The rate
The standard rate in Thailand is 7%. Some goods and services carry reduced or zero rates and others are exempt. The difference matters: zero-rated sales still let you reclaim the tax on your purchases, exempt sales do not.
Who must register
THB 1.8 million of annual turnover. Royal Decree (No. 432) B.E. 2548, in force since 1 April 2005, fixes the small-business tax base exempt from VAT under s.81/1 of the Revenue Code at 'not more than one million eight hundred thousand baht per year'. The year is the calendar year for an individual or a non-juristic body of persons, and the accounting period for a company; in the first year it runs from the day trading starts. Once you cross it you must apply for VAT registration within 30 days of the day the threshold was exceeded (s.85/1). You may also register before you start trading (s.85), and a business under the threshold may opt in voluntarily by notifying the Director-General under s.81/3 and registering within 30 days of that notification. On the rate: the statutory rate in s.80 is 10 percent. The 7 percent everybody quotes is a reduced rate — 6.3 percent plus a local-government surcharge of one ninth — granted by royal decree and renewed yearly. Royal Decree (No. 799) B.E. 2568 covers 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026; Royal Decree (No. 807) B.E. 2569, listed by the Revenue Department on 24 August 2026, carries it from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027. Exports and certain international services are zero-rated. Some sectors are outside VAT and pay specific business tax instead.
Filing and paying
Registered and filed with Revenue Department.
The tax period is the calendar month, and a VAT registrant files form ภ.พ.30 (PP.30) for every month whether or not there were any sales (s.83). The statutory deadline is the 15th of the following month. File it electronically at efiling.rd.go.th and you get to the 23rd instead, under the Ministry of Finance internet-filing announcement — that extension currently runs for returns due up to 31 January 2027. Each place of business files separately unless the Director-General approves combined filing on form ภ.พ.02 (PP.02). Form ภ.พ.36 (PP.36) is different: it is the remittance form used when a Thai payer buys goods or services from a business outside Thailand that is not VAT registered here (s.83/6), when an auctioneer sells a registrant's property (s.83/5), or on a transfer of zero-rated goods or rights (s.83/7). PP.36 is due within 7 days from the end of the month of payment, extended to 15 days if filed electronically. Foreign electronic-service providers and foreign electronic platforms registered under the simplified VAT regime file form ภ.พ.30.9 (PP.30.9), which the Ministry of Finance has set at the 23rd of the following month.
Penalties for getting it wrong
Two separate charges, plus criminal fines. The penalty (เบี้ยปรับ) under s.89 of the Revenue Code: trading without registering when you should have, twice the tax due for each month of the default or THB 1,000, whichever is greater; failing to file a return or remittance return on time, twice the tax due for that month; filing an incorrect return that changes the tax, the amount of the shortfall; failing to issue a tax invoice, twice the tax shown on it; issuing a tax invoice without authority or using a false one, twice the tax on it; failing to keep a copy of a tax invoice, 2 percent of the tax on it. The Director-General may waive or reduce these. The surcharge (เงินเพิ่ม) under s.89/1: 1.5 percent per month or part month of the unpaid tax, excluding penalty, running from the day after the deadline to the day of payment, and capped at the amount of tax owed; it drops to 0.75 percent per month where the Director-General has approved an extension and you pay within it. Separately, s.90 imposes a fine of up to THB 2,000 for formal failures — not filing at all, not notifying a change in registration particulars, not notifying a change or temporary closure of a place of business, and issuing a tax invoice with incomplete required particulars.