You can claim input VAT in Thailand only if you hold a valid full tax invoice in the company’s own name for a purchase used in a taxable business. The tax is normally claimed in the month of the invoice or within the following six months, and certain costs, such as entertainment, are barred even with an invoice.
In a VAT system the tax you paid on purchases offsets the tax you collected on sales, but only when the paper supports it. The Revenue Code allows a deduction of input tax when the business holds a tax invoice that meets the legal particulars, issued by a VAT-registered seller and addressed to the buyer. A bank transfer, a handwritten receipt or an invoice without a tax ID does not create the right.
The name on the invoice must be the company’s registered name and tax ID, and where the buyer has branches the branch must be the right one. Invoices made out to the director personally, to a trading name or to a different group company are refused in audits, and the claim is reversed with a surcharge.
For this reason it is worth tidying supplier onboarding. Send each new supplier a short sheet with the exact legal name, tax ID, branch code and billing address, and ask them to confirm they will invoice in that form.
Input tax is normally claimed in the tax month in which the tax invoice is dated. If the invoice arrives late, the Code allows the claim in the following six tax months, provided the purchase is still within the window and the document is held. After that period the right is lost, so a pile of unprocessed invoices at year-end is a direct cost.
The practical consequence is that purchase documents should be recorded promptly. A weekly routine where the accounts payable clerk checks each invoice for the particulars, matches it to the order and records it in the ledger will catch defects while the supplier can still reissue the document.
If the supplier’s invoice is dated one month and delivered in another, note the date received. In an inspection the Revenue Department may ask when the document came into your hands, and a received-date stamp or an email timestamp is the best answer.
Some input tax is barred even with a valid invoice. Purchases that are not used in the business, such as private expenses of directors, are excluded. So is tax on entertainment expenses, on certain passenger vehicles and on goods or services that relate to VAT-exempt sales. A business that sells both taxable and exempt goods must apportion input tax between the two.
Where costs are shared between taxable and exempt activities, the allocation method should be reasonable and recorded. The Revenue Department can challenge a method that favours the taxpayer, and a consistent approach, explained in writing, is the best protection.
Also remember that input tax claimed on a purchase must be reversed if the goods are later returned, the invoice is cancelled or a credit note reduces the price. Record credit notes in the month they arrive and adjust the claim accordingly.
Each month, compare the input tax claimed on the PP.30 with the input tax recorded in the ledger. They must agree, and the difference should be explainable by timing, by documents held back for later months or by items barred from claiming. Keep a one-page reconciliation with the return.
Keep a purchase tax register: date, supplier name and tax ID, invoice number, base amount, VAT and the month of claim. Even a spreadsheet works if it is complete and updated on time. In an inspection, the register is the quickest route from the return to the documents.
When the claim exceeds the output tax for the month, the credit can be carried forward or a refund requested. Refund claims draw attention, so file them only with a clean set of documents and a clear explanation, such as a major equipment purchase or export sales taxed at 0 %.
Your accountant can keep the purchase ledger in a multi-company financial ERP such as 4softerp, and you can store scanned supplier documents in your own folders. 4invoices produces and archives your own sales invoices, which you may need when a customer disputes a figure.
The ecosystem does not validate that a supplier invoice meets the Revenue Code, calculate which input tax is barred, produce the PP.30 or submit it to the Revenue Department. Those checks and filings are done by you and your accountant.
Imported goods bring their own document: the customs entry and the payment receipt for the import VAT serve as the basis for the claim, not a supplier invoice. Keep the entry, the receipt and the clearing agent’s invoice together, and record the VAT in the month of payment.
Services bought from abroad are different again. There is no Thai tax invoice, and the Thai business has to account for the VAT itself through a separate monthly form, which is covered in the cross-border cluster. Input tax on that amount is then claimed under the rules that apply to the self-assessed tax.
Costs incurred before VAT registration cause questions as well. Input tax on purchases made before the registration date is generally not claimable except in limited cases, such as stock or assets held on the registration date, and only with the right documents. If you are about to register, ask your accountant what can be brought into the first return before you buy equipment.
Finally, deposits paid to suppliers should be checked. A supplier who issues only a receipt for a deposit without a tax invoice leaves you waiting for the VAT document until the final invoice, and the claim moves with it.
Invoices arrive in the director’s name or without the branch code and are accepted without review.
Send each supplier a sheet with the exact legal name, tax ID and branch code and check each invoice against it before recording. The system does not read supplier documents or flag defects.
Purchase invoices are processed in batches at quarter-end and the six-month window is missed.
Process invoices weekly and keep a log of the date received. Missed documents cannot be recovered by the system, so the routine has to be run by your team.
Shared costs are claimed in full even though some sales are exempt.
Agree an apportionment method with your accountant and document it with the return, and revisit it each year when the sales mix changes.
The input tax cannot be claimed on that document. Ask the supplier to cancel it and issue a corrected tax invoice carrying your legal name, tax ID and branch, and keep both versions in the file. Claim the tax in the month of the new invoice, or within the permitted window if the correction arrives late.
Input tax is normally claimed in the month of the invoice or in any of the following six tax months, provided you hold a valid tax invoice in your company’s name. After that window the right to claim is lost for good. Record purchase documents promptly, so that the question never arises at year-end.
Input tax on passenger cars seating up to ten people is generally barred, subject to limited exceptions for businesses whose main activity involves those vehicles, such as car rental or driving schools. Confirm the position for your own business with your accountant before you rely on a claim, because the rules are technical.
A PDF received from the supplier is generally acceptable if the supplier issued the tax invoice electronically in the proper manner and you can show where it came from. For paper documents, keep the original. Ask your accountant what evidence the Revenue Department expects in your case and keep the e-mail that delivered the file.
The disallowed input tax is added to the tax payable, with surcharges for the period the money was out of the Department’s hands, and sometimes a penalty. You can appeal under the Revenue Code’s process, but it is quicker to prevent errors by checking invoices at the time they are recorded.
A multi-company ERP for the purchase ledger and a PDF invoice archive. Returns are filed with the Revenue Department.
