Model and entertainer Cholada Mekratree cried foul last week when told by the Revenue Department that she had failed to pay tax of some Bt2 million over the past two years.

Don't get her wrong: she never intended to evade tax. Cholada said she normally paid Bt150,000 to Bt160,000 annually on income generated by the entertainment business, modelling, acting, hosting TV programmes and organising events.

However, Cholada was surprised to learn that she was also required to pay tax on the jewellery shop that her mother had given her two years before.

"Mum was afraid us kids might bicker, so she made one of her jewellery shops over to me so we knew where we stood."

Only Cholada forgot to tell the Revenue Department about the additional income from the shop, which, to make things worse, put here in a higher tax bracket, so that she ended up being assessed for 10 times the tax she had been paying.

Cholada said she had been "shocked" when asked to pay backdated tax to the tune of Bt2 million. "I was paying the actress tax every year," she insisted.

Though upset at first ("It wasn't exactly peanuts"), she eventually agreed to pay it in 10 instalments after Revenue officials represented it to her as a service to the nation, rather like putting up a public telephone booth or planting trees to make Bangkok beautiful - the silver-tongued rogues.

The moral of this story is: if your mum gives you a jeweller's, don't forget to pay tax on it.

Jeerawat@nationgroup.com