National Tax Service Exports Korean Tax Administration Know-How to Thailand... Shares Global Minimum Tax Filing Support and IT System Development

"Korea-Thailand Tax Administration Support Hotline" to Be Established

Korea and Thailand shared Korea’s tax administration know-how, including the global minimum tax system, with Thailand through a working-level meeting between their respective National Tax Services. The Korean delegation also used the opportunity to communicate the tax-related challenges faced by Korean companies operating in Thailand.

According to the National Tax Service, officials visited the Thai Revenue Department on the 27th to share Korea’s experience with the enactment of the global minimum tax law and its reporting system, and conveyed the difficulties faced by Korean companies in Thailand regarding global minimum tax compliance and other local tax matters. The global minimum tax applies to multinational corporate groups with annual revenues exceeding 750 million euros and involves imposing additional taxes if the effective tax rate falls below the minimum threshold of 15 percent, taxing the shortfall.

Officials from the National Tax Service of Korea and Thailand held practical consultations in Thailand on the 27th. National Tax Service

An official from the National Tax Service explained, “This visit was made as Thailand will be implementing the global minimum tax for the first time next year (applicable from the 2025 fiscal year), so the Thai side sought to learn from our experience as the first country to handle such filings this year, and we discussed areas for future cooperation between the two countries.” The official further stated, “In advance, the National Tax Service gathered tax-related questions and issues faced by Korean companies in Thailand via the Korea-Thailand Chamber of Commerce, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and other channels. We delivered these issues to the Thai authorities and requested their cooperation to support the business operations of Korean companies from a tax perspective.”

Specifically, the Korean side presented cases where companies struggled due to prolonged delays in value-added tax refunds, as well as instances where corporate tax reduction benefits obtained at the time of investment in Thailand could be diminished by the introduction of the global minimum tax, and requested direct cooperation from the Thai authorities. In addition, Korea requested that Thailand promptly join the global minimum tax automatic information exchange agreement to alleviate taxpayer burdens. It was also decided to establish a “Korea-Thailand Tax Administration Support Hotline” to ensure that future local corporate concerns can be directly relayed to the Thai Revenue Department.

The Thai Revenue Department responded by expressing its commitment to thoroughly review the issues and requests raised by Korea and to actively cooperate to enable smooth tax filings and stable local operations for Korean companies.

In addition, the National Tax Service shared its experience implementing the global minimum tax system with the Thai Revenue Department. A National Tax Service official stated, “Korea was able to share this experience with Thailand because we took the lead in introducing the global minimum tax, and we prepared in stages, from building our IT system to supporting taxpayer filings and handling the first round of filings.” The official added, “In particular, we shared our experience in developing an XML conversion feature to create a taxpayer-friendly electronic system, and the Thai Revenue Department expressed strong interest in this.”

XML is a computer language that enables the consistent exchange and processing of information between different systems by representing data in a tagged structure. The global minimum tax return must be prepared and submitted in a standard XML format agreed upon by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for cross-border information exchange. Because this requirement is complex and difficult to use, it can be burdensome for taxpayers. To address this, the National Tax Service developed a separate screen on Hometax that allows direct data entry, enabling taxpayers to complete their filings by simply entering numbers without the need to submit XML files. This improvement ensures convenient reporting regardless of a company’s size or IT environment.

The National Tax Service official commented, “This cooperation is significant in that we have shared Korea’s pioneering experience in implementing the global minimum tax with the international community and established a regular collaborative framework between tax authorities and companies even after the system’s introduction. We will continue to proactively share Korea’s experience and expertise, strengthen collaboration between tax authorities, and strive to create a tax environment where our companies can focus on stable business operations overseas without concerns about tax-related uncertainties.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.