Thailand’s Revenue Department Tests Blockchain for Tracking Value-Added Tax Payments

Thailand’s Revenue Department is testing blockchain to track value-added tax (VAT) payments, English-language media outlet Bangkok Post (BP) reports Dec. 3.

Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director general of the Thai Revenue Department, said that the department “wants to use blockchain technology to prevent VAT refund fraud.” According to the BP, the nation is “on the path to becoming the first country to use the distributed ledger for tax probes if the technology is adopted.”

The article cited Nitithanprapas explaining that “blockchain is expected to help verify VAT invoices” and “root out fake invoices for VAT claims,” defining “adoption of new technologies” as his priority.

Thailand’s revenue department has also “set its sights on adopting machine learning and using artificial intelligence to learn and study tax-cheating practices” to ultimately “compel more people to enter the formal tax system.”

As Cointelegraph recently reported, the deputy secretary of the Thai Securities and Exchanges Commission recently stated that Thai-based Security Token Offerings (STOs) would break laws if they were released in international markets.

Tipsuda Thavaramara, the aforementioned deputy, explained that the regulator hasn’t decided “how to deal with STOs” yet. Moreover, Thailand also plans to legalize Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), while also authorizing crypto exchanges and legitimizing cryptocurrency through regulation.