Similar to most countries around the world, Thailand requires individuals to pay stamp duty upon the execution of particular legal instruments. If an individual fails to pay the required stamp duty on a particular legal instrument, they will be subject to a surcharge of six times the amount of the applicable stamp duty. Furthermore, the instrument on which the individual has failed to pay stamp duty will have limited legal enforceability and weight in civil cases. 

There were three viable methods of paying stamp duty before July 2019, namely:

1. Impressing a stamp on the paper instrument
2. Placing an adhesive stamp on the instrument before canceling in by the liable individual to ensure adhesive stamps cannot be used again
3. Filing the prescribed form and settling the duty payment via a cashier's check or cash at a local revenue office

Thai law requires the payment of stamp duty on particular instruments to be settled via a predetermined prescribed method from the above list. If the individual fails to pay the stamp duty using the correct prescribed method, the stamp duty is deemed unpaid.

For instance, stamp duty must be paid on a hire-of-work instrument, but if the remuneration stands at a minimum of one million Baht, the payment must be made via a cashier's check or cash at a local revenue office. Payments in any other form are not accepted.

E-Stamp Duty System

The Thai Revenue Department introduced a new payment method in June 2019, which allows individuals to make payments online in particular circumstances. The Revenue Department issued the Notification of the Director-General of Revenue concerning Stamp Duty after the launch of the e-Stamp Duty system, which requires the stamp duty of five legal instruments to be paid using the e-Stamp Duty system.

These instruments include:

1. Bank overdraft or loan instruments
2. Hire-of-work service instruments
3. Powers of Attorney
4. Guarantee Instruments
5. Company voting proxy letters

E-Stamp Duty System Practicalities

The E-Stamp Duty system allows Thai taxpayers to settle their stamp duty payments online by completing and filing Form Or.Sor.9, found on the Revenue Department's website or Application Programming Interface. 

Taxpayers can file this form and pay the due stamp duty prior to or within fifteen days after the date of the execution of the legal instrument. Taxpayers can request to settle their stamp duty payable on the e-Stamp Duty system within thirty days prior to the instrument execution date. 

If a Thai taxpayer chooses to pay stamp duty using the online system after an instrument has been executed and the last payable date falls on a public holiday, the due date will be extended to the following working day. 

At present, the e-Stamp Duty system doesn't support any late payments, so if a taxpayer files and pays the due stamp duty after the due date, they will have to do so at their nearest revenue office. 

Once a taxpayer submits the prescribed form, they will be presented with a pay-in-slip and a QR code they can use to complete the payment on the e-Stamp Duty system to the Revenue Department's designated bank account. 

The taxpayer will receive a unique receipt code from the Revenue Department to serve as proof of payment. The proof of the e-Stamp Duty payment can either be downloaded from the Thai Revenue Department's website or the Application Programming Interface, depending on where the form was submitted. 

Taxpayers are advised to keep their receipt and unique code for future reference. If the legal instrument was executed in paper form, taxpayers can print the unique code and receipt and attach them to the instrument.