Revenue Department pushes e-invoices

Entrepreneurs who use e-tax invoices or e-receipts will help reduce the cost of tax compliance by five times, says the Revenue Department.

"Entrepreneurs who issue paper-based tax invoices shoulder a total cost of around five baht per card," said director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas. "If they use the e-tax invoice system, the cost will be less than one baht per card."

Yesterday, the Revenue Department signed a memorandum of understanding with the Electronic Transactions Development Agency to establish standards and reliability for service providers of electronic tax invoice delivery to entrepreneurs.

The department assists with uploading tax invoices electronically, but establishing a partnership with a service provider will help encourage businesses to file e-tax invoices.

Mr Ekniti said using e-tax invoices and submitting e-tax filings will help to increase the private sector's competitiveness and to reduce the time wasted on tax invoice calculation and accounting.

When a business submits an e-tax invoice to the department, it will be immediately credited to the business account, he said.

The department plans to apply blockchain technology to tourists' value-added tax refunds initially.

The cost of managing paper-based tax invoices is partially shouldered by the Revenue Department because it has to upload these invoices into the system, Mr Ekniti said.

On April 30, the cabinet approved a double tax deduction to encourage entrepreneurs that either invest in the electronic system or pay a service fee to a service provider. The measure will expire in December.