On August 31st, 2020, the Revenue Department announced the abolishment of its requirement for companies to submit physical copies of corporate documents. For all procedures taking place under the Revenue Code (and its related regulations) that require companies to submit their company affidavit, memorandum of association, or list of shareholders to the Revenue Department, companies no longer need to obtain physical copies of their corporate certificates from the Department of Business Development (DBD). Rather, Revenue Department officials will use a data link to the DBD’s database to obtain the relevant documents and information.
In recent years, Thailand has pursued regulatory development and the digitalization of government services in order to make doing business in the Kingdom more attractive; in particular, digitalization has accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Thailand’s regulatory processes are still highly paper-based, resulting in a heavy secretarial burden on businesses who wish to remain compliant. Such burdens will hopefully continue to be alleviated by further developments.
Notification of the Revenue Department
Regarding the use of corporate information of the Department of Business Development
In order to comply with the Revenue Code and other relevant laws under the authority of the Revenue Department when contacting the Revenue Department, which is pursuant to Article 17 of the National Council for Peace and Order No. 21/2560 regarding the amendment to the law to facilitate doing business dated 4 April 2017, there shall be a cancellation of the use of paper copies of juristic persons’ certificates in order to reduce burdens on juristic persons in the event that a company affidavit is required, as well as a copy of the corporate registration information, namely the memorandum of association and the list of shareholders, and ultimately, for the benefit of the performance of the agency, the Minister of the Revenue Department has therefore issued the order as follows:
For operations and actions pursuant to the Revenue Code and other relevant laws under the authority of the Revenue Department, including announcements, regulations, orders, regulations, requirements or guidelines of the Revenue Department, that require any person to use a company affidavit, memorandum of association, and a list of shareholders, Revenue Department officials must use the information generated from the linkage of corporate information of the Department of Business Development through the Internet, rather than using a method that requires paper-based copies of such documents to be obtained from the Department of Business Development.
Announced on 31 August 2020