Do Online Sellers in Thailand Pay Tax? The Myths That Get Moms Billed for Back Taxes

“I’m just a small online seller, not even close to a million. I don’t need to bother with tax.” You hear this all the time in seller groups. Plenty of people believe it for years, until one day a letter from the Revenue Department arrives asking them to explain past income, with a surcharge that has been growing every month.

We are not trying to scare you. The truth is that many small online sellers file and end up paying zero baht in tax. The real problem usually is not paying a lot. It is not filing at all. Let’s go through it one point at a time: what is true and what people have gotten wrong.

Note: This article is general information, not personal tax advice. Rules and figures can change, and every case is different. Before you decide anything, check with the Revenue Department (call 1161), your local Revenue office or an accountant.

Do you really have to pay tax on online sales?

Quick Answer: You have to file a personal income tax return. Income from selling online is type 8 income, under Section 40(8) of the Thai Revenue Code. Whether you actually pay anything depends on your net income after expenses and allowances.

First, separate “filing” from “paying”. They are two completely different things.

• Filing means telling the Revenue Department how much you earned this year. You do this once your income passes the threshold: over 60,000 baht a year if single, or over 120,000 baht combined for a married couple.
• Paying tax happens when your net income after expenses and allowances is over 150,000 baht, because the first 150,000 baht of net income is exempt.

And online sellers file twice a year.

Form	When to file	Covers income from
PND 94 (ภ.ง.ด.94, half-year)	July to September	January to June of that year
PND 90 (ภ.ง.ด.90, full year)	January to March of the following year	The whole year (you can deduct the tax paid at mid-year)

If you file online through the Revenue Department website or the D-MyTax app, you get 8 extra days.

So what is the 1.8 million baht line?

Quick Answer: 1.8 million baht a year is the threshold for registering for value added tax (VAT). It is not the line for whether you owe income tax. This is the number one misunderstanding.

Item	Who it applies to
Personal income tax	Everyone whose income is over the filing threshold, whether you sell 100,000 or 1 million baht
VAT registration	When sales revenue is over 1.8 million baht a year. You must register within 30 days of the day your revenue passes it

If your sales are getting close to 1.8 million, talk to an accountant ahead of time. Once you register for VAT, you will have to issue tax invoices and file a return every month.

What expense deductions can you use?

Quick Answer: Income from selling goods under Section 40(8) lets you choose one of two methods: a 60% flat deduction with no receipts needed, or actual expenses, which require complete proof.

• 60% flat deduction is the easiest. It suits shops whose real costs are under 60% of sales, or who have not kept all their receipts.
• Actual expenses suits shops with costs above 60%, for example resellers with thin margins. You need to keep proof such as receipts for stock, shipping, platform fees and advertising.

Whichever you choose, the Revenue Department requires individual business owners to keep a cash receipts and payments report and hold on to it for at least 5 years. An easy trick: open a separate bank account for the shop from day one. Life gets a lot easier.

If your work is a service, such as freelance design, translation or making videos for clients, the income type and deduction rate may be different from selling goods. Check with the Revenue Department or an accountant for your specific case.

Let’s run the numbers: what would you actually pay?

Quick Answer: Many sellers who sell a few hundred thousand baht a year and use the 60% flat deduction pay no tax at all, but they still have to file.

Here is a simple example. Say you are single, your only income is from selling, and you only use the 60,000 baht personal allowance. (In real life you may have other allowances, such as for children or Social Security (ประกันสังคม) contributions, which would lower your tax even more.)

	Sales of 300,000 baht a year	Sales of 1,000,000 baht a year
60% flat expense deduction	180,000	600,000
Personal allowance	60,000	60,000
Net income	60,000	340,000
Tax at progressive rates	0 baht (not over 150,000)	About 11,500 baht

How the right-hand column works: the first 150,000 baht is exempt, 150,001 to 300,000 is taxed at 5%, which is 7,500 baht, and 300,001 to 340,000 is taxed at 10%, which is 4,000 baht.

One more thing to know: if your combined income from types 2 to 8 is 120,000 baht or more, you also have to calculate it a second way, income × 0.5%, and pay whichever method gives the higher tax. But if this method comes to 5,000 baht or less, it is exempt. In both examples above, this method comes to no more than 5,000 baht, so the progressive rate result applies.

Why do so many people get billed for back taxes?

Quick Answer: Because these days the Revenue Department gets income data from several places, including banks and selling platforms. Even if you do not file, the numbers still reach them.

1. The e-Payment rule (data from banks)

Banks and payment providers must send data to the Revenue Department when your account meets either of these in a calendar year:

• 3,000 or more deposits or incoming transfers, regardless of the amount, or
• 400 or more deposits or incoming transfers with a total of 2,000,000 baht or more

All of your accounts at that financial institution are counted together. The data sent includes your name, taxpayer ID number, account number, number of transactions and the total for the year. It was first sent in 2020 (B.E. 2563) and every year since.

But don’t panic. This rule is not a new tax. The Revenue Department explains that it collects the data to use alongside other information for risk analysis. If you already file correctly, you can relax. And opening several accounts at different banks to stay under the threshold does not make the income disappear from your duty to file.

2. Data from selling platforms

Under the Director-General of the Revenue Department announcement requiring electronic platforms to keep special accounts, platforms registered in Thailand with revenue over 1,000 million baht per accounting period must keep a special account showing the income of sellers on the platform, and send it to the Revenue Department within 150 days of the end of the accounting period. This starts with accounting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024 (B.E. 2567). Simply put, sales data from 2024 onward for shops on the big platforms has already gone to the Revenue Department.

3. What changed in 2025

From 2025 (B.E. 2568), the Revenue Department put out news inviting online sellers, delivery riders, YouTubers and influencers to file through D-MyTax, which can pull in income data and fill it in for you (Prefill). It also stressed that anyone who files incompletely or late will be charged a 1.5% surcharge per month and may face a penalty. Then from mid-2025, large online marketplace platforms must verify and collect seller information before letting them sell or advertise products, under the digital platform law of ETDA (สพธอ., the Electronic Transactions Development Agency). That is a consumer protection matter, not tax directly, but it makes it harder for shops without a clear identity to sell.

If you have never filed, what should you do?

Quick Answer: File correctly on your own as soon as possible. It is better than waiting for the Revenue Department to contact you, because the surcharge is calculated monthly and keeps adding up.

1. Gather your sales figures from platforms and bank accounts for the years you have not filed.
2. Choose your deduction method: 60% flat, or actual expenses if you have complete proof.
3. Talk to your local Revenue office or an accountant before filing back returns, especially if your sales went over 1.8 million baht in any year, since VAT may be involved.
4. Set up a new system this year: a separate shop account, monthly income and expense records, and calendar reminders for September (PND 94) and March (PND 90).

And watch out for scammers. The Revenue Department has said clearly that its staff do not contact people through LINE (the messaging app most people use in Thailand) or send links to download apps. If you get a message like that, don’t tap the link, and call 1161 to check.

Things to do alongside your taxes

Quick Answer: Online shops must also register as a commercial business (ทะเบียนพาณิชย์) within 30 days of starting to sell. That is separate from tax, and you can get it done in a day.

• Read the steps in Do online sellers need commercial registration?
• If you are still choosing what to do, see Home business ideas based on the time you really have or try the Income Finder
• The full overview is in A guide to starting a business while raising kids

Tax is not scary at all if you do it right from the start. File everything, keep your numbers tidy, and that is one less thing to worry about. Whether your baby will still wake you at 3 a.m. is another matter. We can’t help with that one.