Authorities have found no evidence that taxes were paid on the dividends earned by Ample Rich Investment Ltd from Shin Corp, Viroj Laohaphan, chairman of the Assets Examination Committee (AEC), said yesterday.

Viroj was commenting after examining a mass of documents about the Shin Corp transactions submitted to him yesterday by Sirote Swasdipanich, director-general of the Revenue Department.

Ample Rich, incorporated in the British Virgins Island and founded by deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra before he entered politics, was holding 329 million shares, or about 10 per cent of Shin Corp, before it sold the stake to Temasek Holdings of Singapore earlier this year.

Democrat Korbsak Sabhavasu had earlier raised the issue of whether Ample Rich, which earned at least Bt1.8 billion in dividend payments from Shin Corp over five years, had paid any withholding tax, which is a tax on profits remitted abroad.

In normal practice, Shin Corp must have written cheques to pay the dividends to Ample Rich, which maintains an office in Singapore. When the dividends were remitted, Ample Rich Investment was supposed to have been charged a withholding tax of 15 per cent.

Korbsak questioned whether Ample Rich had paid the withholding tax every time it got a dividend cheque from Shin Corp. He was suggesting that if Ample Rich had not paid any tax, it would mean that Shin Corp must have sent the dividend cheques to a beneficiary in Thailand.

The question is who was or were the beneficiary owner(s) of Ample Rich.

Thaksin has maintained that he had transferred his ownership in Ample Rich to his two children, Panthongtae and Pinthongta Shinawatra, before he got into politics in 2001.

However, Viroj yesterday confirmed that he had not seen any financial transactions going through the Bank of Thailand as to when the 329 million shares of Shin Corp were transferred by Thaksin to Ample Rich.

Viroj is now investigating alleged tax evasion by Panthongtae and Pinthongta. The two bought the 329 million Shin Corp shares from Ample Rich, which they owned and served as directors, at Bt1 apiece before selling the stock to Temasek the following day at Bt49.25 apiece.

When this transaction took place in January this year, the Revenue Department - under heavy political interference - said Panthongtae and Pinthongta were not subject to any tax payment at all. The department contended that the two had bought the stock below the market price, and from a company that did not have any tax treaty with Thailand.

The department also explained that when they sold the stocks to Temasek in the Stock Exchange of Thailand, they were also entitled to tax exemptions in accordance with bourse regulations.

Now Sirote and the Revenue Department are changing tack, saying Panthongtae and Pinthongta must be taxed for the profits they earned from buying the Shin Corp shares at Bt1 each before selling them for Bt49.25. Any stock benefits they earned from Ample Rich must be treated as taxable income.

The total tax bill on Thaksin's two children is expected to be about Bt5.8 billion.

Meanwhile, the AEC will hold a meeting on Monday to determine whether Bannapot Damapong, a brother of Thaksin's wife Khunying Pojaman Shinawatra, must be taxed for the stock he received from his sister as a gift.

Bannapot has not paid any tax on two transactions involving Shin Corp stock.

The first time, in 1997, he bought Shin Corp shares from Duangta Wongphakdi, a household aide in the Shinawatra family, for Bt738 million through the stock exchange. But in fact, Khunying Pojaman paid the money on his behalf.

Bannapot is likely to be sent a tax bill of Bt273 million for this transaction.

The second transaction was effected in 2000 when Pojaman transferred 26.8 million Shin Corp shares to Bannapot at Bt10 apiece. But at that time, the market price of Shin Corp was Bt150 a share, which meant that Bannapot was making Bt3.75 billion from the price difference.

This amount is likely to be taxed to the tune of Bt1.38 billion. In total, Bannapot may be face taxes of Bt1.66 billion from the two transactions.

The AEC yesterday also investigated corruption scandals in the Ban Ua Athorn project and the CTX bomb-scanner purchase, summoning authorities involved for questioning.