Thailand’s Board of Investment (“BOI”) has resolved to enhance merit-based incentives to boost industrial competitiveness. In March 2020, the BOI announced investment promotion measures for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which included merit-based incentives. Applications can be submitted until the last business day of 2021.
Currently, there are seven investment areas that benefit from merit-based incentives:
Table 1. Additional CIT exemptions.
The additional CIT exemption is up to 3 years.
Notably, any BOI-promoted project investing in Research and Development is entitled to receive merit-based incentives for additional R&D investments.
Table 2. New tax incentives depending on the investment amount.
An additional CIT exemption of up to 5 years with no CIT exemption ceiling is also available. The total CIT exemption period must not exceed 13 years.
Table 3. CIT exemption periods per activity group for merit on competitiveness enhancement.
Applicants can apply for one or multiple types of merit-based incentives in accordance with these criteria:
✓ Project entitled to CIT exemption (A1-A4):
☐ Submission of Competitiveness Enhancement Application form (F PA PP 37), with general application for (FP PA PP 01)
☐ The Competitiveness Enhancement Application form can be submitted later but both time period and capital investment of the promoted project should be met for CIT exemption under Section 31
✓ In case the project is not entitled to CIT exemption (B1-B2):
☐ Submission of Competitiveness Enhancement Application form (F PA PP 37), with general application form
☐ The Competitiveness Enhancement Application form cannot be submitted later