Under Section 69 of the Revenue Code, a company or juristic partnership is required to file its corporate income tax return together with a balance sheet, income statement, income account, expenditure or gross income account (as the case may be) which has been certified by its auditors (collectively referred to as the “audited accounts”) within 150 days from the last day of an accounting period. 

Under Clause 7 of the Notification of the Director General of Revenue on Income Tax No. 127 (“NDG No. 127“) issued in 2003, the E-filing corporate taxpayer is required to maintain its audited accounts at its registered address (i.e. head office) for a period of not less than five years from the last day to file a tax return for the accounting period in question. That is, no electronic or physical filing of the audited accounts is required when a corporate taxpayer files its tax return through E-filing. 

However, on 17 May 2017, the Thai Revenue Department (“TRD”) issued NDG No. 296 which repealed Clause 7 of  the NDG No. 127 and replaced it with the following unofficial translated provision:

(New) Clause 7: “A corporate or juristic partnership who files a tax return under Clause 1 shall have to submit a  balance sheet, operating account,  profit and loss account, income account, expenses account or gross income account (as the case may be) for the above accounting period which is audited and certified by a person under Section 3 septem of the Revenue Code, within 150 days after the closing date of the accounting period to the Revenue Office located in the same area of the business operation as is required under Section 69 of the Revenue Code. In case the last day of the submission of audited accounts is a public holiday, it shall be submitted on the next working day.”

Based on the above, the E-fling corporate taxpayer is now required to physically submit its audited accounts to the Revenue Office located in the same area as the taxpayer’s registered address within 150 days after the closing date of the accounting period.

The effective date as indicated in NDG No.296 applies to any E-filing corporate  taxpayer where the last day for submission of its audited accounts is on or after 25 February 2016.

In other words, an E-filing corporate taxpayer with an accounting period ending on or after 28 September 2015 must file its audited accounts physically at the Revenue Office. However, since 25 February 2016 already passed, the TRD has issued a further notification to extend the physical filing and submission of audited accounts required during the period 25 February 2016 to 30 October 2017, to 31 October 2017 without imposing a penalty.  

Failing to submit the audited accounts or late submission thereof will be subject to a non-compliance fine of up to THB 2,000 under Section 35 of the Revenue Code.

There is a discrepancy in the timing of submission of the corporate income tax return and audited accounts for E-filing corporate taxpayers where the further extension has been granted. For example, for the year ended 31 December 2016, the deadline for the E-filing of a corporate income tax return is 7 June  2017 whereas the deadline for the submission of the audited accounts is 30 May 2017 , however, since this date falls into the period 25 February 2016 to 30 October 2017, the submission of the audited accounts is only required by 31 October 2017 without the imposition of any fines.