What happens if you file PP 30 late?
Three separate charges can land: a surcharge of 1.5% per month or part month on the tax you owe, a penalty of twice that tax, and a criminal fine capped at 2,000 baht for the return itself. The penalty is the one worth moving on today, because filing and paying before the Revenue Department writes to you cuts it to 2% of itself within 15 days, 5% within 30, 10% within 60 and 20% after that.
Last reviewed 21 September 2026
Three charges, and they are not the same thing
English summaries tend to collapse these into "a penalty". Thai tax law keeps them separate, they are calculated differently, and only one of them can be reduced.
| Charge | How it is calculated | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Surcharge (เงินเพิ่ม) | 1.5% per month or part of a month on the tax payable, excluding the penalty. Capped at 100% of the tax. One day late is a full 1.5%. | Revenue Code section 89/1 |
| Penalty (เบี้ยปรับ) | Twice the tax due for the month, where the return was not filed within the prescribed time. | Revenue Code section 89(2) |
| Fine | Not more than 2,000 baht for failing to file the return. This is a ceiling, per return, not a fixed amount. | Revenue Code section 90(2) |
The reduction ladder, and the thing that switches it off
Section 89 lets the Director-General waive or reduce the penalty, and Revenue Departmental Order Tor Por 81/2542 sets out how. Where you file and pay without having received a written warning or a written summons to examination, the penalty payable is reduced to a percentage of itself:
| Filed and paid | Penalty payable |
|---|---|
| Within 15 days of the deadline | 2% of the penalty |
| Within 30 days | 5% of the penalty |
| Within 60 days | 10% of the penalty |
| More than 60 days late | 20% of the penalty |
Worth being precise about what the percentage applies to. It is a percentage of the penalty, and the penalty is twice the tax. So on 20,000 baht of VAT filed one week late, voluntarily: the penalty is 40,000, reduced to 2% of that, which is 800 baht. The surcharge is 1.5% of 20,000 for one part month, which is 300 baht. Plus the fine for the return. Around 1,100 baht rather than 40,000. Several English sources describe the ladder as a percentage of the tax, which understates it by half at every rung.
A nil month is still a return
Section 83 requires a VAT registrant to file "whether or not sale of goods or provision of service are made in that tax month". Dormant companies miss this constantly, on the reasonable assumption that a month with nothing in it has nothing to report.
The good news is that the penalty and the surcharge are both computed on the tax payable, so on a nil month both come out at zero, and the fine is what is left. That follows from how they are calculated rather than from a rule the Revenue Department has published in those words, and the same logic applies to a month where input tax exceeds output tax.
What the fine actually costs
2,000 baht is the statutory ceiling. What a local Revenue office settles at is lower and is not published, and the sources disagree: Thai practitioner material and an older Forvis Mazars FAQ give 300 baht within 7 days of the deadline and 500 baht beyond it, while at least one Thai accounting firm states 1,000 and 2,000 for the same two cases. The 7 day break point is common to both. We are not going to publish a settled figure we cannot source; your accountant files these every month and will know the number for the office that handles your company.
What to do this week
- Work out which months are actually missing. One late month and eleven late months are the same conversation with a very different bill.
- File and pay before anything arrives in writing from the Revenue Department. That single fact is worth more than any negotiation afterwards.
- Pay the tax as early as you can even if the paperwork lags, because the surcharge runs on the tax and is not reducible.
- Do the arithmetic before you accept a figure: penalty is 2x the tax, then the ladder percentage, then surcharge at 1.5% per part month, then the fine.
- If somebody else was meant to be filing these, read who is legally responsible when a filing goes wrong before you decide whose problem this is.
If you are here because the filings stopped happening, that is usually a scope problem rather than a price problem, and it is worth seeing what a monthly fee is supposed to cover before you replace anyone. Three firms will quote on catching up and on running it properly from here: that is the request form.
Related questions
- PND 51: what happens if you get the half-year estimate wrong?
- What is actually included in a Thai bookkeeping fee, and what almost never is?
- Who is legally responsible if my accountant files something wrong?
Sources
- Revenue Code section 83, duty to file PP 30 (Revenue Department, English)
- Revenue Code sections 89, 89/1 and 90: penalty, surcharge and fine (Revenue Department, English)
- Revenue Departmental Order Tor Por 81/2542, reduction of penalties (Revenue Department, Thai)
- Revenue Department: Value Added Tax guide (English)
- Nishimura & Asahi: eight day extension for e-filing, 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2027
- Sherrings: Thailand tax return filing dates, paper and e-filing
This is general information about how a filing works, not accounting or tax advice for your company. Confirm anything that matters against the official notice or with your accountant. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.