Deadline for company reports extended

PHUKET: The Department of Commercial Registrations (DCR) in Bangkok has extended until December 28 the grace period during which companies that are late in submitting their annual balance sheet reports will face only light fines. The announcement came in a release yesterday from Veerachai Tantiwathanavallop, Director of Phuket’s Commercial Registration Office (CRO). Companies that ended their fiscal year on December 31, 2000, originally had until May 31 this year to hand in their annual balance sheet report. Strictly speaking, company accountants, managing directors, partners and any “designated person responsible for the company’s actions” of firms that missed the deadline, faced fines of up to 50,000 baht each. However, the DCR decided to apply fines of only 2,000 baht per person for late submissions, provided they were made before September 30. It is this deadline that has now been extended until December 28. The release from the CRO explained that the extension was granted because the law on filing reports became effective only this year, and a high number of companies had missed both the May 31 and September 30 deadlines. For those filing after December 28, there will be heavier penalties, the release said, without specifying how much heavier.