"This is the start of doing the right thing, of correcting wrongdoing in the past," Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula said of a sale which added fuel to the flames of a street campaign against Thaksin and culminated in a Sept 19 coup.

"We have found the solid ground to tax the revenue," Pridiyathorn said at a Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand dinner. "We have spent the past three weeks preparing the process of claiming the tax revenue," he said.

Thai newspapers said the tax and penalties owed by Thaksin's children could amount to more than 10 billion baht ($270 million).

Pridiyathorn and Revenue Department chief Sirot Sawadipanich declined to put a figure on the bill faced by Thaksin's children, who acquired the Shin shares through Ample Rich Investments Ltd, an offshore company Thaksin founded, at 1 baht each.

But Sirot said tax officials were working on the basis that Thaksin's children sold 329 million shares in Shin Corp, which has interests in telecommunications, satellites and television, to Temasek at about 49.25 baht each.

They faced progressive personal income tax of up to 37 percent plus fines and penalties for failing to file tax returns by a Sept. 30 deadline, he said.

"We have informed them of their tax liabilities after the expiry of the deadline for voluntary filing of mid-year tax returns on Sept. 30," Sirot said.

The Shin share sale to Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government investment firm, triggered accusations of insider trading and tax evasion as the Shinawatra and the related Damrong families received $1.9 billion tax free.

Thaksin insisted the sale satisfied all the rules in a country where share sales done through the stock market, as the family holdings were, are not taxed.

Thaksin, a billionaire telecoms-tycoon turned politician, said the Shin deal was aimed at defusing conflict of interest allegations that dogged his government since he was elected in a landslide in January 2001.

Allegations levelled by Thaksin's critics early this year said his two children made a profit of more than 15 billion baht ($410 million) from the deal. ($1 = 36.62 baht)
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