VAT scale turns on two facts that the taxpayer controls: whether the correction came before a written warning, and how many days had passed since the due date. A correction filed within 15 days leaves 2% of the penalty; one made after a recorded audit finding leaves 40% or 50%.

For a foreign-owned company, the practical point is internal reporting. A subsidiary that crosses the VAT threshold, or finds a filing error, should be able to escalate the issue within days. Regional finance teams outside Thailand should also know that a refund of a penalty is subject to the refund period.

Frequently Asked Questions

Managing Tax Penalty Relief in Thailand

Tax penalty relief in Thailand now follows clearer steps: act before a written warning, file and pay together, and claim any refund within the refund period. Orders Tor.Por. 369/2569 and 370/2569 also widen the waivers available for good-faith VAT errors. For related VAT rules, see our guides to input VAT in Thailand and VAT on electronic services. Our accounting and tax team supports companies on filings and relief requests. The consolidated text of Order 81/2542 is published by the Revenue Department.