What the Tax ID is
The Tax ID is the number Revenue Department assigns to a taxpayer in Thailand. It follows you across every tax you deal with: VAT, income tax and withholding. Businesses that pay you will ask for it before they release payment, because they report their suppliers to Revenue Department by this number.
Who needs one
Most people and companies in Thailand never apply for a tax number, because they already have one. A Thai individual's taxpayer identification number is their 13-digit national ID number under the civil registration law. A company's or juristic partnership's taxpayer identification number is the 13-digit juristic person registration number issued by the Department of Business Development, shown on the certificate of incorporation. Both have been the TIN since 1 February 2012. The Revenue Department issues its own 13-digit TIN and taxpayer card only where neither number exists: foreign individuals, undivided estates, non-juristic ordinary partnerships and bodies of persons, foreign-incorporated companies, representative offices, joint ventures, state enterprises and other entities created by specific legislation, and government or local-authority income payers. A foreigner who is in Thailand for no more than 14 days at a time and no more than 90 days in a tax year does not need one at all. VAT registration is a separate step on top of the TIN.
How to register, step by step
- Check whether you already have a number. Thai individuals use the 13-digit number on their national ID card. Thai companies and juristic partnerships use the 13-digit DBD registration number on the certificate of incorporation. If you have one of those, it is your TIN — do not apply for another.
- If you have neither, apply to the Revenue Department within 60 days of first deriving assessable income (individuals and bodies of persons), within 60 days of incorporation or of starting business in Thailand (juristic persons), or within 60 days before the first payment (withholding payers): form L.P.10.1 for an individual, L.P.10.2 for a non-juristic ordinary partnership or body of persons, L.P.10.3 for a juristic person, L.P.10.4 for a payer of income.
- File the application at the Area Revenue Office or Area Revenue Branch Office for the place you are domiciled or where the head office is, with a copy of the passport or alien certificate or national ID card, the house registration book for the place of business, and the certificate of incorporation or the partnership agreement as applicable. The office issues the TIN and the taxpayer card.
- Register for VAT once turnover passes THB 1.8 million, or before you start trading if you want to register from the outset. File form ภ.พ.01 (PP.01) online at vsinter.rd.go.th or at the Area Revenue Office; the Revenue Department issues certificate ภ.พ.20 (PP.20), which you must display at every place of business.
- Open an e-Filing account at efiling.rd.go.th so you can file PND and PP returns online and take the 8-day extension. Notify the Revenue Department of any change to the VAT registration particulars within 15 days.
How to find or check a Tax ID
For a company or juristic partnership, look the number up in the Department of Business Development's DataWarehouse at https://datawarehouse.dbd.go.th/ — it returns the registered name, the 13-digit registration number and the filed financial data. For an individual there is no public lookup: the Revenue Department states plainly that there is no online platform on which taxpayers or the public can search for a TIN. Numbers the Revenue Department issued itself (those beginning 099) are also not searchable online. To check whether a supplier is VAT registered, ask for its ภ.พ.20 (PP.20) certificate, which carries the 13-digit number and the branch code. To check whether a supplier is in the electronic invoicing system, search the Revenue Department's published participant list at https://etax.rd.go.th/ETAXSEARCH/.