Mizzima
The Myanmar embassy in Bangkok says that the number of taxpayers who paid taxes in the last two months is about 36,000.
The receipt of tax payments started on 13 December 2023 and about 1,000 taxpayers come to the embassy in Bangkok daily and total 35,919 people have paid their taxes until 8 February 2024, the announcement says.
The migrant workers in Thailand do not want to pay taxes to the Myanmar junta but they have no choice as they need to produce tax payment receipts when they apply for residential permits.
The tax receipt documents are being issued to these tax payers and it must be produced when the migrant workers apply for renewal of their passports, labour ID card and recommendation letters from the embassy.
The Military Council enacted and promulgated the Amendment for Taxation Law on 12 September 2023 and under this amendment law the levying of income taxes would be started from 1 October 2023 depending on the salaries of these migrant workers in foreign countries.
The announcement of the Military Council says the oversea workers of Myanmar nationals must pay 2% of their salaries as the income tax and 25% more must be sent back to their families in Myanmar as remittances through the official banking system.
A campaign group consisting of 16 organizations at home and abroad issued an announcement on 8 January which calls on overseas Myanmar nationals to join their cutting off blood money and blood tax campaign and to show their protest against taxation by the junta.
The Myanmar pro-democracy groups and rights groups are calling the international community to impose sanctions against the foreign exchange accounts of the Military Council and freeze these accounts in their countries.
