Thailand weighs gold transaction tax to track illicit flows, including gambling money

01-10-2020 |  

Thailand is considering a 0.01 percent tax on gold transactions as part of a broader push to tighten financial monitoring and stop illicit funds from being converted into assets that are harder to trace, including proceeds from fraud, scams, and illegal online gambling.

The proposal, under study by the Finance Ministry, is not intended primarily to raise revenue. Its main purpose would be to create a systematic record of gold trades, capturing information on buyers, sellers, and transaction values that authorities could use to identify suspicious activity. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said the ministry’s Data Bureau had flagged suspicious gold flows, and officials have stressed that the final rate, collection method, exemptions, and start date have not been settled. At a proposed 0.01 percent, the levy would be negligible against the value of any individual transaction; the point is the data, not the take.

Gold has become a particular focus because authorities currently have less visibility over it than over markets such as stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies. Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn has noted that proceeds from illegal activity can be pulled out of bank accounts and converted into gold, foreign currency, or digital assets, and that clearer sightlines over gold purchases and sales would let officials follow those flows more closely. He said tighter monitoring has already had an effect, with the value of physical gold requests falling from around THB20 billion ($592 million) to THB3 billion ($89 million) a month.

The gold-tax idea sits alongside a wider tightening of Thailand’s anti-money-laundering architecture. On September 10, the Bank of Thailand announced a new “Framework for Safeguarding the Financial Sector from Illicit Activities,” a cooperation arrangement drawn up with 11 industry bodies spanning commercial banks, international banks, state-owned financial institutions, e-payment providers, foreign-exchange operators, and non-bank lenders.

Under the framework, participants will strengthen customer due diligence, scrutinize high-risk cash transactions, deploy advanced detection technology, build a shared database of high-risk individuals linked to the Central Fraud Registry, and exchange information on fraud patterns and warning signs. Vitai framed the effort as bringing the whole finance-connected industry together rather than acting in separate pieces, while cautioning that the measures must balance impact on legitimate customers, financial access, fair competition, and innovation.

Thailand has already moved to tighten gold-market oversight on other fronts. Since January 2026, large gold traders with annual domestic turnover of at least THB10 billion ($296 million) have been required to submit transaction information digitally and retain records for at least three years. The central bank has separately imposed limits on online gold trading and encouraged larger investors to settle in US dollars rather than baht, after identifying gold trading conducted in the local currency as a driver of the baht’s strength.

The measures form part of a wider effort to disrupt the movement of illicit money through an economy that supports a large illegal gambling market, estimated at around THB1.1 trillion ($32.6 billion) a year across online and land-based activity.

For investigators, the point at which gambling or scam proceeds leave the banking system is a critical juncture, since funds can be converted into gold or other assets and moved again before the original source becomes difficult to identify.

The concern is not unique to Thailand. The Financial Action Task Force has flagged gambling as a money-laundering risk, with indicators including multiple third-party deposits, heavy reliance on cash or virtual assets, automated betting patterns, and attempts to sidestep customer due diligence.

Thailand’s proposed gold tax would sit alongside those broader controls rather than target gambling transactions directly, giving authorities greater visibility over financial movements and narrowing the openings for illicit funds to slip into less transparent corners of the economy.

The Finance Ministry is expected to continue consultations before making any final decision. The eventual framework will determine whether and how the 0.01 percent levy is introduced.

Source: AGBrief