It has already been discussed previously that lawyers and taxmen insisted on the taxation of capital gains realized from the transactions connected with Temasek Holdings – Shin Corporation and BVI-registered Ample Rich Investments Co Ltd. and that the Shin investigation revealed a complex web of share transactions between the children of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that involved holding the British Virgin Islands – registered companies. Now, the public witnesses ever new development of the story.
All Shin Corp share transfers over the past 10 years will be traced by the assets scrutiny committee that will look for all possible cases of tax evasion. Let me remind you that in 1999, 11.87% of Shin Corp was purchased by Ample Rich – a holding company established in the BVI and headquartered in Singapore. Ample Rich was suspected of being set up as an offshore holding company to minimize tax liabilities for the Shinawatra family, the founders of Shin Corp. So, the decision of the assets scrutiny followed decision of the Revenue Department to collect income tax from the huge profits earned by which the Shinawatra siblings from the sale of shares in Shin Corp to Temasek Holdings of Singapore via a BVI- registered Ample Rich.
The matter is urgent because of the fact that the statute of limitations on tax liabilities will be waived after a decade. The matter is also complicated because of the complex and tricky way the company did business. It is necessary to investigate every share transfer thoroughly in order to find out if its price was reasonable. All the cases will be carefully looked through.
Now the directors of Ample Rich are liable to pay tax on the difference between the price they paid for the shares and their actual the market price. Therefore, on November 6, 2006, the children of Thaksin were informed by the department that they were liable to pay tax on the difference between buying 329.2 million shares from Ample Rich at 1 baht per share and selling them to Temasek at 49.25 baht per share. Both could be forced to pay tax as well as interest of more than 11 billion baht.
Finance Minister said he sue a finance official who reportedly assured the Shinawatras that they were not liable to income tax if buying Shin Corp shares from Ample Rich through the stock exchange. Thaksin’s children are also claiming a misunderstanding and blaming their advisers.