Thai Tax tips

Tax audit survival guide

Tax Ruling

Half year -corporate income tax(CIT)

Corporate Income Tax Preparation Checklist

Foreign business act on “Land trading”

Tax Planning with LTF and RMF

Withholding tax

None deductible expenses

Tax Planning strategies for Personal Income Tax

Rights of a tax payer

Tax audit survival guide

If you ‘ve got a surprise visit from the tax officer,do not be afraid since it is the current policy that they will send officer to knock every business door in order to understand your business and advise how to comply with the tax laws

Most of the questions will be regarding basic information of your business such as the date of your establishment,type of business,number of employee,VAT registration number(if any),your major income and expenses and the result of your business in previous year

Basically,following are documents they will ask from you

a) Receipt and copy of tax return you’ve filed

Withholding tax (PND. 1/3/54)

VAT ( pp.30)

b) Receiving and payment voucher ( 1-3 month)
c) Sales and purchase tax invoices
d) Bank statement

In an audit, you must convince the IRS that you reported all of your income and were entitled to all credits, deductions, and exemptions, below are some guideline how to prepare yourself ready for the audit

1. Don’t be hurry.
You don’t have to go on the exactly date of first appointment. Request more time whenever you need it, to get your records in order .

2. Place for audit.
Let the tax auditor audit your documents at their office rather than yours

3.Estimate the risk.
Please note that the tax auditor will not go back with nothing ,estimate the figure of tax risk you may take

4. Don’t talk too much
Give the auditor no more information than she asked, and don't talk too much during the audit than it is necessary. The adjustments she may make could be less damaging than if you had given her what she asked for.

5. Don't offer other years' returns.
Don't give copies of other years' tax returns to the auditor -- if you do and she sees something she doesn't like she will make adjustments in those years too. Don't bring to an audit any documents that do not concern to the year under audit or were not specifically requested by the audit notice.

6. Organize your records.
. Try to check and organize all records the auditor might ask for before the audit. Organization can impress an auditor that you ‘ve handle your books professionally

7. Negotiate.
Ask the tax auditor about the mistake she found and defend your position. Negotiate tax issues -- for example, whether a certain deduction should be allowed.

8. Study the laws
Read Tax Publication and Taxpayers' rights, prior to your audit. Research tax legal issues. If you are still unclear about the tax law or how to present your documents to an auditor, consult a tax pro before the audit.

9. Consult a tax pro.
If you face problem during an audit, don't try to handle it yourself,anytime an audit is not going well, you can as advise from your tax consultant. In addition, you can ask to speak to the auditor's manager if you think the auditor is treating you unfairly.

10. Appeal the result.
When you get the examination report, call the auditor if you don't understand or agree with it. Meet with her or her manager to see if you can reach a compromise. If you disagree with the audit final result, you may appeal or go on to Tax Court.

By:Sirirat C.
Sirirat@thaiaccounting.com

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Tax Ruling

Doing business is quite hard but doing business that comply to the tax laws is much harder as the tax laws itself is not so easy to understand even if we try to read them carefully so that we will do the right way and get no pain in the future .

If you are the one that feel uncomfortable with reading the tax laws,don’t feel bad since it is not only you but everyone in this world is the same

Beside reading the tax laws, I would like to recommend for reading the tax ruling instead. Tax ruling is the written letter issue officially from the Revenue department in reply to the tax payer who ask for advise or confirmation about their tax procedure .

I always use tax ruling as a tool to study the tax laws and apply to our business , when I have some tax questions in doing business, I will search for a number of tax rulings that has similar case with us and see how the are the answers from the Revenue department to the cases ,then I will follow the same way advised by the tax ruling and keep the ruling in my special tax file. When a time is come that we’ve been call an audit from the tax officer, mostly,at first sight,they will say we did something wrong and would have to pay tax and penalty,then, I will say ‘wait a moment, I ‘m afraid that I do nothing wrong since it is according to the tax ruling’ and show them the ruling in my file,after that she will understand and say OK

There may be some case that you will need a ruling for your own business, I recommend that you go to the legal dept. of the Revenue office in your area and seek for advise on your case verbally, if the answer is benefitial for you ,then write an official letter by asking the same question to the Regional office who control your area, (For Phuket is Region 11 ,their office is in Surathani) When you submit,you will get a registration number that you can refer to for the follow up,it will take 6-12 months in order to get the reply,therefore,please seeks for ruling only if the case has high tax impact to your business .

You can get tax ruling(only Thai version available) regularly from the Revenue dept. by apply as the etaxinfo member at email : etaxinfo@rd.go.th

Below is a sample of tax ruling regarding VAT problem

The Partnership carried on the manufacturing and selling of car equipment and provided services in metal shaping and plastic fabrication. The Partnership wished to pay VAT and appointed one of its employees to be a representative in registering VAT on 1 May 2000. Due to the incompleteness of the attached documents required for registration of VAT, the Revenue Officer did not register VAT and the employee did not inform the Partnership. The Partnership understood that the VAT registration was completed and issued the output tax and filed Form Phor. Por. 30 from May 2000 with no intention of breaking the law since it did not know that it had no right to do so. Later on, the Revenue Officer informed that the Partnership had not yet registered for VAT. The Partnership filed Form Phor.Por.01 for VAT registration on 27 July 2000 by specifying that 1 May 2000 was the first date of its business and paid the penalty for late registration. The Revenue Region 6 allowed the VAT registration to take effect retroactively to 1 May 2000 since the Partnership had no intention of avoiding tax and it was a mere misunderstanding of the Partnership.

Decision

Although the Partnership was not a VAT registrant during May to July 2000 and issued VAT invoices and filed the tax return Form Phor. Por. 30 by mistake, it misunderstood the facts and had no intention of avoiding VAT payment. Therefore, the Partnership was allowed to be a VAT registrant retroactively from 1 May 2000 (Section 85 paragraph 4 of the Revenue Code).

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Half year -corporate income tax(CIT)

Any Thai company subject to CIT is required to file half year tax by estimate its annual net profit as well as its tax liability and pay half of the estimated tax amount within two months after the end of the first six months of its accounting period. Therefore the company who have accounting year as calendar year(Jan.-Dec.) will have to file its semi annual income tax return and pay tax(if any) within the end of August.

The prepaid tax can be used as tax credit against its annual tax liability.

Surcharge:

As the half year tax is filing base on estimated annual profit ,there will be surcharge of 20% of the tax underpaid if the estimated profit is more than 25 % lower than the final profit

For example, our estimated the whole year profit is 100,000 ,then we file and pay halfyear profit 50,000 and pay tax 30% =15,000

but at the end of year ,we found that our actual profit is 150,000,which is 50,000 more than our estimation ,means the estimated is lower than actual =33.33% ((50000/150000)*100)

As many companies complained to the tax dept. about paying surcharge if our estimation was wrong,then they issue one announcement called Paw.50/2537 in order to help solving the problems ,this laws said if the company paying the halfyear tax not less than 50% of the CIT paid in previous accounting period there will be no surcharge even if the tax at the end of year is higher than estimation more than 25%

Now,you have your choices,paying tax base on your real estimation and take risk or play safe by paying half year tax not less than 50% of last year tax.

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Corporate Income Tax Preparation Checklist

Within the end of May , Thai companies who have fiscal year as calendar year have to file a corporate income tax return, use the following details tax preparation checklist to gather information for preparing your corporate income tax return.

I.Income

• Worldwide income

Thai company is subject to tax in Thailand on its worldwide income ,therefore we have to report all of the copany income no matter where it was borned

• Accrual basis

As we must use the accrual basis of accounting so that income earned during a year is taxed in the year earned, regardless of when it is received ,make sure that you have already included all the invoices you’ve bill your customers for the business activities within the tax year as your income

II.Gross profit margin

Be careful about your gross profit margin since the tax man always compare your rate with the industry rate they got in their hand and it will not acceptable if you tax return show that your gross profit is in minus position

III.Expenses

• Accrual basis

• Special deduction

- 200% deduction of Research and Development expense,
- 150% deduction of job training expense

• Investment expenses

Buying fixed assets such as computer,printer &etc. can not be one time expenses off but you have to depreciate over the period, provided that in no case shall the deduction exceed the percentage of cost as mentioned by the tax laws

IV. Non deductible expenses
There are some expenses that are non deductible and should be added back as income in your tax return

• Donations that exceed 2% of net profits;
• Entertainment expenses that exceed 0.3% of gross receipt or exceeding 10 million Baht
• Private expenses
• Expenses that do not have official receipt
• Corporate income tax

V. Net losses carried forward from the last five accounting periods
We can use net losses c/f from the last 5 years to offset with the current year profit

VI. Tax credit
If you have been withheld tax by the customers when paying for services fee to you during the year,you can use them as a tax credit provided that you keep all of the withholding tax certificates in your hand

VII.Semi annul tax tax prepayment (Form CIT 51)
Check how you have estimated your annual profit and tax in the semi annual tax return and compare with the actual annual profit since if the profit is bigger than 25% of what you’ve file, you have to pay 20 % penalty of the different tax or if you think you have any reason to explain ,attached your written explaination together with the year end tax return but please keep in mind that it is in the rare case that they will agree and give up the penalty

VIII. Tax rate
The normal tax rate is 30% but there are reduced corporate income tax rate for Thai company with paid-up capital of 5 million Baht and below. These companies are subject to a CIT rate of 15% on net profit up to 1 million Baht and 25% on net profit over 1 million Baht up to 3 million Baht. Profit exceeding 3 million Baht is subject to CIT ordinary rate of 30%.

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Foreign business act on “Land trading”

During these few weeks,many “Farung” ask me if I heard about the new regulation of land department concerning land transfer to Thai company who use Thai nominees as there have been several new articles in the local papers about limited companies being illegal and reported that the land office has stopped transfering land until they get clarification,most of the questions are “If the land transfer was illegal then shouldn't it be considered void “

Please note that I’m not a lawyer,I prefer not to make any comment but as many of you said you try to do correctly but you don’t know what are the laws,therefore,I will try to explain”what the laws said” from a study of a none-lawyer one.

Before that,you should know that this is not the new laws but it has been written in the “Foreign Business Act “since 1999

The point is Foreigner buy property by using Thai company

According to the Foreign Business Act , foreigner is prohibit from doing business in schedule # 1:

Laws:Section 8. Subject to Section 6, Section7, Section 10 and Section 12

(1) Foreigners shall be prohibited from operating the business not permitted to them with special reasons as described in List One

and one of the items in list # 1 is (9) Land trading.

Therefore,foreigner can not buy land but there’s nothing in the laws said you can not buy house

Now,under Section 4. of Foreign Business Act B.E.2542(1999)

"Foreigner" means
(1) Natural person not of Thai nationality.

(2) Juristic person not registered in Thailand.

(3) Juristic person registered in Thailand having the following characteristics.
(a) Having half or more of the juristic person's capital shares held by persons under (1) or (2) or a juristic person having the persons under (1) or (2) investing with a value of half or more of the total capital of the juristic parson.

(b) Limited partnership or registered ordinary partnership having the person under (1) as the managing partner or manager.

(4) Juristic person registered in Thailand having half or more of its capital shares held by the person under (1), (2) or (3), or a juristic person having the persons under (1), (2) or (3) investing with the value of half or more of its total capital.

For the purpose of the definition, the shares of a limited company represented by share certificates that are issued to bearers shall be deemed as the shares of foreigners unless otherwise provided by ministerial regulations.

How about punishment?

Section 36. Any Thai national or juristic person that is not a foreigner under this Act, aiding or abetting or taking part in the business operation of the foreigners whose business falls under the Lists attached hereto and the foreigners are not permitted to operate the business or taking part in the business operation of the foreigner by showing that he or it is the sole owner of the business or holding shares on behalf of the foreigners in any partnership or limited company or juristic person in order for the foreigners to operate the business in avoidance of or violation to the provisions of this Act, including the foreigners allowing Thai nationals or juristic persons that are not foreigners under this Act to do so, shall be punished with an imprisonment of not exceeding three years or a fine from 100,000 Baht to 1,000,000 Baht or both, and the Court shall order a stoppage of the aiding or abetting or order a stoppage of the joint business operation or order a stoppage of share holding or a cessation of the partnership as the case may be. Violators of the Court's order shall be subject to a punishment with a fine of 10,000 Baht to 50,000 Baht per day throughout the period of violation.

Section 37. Any foreigner who operates a business in violation of Sections 6, Sections 7, and Sections 8 shall be punishable with an imprisonment of not exceeding three years or a fine from 100,000 Baht to 1,000,000 Baht or both and the Court shall order a stoppage of the business operation or the dissolution of the business or order a cessation of the shareholding or partnership as the case may be. Violator of the Court's order shall be subject to punishment with a fine of 10,000 Baht to 50,000 Baht per day throughout the period of violation.

And what the land code said if “Alien” acquire the land unlawfully?

Section 94 of the Land Code; 'All the land which an alien has acquired unlawfully or without permission shall be disposed of by such alien within the time limit prescribed by the Director-General which shall not be less than one hundred eighty days nor more than one year. If the land is not disposed of within the time prescribed the Director-General shall have the power to dispose of it. The provisions on the forced sale of land in chapter 3 shall apply mutatis mutandis'.

Then also section 96; 'When it appears that any person (including a juristic person) has acquired land as the owner in place of an alien or juristic person under the provisions of Section 97 and 98, the Director-General shall have the authority to dispose of such land and the provisions of Section 94 shall apply mutatis mutandis'. Not only could the limited company be deemed alien, also could the limited company be seen as person 'in the place of the alien'.

Now I think everyone know the laws, my only comment is that if you feel you did something wrong or not sure if you did something wrong,please urgently seeks good advise from a professional lawyer .Good Luck!

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Tax Planning with LTF and RMF

As the year end is coming, today I would like to introduce you the RMF and LTF which are the recent tax allowance .You have time until December 2005 to invest in both fund to help reduce your personal income tax .

RMF

RMF stand for Retirement Mutual Fund, This special fund allows tax benefits for investors by investment in RMF is exempted from personal income tax according to the actual amount being invested up to 15% of annual income in a year and when counting together with the amount being invested in provident fund or Government Pension Fund does not exceed 300,000 Baht in such a year. On conditions that the units can be redeemed when the five-year period is over and unit-holders reach age 55.

LTF

LTF stand for Long Term Equity Fund, it was designed to help promote long-term savings, it is another new investment tools for investors' tax privilege. Investment in LTF is an additional tax exemption apart from RMF and provident fund. LTF's investors will receive an income tax concession on the amount of the contribution to the fund. The contribution may not exceed 15% of total annual income, with a maximum of 300,000 baht each year. Capital gains from the redemption of the units will also be exempt from tax. Simply just hold the investment units for at least five consecutive years (If investors put money in the LTF by the end of the first year, the units can be sold back to the LTF in the fifth year of holding. That means the real holding period is just three years plus a few more days). Whether investors will put additional money in every year is also not an issue to make investors lose their tax exemption rights.

The differences between a RMF and a LTF

HOW DO RMF& LTF HELP YOU LOWER YOUR TAX BILLS?

Example
Mr. A is an employee of a private company. He earns a monthly salary of Baht25,000 and contributes five per cent of his monthly salary to the employees provident fund. He also earns a bonus of Baht200,000 at the end of the year. Based on the above information, the calculation of personal income tax that A has to pay is as follows:

Net income is taxed at the following rates in each taxable income bracket:

Investment in the RMF, which is eligible for personal income tax deductions, enables Mr. A to trim his tax bills of Baht29,500. If Mr. A takes advantage of two tax-saving vehicles by putting money in both the RMF and the LTF, he then can claim more reduction in personal income tax. Altogether, both funds can save Mr. A up to Baht15,000. Details are as follows:

FYI,Foreigners who live in Thailand for more than 180 days in any calendar year and earn income here are eligible for using above mentioned allowance in calculation of their personal income tax

You can ask more information how to invest in RMF & LTF from almost every bank and financial institution,I believe they are willing to explain to you.

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Withholding tax

Today, I would like to share with you some knowledge about withholding tax as I’ve found that many juristic person which registered as company or Limited part In Koh Samui are likely to know that they have the duty by the laws to withhold tax from their suppliers when paying for certain kinds of services and submit to the Revenue Department, more over, if that juristic person forget to withhold the tax,they have to pay the tax by themselves plus penalty and interest 1.5% per month calculate from the tax amount from the date they suppose to submit.Penalty itself is not so much,just fews hundred baht but interest 18% per year can make create a hugh burden to you

. Therefore,I would like to remind you that as the company or Limited partnership,any time that you are going to pay for any kind of services to your supplier no matter they are corporation or individual,you have to check with the withholding tax table according to the laws if how many % you have to withhold from you supplier when they get paid.The rate are varied from 1% to 5 %,depending on which type of services you will pay,below I will give some sample of some type of services that you usually pay but if you need the full table of withholding tax you can email me at sirirat@thaiaccounting.com,we have both Thai and English version to give you at no cost.

For example,if you are going to pay for construction services at Bht.100,you have to withhold Bht.3 and issue withholding tax certificate give to your supplier which he can use this 3 Bht as tax credit on paying annual income tax

And within the 7th of the following month,you have to submit this Bht.3 to the Revenue dept. by using report PND.3 if your supplier is individual or report PND.53 if he is under a corporation. You may wonder how come the tax officer will know that you forget to withhold? Actually,it is very easy to check,just reconcile between your Services expense account in your accounting book and the tax form(PND.3 and PND.53) you’ve been submitted during the audit year

I hope that you will have better understand about your duty as the limited part or corporation on withholding tax matters when paying for certain kinds of services and get no pain in paying future risk of tax,penalty and interest.

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None deductible expenses

As taxes are painful part of every business owner's life but there are ways to reduceyour company's tax burden if you know how to use business-expense tax deductions and how to avoid none deductible expenses .

As business owner,we know that we owe taxes only on net profit — that is, after subtract the deductions from all revenues. As a result, knowing how to take full advantage of your deductible business expenses and avoid none deductible expenses can dramatically lower your taxable profits

The only problem is that how to avoid none deductible expenses? Since you may learn by yourself that under Thai laws,all revenue are welcome but not all the expenses are acceptable ,some of them are none deductible .

To plan your tax, there are some famous items that are always found by the Revenue officer as none deductible expenses that you need to know and try to avoid,they are the items that explained below:

1. Any private expense,gift or charitable donation except a sum donated for public charity/Education/Athletics,deduction may be made not exceeding 2% of net profit Note:
• Any private expenses such as buying washing machine to use at home , are not allow to be deducted as corporate expenses,
• Donation can be accept only if donate to the organization that get approval from The Revenue dept. but not more than 2% of net profit,means if your business result is in Loss situation, all of your donation expenses are none deductible,if you do nate T-shirt to a foundation but you put you company logo on it,rather than booking as “Donation”,why don’t you book as “Marketing expenses” which will not be limit by the laws?

2. The portion of entertainment which is inconsistent with the rule
Rule:
Entertainment expenses up to 0.3% of gross receipt but not exceeding 10 million Baht
Note: Remember,the entertainment expense that more than 0.3% of Gross revenue are none deductible but remember sometime you go to a restaurant to have internal meeting with your staff,this kind of expenses can be booked as Conference expenses rather than entertainment expenses and there are no limit for conference expenses.

3. Any artificial expenses or expenses of other accounting period
Note:Expenses that you put in to your book but has never been paid are also none deductible as well as the expenses that for the activity occurred in other accounting period are not accept too

4. Any disbursement if the identity of recipient can not be proved
Note: You may have some experience that sometime the evidents you got from paying for expenses for operating your business has been rejected from your accountant because they were “Incompleted receipt” therefore,your tax expenses is lower than actual expenses ,means you tax profit is higher than actual profit and you have to pay more .

The reason why “incomplete receipt” is not acceptable came from above reason that you can not prove the recipient,in order to avoide this problem,you have to remember that if you have evident that can be able to trace back to the recipient,those kinds of expenses will be accept,therefore ,keep in mind that everytime that you spend your money for your business one of the following evidents is needed in order to prove recipient
a) Completed Receipt
Consist of Name & address of supplier,Tax I.D.#, description of goods, and Signature of receiver
b) Your own payment voucher that consist of the same item as a)
c) A copy of I.D. card that sign by your supplier as the receiver
d) A copy of A/C payee only cheque that you’ve paid to your supplier
e) A copy of pay-in slip if you have made wire transfer to your supplier

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Tax Planning strategies for Personal Income Tax

1. Income splitting
2. Income shifting
3. Maximize your deduction

The strategy you use may be one of them or combination of them, of course, depend on your personal circumstances and financial goals. Ready to get started? Study the information below to help you generate tax savings this year, as well as information on longer-term strategies.

I. Income splitting
The more you earn, the more tax you pay. Income splitting is a tax planning technique designed to shift income from a high rate taxpayer to a lower rate taxpayer such as a relatives or partnerships

The rate of tax you pay on the last dollar you earn is known as your marginal tax rate (your tax bracket). It's an important concept because it tells you how much you would save by reducing your taxable income. For instance, if your marginal tax rate is 20% and you are able to split income to your relatives so that your income and your relative will have marginal tax rate at 5-10% in stead you would save some more tax.

II Income shifting
As under Thai laws, personal income tax is based on Cash basis ,the concept is simple: Income you don't receive until after midnight on New Year's Eve isn't taxed until the following year. Even if you'll be in the same tax bracket, you win by putting off the tax bill by an entire year.

It is difficult for “salary man” to postpone wage and salary income since you can't ask your employer to hang on to your December paycheck until January but if you are self-employed or do free-lance or consulting work in addition to a job, you have more way. If you are pressing for payment on an overdue account, if it's unlikely you have anything to lose by holding off on collections, doing so can push some taxable income into the following year.

III Maximize your deduction and allowance
Certain deductions and allowances are allowed in the calculation of the taxable income. Taxpayers shall make deductions from assessable income before the allowances are granted. Therefore, taxable income is calculated by:

TAXABLE INCOME = assessable income - deductions - allowances

Taxable income is another key element in your overall tax situation.
Taxable income is what's left over after you have reduced your gross income by your deductions and allowances. Almost everyone can take a standard deduction, and some people are able to itemize their deductions. Make sure that you have maximized the deductions and allowances the laws open to you and if you are allowed to use the itemize deduction, keep track of your itemized expenses throughout the year using a spreadsheet or personal finance program. You can then quickly compare your itemized expenses with your standard deduction. You should always take the higher of your standard deduction or your itemized deduction.
Below are the interesting tax allowances that I would like you to study(especially RMF <F) and try to get them as much as you can.

1. Life insurance premium
   paid by taxpayer or spouse :Amount actually paid but not exceeding 50,000 Baht each
   
2. Approved provident fund contributions(RMF)
   Maximum allowance (exemption) of 300,000 Bath, but not exceeding 15% of income
3. Long term equity fund(LTF) :
   Maximum allowance (exemption) of 300,000 Bath, but not exceeding 15% of income
4. Home mortgage interest
   Amount actually paid but not exceeding 50,000 Baht

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Rights of a tax payer

As a foreigner doing business in Thailand, you may know that you have the duties to register tax I.D.,file tax returns , pay for the tax in time , make good co-operation with the tax officers when you are called or visit by them for a tax audit ,more over ,you have to pay tax as assessed by the tax officers on time. Should a taxpayer fail to pay a complete sum, the assessment officer has the right to seize, attach and sell that asset by auction even without a court decision. Cash raised from the transaction will be used to pay off tax arrears.

Beside those duties, have you ever had a question of what are your rights as the tax payer ,certainly,not only that you have the duties but also you too, have the rights under the laws that you can ask for if you wish and I think it is a good idea to let you know your rights as mentioned below which I’ve got this information from the website of the Revenue department(www.rd.go.th) and would like to share with you,I also have some additional comments on some items that I feel may useful for you.

1. Tax installment payment

- For personal income tax, a taxpayer can pay any tax amount which exceeds 3000 baht in up to three installments without paying fines or surcharges.
- A taxpayer can file a request for an installment payment of tax arrears. However, such payment must meet the requirements set by the Revenue Department

Comment : Beside personal income tax,basically,the tax officer also use the same rule for other kinds of tax

2. Appeal in dispute of tax assessment
In the case where a taxpayer disagrees with the assessment made by the assessment officer, he has the right to appeal to the Commission of Appeals (in the form P.S.6) within 30 days starting from the day which an assessment notice has been received.

Should a taxpayer disagree with the ruling of the Commission of Appeals, he has the right to appeal within 30 days starting from the day the ruling of the Commission of Appeals has been received. Should he fail to appeal within 30 days, he no longer has the right to appeal and must pay the whole amount of tax, fine and surcharge.

3. Deferral of tax payment by using collateral for tax arrears
The right to appeal is not a deferral of tax payment.
A taxpayer who receives a tax assessment notice must pay tax on time as stated in the assessment notice. However, should he wish to wait for the hearing or decision of the Commission of Appeals, he has the right to defer tax payment by providing various securities as collateral in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Revenue Department.
Comment :You have the right to wait until getting the result of your appeal but remember that if the result is not what you want,you have to pay for interest 1.5% per month for the delay of payment on tax and penalty

4. Application for exemption or reduction of fine and surcharge
A taxpayer has the duty to file his tax return and pay proper taxes on time. Should he fail to do so, he will be subject to fine and surcharge on top of the tax due. However, on some special grounds he may request for exemption or reduction of fine. A tax officer does not have the power under any law to exempt or reduce surcharge. Only in the case where the Director-General grants an extension of the time period of tax payment or remittance and such tax has been paid or remitted within the extended time period, then the surcharge may be reduced to 50% thereof. Comment:Generally,the district tax office can give up to 50% reduction for the fine but you have to request for the reduction in written manner ,within the request letter there are some sentences that is a must that you should have in your letter in order to get reduction

1. Your policy is to comply to the laws
2. The mistake you have made is not an intentional but due to lack of understanding of the laws
3. You have provide good co-operation and assist the tax officers in acquiring additional documents or information during the audit period

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