Settled: Thailand's VAT rate holds for one more year, to 30 September 2027

01What was just decided

The Royal Decree Reducing the Value Added Tax Rate (No. 807) B.E. 2569 was signed on 20 August 2026 and published in the Royal Gazette on 23 August 2026 (Volume 143, Part 50 Kor), with the Revenue Department's "new decrees" page listing it on 24 August. It extends the reduced VAT period to 30 September B.E. 2570 (2027-09-30 in the Gregorian calendar), taking effect from 1 October 2026, and amends Decree No. 646 (Section 4, as previously amended by Decree No. 799). In practice, the current statutory rate of 6.3% (7% once local tax is added, the figure everyone actually uses) simply continues for one more year, with no gap against the existing deadline.

02Three things you no longer need to do

Three things drop off the to-do list once the extension is gazetted:

• No need to rush signatures before the end of September. Any push to "lock in the rate" before the deadline no longer has even psychological value.
• No need to reprice on a guess. Quotes and contracts can carry on using the current rate as normal.
• No need to prepare a 1 October switchover checklist. Invoice templates, system settings and price lists all stay untouched this round.

03One thing still worth doing: the rate clause in long-term contracts

Look at the actual timing: Cabinet gave its in-principle approval on 27 July, and the formal decree was not gazetted until 23 August — about five weeks before the original deadline. Next September, the same suspense will most likely play out again: whether it is extended and when it is announced both wait on the Gazette.

So for long-term contracts that run past 30 September 2027, keep writing a rate-adjustment clause: state which day's statutory rate applies, how the price adjusts if the statutory rate changes, and whether both parties need to reconfirm. Write it once, and this time of year stops being a scramble every time. The rule governing when the VAT liability actually arises (which is not the same as the contract date or the payment date) does not move with any extension, and it is still what governs which rate applies to a transaction that straddles the change.

04Write down the new date

The new deadline: 30 September 2027. We track the official Gazette weekly and will flag it here well ahead of time; how to draft the clause for a specific contract, and which rate applies to a transaction that straddles the change, has to be checked item by item by our advisers against the actual contract and how it is performed.