2 July 2026 · Malee Wongsuwan
Put the tax money aside before Friday spends it
A food stall near the fresh market in Mueang Narathiwat can finish a good Friday and still be short the following Monday. The notes are in the drawer. Part of them was never the stall's to spend.
This note is about the cash, not about preparing a return. The Revenue Department's forms belong with the person who files them. Our work is to stop those sums from being paid out as stock or wages before the filing month arrives.
The two sums that leave later
If the shop is registered for VAT, the seven percent added to a sale is collected now and handed on later. It sits in the same drawer as the takings. By Friday it looks like profit. It is a sum with a due date.
Withholding is the other quiet exit. A hotel or a school that hires a tailor, or a contractor who pays a small repair crew, may deduct withholding before the cash arrives. The deposit in the passbook is already smaller than the invoice. The owner who then spends the deposit as if it were the full invoice will feel the gap when wages are due, and will not see a line that explains it.
Many groceries and stalls in this province are under the revenue threshold and do not charge VAT at all. They still meet withholding when a larger customer pays them. The sheet should show the cash that arrived, not the cash that was invoiced.
An envelope, not a speech
On the thirteen-week cash position we give that money its own row, called the set-aside. Each week the owner moves the VAT portion, if any, and a cautious amount toward the next withholding difference, into a separate envelope or a second savings account. The till that remains is what may buy rice, oil, ice, and wages.
The amount is written in baht for that week. We do not hide it inside a percentage the owner has to recompute at the counter. Malee calculates it from the week's receipts before the sitting, and Arun asks the owner to confirm which sales were to ordinary customers and which were to a customer who withholds.
The envelope is the owner's. Cortex Harvest does not hold client money, and we do not file the return. When the filing month comes, the envelope is already there, and the till is not raided on the morning the payment is due.
What we ask the owner to decide
Two questions decide the row. First: are you VAT-registered, yes or no? If yes, the seven percent on VATable sales leaves the spendable till the same week. If no, that row stays empty and we do not invent a reserve for a tax you do not collect.
Second: which customers pay you net of withholding? Their names go on the collection calendar, and the cash position uses the net amount as the receipt. The gross invoice can stay in the customer's file. It must not be the figure on the cash row.
If you are unsure whether a customer should withhold, ask the person who files for you before the sitting. We will leave a blank on that line rather than guess. A blank is easier to fill than a week that was spent twice.