With social media becoming more and more popular every day, more people are taking to virtual reality to do their business and achieve fame, it seems.
The Ministry of Finance report that they are currently investigating why tax payment remains low when businesses on social and online networking sites are becoming so popular.
Somchai Sujjapongse, the ministry’s permanent secretary, said that he is setting up a special team to check tax payments from people who do their business on social media and online networking sites.
Such websites and apps include “iShow” and “BEGO Live,” which allow live video streaming. Many internet personalities, locally referred to as “net idols,” have achieved celebrity status using such apps.
The team will be in charge of checking if these net idols and their business operations have been paying their taxes correctly or not. Since they have a large number of viewers and tend to take sideline jobs of advertising products for businesses, they might not be paying the amount of tax that they should be paying.
Of course, Somchai and his team are determined to examine the details and legal issues thoroughly before suggesting anything. He assured that it isn’t his intention to hurt the e-commerce business, but anyone who has earnings from a business simply must pay their tax correctly, as all citizens must.
Anyone who doesn’t correctly file their tax payment forms could possibly be subjected to a fine and imprisonment — which is something that the popular websites and net idols have failed to do in the past, according to the ministry.
In the ministry’s view, anyone who has achieved celebrity status through social media and online networking, and has worked as a presenter for a product, should be paying tax similar to other entertainment celebrities.
They plan on coming up with a conclusion by the end of this month, reported Thai PBS.
