PLEA BARGAINING IN TAX CASE : CASE STUDY ON CRIMINAL

Abstract

This individual study purposes to study on the theory of plea bargaining and problem of efficiency in enforcing the Revenue Code in Thailand. This research mainly studies about the principle of plea bargaining under the international law and comparative study of plea bargaining in foreign countries and in Thailand, along with the path of adopting plea bargaining in tax cases.

In accordance with the research, it is appeared that there are three key issues to be marked. Firstly, it is shown from the study that measure of plea bargaining has been widely and commonly applied throughout the world; as the plea bargaining, itself, has been applied as a measure against organized crime under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, B.C. 2000. Secondly, Thailand, as a state member of such Convention, has also complied with the commitment by adopting plea bargaining in Section 100/2 of Narcotics Act, B.E. 2522. According to the Section 100/2 of the mentioned Act, it authorized the court to reduce the punishment to be inflicted on the offender other than that prescribed in Section 78 of the Penal Code, on the condition that the offender has given the important information for the very benefit of suppressing the commission of offence relating to narcotics to administrative official or police official or inquiry official, in order to arrest the wire-puller offenders, especially those who related in fraudulent tax evasion and faking tax invoice. Lastly, although the plea bargaining has been applied efficiently as a legal measure to suppress wire-puller offenders; the principle, however, gives the court the power to reduce the punishment without specific criteria, neither it provides practical rule or protocol of applying plea bargaining for the administrative official or police official or inquiry official, which could lead to the official bribery for reduction of punishment.

As to the study, the researcher would like to propose the adoption of plea bargaining to the criminal offenses related to fraudulent tax evasion and faking tax invoice under the Revenue Code, as well as to stipulate practical rules and protocols of plea bargaining for the administrative official or police official or inquiry official in the ministerial regulation and the rules of punishment’s reduction in the Regulation of the Supreme Court.